Wait. What?

The February 14 cover-dated issue of Sports Illustrated, now on the stands,page 25, in the  "Faces in the Crowd" feature:

[Micah] Mason, a junior [basketball] guard at Highland High [Natrona Heights, PA], went 40 for 43, scoring a record 63 points...

Best I can figure, he made two three-point shots and 38 of those very rare and difficult one-and-a-half point pointers.

Why we love Robert Crumb.

From an article in today's Philadelphia Inquirer about the just published Sophie Crumb: Evolution of a Crazy Artist, a collection of original art drawn by the daughter of Crumb and his wife, Aline Kominsky-Crumb from childhood until the present day:

Her father, the creator of such sprung-from-the-subconscious counterculture icons as Mr. Natural and Fritz the Cat, points with pride to a pencil drawing his daughter did when she was barely 3: "Here's the first one with genitalia."

Chances are you have no interest in seeing me naked, but if you did, this would be the best time to do so in at least 20 years.

Let me be clear that I am making no aspersions here. People who want to see me naked have the same rights as everybody else. Once upon a time, they had even more rights if you want to know the truth.

Here's the thing. I went under the 185lb mark this morning, meaning I am at, or near, the same weight I carried in college and when I was in the best shape of my life, ever, during and following Basic Training at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas during my Delaware Air National Guard (DANG) training.

Of course, the weight is distributed somewhat different, the toning (it is to laugh) is not quite there and I am nearly two inches shorter than I was then and many wrinkled decades older. But still...

Great story, great woman.

This story by Philadelphia Inquirer feature writer Jennifer Lin is as solid and well-written a newspaper as I've read in a long, long time.

It begins with a wonderful anecdote that captures the essence of its subject and closes with final paragraph which encapsulates the essence of the story.And it is can't-stop-reading perfect throughout.

If the Catholic Church is still extant 25 years or so from now and there isn't a Saint Mary Scullion on the rolls, somebody will have screwed up badly.

Today's Inquirer also contains a great story about Mark Twain's tenure as a typesetter for the paper back in 1853-54, written by John Timpane.

Both stories are on the front page and serve as bittersweet reminders of what newspapers used to be and could be and probably never will be again.