You know the post about the pseudonym made me think of a problem: I don't know how to refer to you here in the letters section. A message board is sort of uncharted territory as far as ettiquette goes. "King" sounds too informal, "Mr. Kaufman" too formal. "Your highness" makes it seem that I'm calling you high and mighty. "Your excellency", perhaps??

I think anyone who's been disappointed by Steve Martins latest movies should check out his collection of plays, Picasso at the Lapin Agile and other plays. The others in the collection are up and down, mostly minor stuff, but the title play is really amazing. I remember being warmly surprised by how good it was. He strikes just the right tone-- funny, not taking himself too seriously, but at the same time letting the plot take him into meditations of pretty serious stuff. The books about the 20th century, and its about genius and its different forms. And I think one of the best things about it is the recognition that the ridiculous and the sublime are tied up in one another, and that you can achieve the former without losing the latter.

Seriously, check it out.

I mean part of the genius of the Office (the original BBC one) was that it lasted only two 8-episode seasons. So it didn't have time to become terrible. The Simpsons is my pick for funniest show ever, and seasons 2-8 are just transcendent. But after that you have ten years, literally ten years, of dreck. You just can't keep pumping them out. I'm not very fond of Arrested Development but maybe in the long run getting cancelled was the best thing for the show.

But ESPN couldnt show the highlights after that first day, all you ever saw was a picture. I'm hoping that changes with these new highlight rules.

I'm also gonna go ahead and request a column devoted to college basketball sometime next week, if thats possible.

Hey I finally figured out how to change my lame handle, no more "thesungod".

So I just wanted to ask people who knew more about hockey than I do about something (and anybody knows moure than me.) A friend of mine, who's a big hockey fan, told me that the Miracle on Ice win is actually really overrated. He says that the Soviet team had the best goalie in the history of hockey on their team, but he didn't play for most of that game because of an argument he had with the coach. My friend thinks the Russians would have won if they had their best goalie playing, and that it wasnt even that big of an upset anyway.

Any opinions?

My buddy is the kind of guy who enjoys being an sports iconoclast (you know, calling Michael Jordan overrated, picking the underdog every time, etc.) so I wouldnt be suprised if he was way off base. It's kind of hard for me to have perspective on a game that happened a year before I was born.

I'm far from an expert but I just wanted to share a couple of impressions I've had from reading other letters.

First, I wanted to point out that most Western interpretations of Buddhism tend to ignore the theistic side of most Buddhist traditions. It's true that there are atheistic ways of Buddhism, and many Buddhist teachings are compatible with atheism. However, the vast majority of Buddhists outside of the United States do practice a theistic and supernatural Buddhism. Despite the popular Western concept of Buddhism many of the world's Buddhists do believe in a God (sometimes in the form of the Buddha, sometimes not), and they do believe in holy people with supernatural powers (like Nagarjuna) and miracles.

That's why I don't buy the idea that ACT is a Buddhism-copycat. It may share many similarities with a Westernized Buddhism, but because it is not a religion it is very far from the Buddhism most of the world practices.

The second thing I would point out is that it seems like some people have the idea that Buddhism properly practiced eliminates feelings-- that is, you don't experience the happiness and the sadness. While I'm sure thats the case for some, I know that for many Buddhists that is not the ideal. Buddhists are superhuman-- they experience the highs and the lows. And they don't necessarily strive to eliminate them. What they attempt to do is to remain apart from the transitory nature of these experiences. (I think thats what most people are seeing as similar to ACT, but I feel like some people may be missing that.) Most Buddhists experience the emotions and live fully with them, but they maintain aware of the illusory changing aspect of those feelings.

Anyway like I said, I'm not an expert and I'm not trying to correct anyone. Just wanted to add in a couple thoughts.

thats supposed to say AREN'T superhuman.

Its amazing to see the incredibly overheated British music press actually get outflanked by an earlier, even more breathless round of fawning. I won't waste space by talking about the band except to say that they are pretty good and still incredibly overrated.

But now, wait: did some British media actually put that album as the fifth best BRITISH ALBUM? Like, for real? Was it of all time? Please tell me it was for, like, the last five years or something. I mean that is so absurd, I can't even put it into words.

Here's twelve British albums, off the top of my head, that are better:

Please Please Me

With the Beatles

A Hard Day's Night

Beatles for Sale

Help!

Rubber Soul

Revolver

Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Magical Mystery Tour

The Beatles (the White Album)

Let it Be

Abbey Road