So changing gears completely: why is the hog the animal associated with selfish, possessive behavior? I don't recall ever seeing a hog being particularly hoard-worthy. Of course, the only hog I've ever seen for any amount of time was on the farm where Jody went to college. It was huge and tried to barrel over anyone who attempted to feed it. He was kind of like an offensive lineman in the NFL, only better smelling.
I mention this in direct relation to last night's NBA championship game of the Lakers Vs. the Celtics and the fabled ball hog that is Kobe Bryant. I generally don't have a vested interest in NBA except for the playoffs (I go to one or two Nuggets games a year) but I'm a bit of a Kobe hater. A lot of this probably comes from my friend Lisa who worked as a prosecutor in the famous rape allegation trial in Eagle, CO. I'm sure she wouldn't want me spouting some of the stuff she learned about ol' Kobe Bean but needless to say, he's a pretty rotten dude--and I got to hear a lot of it on the long rides up to the ski areas a few years back.
Plus every sport needs someone to root against.
So I'm watching the Lakers blowing the doors off the Celtics as I was cleaning up the house. The score was 70-55 when I took Mystic outside for a walk. I think to myself "the only way Boston can win is if Kobe turns into Kobe". As the Lakers built up a 20 plus point lead, Kobe was the "new" much more dangerous Kobe: passing to teammates, setting up decoys, etc. But his fatal flaw is he always wants to be the man, he can't stand sharing the spotlight with others. As the third quarter got underway, he began to revert to classic Kobe: putting up a ridiculous amount of shots, scoring about 38% of the time. A typical night when in this mode: 40 points on 14/55 shooting and a few free throws. But best of all, he was ignoring teammates that were wide open time and time again. Slowly Boston closed the gap and before the final buzzer sounded, the Celtics were walking out with an improbable victory.
Like I said, I'm not a big enough NBA fan to care that much but it's always good to see the classic ball hog syndrome get overpowered by solid team play. Maybe it's my inner communist.
