All Star Review

Or is that revue?

Some random thoughts while watching some festivities from NBA All-Star Weekend.

• Licensing stuff is just getting silly. Changing H-O-R-S-E to G-E-I-C-O is S-T-U-P-I-D. Unfortunately I'm not really that surprised. So every year will this event have a different name?

• The NBA is somehow extremely more marketable than any of the other three major sports. Why is that? Is it the personalities of the athletes that are more interesting/flashy? It's probably got something to do with that and the game itself. Baseball is a slower, grinding type of sport, and the players don't tend to be as flashy. Those that are - say Ken Griffey, Jr. circa the early 90's - do become bigger stars, more like NBA players are. Football is probably the most team-oriented game of the four, so individuals don't stand out as much. Aside from big time QBs (Manning, Brady), players are hidden beneath those helmets and tend to disappear. And, let's face it, too many people don't really know or care about hockey, despite the best efforts of these guys.
  

• Even though I'd consider myself a baseball purist, I think I've decided that the Dunk Contest is better than the Home Run Derby. The variety and aforementioned personalities make the event much more exciting. Also, props to Nate Robinson and the Kryptonite theme and hopping over Superman. Opposite of props to Kenny Smith and Reggie Miller, who were quick to criticize many of the dunks. It's a dunk contest, not Game 7 of the Finals. Relax.
  

• Listening to Shaq talk to Craig Sager on the bench during the 4th quarter of the game about it possibly being his last All-Star Game made me realize that he's one of the only athletes that really broke into the league when I was old enough to start really caring about sports (1992, I was 7 years old) and is still around. As far as my life when it comes to being interested in sports, the Big Aristotle has been a constant. How could you not miss this guy?
  

Thank you two times

So, you're entering some sort of building, and there's two sets of doors. You walk into one, there's a small entry way, and then there's another set a few feet away. Say you're walking behind somebody and they open the first door for you. You say thank you, naturally. Then, they open the next door. Do you say thank you again? Do you have to repeat your gratitude or is it just implied that you are grateful by your first thanking? Is it considered bad manners to not say thank you again? I don't think a second full thank you is necessary. Some sort of secondary recognition is probably required. Maybe a head nod or something like that. The person opening the doors for you should understand that the first thank you carries over to the entire encounter. Saying thanks once establishes you as a polite person, and the door opener should be happy with that. I mean, they had to open the door for themselves, anyway. They don't have a lot of room to be snobby about it.

Short Circuit City

I may be the biggest, but I'm definitely not the brightest tool in the box. There are things I know about - sports, comic books, Tina Fey - and things I don't - politics, religion, current affairs, anything that is really actually important. Because of this, I am writing with a shaker full of salt lodged between the letters on my keyboard.

The economy sucks. Duh. We've known this for months and nothing has really changed to make us think any differently. And just as we all decided that Yes We Could, we come to the realization that 2009 has the potential to be even worse. Hooray. Did I understand that America was struggling? Yes, but only on the most basic of fronts. But that all changed today. Something happened that hit me dead between the eyes.

Circuit City closed its doors. Well, not all of its doors, but over 560 of them. That's right, Best Buy's overshadowed little brother is laying off thousands of employees after filing for bankruptcy. Now, I've never shopped at Circuit City. Not once. I've always been a Best Buy man myself. But ever since I can remember I've seen those gaudy red blocky building fronts from the road. I've had friends stand in line there at 5 a.m. to buy laptop computers. I've watched their terrible commercials for years. I've recycled dozens of their ads in the weekend newspaper. And now they're gone.

So this is what the economic crisis is all about. Just down the road an IHOP closed down. A place more popular on Sunday mornings than a free money machine in Las Vegas is now dark. I've heard that the closing is just temporary, and that it might not even be for economic reasons. But it got me thinking. Tonight I was talking to some friends about Netflix and Red Box and all the alternative ways to rent movies these days. I hardly know anybody that actually goes to the movie store to rent movies anymore. Could you imagine all Blockbusters just shutting down? While some of this has to do with alternative outlets and marketing strategies, the weak economy has to be to blame for some of it, right?

Businesses are darkening all over America. Just think of your favorite shopping center of 10-15 stores. In the coming years they could one by one be going dark, like a storefront sign with some of the letters burnt out.

No Circuit City, IHOP or Blockbuster? Troubling times indeed, my friend.