The Explorers Club
No. CCXXIII - Biosphere 2: Fiasco or Boondoggle?







Bonus: I've never see the motion picture Bio-Dome, starring Pauly Shore & one or another of the Baldwin bros. (I can't tell which because I don't have my Wheel of Baldwins handy.)

The Victors: Project OSPREY
Saturday, 19 February
Michigan 75-72 Iowa (O.T.)
17-11, Big Ten 7-8

Overtime time, baby! Not as much fun to watch as the valiant Wolverines' earlier fourteen-point romp over the tenacious Hawkeyes (Wayback Machine.), but it was heartening to see the Maize & Blue struggle back from a substantial halftime deficit to first force overtime time & then triumph therein. There are no easy wins in the Big Ten, especially not on the road. These valiant Wolverines have come a very long way considering their collective youth & inexperience; they will be a force with which to be reckoned come this time next year.

Wednesday, 16 February
Illinois 54-52 Michigan
16-11, Big Ten 6-8

I did not watch the game because I was then first in the throes of the dreadful sick, & in no condition for such an entertainment. Ugh, what a misery.

Go Blue!

Project OSPREY
Sunday, 20 February
(№ 11) Purdue 76-63 Ohio State (№ 2)

A really good basketball week for my father, a week that also saw his ill-starred Boilermakers defeat the pesky badgers of (№ 10) Wisconsin. My father loves to regale me with his very limited number of Mackey Arena stories from his student days at Purdue; I listen attentively & smile because the old boy means well & Purdue's victories bring him ever so much joy.

The Rebel Black Dot Songs of the Day
Crash and the Boys, "I Am Sad, So Very, Very Sad" from Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: I'd planned to follow the post-Valentine's Day week of anti-love songs with a week dedicated to the many-splendored thing that is love, but inside the iron lung of the dreadful sick as I am, I simply haven't the vim.

Sonntag, 20 Februar
Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, "The Tracks of My Tears" via iTunes (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: Nobody does it better than Smokey. Nobody. Words so familiar & yet words so biting & so true.

"So take a good look at my face,
You'll see my smile looks out of place,
If you look closer it's easy to trace
The tracks of my my tears."

Samstag, 19 Februar
Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, "The Tears of a Clown" from Motown 1's (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary:

"Now if there's a smile on my face
It's only there trying to fool the public,
But when it comes down to fooling you,
Now, honey, that's quite a different subject.
Don't let my glad expression
Give you the wrong impression,
Really I'm sad
(Sad sad sad)
Oh, sadder than sadder
(I hurt so bad)
You're gone and I'm hurtin' so bad
(I pretend to be glad)
Like a clown I pretend to be glad
(Sad sad sad sad)"