From the Ridiculous to the Sublime

First, the ridiculous. It occurs to me that if the U.S. had an Olympic trailer trash team, we'd have a tough time picking a flag carrier. I mean, we could go with John Daly, who now adds a gambling problem that would shame Bill Bennett to his list of vices. But then we'd overlook Tonya Harding, whose kneecapping of Nancy Kerrigan is now being made into an opera. No, seriously--and the author swears it's not a parody.

Maybe we should just compromise and let Mike Tyson carry the flag. If you haven't been following the squared circle's answer to Hannibal Lector recently, then you've missed his moving tribute to Chairman Mao and his possible entry into the world of Mixed Martial Arts, whatever the hell that is.

Now, the sublime. David Maraniss, who wrote a great biography of Bill Clinton and whose biography of Vince Lombardi is one of the best sports books I've ever read, has come out with a new book on an equally compelling subject: Roberto Clemente. From the reviews I've seen, Maraniss has done another first rate job with his Clemente bio, and I can't wait to read it.