DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN ABOUT THE NBA ALL STAR GAME

 While my wife and I will be toasting our love, marriage, children and grandchildren tonight on Valentines day, I will be missing the only contest in the NBA's All Star Celebration that's at all interesting. Not that the Dunk Contest couldn't be risen from the dead with more than one leaper and lots of understudies. I leave that fix to the league. I'll also leave the skills contest to the league. I'm only interested in the All Star Game itself. Let's be clear: without a modicum of D, the game is boring, just a bunch of 3s and dunkers. Yawn! Here's my fix: Create a 4 point line. Add a 5 point box at the ends of the midcourt stripe where they meet the sideline. You want long bombs, give the fans long bombs. Create a Super Dunk Line just below the free-throw line and award 3 points for such massive dunks. Dunks within that semi circle will be only awarded 1/2 points. By diminishing the value of the dunk lesser dunk, you increase the value of the 2-pt shot, floater and such. Winners of quarters receive money for their favorite charities. Charities to be represented at the game to receive awards. At half time, bring down three fans for a 1 million dollar attempt from the midcourt stipe. 

Okay, that's enough for now. Even if you have an argument with my ideas, that's okay. My point is the NBA has some creativity mind fog. The All Star Game is about The GAME. That's the most important fix. 

An interesting aside about the Winter Olympics: Three of America's men's figure skaters have Slavic names. I hesitate to say Russian names becayse Russians are not so popular these days, But as a Russian immigrant, what can I say. It's cool the popularity of figure skating translated from the old county to the new country. Immigration? Get it Trump. That's what America is all about, you jingoistic, homophobic, racist moron. 

                                                   TIP OF THE PEN

It may be a mystery crime writing convention that the crime/murder should happen reasonably close to thre begining of the novel. I've noticed reading recent mysteries that this is beginning to get out of vogue. I'm suspicious of this trend. Unles someone can convince me otherwise I'm sticking with the quicker the crime the faster I get into the story. Note, I do NOT mean solving the crime. I want to get into my chracter(s). They will carry the story to its conclusion. 

ON THE COURT ON VALENTINES' DAY 2026   By Tom Meschery

That the court turns into a heart,
That the ball flies like cupid's  arrow
That as the ball swishes 

through the hoop like love. 

That its  skirt dances the samba. 

That it was a ten year romance.

That I had to kiss it goodbye

That I still remembering the dance

That passed from my life with a sigh. 

OLYMPICS, STUPID BOWL & MORE

 I say it and say it proudly: Bad Bunny Rules, sticking it to our fake presidant. Donald's response,,"I didn't unserstand a word." Awh, gee whiz, Not a word? Poor baby. What the F--k? Bad Bunny was singing and rapping in Spanish, you moron. A side note: I'm a huge GA GA fan. 

The game itself was a bore made so particularly by the SeaHawks staunch defense and so many commercials that the game itself felt like an afterthought. Yawn! By the way, has any company ever done their own independant servey of how much their ad on Super Sunday improved their sales the next day or week or month or year. The Ad biz has been perpertrating this Emporer's New Clothes hoax for decades. I do have to say I appreciate how the ad companies have bought in to racial equality. Must drive a guy like Trump nuts to see mixed race couples buying mattresses. 

Norway rules the Winter Olympics, but Ilya Malinin rules Men's figure skating. A back flip on on one skate? Snow boarder Cloe Kim wins the silver in the half pipe. She's Korean American. Just sayin' if Donald Rump doesn't know. I was saddened by Lindsey Vonn's injury, but she was heroic even giving it a shot at her age. 

I'm getting slightly sick of hearing all the sides trying to find solutions to teams sitting stars. If the NBA and owners and players would get off some of their profits - to say the money is extraordinary is an understatement - the solution is easy: Reduced the season by ten. Forget Play-ins. They just water down the meaning of the regular season; reduced the first round of the playoff back to best of five; rule that no player, including super stars shall sit out games unless verifiably injured, variable by a doctor who could lose his/her license. Eventually the leaugue is going to have to face doing what's good for the game or good for their money. 

                                                   TIP OF THE PEN

About dialogue: It is often a good idea to attribute your own philosophies about life to one of your characters rather than present them to the reader as an omniscient voice. This is true even when you are writing from an omniscient point of view and it's easy to sound God like. Or as someone once told me, look at me, look at me, see how profound I am. 

Here's a short poem haiku style about the Winter Olympics Men's Free Style figure skating:

Malinin,
 Golden Boy, falls
Twice on his ego