Why should we?What compels us to go marching into Somalia now? Who do we think we are?Why must our sons and daughters, most of whom have never been anywhere near Somalia, now risk their lives to help straighten out its mess?Why should even one of them take a bullet? And we all know more than one of them will. Why should we?Why does America pour countless millions into trying to feed some distant African nation, when people here at home are sleeping in the streets and begging pennies for food?
MINNEAPOLIS -- A goal! A goal! Their kingdom for a goal! The Red Wings were down to the last gasping seconds of their 1992 season, their best season in years, all those victories, all of the weary days from October to April, the first-place finish, the rave reviews, all that excellence and effort now dripping away, dying before their bleary eyes, unless . . . unless they could put that puck in, just once. That would be enough. The score was 0-0. And they were in overtime. One goal! They live or they die.
Jack and Jill went up the hill to figure out the economy.Jack said, "We're in a recession."Jill said, "No, we're not."Jack said, "How do you know?"Jill said, "How do you know?"Jack said, "Look at the unemployment rate. It's going up."Jill said, "Look at the prime rate. It's coming down."Jack said, "But the stock market has dropped 400 points in the last six months."Jill said, "It's gained 200 points in the last three months."Jack said, "Look at the cost of gas. It's skyrocketed. It's through the roof."
Today we answer the most talked-about question in sports: Is it possible that Wilt Chamberlain slept with 20,000 women?Wait. Let me check my watch.Make that 20,001.Chances are you have heard about Wilt's claim. He wrote it in his new book, "A View From Above," which I always thought referred to his height. Maybe it refers to the mirror over his bed.
CHICAGO --As he climbed the steps, he heard the national anthem -- and a jolt went through him that left him numb. They were starting the game. And he wasn't out there. When he took his seat, far from the action, they dropped the puck -- and another jolt. He wasn't out there.And when Chicago scored the first goal, and then another, putting the Red Wings in a deep hole on this suddenly critical playoff series game, the sensation was the same. A jolt, and then--"Empty," he sighed.
I never got much out of reading Thoreau. Maybe because I read him in high school. An urban teenager doesn't exactly fall for a guy who moves to the woods and talks to squirrels. I do, however, remember one line he wrote. It struck me when I read it and it has stayed with me all these years: "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation."What did he mean by that, I wondered? Did grown-ups really have it so tough? Quiet desperation? Such contrasting words. Like "dying hope." Or "deafening silence."Or "I didn't mean to hurt my babies."
Michigan's Fab Five started their first game together two years ago Wednesday. A lot of changes have taken place since then -- from the Final Fours, to Chris Webber's departure to the recent incident involving Ray Jackson and Jimmy King. As a reminder of how it all began, the Free Press offers this excerpt from "Fab Five: Basketball, Trash Talk, the American Dream," written by columnist Mitch Albom.
ATLANTA -- It was the best of periods, it was the worst of periods. And it is the reason why you cannot dismiss these Detroit Pistons -- not until the last breath is gone from their lips. You can criticize them, shake your head at them, wonder about them, get sick over them, lose money on them, lose hair on them, but you cannot dismiss them, no way, simply because of nights like Tuesday, when, in two hours of basketball, they played one quarter like "Night of the Living Dead" and another like "The Greatest Story Ever Told."And they won the game.
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.
