J.A. Adande on why we lost:
The United States will regain dominance in international basketball about the same time Americans bypass “Talladega Nights” to go see some foreign art-house film. In other words, no time soon.
Louis Menand, with an excellent essay about Bob Dylan:
Still, as an interview subject, Dylan probably ranks a few notches above Elvis, who was one of the all-time worst. The trouble with Elvis was that he had very little to say; he was mainly concerned about sounding polite. Dylan is rarely concerned about sounding polite, and he says things, but he sometimes makes them up.
Peter J. Boyer takes a thoughtful look at the Duke lacrosse scandal (it appears they’re innocent):
At the police station, the three young men offered to take a polygraph test. The police declined the offer, but questioned them extensively about the night of the party and sent them to the hospital to have DNA samples collected. The boys had no legal representation during this visit with police.
And then there’s this retail therapy from Overheard in New York:
Upper-East-Side lady on cell: I know, but I was at a funeral all day…Yeah, it was sad, but I really didn’t know him at all…This saddest thing was seeing his daughters upset. They’re the same ages as–Wow! This shirt is only $19!! You can’t even buy a freaking Frappuccino for $19! I’m getting it in blue.
–Banana Republic, 86th & 3rd
I think that with the NCAA-tournament style single elimination format, no country can expect to win the World Basketball Championship or the Olympics every time. But the USA will be one of the main contenders in every one of these tournaments for the foreseeable future. We are to basketball what Brazil is to soccer — we have the best talent and we always expect to win, but the game being what it is, we are not going to win every time. And also like Brazil, we will go into excessive amounts of introspection and self-flagellation when we lose.