Other Assorted Items and Hockey Of Course

Okay, I'll start with hockey. Most of the series are headed the way I like, with the exception of the Rangers and Jersey. But, sooner or later, the Rangers will realize that they are, the Rangers, and that will be the end of that run. Pittsburgh has put up two incredible efforts dispelling any notion that Ottawa has the psychological edge on them. After blowing a three goal lead in game two, they hung on and managed to get a beautiful wrap around game winning goal from Ryan Malone, who then proceeded to put in an empty net goal about 45 seconds later. Monday will be the true test up in Ottawa. If they can put Monday's game away, they have a great chance of sweeping and gaining some rest before round two.
I'm growing to like the commercial from the perspective of the goal posts.
Several items have brought about memories of college days recently. It started with reading the 4th novel, Murdered By Mumia by Maureen Faulkner. Not wanting to get into it again, Maureen Faulkner is the widow of the Philadelphia police officer that Mumia Abu Jamal killed in premeditated cold blood in 1981. He's been on death row ever since. When I was writing for the school paper, I was given the assignment to do a story about Mumia since his defense attorney du jour Leonard Weinglass was coming to campus to drum up more support for their "political prisoner" image. Now, I didn't know anything about the case before receiving the assignment. In the span of 4 days, I quickly brought myself up to speed and made my own mind up about the case. However, I spent the next day and a half agonizing, writing, re-writing, editing, reading out loud, scratching, typing, and finally came out with a non-biased account that I was fairly proud of. Turned it in, mentioned to my editor that it was a bit of a task to do a news story on the subject and proceeded to go about my normal set of weekend events (namely buggy). Monday I grab a copy of the paper and I'm thrilled to see top slot above the fold front page. Then I read the article. My editor took the opportunity to use his "editorial pen" to do a slight rewrite on the article and slanted it in favor of Mumia. I was livid since my name was attached to the article. I called immediately and asked where he got off. Three minutes later I had ended my affiliation with the news section of the paper. I continued to submit to the entertainment section doing movie and cd reviews and interviews, but I never submitted another news story. Anyway, reading the novel brought back all those memories and taught me even more about the case. It just amazes me that he's still alive 26 YEARS after being found guilty and sentenced to death by a jury of his peers. It's probably one of the few political issues I take an actual stand on.
The second thing that took me back was the death of Dith Pran on March 30th. I interviewed Mr. Pran when he spoke at Carnegie Mellon. I can't even imagine going through the things that he saw both in and out of his camera lens. He was a diminuitive soft spoken man, but highly articulate and intelligent and he and I had a great conversation that turned into a great article.
Then, of course, there's the ever looming Spring Carnival that occurs next weekend. By this time next week I'll know where my old team finished.
And, Smart People came out this week as well. So, all in all, it's been a blast from the past. I haven't seen smart people yet, but I'll probably see it soon.