Arts & Culture

Likely the most motivational sports exhortation of all time among many fictional examples, coach Norman Dale’s pre-game pep talk to his team is brief, pointed, and rousing. From the classic 1986 film Hoosiers, performed by venerable actor Gene Hackman.

Everybody loves an underdog.

As the season begins Friday at Assembly Hall, not only are fans excited, but so are former players. With so many talented and experienced athletes on this year’s squad, look for IU to try a lot of different lineups early in the season. Here are a few things that I and my fellow former Hoosiers talk about when we’re discussing how far this team can go.

Their roles will need to be more significant and their learning curve will be steeper, but the five freshmen for Purdue are actually as good as IU’s vaunted incoming class. What gives IU the edge this year is its veteran supporting cast. (Who would you take, Cody Zeller or Sandi Marcius?) But the Boiler newbies come into this season with their own pedigree.

Now in the intimate Booth Tarkington Civic Theatre at Carmel’s Center for the Performing Arts, The Woman in Black (through Nov. 10) is a chilling play based on the novel by Susan Hill (and one of the longest-running in London’s West End).

Twice in the clip below from today’s episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Madonna refers to her Indy-based helpers at the Super Bowl XLVI halftime show as “villagers.” She appears to use that word when referencing both those who set up her staging in all of eight minutes, and also when speaking to the aid of 150 gladiators she “employed.” (Truth be told, she paid them in the currencies of Panera and Papa John’s, relative pigspittle for the help they gave this self-loving “Cleopatra” with her ballyhooed entrance. But then again, they are peasants, right?)

Everyone remembers the shot. IU down by one. Six ticks left. Jumper, 16 feet out, Keith Smart fading, fading left to the baseline. There’s a lot of catching up to do. Here’s what Smart and his teammates are up to now.

Q: Do we have mountain lions? I have a relative in Southern Indiana who insists they’ve returned.

Benjamin C., Indianapolis

Richard Lugar was the 44th mayor of Indianapolis, and the first to successfully seek reelection (before then, city law prohibited the mayors from serving consecutive terms)

Inside ReTULLEd, a special-occasion shop featuring bridal consignment, owner Amy Lee Bonham stocks oodles of excellently priced and often never-worn gowns, along with frocks in enough colors and lengths to please any army of bridesmaids. Nestled between an antiques shop and a florist, and with the addition of tux rentals, it’s no wonder this and other nuptial-minded businesses in the area banded together to form the Irvington Wedding Collective. 5607 E. Washington St., 358-8802, retulled.com.

Of her half-century marriage, she says, “When I think about it, I wonder, ‘How could 50 years have gone by so fast?’ I used to think people who celebrated their 50th were old, decrepit, and in wheelchairs—not still enjoying life.”

<< Best Bets  Inventive cocktails at The Libertine, workday wear at Jos. A. Bank, Conrad bikes, and a Stormy Kromer cap ($34.99) from Red’s Barber Shop Co.