Took the day off the bike. After 29 miles and change — I said somewhere that it was 23, but after re-examining the map I discovered an error — we decided to rest today.

So we rested today.

And so it was that we settled in on the sofa to watch a few things on Netflix, only to discover that the items we’d put in our queue are no longer streaming. It’s like standing in line for a show only to get to the window to discover the room is sold out. You can’t put any more importance on it than that, really. This is a television show we now can’t watch immediately. It is hardly a real problem.

But still, Netflix, can’t you send an Email that says “Hey, we noticed some of the things in your queue are about to be removed from rotation”? Also, improve the user interface. And let me queue things from the television. But otherwise you’re a brilliant service in every way.

We watched other things instead.

Never mentioned, and I’ve meant to two or three times, the fine Sherlock Holmes series from the BBC I watched a week or so ago on Netflix. The first season was only three episodes, but they were great television. It is a modern adaptation of Holmes, who is some sort of forensic pathologist who admits he’s a sociopath in a completely invented job. His fancy title is “detective consultant,” but the real job is “bailing out the police.” His Watson is a veteran of Afghanistan and could be a far more interesting character than his interesting partner. There’s one layer to Holmes; there’s a lot of brooding in Watson.

And the dialog.

Everything is just so crisp.

Is it a function of the characters? Unusually talented writers? Television that doesn’t feel compelled to distill their product to the lowest common denominator?

Great show. I’m ready for the second season.

Sports. The Maple Street Auburn magazine has arrived. It is do on magazine racks and at fine booksellers in a few more days. Pre-order your copy now.

I got one early because I have a piece in the magazine. This is the first year Maple Street has run a pub on Auburn. They reached out to my friend Jay Coulter to edit the magazine. I met Jay years ago when I was at al.com and he joined me for regular sports podcasts. Jay asked me to write a story and then he had to step down from the project for other obligations.

Enter my friend Jeremy Henderson. He took over as editor and he (and Coulter before him) assembled a great staff and they produced a fine magazine fan boys can’t help but love. And, also, I’m in it:

Forty years is a long time to be a sports hero. Pat Sullivan has been doing this for a long time, and does it with the grace and ease of a Southern gentleman.

If you haven’t been following his career: after his most recent stop at Auburn as a quarterbacks coach (1986-1991) he spent five years at TCU as the head coach, seven seasons as the offensive coordinator at UAB and has been the head coach at Samford University in Birmingham for the last five seasons. Now, at 61-years-young, his passion for the game is as strong is ever. His grip is still like stone.

[…]

Sullivan looks at his career through those relationships he’s cultivated along the way. His Heisman Trophy experience was no different.

Back in those days the announcement came as a halftime feature during the Georgia-Georgia Tech game. Instead of being on the front row in New York, Sullivan was in Auburn.

“We were actually at practice that day because we had Alabama on Saturday. My parents had come down to hear the announcement … Our TV went on the blink so we had to go rent a room at the Heart of Auburn. We watched it on TV just like everybody else,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan, perhaps the last Heisman Trophy winner to stay at the Heart of Auburn, says his room number has been lost to history. There are plenty of clear memories from the night, though.

Be sure to check out the magazine, on shelves July 19th.