The headline on yesterday’s sports section of the local paper was Seven-card Stud, with the tagline reading Lance is one of America’s best ever. The media frenzy is understandable. After all, his cancer recovery notwithstanding, winning seven straight Tours is miraculous in its own right. Still, the news will eventually die down and the legend of Lance “the cyclist” will someday fade.

Armstrong acknowledged this fact speaking to the Philadelphia Inquirer:

My intention is not to remain a public figure for the next few years. People forget about sports people. There’s a new face, a new name, and a new story in a year or two. I know my time is up.

And so I find myself pondering Lance’s lasting legacy. (more…)

My friend Chris came over this morning for breakfast so we could watch the Stage 20 individual time trial together. With tommorow’s final ride into Paris just a formality, today was the last time we would see changes in the general classification. Lance Armstrong’s lead was not in jeopardy, but his ride was going to be exciting nonetheless as he had yet to win a stage in this tour.

Jan Ullrich put in a spectacular performance — second only to Armstrong — in order to nab third place from Michael Rasmussen. The big German could have slowed up some, as the third placed Dane (riding for the Dutch team Rabobank) crashed twice and had a couple mechanicals to boot (dropping from 3rd to 7th place overall). However, I think that Jan was also aiming for the stage victory and he almost got it.

VeloNews has been running a daily stage contest where you pick the stage winner (plus the finishing time for time trials). The prize is a Festiana TDF Special Edition watch. I initially predicted Lance to win around 1:09:52, but revised the time to 1:12:14. It so happenend that Jan Ullrich’s time was 1:12:09. Lance beat him by 23 seconds to finish at 1:11:46. Close counts in this contest, but I am sure that my 28 seconds was too big of a gap.

On the way to Laura and Bobby’s wedding in June my brother-in-law and I passed the time by listening to a Mars Hill Audio demo CD. We would play a segment and then pause it to discuss what we had just heard. It made for good conversation and helped the time pass by quickly. I think Albert was inspired to order a subscription.

I, on the other hand, have been holding out for one reason. As an iPod convert, I want The Journal published as an MP3 subscription or podcasted via iTunes. I could order the CD and then rip it, but to me that is a waste of time and resources. I recently emailed Mars Hill about it and received the following response.

Dear Mr. Kennedy,

We are in fact working on an MP3 version as well as podcasting. Meanwhile, if you can think of anyone to give the CD to it can do double duty! Thanks for getting in touch.

Yours truly,

Jim Heetderks
Mars Hill Audio

Pretty soon I will not have any more excuses. Since I have already ripped the demo CD to my iPod, anyone want the hard copy? If you have never heard of Mars Hill Audio, here is an excerpt from their website. (more…)

Last night I was driving to the airport to pick up my brother-in-law. His flight had just landed (around 9:50 PM) when I hung up with him on the cell phone and passed under an overpass on the highway. The entrance ramp at this spot was very steep. At the top of the ramp a white pickup truck came barreling down the grassy hill. The grade was at least forty-five degrees and at the bottom of the hill there was a shallow drainage ditch leading up to the highway shoulder. As I sped on by I looked back in my review mirror as the truck hit the ditch head on. (more…)

With John Roberts as the newly named nominee to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice, Sandra Day O’Conner, it appears that President George W. Bush has delivered on one of his 2004 campaign promises. This is a key reason many forward thinking Americans voted for Bush the second time around. I say it that way, because for some folks a vote for Bush may have just been an anti-Kerry vote.

If Bush continues to resist caving in to the political correctness pundits when it comes time to replace Chief Justice William Rehnquist (who is battling thyroid cancer), then it goes without saying that those two appointments alone will have far reaching effects. For the time being Bush will be known as the president who invaded Iraq; for the future generations his legacy may in fact be his court appointments. I just hope that the decisions of these new justices are characterized by the Rule of Law instead of judicial activism.