The Style Now Fashionable

Story on the news this morning detailing something related to the fall of "disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong." I suspect that the adjective may now be permanently affixed to his name by the media, joining the elite republican guard, the troubled province of Kandahar, the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, the holy month of Ramadan, the firebrand preacher, and a host of other cliches that would draw Orwell's opprobrium. Come on people, unpack your adjectives.

One Sentence Review of the Wizards Season

When healthy, the Wizards looked like they might compete for a playoff spot.

That's not very exciting, but it's better than things have been for a long time. The team has a decent mix of youth and veterans, and the key, I think, going forward, is to make sure that all players are properly valued. In the era of the salary cap, some teams are always going to overpay for certain players, and in those cases you have to let them walk. No-one is arguing, for instance, whether James Harden is a good player; the question is whether he is a franchise player. Oklahoma City didn't think so; Houston did. Time will tell. The Wizards now face the same question with John Wall, and I think the answer is yes, and also, that the downside risk of not paying him is too great for them to do anything otherwise.

That being the case, they need to build a team of 3 point shooters and rebounders around him. Here is my one sentence assessment of current personnel:

John Wall
Flashy point guard played much smarter this year after missing half the season and showed hints of the jumper that would make him a perennial all star.

Bradley Beal
19 year old with a solid game and a sweet stroke could be the perfect complement to Wall in the backcourt if he works hard and stays healthy.

Nene
A good defender and decent, though overly ambitious passer who is not worth as much as Denver thought he was, and is often injured and getting older.

Emeka Okafor
Solid defender and rebounder is a doubtless asset to the team, but a slightly expensive one.

Martell Webster
A great shooting year for an undervalued veteran and nice guy, who someone is going to overpay next season.

Trevor Ariza
Good defensive player and decent spot up shooter who is not worth $10 million.

Trevor Booker
Hustle guy off the bench deserves a roster spot and 15 minutes a game, if he can stay healthy.

Jason Collins
Didn't see him enough to form an opinion, but he seems like one of those interchangeable veteran big men willing to do what it takes to stay in the league.

Cartier Martin
See Jason Collins, above and substitute "3 point shooters" for "big men."

A.J. Price
Capable backup point guard who shoots too much.

Kevin Seraphin
I projected a breakout season for the big man with the smooth post game, but he doesn't seem to know how to rebound, pass or defend and actually regressed this year.

Chris Singleton
Positional misfit showed no improvement on a disappointing rookie season.

Garrett Temple 
Solid backup deserves a chance to stay in the league.

Jan Vesely
Nice guy with a good story plays smart, but looks like a candidate for one of the worst lottery picks of all time.

If Beal fulfills the promise he showed when he played with Wall and the Wizards draft well, they might get past the first round of the playoffs before the BG finishes middle school. Sigh.

Garden State

I wrote last year about my foray into an herb garden. Building on incremental success (the oregano, mint, thyme and rosemary are thriving, the chives, lavender and sage surviving, after the winter), I added a few new things: tarragon, leeks, parsley, habanero and poblano peppers. I also planted some more basil seedlings, four jalapeno plants (last year's breakout star), and sowed some basil and onions from seed.

Everything seems to have taken root, and today, on the way to the bus, the BG and I noticed that the basil from seed has sprouted, which augurs well for her beloved pesto. The parsley, however, appears to have been sampled, and I fear that it may not pass the too-pungent-for-deer-to-eat test.

And the problem of the tomato cages (G-Lo's gift from Christmas) persists. I asked at the local nursery how I might protect them from cervine interlopers and was directed towards two sprays: one that smelled bad and one that didn't, equally popular with the locals.

Worldwide wrinkled her nose at the idea of chemicals, and was not amused by the idea of a moat, which though it would admittedly be expensive, would be a great conversation piece for the neighbourhood. I'm not sure where this is headed. I am balancing the twin desires for fresh food all summer and minimal effort. An hour a week is as much time as I want to spend on gardening. At least for now, anyway. The garden has doubled in size each year, and at that rate, I will be covering all of North Carolina in a decade or so.

Changing Norms

As we have been many times in the past, we were caught in traffic on two separate occasions last weekend, once on Rockville Pike, once on I-95. Both delays were occasioned by lane closures, which always present a dilemma to the motorist: speed up in the lane to be closed and incur the wrath of good citizens; or be a good citizen and suffer avoidable delay.

In a very good talk, which focuses, among other things, on how the role of randomness is sadly lacking in sports analysis, Rory Sutherland shows how Minnesota overcame this problem by labelling the situation a "zipper merge," so that everyone would instantly understand that the proper behavior was to drive as far forward as possible in both lanes and then take turns going forward.

All we need is everybody to understand the nature of the situation and the proper response. I am looking forward to first mover advantage on the Interstate.

Jaywalking

"Why do they call it jaywalking?" the OG wanted to know this morning, as a jogger zipped by in front of us on the way to school. For once, Big D was silent.

Turns out that jay is late 19th century slang for naive country folk, unfamiliar with normative behavior in the urban environment. Take this quotation from a George M. Cohan play:

If you want to see the real jay delegation, The place where the real rubens dwell, just hop on a train at the Grand Central Station, Get Off when they shout, 'New Rochelle!' Oh, what a fine bunch of rubens! Oh, what a jay atmosphere! They have whiskers like hay, and imagine Broadway, Only forty-five minutes from here."