Interesting poll at DSM Register...

What is the biggest sports moment in Iowa this year?

* Dallas Clark and Bob Sanders winning the Super Bowl with the Indianapolis Colts
* Drake women's basketball is upset MVC tourney winner, reaching the NCAA Tournament
* Zach Johnson, ex-Drake golfer from Cedar Rapids, win the Masters
* West Des Moines teenager Shawn Johnson wins all-around World Championship gold medal

I guess Sage Rosenfels' three TDs for Houston when Carr got knocked out was technically last year.

The first one isn't much of an "Iowa sports moment"...Sanders is from some suburb of Chicago and both he and Clark dropped out of UIowa after two years.

The second one is kind of sad, because ISU and Iowa teams make the Sweet Sixteen so often no one's impressed by UNI or Drake losing in the first round.

Winning the Masters? Who cares?

Shawn Johnson, OTOH, impresses me. "Women's" (they aren't) gymnastics creeps me out--I was taller than most of them when I was eight--but I'm sure she's spent more of her life in the gym becoming excellent than I've spent writing or making art or anything interesting, and I'm three times her age. Plus, it's unusual for someone from Podunk (despite what West Des Moines believes, it's still the middle of nowhere important) to have their talent identified at an early age, much less have it nutured.

I spent most of my school days being an unpaid teaching assistant (I wish I'd known about child labor laws...) instead of being challenged. I think I'm kind of bitter.