Your Evening Sift

Things were a bit busier in the South Florida blogosphere today than they were last Saturday. The SFDB Weekend Widget in the right sidebar continues to be updated so check it out. Enjoy your evening Sift and your evening, readers. Stop back in for a nice, easy turndown service tonight at 10.

A- Roy Black responds to critics of his last post that urged UM to improve their law school.

What would happen if the football team was ranked 77th? Would the fans and student body say the rankings are unimportant? Or the polls didn’t use the right factors? Or don’t worry, by summer we will go to the beach and forget it? Can you envision a stadium full of fans with orange foam fingers with #77 on them? Cheerfully chanting “we are number 77!” I am willing to bet the coach would be immediately fired. An enormous effort would go into radically changing the program. No one would stand for it. We would do a national search for the right coach and pay him several million dollars to fix the disaster. Lots of money would be thrown at the problem. The president of this university takes football personally. It is a point of pride. Too bad she doesn’t feel the same about the law school.

B- In what may be the first Basel-related posting in the South Florida blogosphere this year, Beached Miami announces that Neon Indian will be playing at Bardot during the big art show.

When Neon Indian last came to Miami, in October 2009, they had just plowed through the blogosphere as the mysterious darlings of chillwave on their way to Pitchfork permanence. “Deadbeat Summer” was on everyone’s playlist and the band from Denton, TX, was arguably the country’s hottest new indie thing. On Dec. 1, they’ll return as the undisputed kings of the hotly disputed genre to perform at Bardot during Art Basel, according to neonindian.com.

C- Food for Thought reveals some of the more interesting choices on the "Mainland" for Miami Spice.

Perhaps the most interesting Spice news to some is that Michael's Genuine Food & Drink, probably the most popular restaurant in town, is back on the list. I'd initially thought Michael's had never done Miami Spice. Chef Schwartz thought they'd skipped the past two years. Turns out it was actually three years, even though they did a Spice-like summer special in 2008 despite not being an official participant. Anyway, they're back, and there will be much rejoicing.

D- Discourse says that all is not lost on August 2nd if the debt ceiling isn't raised.

Also, please note that if and when the US hits the debt ceiling we will not have a “default”. Nor will the nation lack the fundamental capacity to pay its bills — as of this writing T-bill interest rates are low (i.e. prices are high, and rising). Rather, due to an utterly artificial block by the Congress, the US will not have the cash on hand to pay all its obligations. As a result some obligations such as monies due by contract or monies due by legislation, but almost certainly not bond debt, will not be paid on schedule.

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