5 Thoughts On A Thursday

1) I guess that I've been doing a lot of these "Thursday" posts lately. It's because they're fun and easy to do. Don't require too much deep thought.

2) A lot of this post is going to be credited to Robyn, who keeps pointing out these sports-related posts on Jezebel.com to me.

The Super Bowl is this Sunday (duh) and in our one-TV household, that means deciding between watching the Saints and the Colts or watching the finale of Emma on Masterpiece Theatre. Now, I know many of you are questioning my masculinity right now, but, honestly, I don't give a shit who wins the Super Bowl.* Or at least I didn't give a shit until Robyn had me read this article on Jezebel about reasons to adore New Orleans linebacker Scott Fujita. My favorites are:

3) He supports an orphanage in New Orleans and started speaking out on gay rights in part because of his objection to laws limiting gay adoption. "What [such laws] are really saying is that the concern with one's sexual orientation or one's sexual preference outweighs what's really important, and that's finding safe homes for children," he has said. "It's also saying that we'd rather have kids bounce around from foster home to foster home throughout the course of their childhood, than end up in a permanent home."

and

7) He left the Dallas Cowboys for the post-Katrina New Orleans Saints because, according to The Boston Globe, "he told himself, 'This could be bigger than football.''"

and

9) He has a political science degree from Berkeley and a master's in education. He has said he wants to be a public school teacher after retiring from football.

Also, Robyn likes him because he's smoking hot. Go Saints.

3) Unfortunately, this article led me to a less inspiring posting on Jezebel, namely that Tim Tebow and his mother Pat have teamed up with Focus on the Family to air a pro-life ad during the Super Bowl. Some of you know that I have never had a problem with Tebow, and found his unique brand of spirituality very interesting. On ESPN.com, Jemele Hill has written a column defending Tebow's decision. She argues:

It's his first major national ad since leaving the Gators, and he isn't hawking Nikes, energy drinks or candy bars. Instead, he's putting himself in the middle of one of the most divisive issues in this country -- and on the biggest sporting day of the year.

This isn't something worthy of applaud. Tebow might be qualified to tell me what shoes to wear or what sports drink to drink. What he's not qualified to speak about is whether or not a woman should have the right to choose in America. In the immortal words of Floyd from The Electric Mayhem, "Just play the gig man, don't get involved in politics!"

Tim Tebow would be wise to heed his advice.

4) About a month ago, I had a very interesting drunken conversation with an old friend. As these talks are want to do, the discussion eventually turned to the topic of the novels of Henry James, specifically his notion from the preface of The Ambassadors that "Nothing can exceed the closeness with which the whole fits again into its germ." At about this moment, my friend said something very startling: He said that Henry James was a phase, and that I would pass through it soon.

A phase!? Seriously!? This cannot be. People don't go through phases of someone like Henry James. People go through phases of J.D. Salinger, of Philip Roth, of Ernest Fucking Hemingway, but not Henry James! Surely!

Please someone tell me I'm right.

5) "Advertising is the modern substitute for argument; its function is to make the worse appear the better." - George Santayana


* Now, if it were the Rose Bowl, we'd be having a different conversation. Also, I want to know what the deal is with Frank Churchill. That guy is up to something.