January 5, 2008
Cloudy and cool. Started sprinkling at about 11:30 this morning. Went out to toss an apple core into the chicken coop and noticed the silent pool ripples.

Went up to Bashas' after work last night and bought groceries ($85, plus $20 cash back). Came home and made spaghetti. Kathy got home late and we watched a bit of the 24/7 coverage of the latest Britney Spears meltdown. I'll give her one thing: she sure is a cute mess, as opposed to say, Kenya or Pakistan.

Fiction By Omission
Read with interest in this morning's Arizona Republic that Pistol Pete Maravich died 20 years ago today. Pete was one of my basketball heroes, making show-boat, ridiculous shots with ease. He averaged 44.2 points a game in college. Yes, I said "average." In the NBA he once scored 68 against the Knicks in 1977 and three weeks later against the Phoenix Suns, after five of his teammates were injured in a taxi cab traffic accident at Third Street and Thomas, Pistol Pete came into the Coliseum with only seven players and single-handedly beat the Suns, scoring 51. "We couldn't stop him," former suns coach John Macleod remembered. "We double-teamed him. Tried to prevent him from getting the ball. Nothing worked." Alvin Adams, of the Suns said, "That night, Pistol Pete beat an NBA team all by himself."

My beef with the piece is that it skims over the rest of his life, mentioning "he gave his life to Jesus Christ," but fails to mention Pete had nasty problems with cocaine, dying of a heart attack at age 40 (cocaine abuse, of course, can lead to a weak heart). If you didn't know the real story you would conclude by this article, that Pistol Pete Maravich's life ended on a happy note.

To me this would be like summing up Custer's demise with, "in the last hour of George's life, he found religion." Yes, I'm sure he did—among other things—maybe worth mentioning.

" In each action we must look beyond the action at our past, present and future state, and at others whom it affects, and see the relations of all those things. And then we shall be very cautious."
—Blaise Pascal