Starting Five

1. To paraphrase Duran Duran, “No! No! Pistorius!” South African Olympic 400-meter runner/double amputee Oscar Pistorius fatally shoots his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp, in the early morning hours of Valentine’s Day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did Pistorius, who was at his home in a gated community in Pretoria, mistake her for a burglar? Or was this a domestic dispute? Police have initially charged the “Blade Runner” with murder.

 

 

 

2. The late genius wordsmith David Foster Wallace once penned a brutally funny piece for Harper’s titled “Shipping Out”  (later titled, more fittingly, “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again”) in which he spent a week on a cruise ship in the Caribbean, a week that led to –because it was DFW– extreme internal despair. DFW noted, for instance, that being a passenger on a cruise ship flloating on the sea was not unlike being a fetus floating inside amniotic fluid, as all of your nourishment needs are taken care of for you and you become a passive agent of indulgence (it should be noted that DFW ultimately committed suicide). Anyway, I kept thinking of DFW’s piece as I read about the passengers on the Carnival Cruise line Triumph that lost power this week and became a floating hell, as 3,000 passengers found themselves without working toilets and chilled shrimp. At least the Titanic went down in an hour or two.

You can’t help but read about this without summoning some sardonic chuckles (at least I can’t). Imagine not just the misery, but the exponentially greater amount of whining and complaining that has taken place the past three days. Imagine what it must be like to be a crew member on this ship. How did the occupants pass the time while adrift on this derelict barge of fecal matter? I imagine it went down just like this.

3. Jim Boeheim, making friends. The Syracuse coach, between sniffs, called ESPN’s Andy Katz “an idiot” and “a really disloyal person.” I don’t know about the former, but I’m curious what Mr. Boeheim’s first wife thought about that “really disloyal person” comment. Memo to all aspiring sports writers: Loyalty is a far more valued trait among college coaches than truth. In that way they are just like jihadists. On a related note, after UConn’s 66-58 win over No. 6 Syracuse last night in Hartford, New London Day columnist Mike DiMauro broke out the pom-poms.

4. The last hours of Christopher Dorner. How incredible is it that he was holed up for days just 100 yards or so from the police command post that was set up to hold press briefings? Look around, people. Be alert (the world needs lerts).

5. So as I understand it, Derrick Rose is going all Peter Gibbons on the Bulls (“I wouldn’t say I was missing it”)?

Reserves

It’s’ White Dude/International Student hoops heaven tonight as No. 5 Gonzaga (23-2) and seven-foot Canadian Kelly Olynyk visits unranked St. Mary’s (21-4) and scruffy Australian Matthew Dellavedova (who hit this game-winning shot at BYU last month in what was the best last five seconds of a game this season; kudos to Randy Bennett for not calling timeout) on ESPN2 at 11 p.m.

 

Of course, earlier in the evening, the world’s two best basketball players will square off in Oklahoma City as the Thunder host the Heat. When did it become a good idea to name sports teams after weather?

Notes from Pope Benedict XVI’s farewell tour: First of all, if you can get a pew, do it! The Pope is breaking out a lot of his old material — he does a Nicene Creed without using “consubstantial” — and there’s a few surprise guests who pop in to concelebrate the host (I won’t spoil it for you). Lastly, and I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but he turns up the house lights during the Agnus Dei. As the congregation sings along.

The dry ice was Benedict’s homage to ’80s hair metal