Busy as a Bee

 Busy and exciting day!  Met a friend for coffee, helped with the passing out of goods to the homeless for a bit (despite the rain; I put the odds of walking pneumonia at 50/50), then met with the contractor's designer to go over the details -- flooring, cabinets, that sort of thing.  The lady was nice -- she noted that I am more the decisive type, steered me out of frat-house style decisions (i.e., a towel rack) and noted that I seemed to know a lot about bathroom renovations... that first career came in handy, I guess.  Then I hit the noon basket blessing at church (I rather like the tradition, but it was a bit brief!) and subsequently off to hang with some friends.  Their Jack Russell terrier puppy -- which is always active to begin with -- literally molested me at every step of the way; I think it smelled all the consecrated meat products from church.  Let's just say that I do NOT need a dog.  But it was fun to catch up.

Interesting day of hoops; I don't think I have ever seen a 30-0 run before; hell, UCONN didn't even do that to Stetson.  It was interesting, as it seemed that Illinois completely forgot how to play defense, not rotating, letting people run amok in the lane, leaving guys open.  After a while I couldn't even tell if it was a coaching decision or the players were just... confused.  Odd.  At least the second game was much closer.  I also drifted to watch some women's games; Duke played like absolute crap but help on against UCONN; LSU -- with Kim Mulkey all fired up -- will face Iowa in an Elite Eight matchup Monday, which is must-see TV.

Washington Post Kim Mulkey Piece 'Hits' - Personal, Not Defamatory (outkick.com)
So, I read the article -- twice -- and... well, I am not sure it was all that bad.  Certainly not good, in some ways, but... I don't know, what I found most admirable (in some ways) was her reaction to her father's leaving them; not saying it is right but... she feels quite strongly about it -- and deservedly so, I think -- and she seems to place a high value on loyalty, albeit in a Trumpian sense.  It does seem she doesn't like lesbian players, which would make coaching women's basketball a poor career choice.  For a while I thought that maybe she was trying to protect her players at Baylor -- a slightly conservative place, if you will -- but given how many players seemed to have an issue, I think it is something else...  It was something of a hit piece -- players seem to like her, she wins, that sort of thing... I would liked to have seen more of that, if only for fairness and balance, not that I expect that from any paper nowadays.

Fulton County DA Fani Willis plans to take a lead role in trying Trump case - CBS News
Interesting choice.  I think it is the correct one, in some ways... but on the other hand, I can see how it could backfire... any combative witness (like Trump or someone else) could point that she is a hypocrite, value-challenged, and hardly unbiased.

Pope Francis Faces Growing Revolt (msn.com)
This is probably sacrilege on Easter, but on the other hand...one should expect Catholicism from the Pope, shouldn't we?

Why did we wait so long for the bicycle? (rootsofprogress.org)
Fascinating article, and I think the last part -- the materials processing -- played the largest part.  Not that people didn't want an alternative to horses (which are expensive to own and maintain), but a bike was also an investment, so you needed to be able to make it cheaply and quickly (so it could be mass produced).  I mean, the funny thing is that it was only a generation or two before we had the automobile, and once that happened...people used the bicycle mainly as an exercise tool.  Though I guess now it is making a comeback...