A slice of crow

I'm not above admitting when I am wrong. And when it comes to Shavlik Randolph, I was wrong. So were about a thousand so-called sports experts.

This summer I wrote what an idiot he was to test the NBA draft and what an overrated stiff I thought he was. I wasn't alone in this thought, by the way.

But he got a helping hand from another estranged Duke alum, Billy King, general manager of the 76ers. And now he is having a very respectable rookie year, having found a niche on the team and rebounding his butt off.

Good luck, Shav. I still think you were an overrated white stiff, but you are drawing a check, so you go on with your bad self.

Goodbye Leo

Damn. John Spencer is dead.

I don't know why I liked this guy so much. He was just a great character actor who played some great characters. He first garnered attention as Tommy Mullaney on "L.A. Law", had a couple of nice movie roles, and finished his career as White House Chief of Staff Leo McGarry on "The West Wing". He had a great look and that gravelly voice really seemed to add to his appeal.

I don't know what Spencer was like as a person, but I especially loved Leo's character. Leo is exactly who I would like to be - a leader, but not necessarily on the front line. It's a role I have often assumed in my life in various circumstances.

ESPN had a hockey promo a few years ago about what role each player had on a hockey team - the "superstar", the "grinder", the "enforcer", etc. My favorite was the "playmaker". It went something like, "the playmaker makes everybody look good...he's not the president, but he's not an empty-suit vice-president, either - he's more like a really powerful secretary of state or chief of staff...because sometimes an assist is more beautiful than a score."

The best line may have been from the show itself, when Martin Sheen's President Bartlet was speaking with the one cabinet secretary who has to stay away from the Capitol in case the building and all major government officials are blown away at one time. The Secretary of Agriculture is picked. The President has him come to the White House and as he leaves, he tells him:

"If anything happens. . . . You got a best friend?"

"Yes, sir."

"Is he smarter than you?"

"Yes sir."

"Would you trust him with your life?"

"Yes sir."

"That's your chief of staff."

That was Leo's character, and to hear the "West Wing" cast describe it, it was Spencer's role on the show as well. We should all serve our friends and colleagues as well. So long, Mr. Spencer.

Another legend gone

Damn. Richard Pryor is dead.

Nearly every guy in his 30s or early 40s probably has a story about sneaking a listen to a Richard Pryor album as a kid. My personal tale is having my dad prohibit me from listening to his vinyl album of "Live on the Sunset Strip", then waiting until my folks went to sleep and playing the album on the turntable with my headphones on so Dad wouldn't hear me listening to it.

A month or so later, my family was at a pig-pickin' and my dad and a couple of his friends start reciting one of the routines. I start laughing hysterically and recite the scene with them under my breath, or so I thought. My dad noticed I was a little too familiar with the album and read me the riot act, but it was some funny stuff.

In addition to his groundbreaking stand-up work, Pryor was underappreciated as an actor. His pairings with Gene Wilder, especially in "Stir Crazy", were fantastic (as in the photo above - the "We Bad" scene). And I used to love Saturdays as a teenager or 20-something when you could catch "Bustin' Loose" on the afternoon movie.

He pushed the envelope, both in profanity and material, but the world is a funnier place for it. I think my favorite Pryor line came via Eddie Murphy, who said that Bill Cosby complained about Murphy's profanity in his stand-up routine. Murphy called Pryor for support, and Pryor advised Murphy to tell Cosby to "have a Coke and a smile and shut the fu*k up."

Classic. Thanks, Richard. You were the best at what you did.

Today's Object Lesson

My good buddy K-nine has a wonderful blog up. Check him out. And since he has linked to me as well, I'm going to have to update this one a little more before his friends find me to be a little slow on the uptake.

On his blog, he told one of his favorite stories about the two of us and some petty larceny at a bar almost 10 years ago (I do believe the statute of limitations has run out. At least I hope so!). But his second favorite story about us is today's object lesson.

When I first met K-nine, he was, by his own description, "a loudmouthed, leather jacket wearin', motorcycle ridin', hard drinkin', 3rd shift workin', womanizing pain in the ass with violent tendencies." Still, we immediately hit it off, despite our apparent surface differences.

Turns out we weren't all that different at all. We were both Eastern North Carolina boys, high school football players, both with strong feelings of family and honor and lots of things about being Southern men from Eastern North Carolina that if you're not from these parts, I just can't explain it to you.

But the point of story is this - we were on my back deck one afternoon, deep into a discussion of the issues of the day, when I dropped a level 4 vocabulary word for which I am known (I don't remember which one). K-nine has always said how impressed he was that I used my big words in front of him, assuming he would know what I meant.

Because, in spite of being a "a loudmouthed, leather jacket wearin', motorcycle ridin', hard drinkin', 3rd shift workin', womanizing pain in the ass with violent tendencies", he was (and is) one of the smartest, most insigtful and well-spoken people I know.

The object lesson, kiddies, is don't judge the book by its cover, nor let your differences divide you. Sermon on morality, diversity, and acceptance is now over.

The Death Penalty Circus Comes To Town

Wow, hard to believe little ol' Raleigh, NC, was the center of the media universe for about an hour and a half, in commemoration of the 1000th execution since the reinstatement of capital punishment.




Let me, as a disclaimer, state that I am for the death penalty. Like Jake Brigance said in A Time to Kill, my problem with the death penalty is that we do not use it enough. Plus, Ron White of Blue Collar Comedy fame says this of Texas - if you kill someone in Texas, we will kill you back. I kind of like living in a state where that is the case.

(As a sidebar, I have always thought it funny that lots of people who oppose the death penalty are in favor of abortion, and many who are in favor of capital punishment oppose abortion. It's just funny to me - either you're opposed to killing or you aren't. But I digress...)

Look, I understand the opposition to capital punishment. It is the most extreme of punishments for the most extreme of crimes. I certainly can understand why people would be against it on principle.

But as for the media circus that surrounded the execution of Kenneth Boyd - well, 1000 is nothing but a number, I suppose. Remember the 1000th person killed in Iraq? I didn't think so. But you do remember all the hype, undoubtedly.

Since Raleigh is not a high-profile hotspot and Boyd is not a high-profile case (he admitted the killings and told the authorities to "come and arrest me"), there was not the star-power that is being raised for Stanley "Tookie" Williams. But about 150 people did gather to protest.

Among the things the protestors did was to attempt to breach the prison walls (trying to break in to a prison?), a candlelight vigil, and a reading of all 1000 names of those executed (remember Ted Koppel trying this with soldiers on Nightline?)

At 2:15 AM, Boyd slipped quietly into that good night, having paid his debt for a brutal double-murder. At that point, you think the circus would pack up and leave town, and it did, headed to Sacramento to start begging for Tookie's life. But there was one comment made by a protestor that stuck in my boxers:

One thousand executions - that's one thousand lives needlessly lost.

Now wait just a damn minute.

As near as I can tell, there are two main arguments against capital punishment that hold water - it doesn't deter capital crimes, and/or two wrongs don't make a right. I don't agree with either, but I get where that comes from.

But 1000 lives needlessly lost? Of convicted murderers? Weren't the lives of Kenneth Boyd's victims - his estranged wife and his father - needlessly lost?

The best estimate of the number of victims of the 1000 executed murderers is just under 1,900. Now those were lives needlessly lost.

But alas, the circus has moved on - before I can even post this, #1,001 has taken place, just 200 miles away in Columbia, South Carolina. Just maybe, though, there is some justice - or peace - for the 1,900 needlessly lost.