I created 'a whole new world' for myself as a child – one beyond the kindergarten classroom and weekend play dates. I was sucked into the power-hungry, image-centered world of Disney movies.
To the people high up at UB who probably aren't reading this,
When thinking about Super Bowl XLIV, many questions come to my mind: How drunk will I be before kickoff? Should I get barbeque wings or mild medium from Duffs? Will there finally be any good commercials this year?
Whenever I enter a room and everyone falls silent, I immediately know I was a victim of the gossip bug.
The best thing about sports is that they're un-scripted. On any given day, any team can come out on top. Athletes, like the rest of us, have good and bad days. Just think about any major upset and you'll realize that this is an undeniable truth. See the 1980 Olympics when the American national team knocked off the star-studded Soviets to win the gold medal. This game is referred to as the Miracle on Ice. They made a movie on it. It's arguably the greatest upset of all time. Enough said. Or how about when the New York Giants defeated the mighty New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII? The Giants were one play away from watching Tom Brady and Bill Belichick march off the field undefeated, grinning from ear to ear. Instead, David Tyree made one of the most remarkable catches ever, helping the Giants win. The numbers 18-1 now haunt everyone in the Boston area. More examples: Robin Soderling besting number-one seeded Rafael Nadal at the 2009 French Open, Division I-AA Appalachian State topping No. 5 nationally-ranked Michigan to end the Wolverines' season before it really started, and Buster Douglas, a 42-to-1 underdog, KOing Mike Tyson and shocking the world. The point is that there's a human aspect in sports. Aside from scoring ridiculous goals, knocking down impossible jump shots, and drilling 400-foot homeruns, athletes go home every night and deal with similar issues that we everyday people face. That's what makes sports great. We get to watch real people competing at the highest level. We witness bad days that turn into terrible losses. So why have we become so dependent on video replay? Referees are human, too. The mistakes that they make are part of the game, so why do we go out of our way to correct them? I've seen a ton of basketball games that lasted 20 extra minutes because the officials reviewed every little detail of the game. Granted, sometimes the replay can be helpful, but is it always necessary? It prolongs the game, often changes the outcome, and, most importantly, gives refs too much leeway to make mistakes. Sure, Ireland got the short end of the stick when the refs missed two hand-ball calls on Thierry Henry, but that's the way the cookie crumbles. It happens. No matter how hard it is for coaches, players and fans to watch the botched call the next day on SportsCenter, we must remember that mistakes are part of the game. When writing an essay, how carefully do you inspect every word that you type? Unless your anal, you know that spell check is going to fix your mistakes. Yes, you'll check your final product and find that your wrote 'on' instead of 'no' and the computer didn't recognize the error, however, I argue that before technology, people were a lot more diligent when writing and were probably better spellers. The same applies for refs and instant replay. Though they'll never admit it, knowing that you have the crutch of video footage helping you call the game hurts your sharpness and accuracy. If your mistakes are easily correctable, you become more prone to mess up. Blown calls suck and can leave a sports fan feeling cheated, but they're undoubtedly a part of the game. Before there were a million cameras flashing and recording every sporting event, video replay wasn't even a question. Sports made it this far without the sports spell check, so let's not jump on the bandwagon and try to change something that has withstood the test of time. If it ain't broke… E-mail: andrew.wiktor@ubspectrum.com
Wake up America. Why are we donating millions upon millions of dollars to Haiti now?
For my first column of the semester, I wanted to write about something that I feel extremely passionately about. I wanted to write about a story that means more to me than a distant major headline, such as the Tiger Woods scandal or Brett Farve's return to the postseason spotlight. Rather than discussing a bowl game that my school didn't compete in, or detailing the upset of the No. 1 nationally-ranked college basketball team, I felt obliged to tell about something that hit closer to home; something important in my life. Of course, under these pretenses, you can easily imagine how I would be tempted to write about the season finale of The Jersey Shore. But then I realized that this was a sports column. Next best topic: The New York Knicks. Yes, I concede that the Knicks remain a team struggling for wins in a crumbling conference filled with second-tier teams. By the numbers, they don't exactly impress, standing at 17-24, the same exact record they held just one year ago. But I argue that there is more to this team than the records, stats, and stigmas imply. By the beginning of December, the blue and orange had dug themselves a deep hole, getting off to a dismal 3-14 start. Yes, they lost a few overtime bouts, including a crushing defeat to Boston capped by a Kevin Garnett buzzer-beater, but their play was lackluster and inexcusable. In the past nine seasons, the Knicks have missed the postseason seven times and lost in the first round to subpar teams twice (Toronto in 2000-01 and New Jersey in 2003-04). In all of those years, the Knicks finished above .500 just once. My Knicks had done what I feared most; they had become a team synonymous with pity and loss. After a dreadful decade, they began being mentioned in the same breath as (gasp) the Mets and the Jets. (Yes, I know the latter team is in the AFC Championship, but this entire season has been a fluke and the Giants remain the superior New York football team, always. That does include the Bills, sorry.) Just imagine this typical NBA conversation involving a New York fan: RANDOM NBA FAN: I'm so glad that the NBA season finally tipped off. Kobe and crew look eager to repeat and the East actually has some strong contenders. Say, what team do you root for? KNICKS FAN: (Notice the awkward preface to explain their loyalty) We'll, I'm from New York, so I'm a die-hard Knicks fan. RANDOM NBA FAN: (Cringes and hides an embarrassed smile) Oh, I see. I'm sorry to hear that. (Scrambles through brain to find something positive to say.) Maybe you'll get LeBron in 2010. It was as if saying 'I'm a Knicks fan' had become a stigma that immediately transmitted a sexual disease to anyone who heard the words muttered. Well, I'm from New York, and I'm a damn proud Knicks fan, especially this season. (And with that statement, I hope I've inflicted countless New England area sports fans with horrible rashes and chronic discomfort.) I've watched nearly every Knicks game this season, and in short, I've been nothing but impressed with the team's talent, effort, and results. Center David Lee is an outstanding star that has thrived playing a position he isn't naturally suited for. His outside jump shot has improved, he can finish with both hands, grabs 11.2 rebounds per game (sixth best in the NBA) and should be voted into the All-Star Game. Coach Mike D'Antoni has done an excellent job inspiring players and has gotten the most out of average guys such as Jared Jeffries and Wilson Chandler. Al Harrington is one of the most dominant six-men in the league (18.2 points per game) and Danilo Gallinari has proved he can both shoot and slash. And they're winning games. With $60 million clearing from cap space at the end of the season and a huge free agent market, it hasn't felt this good to be a Knicks fan in a while. My boys may currently be on the outskirts of the playoffs, but their chemistry is on point and they will make a run this postseason. Any superstar in this league who has watched the Knicks move the ball and hustle back on defense this year would love to play in D'Antoni's run-and-gun system. New York seems fit for a king. E-mail: andrew.wiktor@ubspectrum.com
Despite what Leon may think, Larry David definitely 'brought it' Sunday night.
Eddy Curry has a lawsuit to focus on, Danilo Gallinari has chronic back problems to cope with and the New York Knicks organization has Stan Van Gundy's harsh words about Patrick Ewing to react to.?
I mostly brush off Ann Coulter as some bizarre sideshow - freaky and weird, but good at turning a profit.
Second to baseball, I'm convinced that our national pastime must be giving advice. As Americans, we all love telling others what to do; whether we're showing the Iraqis how to form a democracy or our younger siblings how to make water-balloons, our natural tendency is to assume a position of expertise.
It's a sobering thought, realizing that you're a senior. Perhaps "sober" isn't the right word - after all, everyone's over 21, so we're finally allowed to drink ourselves silly without posing as siblings or altering our driver's licenses.
After being here for nearly a semester, everything on campus is starting to become familiar - cave-like brick buildings, $3 sandwiches, the cameras that make me avoid the Student Union, and the general reluctance of students to be opinionated.
Let us not forget the story of Kristallnacht: The Night of Broken Glass. On Nov. 7, 1938, a 17-year-old Jew named Herschel Grynszpan assassinated Nazi Foreign Service officer Ernst von Raith in Paris.
Ever since the issue surfaced during the 1996 elections, I've pondered over whether prayer should be permitted in public school.
Solutions by The State News
