Sunday, August 13, 2006

Ravens/Books/Little Miss Sunshine/Free Books

An excellent weekend started off Friday night with my good friend Jim inviting me to the Baltimore Ravens pre-season opener against the much-hated New York Football Giants. As soon as I saw Eli Manning take the field, I was immediately reminded of many memorable games between Manning's alma mater Ole Miss and my brother's alma mater Mississippi State. (For those of you interested in measuring time, I'm here to inform you that the nanosecond is not the smallest unit of measure. It is, rather, the subatomic interval between the "amen" of the invocation and the first chant of "Go to hell, Ole Miss.")

It was my first time in the Ravens' stadium and I must admit it's a first-rate facility. The game was pretty good too – McNair's opening drive was exceptional for a pre-season game, although I'm sure coach Brian Billick's blood pressure suffered when McNair decided to leap for the opening touchdown himself. Despite heroics and a pretty good running game, the Ravens fell to the Giants 17-16. But Jim and I had a great time.

Two books arrived Saturday, James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon by Julie Phillips and Shriek: An Afterword by Jeff VanderMeer. Can't wait to start each of them.

Saturday Cindy and I went to the new, improved Baltimore Book Thing. For those of you who don't know, The Book Thing is a location (you can't really call it a "store") that gives away books. That's right, the books are free.

I know what you're thinking. They're all Readers Digest books and such. Not so. I've found signed first editions at The Book Thing, current bestsellers, hard-to-find titles, you name it. It's an incredible place that you have to see to believe. If you're ever in the Balto area on a Saturday or Sunday, check it out.

On to see our friends Juan and Kathleen for a showing of Little Miss Sunshine at the Charles Theatre. If you haven't seen the film, go. Now. Everyone's going to be talking about it and rightfully so. Cindy and I thoroughly enjoyed it. (More on the film later.)

Weekend's almost over. Time to get a little writing done. Everybody have a great week.

1 comment:

Dr. Phil (Physics) said...

The smallest unit of time is Planck time and it is built into the fabric of the universe. It is very short. (grin) About as you said... (loved the image I had of that football crowd...)

Dr. Phil