What should determine whether a college kid's jersey number gets retired? Of course the player should have meant something to the school in some form or another, but are there any quantifiable standards schools should hold players to when considering number retirements?

Breaking and/or setting school records?
Player of the year honors?
Other awards?
Championships?
Should they have graduated?

The University of Texas, which formerly required player of the year honors, has now -- in conjunction with the completion of renovations to its football and baseball stadiums -- let go of all inhibitions and decided to go on a number retirement binge.

Included in the group will be football players Vince Young, Bobby Layne and Tommy Nobis; baseball players Greg Swindell, Burt Hooton, Scott Bryant and Brooks Kieschnick; and basketball players Kevin Durant and Slater Martin.

One of the number retirements -- No. 21 -- will actually be a repeat retirement. The baseball program's retirement of the number in honor of Swindell will mark the second time it's been retired. The Longhorn baseball team's other retired No. 21?

Roger Clemens.

Anyway, here's a recap of the number retirement bonanza...

Baseball: Burt Hooton (20), Greg Swindell (21), Brooks Kieschnick (23), and Scott Bryant (25)
Basketball: Slater Martin (15) and Kevin Durant (35)
Football: Vince Young (10), Bobby Layne (22), and Tommy Nobis (60)

Here goes:

1. Mark Rothko, "No. 15", 1952 / price $50,441,000

This could buy 400,325 barrels of oil OR 8.0 million gallons of gasoline. This represents 2% of U.S. daily gasoline consumption OR what we consume in 29 minutes.

2. Lucian Freud, "Benefits Supervisor Sleeping", 1995 / price $33,641,000

This could buy 266,992 barrels of oil OR 5.3 million galloons of gasoline. This represents 1.33% of U.S. daily gasoline consumption OR what we consume in 19 minutes.

3. Andy Warhol, "Double Marlon", 1966 / price $32,521,000

This could buy 258,103 barrels of oil OR 5.2 million gallons of gasoline. This represents 1.29% U.S. daily gas consumption OR what we consume in 19 minutes.

4. Francis Bacon, "Three Studies for Self-Portrait", 1976 / price $28,041,000

This could buy 222,548 barrels of oil OR 4.4 million gallons of gasoline. This represents 1.11% of U.S. daily gas consumption OR what we consume in 16 minutes.

5. Gerhard Richter, "Abstraktes Bild", 1987 / price $14,601,000

This could buy 115,881 barrels of oil OR 2.3 million gallons of gasoline. This represents 0.58% of U.S. daily gas consumption OR what we consume in 8 minutes.

TOGETHER, these five paintings sold for $159,245,000. Just for the record, that would buy 1.3 million barrels of oil, which could be converted into 25.3 million gallons of gasoline. This buys the equivalent of 6.32% of our entire country's consumption in one day. Or, a total of 91 minutes of power for the U.S., from FIVE paintings. Wow. Talk about concentration of wealth.

Tomorrow: the Sotheby's auction results.

I want to live life like this song. It is passionate and unyeilding, tender and strong, yet there is a pattern, a note, throughout the whole song which ties it all together. As I age, I am sure I'll be dying away and becoming slower, but I will have one last forte before my pianissimo. And I will sustain that last note until I'm sure all can feel its quiet passion.

Valentina Igoshina playing Chopin's Prelude Op. 28, No. 15:

amanda ∞