So, I was watching something on NOVA the other morning, and they showed the obligatory footage of people on Star Trek (various generations) being “beamed” (both up and down), while speculating over whether it was technology that is, at least, theoretically possible. And, of course, it kind of is.

As I understand it (and I’m no Miles O’Brien{{1}}[[1]]I refer to the character played by Colm Meany, though the CNN science and Technology reporter of the same name works, too.[[1]], so I could be wrong), the Star Trek process, at least, would involve having all the information about your atoms mapped, recorded (that’s where those Heisenberg Compensators would come in handy), and stored in the “pattern buffer” (something more than you need to stream YouTube video, I’m guessing; Scotty managed to store himself in the buffer long enough to get him from TOS to TNG{{2}}[[2]]Clearly, the best transporter chiefs are of Celtic descent.[[2]]) then your body being disintegrated, its matter converted into energy, the energy beam being “streamed” (or beamed, if you prefer) to its destination, and then converted back into matter and everything put back into place. So, let’s say that works.

Would you do that? I mean, it sounds like an acceptable way to move stuff around (like, furniture or whatnot), but what about you? I mean, at the heart of it, the you that’s “you” gets disintegrated. Even if all your memories, thoughts, ideas, etc., get copied over to the new destination, the part that was the original “you” is gone. So, like, you’d be dead, no? And would that matter? I mean, the you that was you presumably wouldn’t give a shit, ‘cuz you’d be dead (assuming that whole heaven thing is bullshit; otherwise, it could get awkward up on that cloud), and the new you would be happy, ‘cuz it got to beam to Maui without having to fart around with airport security. But would “you” still be “you”? I don’t think so. I think you die every time you step on that thing, and an impostor takes your place (only to be killed and duplicated for the return trip).

I mean, even for somebody who doesn’t buy into the whole “eternal life” and “soul” nonsense, I think you’re still be killed, whether you know it or not.

It’s like when you go through some god awful medical procedure, and they tell you “don’t worry, this shit I’m giving you will keep you from remembering anything{{3}}[[3]]A direct quote from Dr. Conrad Murray, I believe.[[3]].” Yeah? Well, bullshit. That doesn’t mean you aren’t suffering through it at the time. I don’t care if I remember or not.

I guess I’m just an “in the moment” kinda guy.

So, anyhow, I think I save the transporter for intimate objects.

I’m totally down with the whole Holodeck thing, though. It would be a great way to kill time at work.

Let’s hear it for Wisconsin Democrats, who, in 12 days, claim they’ve collected 300,000 signatures in the effort to force a recall of Governor Scott “The Mope” Walker. That’s half of what they need, and they have another 48 days to get the rest. Of course, I’m sure the first 300,000 were easier to come by than the next 300,000 will be. Let’s hope they get the rest – and then Wisconsiners (Wisonconsinites? Wisconsinians? Cheeseheads?) throw the idiot out of office.

Also to be congratulated is Barney Frank, who has pledged not to become a lobbyist when he retires from the House.

Frank said he would not use his Congressional experience to secure a lucrative job lobbying his former colleagues.

“I will neither be a lobbyist nor a historian,” he said, a jab at Gingrich’s self-proclaimed $1.6 million “historian” gig for Freddie Mac. “My intention is to do some combination of writing, teaching, and lectures.”
[…]
“I do not think I have lived a good enough life to be rewarded by Newt Gingrich being the nominee,” he joked, calling his potential nomination “the best thing to happen to the Democratic party since Barry Goldwater.”
[…]
He held nothing back in his criticism of the state of the House under Republican rule.

“It consists half of people who think like Michele Bachmann and half of people who are afraid of losing a primary to people who think like Michele Bachmann,” he said, “and that leaves very little room to work things out.”

Frank, who came out in 1987, reflected with pride on his role as a gay rights pioneer in the political world, saying he was moved by openly gay New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s claim that she was inspired by his experience.

“The best antidote to prejudice is reality,” he said, “because prejudice is by definition based on ignorance of people’s real condition.”

Amen, Barney. Just goes to show you can be both a full loaf, and a little light in the loafers at the same time.

It’s a good time to have gotten my Roku device (for watching Internet video). I’m also trying out a two-week trial of PlayOn, which allows me to stream more content. This is good because I am forced to avoid watching the news or reading the newspapers or anything like that. There’s only one story that’s dominating things around here, and I have no desire to hear about it. If it wasn’t for my ability to stream “Sanford and Son,” I might have to start obsessing on “chemtrails” or “9/11 was controlled demolition” or “the Mayan Calendar” or something while I’m waiting for the snow to fly.

The dearth of sports around here should make my wife happy, at least. Not that I watch it in her presence, of course. She makes me feel dirty when she catches me watching – like I have German porn on the teevee or something.

To think that it’s all about “us against them” and “they suck” is, of course, totally missing the point. Not that there isn’t some of that, of course (especially if Georgetown in involved), but mostly it’s about enjoying watching the game and appreciating how it’s played. Some people like the ballet, or opera, or Jackson Pollock. Good for them.

It’s a typically human thing, though, to think that something you think is boring or stupid should be boring or stupid everybody else, too (except people who are boring and stupid, of course). And of course the converse – everybody should think the things you care about ar the most important things in the world, too. I try not to think that way, but I will admit there are things I just plain don’t get (like opera, or Jackson Pollock). I don’t spend a lot of time giving a shit if other people like that stuff, though.

I’d forgotten that yesterday was the six-year anniversary of this site. I noted it a week or so ago, and was going to mention it, but then I forgot. That’s because I’ve gotten terribly old and feeble-minded over the past six years.

For the few who still kick around here, you get to see me chronicle the progression of my dementia – from early onset, through to drooling incoherency. Six more years ought to do it.

A rather shitty weekend, overall. As you may have heard, that story that sounded like bullshit to me a week or so ago is no longer sounding like bullshit. Bernie apparently likes to touch little boys. And his wife seems to be a piece of work, too. You just can’t count on anything these days. So long, Bernie. It’s gonna be a long, cold winter.

On the bright side, I managed to knock a couple things off my “shit to do before the snow flies” list. For one, I got four “cheap” rims and had my snow tires mounted on them so I can now swap them out myself. Used to be you could get your basic wheel for, like $15 or something. Now, they’re $60. Oy. Plus another $13 to each to mount them. But, it’s done, so let the snow fly.{{1}}[[1]]Just kidding. Please don’t fly, snow![[1]]

I also got around to mounting work lights on my tractor, so I should be good to go for plowing snow when the time comes. Except now I need to add a third one that faces toward the rear so I can see behind me.

Unfortunately, this disease that seems to be living inside me refuses to go away. It’s not quite as bad as it was – and not bad enough to skip work today, much as I’d like to – but it still sucks.

Cyber Monday – get out there on the intertubes and spend some money for me, ‘cuz mine’s all gone. Not for long though. According to the e-mail I got over the weekend, I’m a very lucky boy because I won the big Microsoft Sweepstakes! In fact, I’m so lucky I won it twice, at two different e-mail addresses. Sweet. Now I’m just waiting for those checks to arrive.

Yes, Virginia, there will be an NBA season this year (probably). And it will begin on Christmas day because, well, what’s Xmas without watching really tall, rich, (mostly) black guys who are “owned” by even more rich (mostly) white guys? In doing research for that previous offensive statement, I discovered that there’s an NBA team called the “Charlotte Bobcats.” I had no idea. And did you know that the NJ Nets are no longer the NJ Nets? They’re now the Brooklyn Nets. Amazing. Not quite the same ring to the name, though, is there? Sounds like “little” Brooklyns or something (as in Brooklynettes). I think they should change it.

“Brooklyn Buckets,” maybe?

This is astounding. I guess I have really not been paying attention. Next thing you know, somebody will be telling me that the Rams are in St. Louis, the Cardinals are in Phoenix, and LA doesn’t even have a football team. But that would be crazy. Rosey Greer would be rolling in his grave.{{1}}[[1]]Note: Rosey Greer, like Abe Vigoda, is actually alive and well.[[1]]

Speaking of Rosey and LA, I recall seeing him in an episode of the greatest police drama of all time – CHiPs. You may laugh, but let me tell ya, without Francis Llewellyn ‘Ponch’ Poncherello, there would not have been a Barack Obama. Or Freddie Prinze.{{2}}[[2]]This may be a slight exaggeration, given that Chico and the Man premiered something like three years before CHiPs, and the fact that, by the time CHiPs aired, Freddy Prinze was already dead.[[2]]

Anyhow, in this particular episode, Ponch and Jon (do they really work in pairs, these guys?) pull over this tiny little car{{3}}[[3]]Not sure what kind of car. What’s the point of having a CHiPs Wiki if they aren’t going to include important information like that?[[3]] for speeding, at which point the rather gigantic Rosey{{4}}[[4]]For the time, anyway, what with this being in the pre-HGH era. Rosey was listed at 6'5" and 284 pounds.[[4]] extricates himself from the vehicle and tears it apart by hand.

Ah, they don’t make teevee like that anymore.

I couldn’t find a clip of that scene, so instead I bring to you the trailer from the movie that the great actor Ray Milland must have considered his crowning achievement{{5}}[[5]]My favorite is “The Lost Weekend,” because it’s a movie I can really relate to.[[5]] (except for maybe his two-part “Love Boat” appearance).

Never mind the government, it’s Facebook that really creeps me out. As previously mentioned, I found Facebook to be just too goddamn intrusive and annoying, so I ditched my page quite a while ago. I definitely prefer G+. Sadly, there are things like contests that I can’t enter due to a lack of Facebookery, and when I wanted to register for SnagFilms in order to set up playlists and whatnot, I found I had to do it via Facebook.

So, what the hell, why fight the machine? I registered a new FB account using an e-mail address that I don’t really use, and no additional information other than my name. No location, no photos, no likes or dislikes – nothing. Immediately upon registering, I was presented with seven “friend” suggestions. My wife, a guy I used to work with who I haven’t seen in years (good guy, too; nice to see he was able to retire), another guy I went to grad school with (wasn’t really friends or anything, but I knew him), and the “CyberCorps Association,” of which I happen to be an alum.

This creeps me the f*ck out, and I really don’t like it. You wonder how the government can monitor everything about our lives? Easy – they use Facebook (and no doubt have a back door into Amazon and Google, too).

Not that they actually need back doors. I went to a CyberCorps Symposium once (yeah – that’s the kinda guy I am), and one of the speakers detailed how, for $35, he was able to get a report that showed everything he’d purchased on Amazon in the past – which (especially with books and movies) is an pretty good window into a person’s brain.

For $20, he got a list of Social Security numbers that included people like the Secretary of State and the director of the NSA (I wonder if this guy gets the full body scan when he flies?).

So, anyhow, I just plodded through Facebook’s goddamn privacy settings, and tried to anonymize myself as much as possible. They deliberately make it difficult, of course. I guess one doesn’t have the right to complain what with it being free and non-compulsory, but I really wish the US would follow Europe’s lead, and make privacy an “opt-in” thing, rather than an “opt-out.” As in, they can do whatever the hell they want whether you know about it or not, until you find out and tell them to stop (at which point, maybe they will, maybe they won’t).

And, while I’m at it, why the hell should you have to pay for your credit report (beyond the one “free” one you get a year), and have to pay to monitor changes and then get on your knees and beg them to fix shit that’s wrong? I mean, it’s about YOU, and you should be able to get one every day if you want to. And the onus should be on these credit reporting agencies to notify you of any changes and to verify information with you first.

I haven’t had a problem, but the potential for something shitty to happen is always there. In fact, I have a “former” address listed on mine at which I’ve never lived. It happens to be the address of a friend of mine, with whom I purchased a two-family home over 20 years ago (one of my many wonderful ideas). It’s an address he moved to with his wife well after we were out of the landlord business.

You think I can get anybody to change it? Nuck fo. Fortunately he isn’t a criminal or a deadbeat or anything (that I know of).

As computer processing power and storage increases (and the NSA algorithms are improved and refined), things will only get worse – no matter how much we try and comfort ourselves with the notion that half a loaf is better than none. Oh, we have a full loaf. It’s just that half of it’s poisoned – and maybe we’d actually be better off with none.

Obama should know better? He does know better – and is getting exactly what he wants (on healthcare, Wall Street, spying on US citizens, you name it). I’m not saying he’s a traitor, exactly, but shit. I mean, he couldn’t even get a dog from a goddamn rescue. He didn’t have to say he was gonna get one from a rescue or a shelter, but he did. And then he didn’t do it. WTF?

Never trust a man who lies about dogs.

Oh well, today’s Home Woot is a Dyson bladeless fan. Cool, but NFW would I spend hundreds of dollars on a fan. Unless I could get a lot of them, and do this:

So, I hope everybody had a nice day yesterday. Here, it was like any other day (well, any other day where I didn’t have to work). No turkey, no relatives, no football. Nothing. I mostly spent the day trying to weatherproof the shop area as much as possible (and installing the wireless access point I’ve had kicking around down there so I can use my old faithful Dell Inspiron as a “shop” computer). Threw my Cisco Catalyst switch down there, too, in case I want to hook up more shit (which is pretty unlikely, but it throws off a fair amount of heat, so I figured it can’t hurt). That was pretty much it, though. Well, that, and a lot of nose blowing.

I just saw on the teevee that what is possibly my favorite toy (assuming you can call it a mere toy) of all time – the Etch A Sketch – came out in 1961. This means I’m older than Etch A Sketch. That’s kind of sad. I’ve worn out quite a few of them over the years – I prefer the “classic” red one – and once considered myself pretty good. Not good enough to get into the EAS Hall of Fame, though. Story of my life: not bad at a few things, really good at nothing. Oh well, I suppose I’m in good company there.

Due to illness and incredibly poor planning, I’m faced with the prospect of having to go shopping today. Just for food, but it still means I have to go out and face the crowds, which I’m really not looking forward to. As I may have mentioned before, I don’t much care for humans. Not in groups larger than two or three, anyway. Four, tops.

Hope everybody is doing well, and with their loved ones (or family, at least). Things have been tough here for the past few days. I got the cold my wife had, and it hit me pretty hard, coming right at a valley in my physical biorhythm. Not only are my lungs filled with crap, but so is my head (more crap than usual – or at least different crap). Also got the whole cold but sweating thing going on. Really kinda sucks. The stuff I’ve been taking to keep me from coughing up a lung and to keep my nose from running has kept me kinda zonked out. I haven’t taken anything today, yet, so we’ll see how it goes. I don’t deal well with getting sick, so I generally don’t do it. Once in a while, though, I get nailed by something, and I guess this is one of those times. I hope this is it for the season.

At least I don’t have to feel bad about missing nice weather. Yesterday sucked. It never got above about 38 degrees, and a fog rolled in that made it bone-chillingly damp. I was actually outside with the dogs when it “rolled in.” I thought maybe getting some air would help – and the dogs needed to do more than watch me flop around in the chair. I was standing there when the fog just blew in – like that movie. What was it called? Oh, yeah, “The Fog.” All of the sudden this white mist just blew in from the west. It was kind of eerie. In fact, given my state of mind, I wasn’t quite sure if what I was seeing was real. I thought maybe it was lights out time or something.

Needless to say, I survived.

So, to keep from going totally stir crazy, I’ve been watching the first season of “24” – which I’d never seen. So far, it’s pretty good. It hadn’t turned into torture porn yet. Well, not by the good guys. So far, torture, cruelty, and nonchalant murder seems to be relegated to the bad guys.

How quaint.

Also caught up on some movies. I watched the end of “Inception.” I saw the middle part before, and have yet to see the very beginning. Interesting idea, though I think I’d have to actually sit through it from the beginning to figure out what’s going on. And not while medicated.

Saw the end of “It’s Kind of a Funny Story,” too, which is a good movie. Slightly corny ending, I suppose, but, hey, how else could you end it (I was thinking maybe finding Zach Galifianakis dead right at the end, but that’s just me).

Then I watched a pretty stupid movie (that I nevertheless found very enjoyable) with Bill Murray inheriting an elephant named Vera that he had to take across the country to Janeane Garafalo so she could fly to Sri Lanka and breed (Vera, not Janeane).

I’ve also been trying to manage my e-mail. Which means deleting shit. It appears that everyone I’ve ever purchased anything from (or even thought about purchasing anything from) wants my money, and is offering me some amazing “Black Friday” deals. Black Friday apparently being a 7-10 day period (or longer, in some cases) that has already begun. I don’t see any great deals, though. Not great enough to get me to buy anything. What I really want from Santa this year is some heat for my workshop so I can hang out there this winter and do manly things like drink coffee and whittle.

First, though, I need to frame up some walls to hold the heat in a little bit, plus insulate the block walls and frame up some walls around them, too. And the floor, so I’m not standing on cement that’s sucking the heat out of me. Not gonna happen this year, though.

Anyhow, I hope all is well with you and yours, and that you can be with those you care about today. If not in person, then at least in spirit. I don’t think I’m doing much of anything today, personally. I guess I’ll see who Detroit’s playing.

Happy Thanksgiving!

:turkey:

Nice day around here yesterday – sunny and warmish. I decided it would be a good opportunity to burn some diesel fuel, so I put in a few hours of tractor time, getting more dirt to smooth out the former frog pond (no doubt filled with the bodies – and ghosts – of the unfortunate previous occupants), and then trying to clear out some more paths in the woods. :kub:

Although I came close (hit the “pucker” limit a time or two), I managed to not roll it over. I suppose I ought to consider wearing the seat belt, but it just doesn’t seem very manly. I’d have actually spent more time out there, but I thought it was later in the day (damn sun is awfully low in the sky this time of year). I’m not a watch person, but I just ordered a relatively cheap, “camping” watch so I’ll know what the hell time it is when I’m out there. I used to have a watch, someplace. It was nice – my parents gave it to me. Hopefully it’ll turn up as soon as the one I ordered arrives.

I also tried to avoid getting shot yesterday, because, sadly, it’s deer season. Yesterday was the opening of what we used to call “shotgun” season (they allow hunters to go out into the woods earlier for bow season, and then there’s also muzzleloader season, which I think is both before and after shotgun season, though I will confess to not being a hunter-type; I prefer looking at animals, not killing them – aside from the frogs that I can only assume lost their lives because my wife made me fill in their pond). Aside from the occasional chicken, I don’t even like eating animals anymore. If somebody would make all my food for me, I would be quite to content to go Vegan.

Bow season doesn’t bother me as much, because it’s more difficult and the arrows only go so far. Shotgun season scares me, because for a lot of people it’s an excuse to start drinking before dawn (the hospitals are full of people who have fallen drunk from their tree stands – which serves them right, in my book). Call me a Commie Liberal if you like, but I just don’t think alcohol and firearms are a good combination.

Drunk stupid people with shotguns are dangerous enough, and as I was outside yesterday hearing them blast away all around me, I kept waiting for a stray slug to hit me or my dogs. When they aren’t passed out in their tree stands, it isn’t unusual for these yahoos to shoot each other (and themselves), which, frankly, I’m OK with. But I personally am not into them shooting my dogs, my tractor (another good reason for that Kubota orange), my wife, my house, or me. Not necessarily in that order, of course. 🙄

Things are far worse this season, however, because – supposedly due to a vast deer overpopulation – the State, in its infinite wisdom, is allowing these bozos to hunt with rifles. Deer slugs go, oh, I dunno maybe 500 – 1,000 yards if they don’t hit something, but a bullet from a high-powered rifle can go a really long way. Like, miles. So when Elmer Fudd gets out there and takes a shot at a branch rusting in a hedgerow a couple of miles away from my backyard, there’s a distinct possibility of it hitting me. But, such is the price you pay for living in the country, I guess.

It’s supposed to be another nice day today, so I reckon I’ll do some more tractoring (once the gunfire dies down). Though I’m starting to feel as if I’m getting the cold that has my wife barking and honking her nose like a circus clown. I really don’t need to get sick.

Thank goodness it’s a short week coming up.

Depending on how you look at it, Syracuse is either a small city or a large town (or a barn in the woods with three cows a goat, and some chickens). It’s not a huge urban area where even the rich and famous can live in relative obscurity, but it’s not a small town like Happy Valley that’s more or less owned by the local university, either. In fact, our proximity to NYC means we have a lot of aspiring media types (which once meant journalists, but now, of course, also includes well-coiffed pretty boys and girls trying to get their faces on the teevee), making it difficult to fart without finding it on the six o’clock news (which, for some reason, runs from five to six-thirty these days). I used to joke that it has to be the only place with traffic reports every twenty minutes, and live video of no actual traffic.

There goes a car…. Oh, and a truck. And another – no two cars. Breaking news just in: the cow got out of the barn. Oh, and there she goes.

So it’s hard to be anonymous (especially for local “celebrities”), and, while everyone doesn’t know everyone, you can bet there isn’t more than two or three degrees of separation between us. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I not only work with people who know the parties involved in our current “scandal,” but that we even have somebody who was actually a ball boy for the basketball team back during the time period of the alleged “incidents.” Who, in fact, is one of the four people in the original investigations (and, yeah, turns out ESPN, the local newspaper, and the police all investigated this stuff and found it to be bullshit), and who had to go back down to the police department and give yet another statement.

From what I’ve heard (and, again, I don’t actually know any of this first hand, so you’ll have to take it all with a grain of salt), the coach involved in all this lived a couple blocks away from the family in question. A family of nine kids from different parents who didn’t have a whole lot of money (I mean, nine kids – the food bills alone would have to kill you). And the kids – in fact, from what I hear, pretty much all the kids in the neighborhood – would hang out around the coach’s house, and he and his wife would try and help them out with food, money, a place to stay at times when they got older, etc. As I understand it, the coach was like a second father to these kids.

The people that know the two individuals who are making these claims described one as a “druggie” (dunno if you saw his interview, but he looks like a tweaker to me) and the other as a drunk. And both of them as pretty strange and not very bright.

Speculation seems to be that the coach in question turned off the money tap, and this was the scheme they cooked up in hopes of getting some money out of the deal. They originally came out with it back around the time that SU was on its way to winning the National Championship in 2003 (when there was a lot of SU in the local and national news). Or, the one guy did. At that point, his older stepbrother hadn’t remembered anything yet (odd that he didn’t have a problem with allowing his younger brother to be exposed to this; BTW, did I mention that there’s a third brother? He must feel left out, because he says this is bullshit, too).

Of course, nobody could corroborate his story, and life went on.

Now comes the Penn State thing. ESPN – which dropped the ball on the Sandusky story – was anxious to get a “scoop,” and apparently remembered this story. Whether they reached out to the person in question and told him to find a witness, or whether his stepbrother had a recovered memory or something, I don’t know. But ESPN had its story of abuse that went on until this “kid” was 27 years old.

Now, perhaps this is all true. Stranger things have happened. You may recall that, with Penn State, nobody exactly jumped out there and defended Sandusky. People had to have known. In this case, everyone – player, coaches, balls boys, you name it – have made a point of saying what a crock of shit this all is. In fact, former players feel so strongly about what a great guy this coach is, they’ve made a point of reaching out to the media to defend him. Our head coach – who has known this guy for close to 50 years and allows his children to be around him – says this is a flat out lie. And the coach in question (wife, son, and two daughters) flat-out denies it (I mean, so would I, but anyway).

So, anyway, I guess we’ll see. There are a lot of other holes in these guys’ stories. Like how the guy says he travelled with the coach and slept in his hotel room and was seen by the head coach (who says that’s a lie; in fact a former assistant coach has said for the three years he was here, he was the only roommate this guy had). And how this guy alleges the abuse continued until he was 27 (which, I suppose, is possible but, hey, seems like a 6’3″ athletic-looking 27 year old guy could hold off a fat 50+ year old guy. Or go to the police then – and not 12 years after the fact when SU happens to be in the news. Or that he claims he had his pee-pee touched several times a day every day for 16 years, which he figured added up to about “a hundred.”

Anything’s possible, I guess, and you hate to “blame the victim.” But you also hate to see somebody’s life destroyed by a bullshit story, too.

Our publicity-loving (Republican) DA is now seizing the spotlight and appealing to anyone who is a “victim” to come forward (we’ll see what crawls out of the woodwork there), and of course, since this all smells pretty rank and they’ve already destroyed the coach, the focus of the witch-hunt is now on the “cover up” that wasn’t a cover up and trying to destroy the the basketball program here at the very least, and maybe the entire university (if they get lucky).

So, as I mentioned yesterday, this sucks.

As I alluded to yesterday, it was Jim Boeheim’s birthday (I still see your JB avatar, Vernon; but then I still see bloody Woz for me, and I changed it to President HAL a long time ago; can’t seem to shake my cache). Not a very happy one (birthday for JB, that is), as it turns out. Jim’s assistant coach, Bernie Fine, who was the manager on the SU team JB and Dave Bing played on, and – like Jim himself – has more or less been with SU ever since, has been accused of molesting a former ball boy (and then a second one – the first one’s brother or something) back in the 1980s. I find this pretty hard to believe but, well, I guess you never know (he is from Brooklyn, after all). And, really, how would I have any way of knowing?

What I do know is, once accused of something like this, you’re pretty much guilty whether you’re guilty or not. Bernie’s been placed on Administrative leave, and, well, I would kind of guess that no matter what the outcome, he’s all but done here.

From what I gather, his accuser reported this to the police in 2003 or something, but the statute of limitations had long run out, so the DA’s office reported it to SU, who then claim to have investigated it, including interviewing the people this guy said would corroborate his story. They didn’t.

Apparently the local newspaper (who has never been shy about dragging SU through the mud – and was, in fact, responsible for the only NCAA probation the basketball team has ever suffered – so far – on less than earth-shattering violations) also had the story back then, was also unable to corroborate any part of it, and therefore it never ran.

So, now, in light of the whole Sandusky thing, this guy’s brother has now “come forward” and he and his brother took the story to ESPN, and here we are.

Is this another Penn State-style coverup, or is this a guy who is disturbed, or full of shit, or looking to cash in? Or something else? Beats me.

Whatever it is, it sucks. Not a good birthday present for Jim Boeheim, and a pretty crappy way to start off a Friday – let alone a basketball season where we were looking like we had a pretty good team. This will now be the only thing I hear about for a minimum of the rest of the season, and for probably a lot longer than that.

As if that wasn’t enough, Regis signs off the air today, and Ashton and Demi are breaking up. Talk about bad news coming in threes.

I’m not insinuating that I’m the victim here, but WTF? Can I not have even a little bit of enjoyment in my life? If I have to avoid following basketball, this is gonna be a long, dark, cold, and depressing winter.

I mean, more than usual.