Friday Roundup: The “Misery Begets Genius” Edition

I find it massively irritating that in a week when a young woman was randomly gunned down by militant thugs who protect a theocratic, repressive regime, Michael Jackson’s death will be bigger news, not just locally to the United States, but Globally as well. Japan may never recover. In normal conversation, I’ve a tendency to point out what I don’t like about people, not individual persons, but people in general. It’s a habit that’s managed to keep me out of a lot of friendly conversations. And right now, I find myself bristling at the way “The King of Pop’s” image is splashed across the front of the Tribune this morning, and how Charlie Gibson let us know, on Good Morning America, that “we are united in mourning.”

We are not united in mourning. I don’t mourn the man at all. If Dickens was right about the afterlife, then I’ve a feeling Michael is finding it tough to moonwalk this morning, weighed down as he is with the sins he waged on this earth, but I’ll grant that perhaps his chains are not as long or heavy as one might guess, because misery may beget genius, and genius can beget madness, and this sort of genius would probably tear anyone apart. One can only guess at its genesis.

The Roundup:

• Want to better know Nevada? So did Rock M Nation.
• The week in Coaching Extensions: Brian Kelly, Pat Fitzgerald, Bob Stoops, and now Nick Saban. The word “girding” comes to mind.
• Minnesota’s new stadium will be like flying coach, but with fewer options.
• Urban Meyer: It’s the people, stupid. (Not my offense, or whatever offense I run this year to get Tebow drafted.)
• Some non-ND fans are getting a little worried.
• If ND is on the outside looking in during the BCS bowls, it wont be because of scheduling.
• Here’s a novel idea: A bulletin board designed specifically for bulletin board material.