Thursday Raggiana Birds-of-Paradise

Good morning, you sweet, swaddled toddlers. I'm going to be traveling for much of today, but before I go anywhere, I think we oughta wash away the foulness of last night's loss with some links.

- Every once in a while, I gotta break out a bird-of-paradise. They're clearly the zaniest bunch of birds. The Raggiana bird-of-paradise is, as you can see, quite the resplendent creature. My favorite Wikipedia RB-O-P fact is that the Papua New Guinean rugby team is called the "The Kumuls", which is their word for the species. What an awesome animal to name your team after. And we're over here raising a stink about some damn pelicans. (Another thing: I wanna own a bird-of-paradise for a while so I can sing "We been spending most our lives/living with a bird-of-paradise".

- Amar'e Stoudemire diet updates: He stopped being vegan for a week (gotta get that chicken and Chilean sea bass), but now he's back. Mike Woodson's on a diet, too!

- It is so incredibly baller to have pulled down 20+ rebounds in three straight games and not even recall it. No, we're not talking about Tyson Chandler. I hope he remembers something he did like three days ago.

- Haven't listened to this yet, but Keith Schlosser interviewed Phife Dawg about the Knicks!

- Ronnie Brewer's got penguin emoticons and Gucci Mane references in the same tweet and this is why I can never fall out of love with Ronnie Brewer.

- Two schedule/record things: 1. The Knicks can still reach the pre-All-Star Break mark Mike Woodson was hoping for, but they'll have to win out between now and then. 2. It's in their best interest to do that, because shit's about to get ROUGH:

Of the 32 games the Knicks will play after this month's All-Star Game, 19 are against teams that would make the playoffs if the season ended today. Twenty of the games are against teams with records of .500 or better—more than any other team in the league—and 18 of them will be on the road.

- The excellent Jordan Kahn details how the Wizards got under Carmelo Anthony's skin last night. He had a lot of trouble pretty much everywhere inside the arc.

- I bet you can guess which Knick showed up on Lang Whitaker's "NBA YOLO All-Stars".

- Assuming my travels aren't too delayed, I'll be on the radio at 6:30.

Happy Thursday, y'all. I love each of you as if you were my own niece.