Things I would post if I had the time

I keep getting ideas for things I'd like to share with you here on the blog, but they keep coming at inopportune times, like right now, at 12:42 a.m. when I have to work tomorrow. So, out of a desire to post something, I'll go with a list of all these ideas, so you can see all of the cool stuff I've been too busy to share with you:

1) I haven't seen The Social Network, and I don't intend to. That's partly because I almost never go to the movies. But it's also because I prefer not to ruin the way I've been imagining the film since I first saw the trailer months ago. In my mind, The Social Network isn't a blockbuster hit that inaccurately portrays Mark Zuckerberg as a tortured genius with borderline autism-spectrum symptoms. It's a smart, quiet film that covers an important event -- yes, the founding of Facebook -- and also subtly sums up a mood and an era in American culture. In my mind, it's at once an anthem for and an indictment of my generation, and there's no way the actual film lives up to those expectations.

2) American football is happening again, and I'm continually amazed by just how all-consuming it is in our culture. This is all part of my recently developed habit of looking at sports through the lens of the soccer fan, rather than the other way around. And when I do that with American football, it looks kind of sad. Not because it's not a great sport, but because no other sport displays, with such regularity, such a total lack of perspective. Quoth Steve Young on ESPN last night: "These are the best athletes in the world." Really Steve? Can a 300-pound lineman run for 90 minutes straight and still have the strength and skill to bury a 25-yard free kick? Again, I don't have a problem with American football as a sport. I just cringe every time football people show such total disregard for context. We behave as though other countries don't play American football because they just haven't figured out how great it is yet. And that lack of understanding is a national embarrassment.

3) Of course, there's all kinds of great stuff to talk about from The Daily Show. I could make a separate list just of unwritten posts about Jon Stewart's brilliant and interesting commentaries. Several of those potential posts: A) I liked his response to Rick Sanchez's comments about him. B) His conversation with Eric Cantor was absolutely fascinating, in the way that only a big-issues debate can be, where policies get stripped down to the assumptions that underlie them and people end up agreeing on more than they had planned to. C) I should probably go to the Rally to Restore Sanity.

4) I met Lincoln Chafee at the Scituate Arts Festival last weekend. I was so surprised that he was stopping me to talk that I couldn't think of anything good to say. But I'm sure I've got a Rhode Island governor post in me somewhere.

5) I've had more ideas too, but I can't remember them anymore, so I'm going to assume that they must not have been very good.