A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago

"SOMEWHERE AFTER HIS FIFTEEN MINUTES BUT PRE-MANHOOD": ESPN's Elizabeth Merrill checks in with Samir Patel, beloved by Shonda and pretty much everyone else around here, enjoying his first May since 2002 away from the Bee. (In 2006, Shonda wrote of him: "If spelling were Hollywood, Samir would be Will Smith -- young, charismatic, just self-deprecating enough to make it okay that he knows his own greatness and exceedinlgy adorable to the public mainly because his ears are too big.")

A professor at the community college where Samir is studying this semester has this to say about his future:

He told me he wanted to get into the [technical] field, but I'm hoping to change his mind. I think a really bright kid like that should be steered into the humanities. If you look around the country, you'll notice our planes are well maintained and fly and don't normally crash, our doctors are competent and we've made big strides in computer technology. But my view is when you have an extremely talented person, the last thing we need is one more computer programmer. The fact that I am thinking this way about him is an indication of how much promise I see in him.

ESPN is also offering a video tribute and slideshow of Samir through the years, plus a 25-question spelling quiz as a challenge (18/25 for me -- the sports names were brutal).

Finally, greetings to the Washington Post and Dan Shanoff readers who have joined us. We welcome your comments, and do stick around.