Careening With Conviction

Hey there, ho there. Cranking through another week. Today was glorious out, sunny and into the 70s after a raw and rainy couple of days. On Monday night, Deb and I joined our friends Kate and Brian at the Sox-Yankees game. It was damn cold, but a great game. There was plenty of hoopla over Johnny Damon's return to town, but the Sox reacquisition of catcher Doug Mirabelli got lots of attention as well. The Sox won the game and it started raining right as we left Fenway.

Meanwhile, back at the Batcave:

• It's been quite the fortnight for Kaavya Viswanathan, the 19-year-old Harvard student who went from hot young author with a book and movie deal to disgraced plagiarist with a book taken off store shelves, no movie deal, and a lot to think about. It was a meteoric rise and even more spectacular fall, as various news outlets pointed out the similarities between passages in Viswanathan's book and several others. She apologized, calling them "internalizations" and her publisher Little Brown originally planned to release a revamped version of the book, but after the story snowballed, those plans were scrapped. What I wonder is, with all the press given to the similar downfall of James Frey earlier this year, you'd think she would have known better. Perhaps it was too late by then; but how could she not know that this would come out eventually?
• The first round of the NHL playoffs are over, and it's a nightmare for the league's head office. Major market clubs Detroit, Philly, the Rangers, Montreal, and Dallas all lost, along with Nashville, Calgary, and defending Cup champs Tampa Bay. But there's been some great hockey, so if you're a hockey fan, you shouldn't be disappointed. The league also announced the finalists for its awards today: my picks to win are Thornton for MVP, Ovechkin for rookie of the year, Miikka Kiprusoff for the Vezina (best goalie), Nick Lidstrom for best defenseman, Peter Laviolette for best coach, and Rod Brind'Amour for the best defensive forward.
• Stephen Colbert's appearance at the White House Correspondents Dinner last weekend has ignited a raging debate over whether he was funny, whether he disrespected the president and the White House media corps, and whether the mass media conspired to not report on the speech. I don't know about a conspiracy, but you certainly heard more about Dubya's comedy routine with his lookalike than Colbert. I personally think Colbert's hilarious, but I can see how people wouldn't get the joke, especially those self-important blowhards covering the White House. His whole schtick on the Colbert Report and during his speech centers around playing a Bill O'Reilly-esque pundit; it's not for everyone. Still, if you want to judge for yourself, you can find the video in three parts on IFilm. And here's a site singing his praises. I think the funniest part of the whole thing is the look on Bush's face as he tried to figure out what the hell this guy he never heard of was talking about. UPDATE: IFilm took down the Colbert speech after C-Span asked, but it's officially available at Google Video now.