Joe Biden thought he was giving a compliment.He says it was a compliment.He promises it wasn't an insult.And it proves: We hear what we want to hear.Let's examine exactly what Biden told the New York Observer when asked about Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., as a presidential candidate. This is how it was widely quoted in the press: "I mean, you got the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man."
Today, a tradition dies. Since I have been with this newspaper, Super Bowl weekend meant the annual debate between Curt Sylvester, our esteemed, long-time football writer, and me, our esteemed, long-time person he sat next to.Oh, the fun we had! Me telling Curt his pick was as thin as his hair. Curt calling me "Shorty." Me telling Curt I saw him in the hotel fish tank. Curt calling me "Shorty."
TAMPA - Got it. Held it. Count it. This Super Bowl was always going to come down to a pass and catch. You sensed that going in. But until the final minute, that story was being inked as Kurt Warner to Larry Fitzgerald, the amazing duo from the desert who had electrified the NFL playoffs and turned the two of them into household names. Their tandem had been quiet most of the night, but they exploded in the fourth quarter with a fade touchdown to pull within six points, and an over the middle 64-yard dagger that put the Cardinals up for the first time with less than three minutes to go.
TAMPA - Got it. Held it. Count it. This Super Bowl was always going to come down to a pass and catch. You sensed that going in. But until the final minute, that story was being inked as Kurt Warner to Larry Fitzgerald, the amazing duo from the desert that had electrified the NFL playoffs and turned the two of them into household names. Their tandem had been quiet most of the night, but it exploded in the fourth quarter with a fade touchdown to pull within six points, and an over the middle 64-yard dagger that put the Cardinals up for the first time with less than three minutes to go.
I remember my first time.I was nervous. I was embarrassed. I was already in my 20s and had never done it before. But I did it.And I liked it.I came to Detroit.Perhaps you are doing the same thing today for Super Bowl XL, arriving at our airport, checking into our hotels, looking at our river that leads to a Great Lake. Maybe you've never seen a Great Lake. Don't worry. It's like an ocean, but usually without the waves.
I'm a week late in telling you this, but I'm still six days early. So for your sanity, please listen up.Make your Super Bowl prediction now!Otherwise, your brain will turn to mush, your ears will clog with statistics, you'll see Michael Irvin and Tom Jackson arguing in your sleep, and you will only make your pick next Sunday on what you'll tell yourself is thorough, brilliant analysis when it is, in fact, and I want to use a scientific term here, blah, blah, blah. Nothing happens.Remember that phrase. Nothing happens.
A few years back, a friend named Sonya told me about her father, who survived the Auschwitz death camp but lost everything else, including his young wife and 2-year-old son. He had come to America after the war, started a new life, a new family, worked into his old age as a sign maker in Detroit."He reads your column," Sonya said. "He'd like to meet you."I promised it would happen, then, of course, never followed up. Now and again, she would mention it, and I'd say, "Oh, sure, sure, let's make the time," but again, I fell short.
I walked past a coffee shop last week and through the window I saw a TV screen. Under "breaking news" was this: The New York Times had endorsed Hillary Clinton and John McCain in the presidential primaries.Was this really "breaking news"?Should it be news at all?Once upon a time newspapers and endorsements were like baseball cards and bubble gum. Newspapers were bald-faced about their political views. In some cases, they were little more than the publishing arms of a political party. Those were the old days.These are not those days.
Mitch Albom writes about running an orphanage in impoverished Port-au-Prince, Haiti, his kids, their hardships, laughs and challenges, and the life lessons he’s learned there every day.
