What's the best song with the word 'Rain' in it?

That's the question for the comments today.

On my last day of extremely hard work this semester, a few brief thoughts:

1 - The Yanks lost 2-0 to the White Sox and a pitcher named Phillip "Humbert" Humber. The old devil held us hitless until the 7th despite the fact that most experts still aren't sure he plays major league baseball. Still, I loved this quote from the game story:

"When I was young I had big dreams. I thought I was going to go out there and dominate every time," Humber said. "It hasn't worked out that way to this point."

A former phenom coming to terms with the realities of the world in a somewhat world-weary fashion? I'll nod my head meaningfully at that six days a week and twice on Sunday.

2 - In this article, Michael Vick and the Humane Society take issue with a dog-fighting Droid app called 'Dog Wars.' The HS Prez used a variation on the classic 'video games are making our children violent' argument to bolster his point:

Human Society President Wayne Pacelle said, however, the game could be used as virtual training ground for would-be dogfighters.

Sorry, dudes, but if a game like Grand Theft Auto exists, where you can literally walk around a street killing women and children, we'll probably have to tolerate 'Dog Wars.'

3 - I thought this was really good, except for the fucking horrible seizure-inducing droid advertisement on the sidebar.

4 - This article on ESPN insider was an interesting first-person take on the art of trash-talking. Using aggressive investigative reporting tactics, Seth Curry Saves Duke! was able to obtain the full transcript despite being way too cheap to pay whatever ESPN charges for insider access. The best part was a bona fide Jordan Story from the day:

Legend has it Gary Payton, who vets say talked an endless stream of trash, once told Jordan that he drove a better car than MJ. "The cars I got are just like yours," Jordan replied. "Except mine were free."

5 - In a half-on, half-off kind of way, I've been enjoying the NBA playoffs. To be fair, the enjoyment is a little abstract; I haven't had time to see any full games, and it sucks that the Knicks lost. But the portions of the Thunder-Nuggets Bulls-Pacers games I've seen have been pretty great, and I'm excited to hopefully watch Chris Paul for the first time tonight as the Hornets try to shock the Lakers. Also, the second round of the Eastern playoffs are going to be amazing; Chicago vs. Atlanta/Orlando, and Boston-Miami. And now the Spurs are losing too? Yikes.

Anybody else getting the feeling that OKC could easily sneak into the finals?

6 - I just want to take a quick moment to applaud the judges in this whole NFL lockout mess. It's good to see base greed go unrewarded once in a while in this country.

Tomorrow we get rolling again. I AIN'T NEED NO SCHOOL!

Oh, and the rain has stopped in Chapel Hill, but here's my playin-it-kinda-safe vote anyway: