many of you 'who knew me when' know that i spent a large portion of the first 18 or so months of my collegiate life at the behemoth known as blockbuster/wherehouse music. and while it was, on surface, a dreadful chain store, i did meet some people that i consider to be excellent friends while an employee.

i was finally able to get former blockbuster/wherehouse boss jerry on the phone tonight, after we had each made small effort to communicate over the past year. it was a truly outstanding conversation, mostly about nothing, but good because he and i generally operate on similar wavelengths. in fact, i would say that at least a small percentage of my mannerisms/personality was somehow inherited from jerry because, hey, he was the guy in charge. so while discussion mostly revolved around the chicago rock scene, dan bernstein and terry boers, and bix beiderbecke, it certainly was an outstanding time (nearly two hours of it), and i certainly hope that it's not another year before it happens again.

i also heard from didi today. she's, quite simply, and outstanding person. her call made watching golf (tiger's intriguing, no?) far more interesting.

in other news, sports illustrated published an outstanding article about the 'princeton offense' this week: about innovator pete carril, his efforts to keep it 'in the family,' and the spread of the offense to that point that its actually 'trendy.' of course, northwestern's bill carmody, one of my favorite people in sports, was carril's long-time assistant, taking over the princeton job when carril retired. anyway, carmody is a focus of the story---at one point, reporter grant wahl refers to his 'conan o'brien features.' woof.

the article details the popular spread of the offense, to the point where four nba teams are now using elements of it. i was skeptical of this statement---until i saw the new jersey nets run exactly one offensive set. turned on their game today, saw jason kidd spin dribble, saw richard jefferson immediately cut to the hoop, saw jason kidd throw a lob, saw jefferson throw down a thunderous dunk. the most basic play in the offense, and it's gone completely mainstream. incredible.

i know---not much of a story--but it's a bit interesting, right...?