MAYOR FAIL? I'm disappointed in this picture of Mayor Nutter at the opening yesterday of one of the City's public pools, because back in the day Philadelphia's mayor knew how to open a pool properly.

LARGER THAN LIFE: Woody Allen once said of him, “Manute Bol is so skinny they save money on road trips. They just fax him from city to city.”

The only player in NBA history to average more blocks than points per game, the 7'7" Dinka dunker went from a life minding cattle in a remote corner of his native Sudan to the University of Bridgeport to the NBA, from which he sent millions back to his homeland and towards which he devoted his years in retirement, brokering a peace treaty to end the civil war. After his NBA career ended, he'd move onto the CBA and whatever else would pay him -- a stint as a jockey, as a hockey goalie, boxing William "the Refrigerator" Perry, whatever: "There’s no way I can put the money in my pocket while my people are getting beat up,” he once said. “Whatever I can do to help my people I will do. I feel whatever I make here I make for my people.”

Sadly, he died today in Virginia at the age of 47 of acute kidney and skin disease.

[Added WaPo obit, with this awesome quote: "You know, a lot of people feel sorry for him, because he's so tall and awkward," Charles Barkley, a former 76ers teammate, once said. "But I'll tell you this -- if everyone in the world was a Manute Bol, it's a world I'd want to live in."]

[Added again: Bol may have been responsible for inventing or popularizing the phrase "my bad."]

The NYT's Nick Kristof just tweeted that Bol was "a moral giant" for his work with the nonprofit Sudan Sunrise, and Kansas City's Sam Mellinger has more on his life and works. Sports Illustrated has a photo gallery, Matt reminds me of his SNL appearance, Dan McQuade locates Kenn Kweder's tribute in song, and below the fold, perhaps my favorite Bol memory:

THE GIRLY-MAN DILEMMA: Ever wonder why we've never seen film adaptations starring SNL characters Hans and Franz, Da Bears Superfans, Dieter, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, or an Ambiguously Gay Duo film (co-written with Stephen Colbert)? Robert Smigel discusses what was proposed for each film, and why none of them were made.

SUNNYSIDES: Allow me to be Wikipedia for a moment, so that I can disambiguate. Sunnyside is a wonderful book by Glen David Gould, which, as I mentioned a few threads back, is both riotously funny and occasionally heartbreaking. It takes its title from Sunnyside, the Chaplin two-reeler, which in Gould's telling is a schizophrenically ambitious and distracted piece that Chaplin finished in a rush for reasons I won't spoil, should you make the wise choice to read the book. Chaplin's film, in turn, half-accidentally appropriates the name Sunnyside from the estate where Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford first fell in love.

Toy Story 3 is out today. I hope to see it soon (Rotten Tomatoes gives it the rare 100% rating), but haven't yet. That means that all I know of the plot is what I've read in the papers. If you've been avoiding the papers, stop now, because I'm going to mention the broad outline.

WELL, JAY-Z WAS AT THE TONYS: Apparently, in contention for Kanye West's new album? A track that prominently samples "Popular" from Wicked. Well, at least we know Chenoweth doesn't need any autotune.

KAZOO, THE NEXT GENERATION: How do you make Big Brother even more annoying? Easy! Just add vuvuzela.

SEINFELD, 4? I will confess to being OpenTable-dependent when it comes to making restaurant reservations -- I love the grid and the ready, efficient comparison of options. Why sit around and wait? Why bother with those bistros which seat on a first-come, first-served policy? Well, the NYT recently explained the economics of dinner reservations, and it's an eye-opener:

The easy button for many restaurateurs is OpenTable.com, which allows diners to make reservations 24/7 online. “The average restaurant spends $1,500 to $2,000 a month on OpenTable,” said Mr. Brown, of Ed’s Chowder House, adding that restaurants like his pay a setup fee, monthly fees and a fee for every reservation.

In addition, a serious fine-dining experience requires reservationists “12 hours a day, seven days a week,” Mr. Brown said, “a minimum of three people making $30,000 apiece per year plus benefits.”

“Add to that yearly payments of $20,000 in OpenTable fees,” he said. “So by having no reservations, that restaurant saves $125,000 a year.”

Furthermore, while no-reservations restaurants can reach as many as four table turns a night,two may be the maximum for restaurants that take reservations, Mr. Brown said. “So for them, often the only way to cope with increasing costs is to keep charging more money.” That, in turn, can price a restaurant out of its market.

Sympathetic?