Loving it (despite the loss)

Well, it's a balmy and wonderfully springlike night in New York. The undergrads are out in force, Times Square was packed with tourists. The nicest quiet moment, though, was waiting for the subway at 50th Street, where a trumpet player was busking and playing that "Nature Boy" song that 'Moulin Rouge' made famous. I just leaned against a pillar and listened...it was nice, for once, that the train took a while to come.

After answering this question twice in person and several times virtually, I'll just lay it out there: a saluki is an Egyptian racing dog.* They are thin and have fluffy ears and long noses, and are a nice buff and black combination, or sometimes a light grey. At home games, when I was a kid, there were a pair that someone would walk around the floor/field at halftime; they're very pretty. From what I know, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale has the saluki as its mascot, a) to make little boys/girls like you ask questions [a favorite come-back of my dad's], but really b) because southern Illinois was historically nicknamed "Little Egypt." Hence an Egyptian racing dog was an intuitive mascot, no? The historian in me believes that this comes from the purported fertility of the region amid a crop failure in the northern part of the state in the 19th century. But it probably has a lot to do with the fact that there are two important rivers in the region, and it floods a lot. I don't know if the nickname pre- or post-dates the founding of Cairo, which sits where the Mississippi and Ohio rivers meet.

In any case, my Salukis played their hearts & guts out tonight against Kansas, and the loss stinks, but not as much as it would have had it been a blow-out. And it certainly was not. Once the guys hit their game about toward the end of the first half, it was a great game to watch. And it's just nice to hear national commenters lauding your home team for their maturity, guts, patience, stability, and tenacity. The current coach played for SIU when I was in junior high, and I just like that he's back. There's no hope of being considered on par with the big name, big money recruiting schools - and I don't honestly think we'd want all of the potential badness and flash that can come with that - but respect, yes, we'll take that. For the whole Missouri Valley conference, too, why not? Especially die-hard 30 year fans like my parents and the folks who have sat next to them at the Arena for as long as I can remember. What's not to enjoy at a time like this?! Especially, for me, the freedom to go and watch a basketball game!

* or, if you're the Times, a piranha.