“Dick’s Degrees of Separation”

From Mark Titus‘s weekly power rankings on Grantland:

I’ve decided to implement a halftime break for each column, and this week I’m using the break to start a new game. It’s called “Dick’s Degrees of Separation,” and it’s inspired by the tangents Dick Vitale rattles off whenever he calls a game. Dickie V. has a habit of letting his train of thought get away from him, resulting in rants on a variety of topics that have little to do with his original subject. It’s like he’s playing six degrees of separation in his mind and wants to find a way to connect Kentucky’s ball screen defense to the cheeseburger he ate in Salt Lake City in 1979 while watching the Magic vs. Bird national championship game. To celebrate how entertaining Dickie V. can be, I’ve picked out my favorite Vitale tangent of this past week. I’m going to provide the end point of the tangent, as well as three potential pathways that arrive at the conclusion. From there, it’s your job to determine which tangent is real and which ones I made up. Good luck.

I am so looking forward to next week’s answer and you should be too.

I plan on writing more on this once I receive my printed Quarterly, but some of the best writing on the Internet (or indeed anywhere) is currently happening on Grantland. If you don’t have it in your RSS reader of choice you should change that.

Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries

20111224-211321.jpg

Playing this game is an annual tradition for us on Christmas Eve. It’s a board designed for two to three and has a winter flavor to the design.

Merry Christmas

20111224-202417.jpg

I failed at life this year and did not send out my annual Christmas cards.

So to you all—Automattician and non-Automattician alike—may your Christmas be full of joy and love with friends and family.

SOPA Supporters

This flew across the Internets just now:

That Scribd doc is a good read. Take a close look at it. Read the whole thing.

Done? Good.

No, really; I’ll wait.

Now in the comments, please name a person in that list who voted for any of the representatives that are going to be casting votes on this law.

I’ll wait for you.

In My Defense, It Was $5 at Target

20111220-125648.jpg

Alternate headline if you like wacky buddy picture ideas from the 80s: “DUDE THIS IS ONLY $5 AT TARGET RIGHT NOW”