he wags the finger at poverty!

It was bizarre to see Dikembe Mutombo in the booth of Congress, sitting with the First Lady during the State of the Union speech, as the President reeled off a vignette in the speech about his efforts to fight poverty in his native Congo (you can't say Dikembe Mutombo these days without mentioning that he is from the Congo, apparently.) He gets a standing ovation, naturally, especially as the first "personal story" that always gets included in these speeches (after Bush stumbles on his name a couple of times), and it's all so weird to watch; to see that this man, who ought to be way past his prime in NBA years is having a sort of renaissance, proving a valuable player yet again in the injury-plagued career of Yao Ming and wagging the finger at those who dare to come inside the lane. And on top of this, his selflessness gets attention from the executive branch of the United States.

(Tangent: I can't believe I'm still watching the post-speech coverage. Chris Matthews and Eugene Robinson are slathering love all over Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi for her lime green business suit. I know it's kind of hypocritical to knock them for focusing on appearance -- see my patterns of Erin Andrews lust -- but these are the people whom we elect to make the policy that shapes our lives and we're concerned with her formal wear?)