Bag of Randomness for Monday, June 3, 2024

  • I can’t remember who I heard this from over the weekend, but it has stuck with me, “My time here is short. What can I do beautifully?” With that in mind, I think I may have gotten closer to finding my dream job. If you’ve been a long-time reader or know me well, you might wonder why I haven’t thought of it sooner. I need to find a job at the LBJ Library on the University of Texas at Austin campus. Y’all know I love presidential history, that my politics lean left, like to teach, and I’ve always been a fan of UT. I checked their website for jobs, and nothing was open unless I wanted to be a janitor. Maybe that’s where I will spend my retirement years. I suppose I could try to get a job at the George W. Busy Library if I wanted to stay in the Dallas area and beef up the resume.
  • This week marks the 80th anniversary of D-Day, and I’ve been reading and watching a lot of related material. For instance, this YouTube video shows some never-before-seen footage, and you see how well Band of Brothers got things right. This anniversary is pretty significant because, with major commemorations held every five years, organizers and government officials concede that this year’s event could be the last to involve living veterans. This article pointed out some unique preparations for the event:
    • Approximately 150 American veterans are expected to travel to Normandy – about two dozen of whom actually fought on D-Day. The youngest is 96.
    • Most veterans travel with an entire phalanx of medical personnel. US-based charity the Best Defense Foundation is bringing three doctors and 10 nurses. Each veteran will travel with a personal caregiver – typically a family member or a friend.
    • They have been holding rehearsals and timing wheelchair runs for the French-led international ceremony. They are also considering having veterans enter at the same time as heads of states and other dignitaries to reduce their waiting time.
    • American and Canadian organizers will seat veterans last at their respective national ceremonies to keep them comfortable. The general public at the American event, for example, may need to be seated about an hour in advance due to security precautions.
    • With so many heads of state in town, the security measures in place are intense. A massive contingent of 12,000 security personnel will be deployed.
  • North Korea launched 720 balloons filled with trash, cigarette butts, and other litter across the border with South Korea on Saturday night, just four days after it sent an initial wave of 260 refuse balloons on Tuesday. That brings the total amount of trash balloons—a surprise which Kim Jong Un’s little sister called “sincere presents” for the South— to about 1,000 launched last week. Thankfully, the South Korean military dispelled initial reports that there was poop in the balloons, although some appeared to contain compost.
  • After the Mavs eliminated the Timberwolves, Luka Doncic offered his MVP trophy to his rookie teammate Dereck Lively II. For what it’s worth, and I don’t think it’s related, but On April 12, the day of the final regular season game, Lively lost his mother, Kathy Drysdale, after a battle with cancer. Lively is only 20 years old, and his mother lived with him to help him adjust to adulthood. She was a star playing basketball at Penn State (more than 1,200 points and 700 rebounds) and later worked for the 76ers for 13 years. At one point, she coached his basketball team. What about his dad? Lively saw heroin claim his father’s life in their living room in 2012 when he was seven years old. From that moment, she decided to be Lively’s mother, father, disciplinarian, and best friend. Her battle with cancer started in 2014. Imagine breaking that to a ten-year-old who already lost his father. She estimated that $2 million was spent on her treatment. When he was in college, he used his Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) to provide for her. So, for all you NIL naysayers who are upset at how it’s going to “ruin” the college game, take something like that into consideration. Here are some random tidbits about Lively I found in this great Washington Post article from last July:
    • Seeing how his mother and father suffered, he considered himself to be a curse to his parents.
    • His first love was swimming, though, and his arms were so long that his knuckles would scrape the lane lines when he used the butterfly stroke.
    • When she was his team’s coach and chewed him out once, she told him, “I’m not Mom, I’m your coach. You can wait for Mom in the car.”
    • He’s modeled much of his game after former Mavs champion Tyson Chandler, who has worked with him.
    • Want to see something heartwarming? Check out this moment between Lively and his mother when he was drafted.
    • And yes, his mother was on his mind (constantly) when the Mavs won the Western Conference Finals, in which he set a record. His 16-16 field-goals is the most without a miss for any player across a series in NBA Playoff history. Not bad for a 20-year-old rookie.
    • As much as I admire Lively, he does have a major flaw: he’s a Philadelphia Eagles fan. But this is when I officially became a Lively fan. At the end of an interview that lasted almost a half-hour, he could have said nothing and walked away, but he made the most out of this opportunity. And I’ll be honest: when I first heard it, I felt he was talking directly to me at the time. Join me in rooting for this guy.

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