I am Thankful for Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving time is probably one of my favorite times of the year, and let me tell you why.
You see, there comes a time each year when people get together at one of several venues around the country to watch ten guys with squeaky shoes run around on a wooden floor in an attempt to insert a leather sphere through a circular hole, otherwise known as a "basket," which is placed 10 feet from the ground. These ten fellows are divided equally into two sections, and each section is designated to defend one of the two "baskets" that are oppositely positioned across this wooden court. While one section, or team, defends its "basket," the other team must try to place the leather sphere, also known as a "basket" ball, in and through the opposing team's "basket." The ball can be thrown, lobbed, or placed directly through the "basket," each resulting in the scoring of either 2 or 3 points, depending on the location from which the team member released the ball (unless a team member happens to be fouled while attempting to score, in which case his "free" points are worth one point each).
This athletic event, or sport, is played by people of any age, sex, or race (although those of the darker-skinned variety are known to be more adept). However, I am inclined to enjoy watching male players in the 18-22 age range. At this specific point in a "basket" ball player's life, he is enrolled in a university. The competition between two university's "basket" ball teams is quite fierce, and the games are usually televised through cable wires or satellite waves into a television set. This way, university (or college) "basket" ball fans are able to enjoy a game without having to actually be present at a "basket" ball venue. However, when given the chance to see a game at its actual location, one will do so in order to experience the omni-sensory nirvana that is a "basket" ball game.
Generally, these competitions begin around Thanksgiving and will persist until late March. For me, this is a time of new beginnings, of new battles between old rivals, of budding players coming of age. It is college basketball season.
I also enjoy the food and seeing my family.
You see, there comes a time each year when people get together at one of several venues around the country to watch ten guys with squeaky shoes run around on a wooden floor in an attempt to insert a leather sphere through a circular hole, otherwise known as a "basket," which is placed 10 feet from the ground. These ten fellows are divided equally into two sections, and each section is designated to defend one of the two "baskets" that are oppositely positioned across this wooden court. While one section, or team, defends its "basket," the other team must try to place the leather sphere, also known as a "basket" ball, in and through the opposing team's "basket." The ball can be thrown, lobbed, or placed directly through the "basket," each resulting in the scoring of either 2 or 3 points, depending on the location from which the team member released the ball (unless a team member happens to be fouled while attempting to score, in which case his "free" points are worth one point each).
This athletic event, or sport, is played by people of any age, sex, or race (although those of the darker-skinned variety are known to be more adept). However, I am inclined to enjoy watching male players in the 18-22 age range. At this specific point in a "basket" ball player's life, he is enrolled in a university. The competition between two university's "basket" ball teams is quite fierce, and the games are usually televised through cable wires or satellite waves into a television set. This way, university (or college) "basket" ball fans are able to enjoy a game without having to actually be present at a "basket" ball venue. However, when given the chance to see a game at its actual location, one will do so in order to experience the omni-sensory nirvana that is a "basket" ball game.
Generally, these competitions begin around Thanksgiving and will persist until late March. For me, this is a time of new beginnings, of new battles between old rivals, of budding players coming of age. It is college basketball season.
I also enjoy the food and seeing my family.
posted by Jeff at 12:40 PM
22 Comments:
college basketball about to begin? nc state has already beaten mount olive college, which i'm told has a basketball program second only to mount olive high school. not to mentioned we kicked butt in the hispanic college fund classic. and that's without a single hispanic on our team. i share your enthusiasm for the sport, but i'm afraid the big games have been happening for some time now.
oh y ea jeff and in little print at the bottom i see how you are thankful for your family...hehe jk. have a wonderful turkey day!!!!
<3 Katy
i married the biggest nerd ever.
notice i said around thanksgiving, not on thanksgiving. i am aware the games have begun; i have been watching the maui invitational (good game last night).
i prefer to call it "pie day," katy.
i may be a nerd, but i am kind of short so you can't really say "biggest." and i know that short is not the opposite of big, you dork. get a life.
"pie day?" what the cheese? well i guess that's windy's proof for you being a nerd...
oh sorry..that last post was from me
<3 Katy
"what the cheese?" be careful there, katy. . . . very careful.
so i went home for thanksgiving last weekend, and it was great to be back in good ol fashioned g-boro. while there i also took a short trip through nostalgiaboro, as we watched some old Christmas movies, and my mom had me go through some boxes of old stuff to see what could be thrown out. (a lovely drawing of a clock at 11:06 saying 'make a wish' made it into the keep pile). anyway, so we were watching Christmas 1988, at which time i was 8 years old, and my sister just happens to get a radio alarm clock. so she excitedly plugs it in, and next thing you know we're rocking it out to a song that you may recall, simply titled "rock this town." coincidence? of course not. rather, we have unlocked some vital info to understanding the person that i am. just thought i'd share.
on a note more related to this post, the unc basketball team looked like urine last night. we're cutting this acc big ten challenge close this time, and i'm excited about seeing some better b-ball tonight. props to fl state for their blowout last night, and to wake forest for hanging on after a couple of ridiculously lucky shots from wis. i didn't catch any of the clemson game, but i'm happy with the results. as for tonight, the duke game should be good, but as long as duke doesn't blow 75% of their free throws in the final minutes like they did against memphis, then they should come out on top. of course state will beat iowa. it won't be easy, but some of you may recall that last time we played them, we beat them in the ncaa tourney in double overtime back in 89. we'll lead by double digits at half time, then they'll come back and tie it with 3 minutes left, but we'll win it by 4 in the end. maryland shouldn't have any trouble against minnesota. they say mich state's got a good team, but ga tech can beat anybody when they're on. but if they're not on, then they're screwed. i don't know a thing about northwestern or va. go acc.
just so ya know- i made that clock at my grandparents house- whose clocks are all five minutes slow (which keeps us from leaving five minutes earlier). you'll have to go there to make your wish.
well, regardless of the time on the clock, and the details of whether wishes actually come true when wished at that time, i was happy to find the drawing. it'll have to do at our house until we can get a real windy lampson painting one day.
and as for the b-ball stuff, we looked worse than unc last night. 24 turnovers? not even forced either. it was like watching the globetrotters play, except none of the trick balls worked, so when they just threw it out of bounds, it actually went out of bounds, instead of having a big rubber band bring it back. unacceptable. in fact, i do not accept. i refuse.
then it looks like i shall be receiving no thanks from you, sarahbobarra, as i will certainly be mentioning unc for many a year. and i just can't agree that they looked very good against illi. i'm fully aware of the sob story involving your 7 highest scorers going into the nba. however, i find it very convenient how all the tarheels out there keep mentioning that little fact, while failing to mention that illinois lost 5 of their top 7 scorers also. so what we had tuesday night was a baby tarheel team that lost to a baby illinois team. of course no one is going to expect unc to look like it did last year when it was stacked with ridiculously great players. however, roy williams is a good coach who pulled the unc program out of the gutter real quick before, and he ought to be able to make something out of the team he's got by midseason. i'll give them credit for one thing in the illi game. they played very very hard. they scrambled and they fought and they didn't give up. but i'm afraid that they played like a high school team. they were unorganized and uncertain of their roles. they were sloppy. i'm not trying to put anybody down, as i could say much worse about the horrible offensive effort of nc state on wed. but what i saw on tuesday night was not good basketball, and i think the unc team has got a long way to go.
and for all you duke fans out there, don't get too excited. you may be ranked #1 and undefeated, but aren't you always at this time of the season? they're cutting the games too close for a national championship team, and they're making mistakes at critical times (final minutes free throws). and most importantly, the outcome of the games all rely far too greatly on whether or not jj is having a good shooting night. you've got the players and the coach to win it all, but that's too familiar a story to get excited about just yet.
by the way, is it just me, or us this word verification thing getting harder? it takes me like 2 or 3 tries now to get all of the letters right.
you should have stopped after the sentence about the baby carolina team, glen.
oh, and my word verification word is zsmax, like z-smax cereal.
i know it shouldn't have been as close as it was, but that shot by dockery at the end of the game was radical. call it "luck," call it a "good pass," call it "i didn't even get to watch it on tv because i live in freaking florida." either way, he made the shot and won the game and made me happy.
LOOK AT MY PICTURE!!--->
being in a similar situation as yours, i am unable to watch many of the acc basketball games also. it seems everyone around here is much more concerned with this other sport where the players are all padded up like big robots and they pass around this nonspherical ball and they don't even dribble. i've never once seen anyone get the ball into any kind of hoop, but every once in a while they'll run all the way down the court with the ball, until they've run out of bounds. then i guess they're pissed about it, cause they all line up and one guy just kicks the ball out into the crowd. that's just poor sportsmanship. but i imagine people in the florida area are feeling pretty good about their win over virginia tech that made fl st the acc champs this weekend. but anyway, i did get to catch the basketball clip this morning. you know it's a big sports play when they show it on the today show. and i'm in complete agreement with you, "jeff." no way should they have been in that position against vt. but that shot was stupid awesome. i'd go so far as to say that the shot itself was better than laettner's famed shot, but the stakes were obviously not nearly as important, so laettner's will remain as the greater play. but it's fun to see duke pulling off some wild stuff again. the feeling that they're invincible no matter what hole they dig themselves into is the feeling that duke teams have been missing for some time. that's the fabled duke program that i remember from a childhood in nc. now if ncstate would just start bringing back memories from '83 i'd be even happier.
jeff i love basketball i really do but this is kinda boring for me...our highschool won our semi finals so we are having our championship this saturday at the Duke football stadium...yay! except i can't sit with matt on the bus b/c of kathy...grrrrr. i think only windy will understand that
Ps. haha i always say wat the cheese at skool because i like it much better then profanity. i also watched anchorman for the first time on the band bus and so i have been driving people crazy by saying things like "sweet grandmother's spatula" and "hot pot of coffee" if you have not seen that movie it is stupid and funny...haha
anyways <3 Katy..
jeff, the lady has spoken. you best get to work on something not so boring. besides, thanksgiving is long past. perhaps it is time to focus on an upcoming holiday. need i remind you that this thursday is both bodhi day and immaculate conception of the blessed virgin mary? i'm gonna celebrate by having my buddha action figure fight my mary doll. however, i'm a little confused about something. how did the immaculate conception happen on december 8th and the birth of Jesus happen on december 25th? was it a 17 day pregnancy or a 13 month pregnancy? perhaps if there are any catholics out there you could explain this to me, as i have never heard of this immaculate conception holiday in any of my protestant churches. so jeff, dove e la stanza da bagno?
oh, and go <3 Katy's highschool team!!!
holy crap. that's the most informative blog answer i've ever received. thank you sarahbobarra. i was aware that the birth of Jesus was not actually thought to have been on 12/25, but i've never bothered to look up why we celebrate it on that day. so your comment got me to spend a few minutes googling "origin of christmas." there's some crazy stuff associated with this holiday. apparently a few christians out there are pretty gung ho about getting rid of the holiday all together. i'll need to look into this later when i have a little more time. as for the immaculate conception of mary stuff, that was completely new to me. that catholic church comes up with some wild stuff. so thanks again sarah, and merry christm ... wait ... um, happy holidays? ... no. i'm not sure what i'm supposed to say anymore. uh, God bless.
sarah, you are the biggest dork ever.
But did you know that polar bears are left-handed?
wow. jeff is the biggest nerd ever, and sarah is the biggest dork ever. i mean, the chances of the biggest nerd ever and biggest dork ever even living in the same century seems pretty slim. and yet here we have them, born only a few years apart, and from the same family nonetheless. we are truly in the presence of greatness.
on a side note, i wasn't sure if "nonetheless" was one word or three, so i looked it up on dictionary.com. it is indeed only one word. however, what i found most interesting are the four sentence fragment examples used in defining the word:
"although I'm a little afraid, however I'd like to try it"
"while we disliked each other, nevertheless we agreed"
"he was a stern yet fair master"
"granted that it is dangerous, all the same I still want to go"
not only is the first example a ridiculous sentence, none of the examples ever use the word "nonetheless." isn't that kind of key?
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