3:04 PM A Harvard Psychology Professor debunks Malcom Gladwell in the NY Times: "The reasoning in Outliers, which consists of cherry-picked anecdotes, post-hoc sophistry and false dichotomies, had me gnawing on my Kindle."
2:53 PM The NFL's leading rusher, Cincinnati's Cedric Benson, has officially been knocked out of the Bengals game at Pittsburgh with a hip injury. He is not expected to return. Larry Johnson, anyone? Same game, Troy Polamaluout with a knee.
2:32 PMMaury Allen @ Biz of Baseball grants your wish: An MLB Umpires media guide. He's in the process of updating it daily, but the bookmark will come in handy the next time an ump blows a call you're looking for spiffy bio info on Blue.
2:20 PM ESPN's Adam Schefter reports that the NFL likely won't punish Raiders coach Tom Cable over allegations of domestic abuse by a former wife and girlfriend. Despite the allegations, no assault charges or civil cases were ever filed against Cable.
Forget that Michael Jackson movie; what I want to know is who is going to play Secretariat in the upcoming Walt Disney film on the horse’s life. They need five lookalikes to play the title role, and they have four; with the fifth lucky leading man to be chosen from a group of unknowns at The Secretariat Festival at the Bourbon County Fairgrounds on Saturday.
Yes, it’s a Hollywood cattle call for horses. A Secretariat lookalike contest between 20 hopeful horses will determine the winner, and it’s my opinion that they could have very easily made this into a reality series where the winner also gets to marry Flavor Flav.
Imagine if Jesus had a brother. What would the pressure be like on him? Never mind his Jewish mother always asking why he couldn’t be more like his brother, he’d have the expectations of the world on his shoulders. Anything short of being the Messiah would make his life and career seem insignificant by comparison. That’s the burden carried by Nicanor, the brother of Barbaro, who also died for our sins.
(Admit it, this could be any horse and you’d have no idea.)
You may remember Barbaro, who won one freaking race, thereby becoming the most important horse ever. His full brother Nicanor, a late bloomer, is going to run his first race in a few weeks, and already has the NEW YORK TIMES tracking his every step gallop. Unfortunately his trainer says “he needed some time to grow up mentally,” making him seem more Raymond Babbitt than Henri Richard.
