Gary Kirby is potentially 11 minutes and 52 seconds away from winning the 3rd annual BrendanLoy.com NIT Pool.

West Virginia leads Clemson, 51-38 with 11:52 left in the NIT championship game on ESPN. If the Mountaineers hold on, Kirby will win the pool. If the Tigers stage a comeback and win, Colleen Duggan will be the pool champion.

Kirby is a member of the USC Class of 1987 and a regular Irish Trojan commenter under the nickname “gahrie.” Duggan is a 2005 alumna of Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT, where she played Division I basketball, and is now an assistant coach at Trinity College in Hartford. Details here.

How robust are Google’s driving directions? Try typing in New York, NY and Dublin, Ireland. Then check step 23.

(Hat tip: BoingBoing.)

The U.S. Senate today passed a war spending bill that would require U.S. combat troops to leave Iraq by the end of March 2008, ignoring a veto threat from President Bush.

Visit CNN for the latest.

Heh.

P.S. Also: Karl Rove proves that white men can’t dance.

The new U.S. News and World Report law-school rankings have been leaked, and Notre Dame Law School has plummeted from a tie for #22 to a tie for #28. Says Olin Kerr: “The magazine always changes the numbers around enough to make the issue seem newsy, and this year is no exception.” Recent experience seems to back him up. NDLS’s ranking has been ping-ponging up and down since I’ve been here: from #22 to #20 in the 2005 rankings, from #20 to #24 in 2006, from #24 to #22 in 2007, and now from #22 to #28 in the 2008 rankings. What does this mean? Arguably nothing (except perhaps that NDLS fares better in odd years). Everyone always says law-school rankings are meaningless and misleading. Of course, everyone follows them religiously anyway. :)

(Hat tip: Watcher of Rankings.)

[PLEASE NOTE: This post previously also contained discussion of Professor Kelley’s role in the U.S. Attorney firing controversy, as well as his mid-semester departure from NDLS in spring 2005. Because the Kelley controversy and the U.S. News rankings are both proving to be hot topics of discussion, I have now split them into separate posts — and moved prior comments around accordingly — in order to facilitate a clearer, more focused discussion. Also, I’ve bumped this post, which originally appeared at 3:40 PM on Thursday, to the top of the blog for now. Anyway, if you want to talk about the rankings, please comment here; if you want to talk about Professor Kelley, please comment on the other post. Also, in both cases, please try to keep your comments at least somewhat respectful, and keep it constructive and topical rather than personal. I know the blogosphere is a giant bitchfest and Internet anonymity turns people into jerks, but let’s at least try to be civil…]

UPDATE: Dean O’Hara has responded, at some length, to the rankings drop.

The other day, as I was walking from our apartment to the car, I passed one of our neighbors, who was walking back to his apartment. I think his girlfriend was over or something, and the door to his apartment was wide open — and Annie Lennox’s “Walking on Broken Glass” was blasting on the stereo inside, clearly audible as I walked by. I didn’t think anything of it, until I saw the hilarious look on his face, which clearly conveyed the message, from one guy to another: “Really, I don’t listen to Annie Lennox. Honest.” Heh. Don’t worry, dude, I won’t judge you. I like the Indigo Girls.

I think Butter is having a kitty nightmare. She’s lying next to me, all curled up in a little furry ball, and she keeps twitching her whiskers and making distressed noises in her sleep. I suppose I could wake her up, but who knows, maybe her feline subconscious is working out something important. :) Anyway, I think this is the first time I’ve observed one of our cats having a bad dream; it happens to Robbie more frequently. I wonder what constitutes a bad dream for a cat, anyway? Discovering that the food dish is empty? Not being able to find the litter box? Getting unceremoniously and unexpectedly sniffed by the dog’s cold nose?

(Cue my late paternal grandmother, Nana Loy, commenting in her legendarily acerbic, out-of-the-corner-of-her-mouth way on my parents’ announcement that my mom was pregnant with me: “Thank God, now we can stop hearing so much about those G–damned cats.” Hee hee.)

Today is the 15th anniversary of Christian Laettner’s famous shot lifting Duke over Kentucky in the greatest game in college-basketball history.

Duke sucks, and Christian Laettner can bite me. But that was a great shot (and a great pass). The above link contains a video clip.

That reminds me… Shannon’s baby-daddy, P.J., is a lifelong Duke fan. So when they were visiting us over spring break, and we were playing Scattergories, and I had to come up with a “villain” that starts with the letter “L,” naturally I wrote down “Laettner.” After considerable debate, and subjecting it to the Google test, my answer was grudgingly accepted as legit. Hehe.

Tonight’s new episode of South Park, “The Snuke,” is a must-watch for 24 fans. It’ll air again at midnight EST, then tomorrow at 10:00 PM, Friday morning at midnight, Saturday morning at 12:30 AM, Sunday night at 11:30 PM, and Monday morning at 2:30 AM, on Comedy Central.

Tonight, for the first time since the Monday after Selection Sunday, there is no college basketball on TV. (There are the WNIT semifinals, but those aren’t televised.) So, what’s a procrastinating law student to do? No games to watch, no pools to update… am I going to be forced to actually do schoolwork this evening?

Thankfully, no, it hasn’t come to that yet. ;) I’ve got a full slate of TV-watching to do tonight, starting at 8:00 PM with the return from a one-week hiatus of the other nuclear-holocaust-related show (aside from 24) that I watch religiously, CBS’s Jericho. It’s an uneven and sometimes maddening series, but the last episode (two weeks ago) was the best since the pilot, IMHO, so I’m excited for tonight’s episode. This being Jericho, I’m sure I’ll be disappointed, and yet there will be enough intrigue and mystery to keep me coming back next week. That’s the joy and frustration of this show.

At 9:00, of course, we find out who got voted off American Idol on Fox. My pick is Chris Sligh, but man, wouldn’t it be nice if it were Sanjaya? … Nothing much is on at 9:30, but then at 10:00, the new episode of South Park on Comedy Central sounds like a can’t-miss, based on the episode description at TVguide.com: “Hillary Clinton makes a campaign stop in South Park. Meanwhile, Cartman believes he’s uncovered a terrorist plot.” I don’t see how that can possibly not be awesome. :)

P.S. On the other hand… the McDonald’s High School All-American Game, featuring Trojan-to-be O.J. Mayo, is at 8:00 PM on ESPN.

UPDATE: I only watched a few minutes of the game, but apparently Mayo didn’t play very well, and missed a wide-open 3 that would have won the game. Oh, well, whatever, he’ll still be awesome next season.

On a happier note, as I noted above, South Park was indeed hilarious. And Jericho actually churned out its second consecutive genuinely good episode! Amazing! Oh yeah, and Chris Sligh got voted off American Idol, which is what I predicted. So did Jay, so we remain tied for first place in the Idol pool.

Notre Dame Law School custodian Thomas J. Miller, missing since November, has been found dead in Michigan, his body pulled from the St. Joseph River just north of the state line yesterday. “Officials didn’t find any signs of foul play, and don’t know how he got in the river,” according to WSBT. (Hat tip: Sergio.) The South Bend Tribune reports that Miller’s body was “caught up in tree limbs near the river bank.” WNDU adds: “Obviously this is not the news the Miller family wanted to hear, but it does bring some closure to all of the questions they’ve had since he went missing. Miller’s mother says her son was being treated for depression and had been through some ups and downs in the last year.” A watch found on Mr. Miller’s wrist stopped working on November 9, two days after he was reported missing. Miller was 48, and is survived by his parents, two sisters and a brother.

An awful tragedy. May he rest in peace.

[PLEASE NOTE: This post was previously attached to the post about NDLS’s ranking, but I’ve separated the two — and moved prior comments around accordingly — in order to facilitate a clearer, more focused discussion.]

Well, it seems the Observer has belatedly discovered that there’s some guy named Bill Kelley who a) used to teach at Notre Dame Law School, b) is now the deputy White House counsel, and c) was involved in the controversial firing of eight U.S. Attorneys. Here’s the article, which ran on the front page of today’s paper, above the fold. Excerpts after the jump.

(NDLS students who don’t care about the U.S. Attorney controversy, but enjoy kvetching about Kelley’s mid-semester departure in 2005, may want to read on, as there are some quotes from Dean O’Hara about that.)

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Well, I’m trying to beat Brendan to the punch on his own blog on something Potter-related…

Here’s the American cover art for the seventh and final installment of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:

You can watch the countdown till release date over on Brendan’s left sidebar. Cheers.

UPDATE BY BRENDAN: Thanks, Jay. Here’s a more panoramic version of the cover art, in which you can see Voldemort apparently sneaking up on Harry:

(Hat tip: Mark West.)

Here’s the British version of the cover.

And if anyone wants a more precise countdown, here you go:

That counts down to the release in Eastern Daylight Time (GMT-5), since that’s the time zone I’ll be in. As explained here, the first release anywhere will be six hours earlier, at midnight (er, 12:01 AM) British Summer Time (GMT+1):

On 1 February 2007, it was officially announced that Book 7 will be released in English-speaking countries around the world at 00:01 British Summer Time on 21 July 2007. In the U.S., however, the book will be released at 00:01 local time.

After the jump, a random 24-related thought, followed by some spoileriffic humor. Well, it’s spoileriffic if you haven’t seen Monday night’s episode. My initial “random thought” isn’t spoileriffic unless you’re several episodes behind.

P.S. As you may have noticed, I’ve finally given 24 its own blog category.

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More apparent British hardening and Iranian softening of their respective lines on the kidnapped-soldier kerfuffle:

Britain said it was freezing talks on all other issues with Iran until it freed 15 Royal Navy crew members seized last week, and the British military released what it said was proof its boats were within Iraqi territorial waters when they were seized.

Iran’s foreign minister said meanwhile a female British sailor held captive by Iran may be released later Wednesday or on Thursday, a Turkish TV station reported.

“The woman soldier is free either today or tomorrow,” CNN-Turk television quoted Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki as saying on the sidelines of an Arab summit meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

On the other hand, Drudge now has a siren for the headline: “Iran TV to air footage of captured Britons.” Will they be paraded around blindfolded and subjected to a mock execution this time? And then there’s this:

Russian military intelligence services are reporting a flurry of activity by U.S. Armed Forces near Iran’s borders, a high-ranking security source said Tuesday.

“The latest military intelligence data point to heightened U.S. military preparations for both an air and ground operation against Iran,” the official said, adding that the Pentagon has probably not yet made a final decision as to when an attack will be launched.

Dunno how much to make of that (a commenter points out that the Russian media has a reputation for reporting bizarre “news” stories, like UFO crashes), but certainly, these are perilous times.

More from the first article after the jump.

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