George Clooney's News and Views

I’m sorry, I… can’t seem to… think straight right now. Just, uh… take a…

May 6th marks the 52nd birthday of Lexington’s own George Clooney, winner of People magazine’s 2006 “Sexiest Man Alive” award, as well as a couple other smaller awards like a Golden Globe or Oscar every now and then. Clooney has lived in both Lexington and Augusta, KY, and even attended school at Northern Kentucky University for a few years before ultimately realizing that seeing his family have it all took the place of that desire for diplomas on the all. Although I’m sure the fact that he didn’t graduate didn’t stop NKU from putting a plaque with his name on it somewhere near their President’s office.

Clooney got his break in the early 90s, when he was cast as Doug Ross on TV’s hit show ER, which was watched, and loved, by literally all of our mothers and probably no one else. But that ultimately catapulted him to the top, where he’s now one of the absolute biggest names in movies. Not even Batman and Robin slowed him down, and that movie literally destroyed three separate careers. Now he’s alternating picking whatever role he wants, and getting arrested fighting for what he believes in, showing he’s got some of the most legitimate convictions of anyone in Hollywood, where fake convictions run rampant.

Hats off to you, George Clooney, for representing Kentucky well. May you never have to wear Bat-nipples ever again.

-The big news of the day around here was the running of the 138th Kentucky Derby, which I’ll Have Another took on the last furlong from one of my picks, Bodemeister. So close… If you missed it, take a look below. Really, it’s only two minutes.

Now the questions on whether this will be our first Triple Crown winner since 1978 can begin. If I’ll Have Another really can have another victory (that was terrible, I’m sorry) at the Preakness and Belmont, then expect to see “I’ll Have Another Blvd.” somewhere between Sir Barton and Man O’War in the coming months. But… it probably won’t happen.

-In basketball recruiting news, Anthony Bennett cut Florida from his list, leaving Kentucky, UNLV, and Oregon. This came as quite a surprise, since many thought that Kentucky and Florida were the leaders. Now, we have to duke it out between two programs who aren’t exactly powerhouses, but seem to be in really good position. There’s no affirmative news regarding our standing, but it’s always good when another school gets eliminated. Especially when that school is Florida.

-Speaking of Florida, the Gators managed to take a series from the UK Baseball team 2-1, although the Bat Cats managed to win the cap today by, ironically, 2-1. That’s not a good turn of events for the home team, as they have now dropped consecutive series in SEC play. Let’s hope they can recover and end the season well.

-Bob Ryan says that UK basketball fans should “temper their expectations” when it comes to this upcoming season. He claims that last year’s season was an “aberrational” and likely won’t happen again. I agree with the idea that this season will require patience, and we want to make sure that we understand that it takes time for a team to come together. However, you won’t convince me that this championship was a fluke. Replay the tournament ten times, and Kentucky wins eleven of them.

I’ll leave you on a high note this evening. I’ll Have Another won the Derby, but the real winners were these two, who managed to get engaged in the infield: