• Change.gov, the official site for president-elect Barack Obama. Feels good to see it made official like this, doesn’t it? Under “Upcoming Events”: Inauguration.
• I was sad to see that critic John Leonard died on Wednesday. I never read him during the apparent heyday of the New York Times Book Review, because I wasn’t alive yet. But I enjoyed his “New Books” column in Harper’s. I remember reading a story a while back about which critics publishers enjoyed the most, and a lot of them cited Leonard’s column. He struck me as old-school in a way that not many critics are anymore (like James Woods, for instance). They seem to be part of the old guard, the new guard being novelists reviewing for extra pay, and the even newer guard jokers like me.
• Solid game for Leon last night. I want to launch a Powe for Sixth Man of the Year. Who’s with me? (This guy)
• Stephon Marbury is talking about practicing with his old high-school team. Maybe I’m alone here, but that’s just about the coolest remedy a benched NBA player could propose.
• What else has the election stolen from me? Fantasy basketball. That was remedied yesterday with the drafting of my new team: Fat Leverage. The roster, in order drafted, is below (I know D-Will is hurt. I don’t care.) Fat Leverage is going all the way this year: