the champ is here

Here's to cW, grand champeen of Geniusmaker Round 2. Let's face it, when we say genius we're not just throwing the word around casually like some people do. The man triumphed by demonstrating his superior grasp of subjects as diverse as lunchmeats, popular music, and Kurt Russell films. That's no joke.

His victory, along with the guilt I feel for failing to give Joe Monkeyweb his Round I prize (and his 80 clams from the NCAA tourney), has caused me to consider actually ordering up some verbungle merchandise for you two (and, grudgingly, for lyric stumpah II "winner" Brian Castro). So pay a visit to the store and tell me what hot item catches your eye.

Anybody else please feel free to shop there and know that $1 from each item sold goes towards defraying our hosting costs and keeping verbungle.com ad-free.

Forget for a moment that we tried and failed to have ads a couple of weeks ago.

Here are the Geniusmaker II final standings:

cW - 253
Joe M. - 191
Deion - 191
pb dot c - 172
Isired - 122
BC MI - 115
dlee - 105
Dan K. - 98
MDilly - 91
dipak - 66
Kissel - 65
Finn - 54
Big Jim Lang - 49
Crsmal - 45
BA - 43
Mrsmal - 40
EJ - 31
RJ - 15
Moncrief - 15
Vic - 10
Sport - 9
Douglas - 5
Lex - 5
Dougless - 5
BNew - 5
John Starks - 5
Hans B. - 1

If you scored over 100 you should be proud of yourself. Otherwise, you better hit the books for Round III.

In the past, at a historic moment like this I'd often make a big to-do about maybe quitting the site or quitting the daily challenges. Fuck that. We're going full steam ahead. Mediocrity's in sight!

So today I wipe the genius slate clean and I ask you:

Only once in my life did I call a girl up on the phone out of the blue to ask her on a date without having some prior assurance of success. What was the result of this phone call?

I've always meant to get into Leonard Cohen but never knew where to start. My sister insists he's better than Bob Dylan. And after hearing Martha Wainwright's frighteningly beautiful version of Cohen's "Tower of Song" on Letterman tonight, I am a believer. I'm gonna get me some Cohen, and maybe a Martha Wainwright album if she's any good. Where to start with Cohen? Suggestions please. Deion's a fan if I remember.

Somebody on youtube should put up the Tom Chambers dunk on Mark Jackson. It's savage.

Speaking of youtube and Mark Jackson, remember when I said that in his younger days he would occasionally bounce himself an ally-oop in games, and you didn't believe me? Check it out (around the 25 second mark):



Good ol' Jax. Lots of annoying shimmies on that reel, too. And who the hell picked that music? It really gets you pumped up, right?

So 4th of July weekend is here. 4 days. I don't know what's going on, but I'm liking it. I plan on playing basketball, I plan on playing it outside, and I plan on playing it well. I wonder if I'll succeed on any of those three levels.

Who wants to go play?

I am wondering how D. Lee feels about the Knicks draft right now.