I Have A Gambling Problem

 The main problem is that I always seem to lose.   In fact, my blogging career was born over a bet (well, maybe that was more properly a dare) with Al Brophy over pints one night, when he insisted that I wasn’t gutsy enough to take my complaints about law school management and faculty productivity public. 

So I guess it’s only fitting that I now owe Erik Gerding a blog post and a Duke national champions T-shirt (well, really Jim Cox, but no matter from my perspective).   Check your mailbox before you leave for Berlin (and bring dollars) because I’m sending you a copy of “the book” this time.  From chapter one:

A great many of these flesh eaters pass through the pseudo-Gothic arches of Duke University, “pass through” being the relevant phrase.  Duke is the university as launch pad, propelling its mostly out-of-state students into a stratosphere of success.  While hardly opposed to individual achievement, North Carolina, by contrast, is the University as old home place, equally devoted to the values of community and local service.  That, at least, is the mythology many of us swallowed as we grew up.  So that when one roots for one team or another in the Duke-North Carolina rivalry, one is cheering as much for opposing concepts of American virtue as for adolescent geniuses of basketball.

 But things have gone too far when you even owe your mother-in-law a blog post over a losing bet.  From The Telegraph:

Dalai Lama fakes love of cricket to impress India, China claims

Beijing's ire was voiced earlier this week in an editorial in the government-run People's Daily newspaper, in which the spiritual leader was denounced for describing himself as a "son of India" and pretending a love of cricket to please its government.

"The religious leader was trying to prove to be a worthy son of India by participating in the country's favourite pastime... Cricket is one of the most popular sports in India and the Dalai Lama of course has to have fun with his 'dad' since he wants to be a son of India," the article said. . . .

The religious leader stayed to the "very last ball" of the match, drinking tea with Preity Zinta, the Bollywood actress, and fielding questions from cricketers.

Well, of course he’s faking it: it’s a game that lasts for five days and takes tea breaks.  To my mind, there was only one upside (beyond preserving household harmony) that came from cricket watching – and he retired.  Now it’s just pure agony.

So, how about it: anyone else with a blog audience want to bet me about something?  Leiter?  Caron?  Hurt?  Any of you Volokh Conspiranators?  The odds are in your favor.

Image source: Tibet Sun

Comments

[Alfred Brophy]

Hmm, I don't remember that dare. But I obviously was incorrect. See, e.g., My Tenure's For Sale:
http://www.thefacultylounge.org/2009/06/my-tenures-for-sale-how-about-yours.html

[Kim Krawiec]

Well, it was less meaningful for you than for me, since you set me down the irreversible path of spending every spare moment in front of the computer screen.