Runner’s diary, Wednesday

I didn’t get on teh road yesterday, despite hte nice weather, because I was stuck at home waiting for PSE&G to come and check out our air-conditioner. I ended up spending the morning watching MSNBC and working on a column on the economic stimulus checks most of us have started receiving.

In any case, the rainy weather today kept me inside on the treadmill where I ran five miles in 42:20 — or an 8:28 pace. I tend to run faster on the treadmill because it forces me to keep up, whereas, outdoors I can moderate my pace to account for any aches and pains.

Music: Duffy, Rockferry (highly recommended if you like British soul singers from the Sixties like Dusty Springfield)

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Lakers-Celtics: What’s a Knicks fan to do?

It seems like old times. The Lakers and Celtics have returned to the NBA finals for the first time since Larry Legend and Magic were dominating the NBA and the league couldn’t be happier.

A Lakers-Celtics final most likely means better ratings than in recent years, and it should mean some good basketball, likely a seven-game finals with the Lakers coming out on top because they have the game’s best player and best late-game player (Kobe Bryant).

As a Knicks fan, I find myself in a quandary. Aside from the Bulls and the Heat, there are no two teams Knicks fans despise more (maybe the old Bullets), no teams that had thwarted more Knick fan dreams than the Lakers and the Celtics — the two have played each other 10 times in the finals, with the Lakers winning only the last two (’84-’85 and ’86-’87) and have combined for a total of 49 appearances in the finals (that’s 39 times that at least one of the two teams have been in the finals in 60 years of NBA history, with 29 total championships). It puts the Yankees to shame.

That said, I’m going to root for the Celtics this time out. Kobe has his rings. But Kevin Garnett, one of the greatest players in history — and, from what I read, one of the nicest — does not. He is making his first finals appearance and I look for him to come up big. He does it all — score, rebound, block shots, pass, defend — and he is surrounded by a pair of lethal scorers and some young and hungry guys.

I still think the Lakers are going to win, but I think Garnett deserves this one.

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Stimulating warmth

This piece from The Onion, the satirical paper/Web site, is brilliant (I found it while researching a column):

HELENA, MT—Saying the extra bit of kindling material couldn’t have come at a better time, 43-year-old school teacher Tim Donaldson received his $618 rebate check from the Internal Revenue Service Tuesday, and then immediately burned it to provide warmth for his wife and two sons. “It gets pretty cold here at night,” said Donaldson, adding that with 75 percent of his take-home pay going toward car and mortgage payments, his children’s schooling, and his wife’s medical bills, the rare opportunity to sleep in a warm house for a night was much appreciated. “I just want to thank the government for sending such a large check. It burned for quite a while.” Donaldson, who could not afford matches or fuel to light the check, said he made do by placing the envelope’s clear plastic address window at an angle underneath the sun to spark the initial flame, which his family then huddled around until they fell asleep.

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Interesting historical parallel

Lou Cannon in The Washington Post reminds us that a split party damaged the Ford candidacy in 1976. Ronald Reagan essentially sat out the 1976 race despite the likelihood that his involvement might have aided Gerald Ford in several states, possibly allowing the Republican vice president to best Jimmy Carter. Ford, on the other hand, worked hard for Reagan in 1980.

Cannon then places the current campaign in this context:

Barack Obama will soon become the presumptive Democratic nominee, and there is little doubt that Hillary Clinton will endorse him. The big question is whether she will campaign hard for Obama among constituencies where she can help him. Put another way: Will she choose to be Ronald Reagan in 1976 or Gerald Ford in 1980?

The outcome of the election could depend on the answer.

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