Football commentary
I was watching the Chargers/Eagles game today on CBS and suddenly I turned to Mindy and asked, "Did he just say that?" She was looking at me like I had said it.

Here's what he said:

"Both of these teams are intent on jamming the other's tight end."

You can't make this stuff up.

My new favorite magazine: WIRED

Borders
Topic: Books
When my sister and I were kids and we would come to the States on vacation, my father would take us to a Borders or a Barnes and Noble and say,

"OK kids, you can get as many books as you want."

I would drag myself over to the magic books and pick out one or two, then go back and beg him to step away from the History section, pick up his huge stack of books, and please get out of here and maybe stop by a Circuit Ciy, Kaybee toys, or Kids R Us.

In those days I wanted video games, not books.

Oh how things have changed.

But this past week, my parents were in town and I was hopeful that maybe we could relive a little of the ol' past. Of the good times.

So we went to Borders and I asked him straight up if the old rules applied (I phrased it as a joke in case it didn't so he wouldn't feel bad about it and I wouldn't feel completely dejected, which I would've anyway).

He looked at me like someone who might pose a threat to some sort of master plan, someone much too big to take on by himself.

Reluctantly, as if to tell me that he simply can't afford all the books I would want, he agreed, "Va, OK."

So off I went and after five minutes was lost among the stacks of books, not being able to remember a single title off my page long list of "books to buy."

So I got a golf book, two best american books, james frey's book, A Brave New World... WHat else what else?

I felt like I was on Supermarket Sweep and couldn't find the damn can of soup with the 5,000 dollars on it, even though it was right in front of my face.

So I picked up more books: Gravity's Rainbow, Stephen King's Tower series (the box set), and a Poets and Writers magazine. This, I felt, was enough. I had missed my chance years ago and now this was my punishment - having to say to myself, "this is enough."

So my dad bought the books and off we went into Michigan Avenue's cold, dark sidewalks.

And we went by this guy on the sidewalk begging for change.

Then another one with a sign: "I'm just hungry."

Then I said good night, got in a cab, and found myself flying up Lakeshore with the big, full moon floating over Lake Michigan.

And I wanted to throw the books out the window, run into the lake, and cry.

But I didn't. And this is the way it is.

Jealousy
Topic: Cubs
I must admit that, as a Cubs fan and baseball fan in general, that I'm extremely jealous of White Sox fans right now.

You'd think it has to do with them being in the World Series right here in my own Chicago - but you'd be wrong.

That's exactly why I'm glad it's the White Sox and not the Cubs living the World Series dream.

White Sox fans are a loyal bunch, loyal to the game and the finer aspects of it. Now it could be that I'm only seeing this positive side of them because their team might win it all, but it feels deeper than that. It's the same feeling I got when I played baseball in Boston: the blue-collar atmosphere of that team and the personalities around that team has a mystical quality to it that is completely foreign to me. It feels like a family.

This is what I see White Sox fans enjoying around town. It's awesome and it's sad because Cubs fans simply aren't like that.

It could be that there's just too many of us, that there are too many fans that don't know who plays right field and want to go see Samme Seusser and have some beers at Wrigley Park. Maybe the Cubs phenomenon is just too big to allow this kind of comraderie among fans.

Which is weird because Wrigley Field is so small. It's ironic but I think also appropriate. Try as we may to pretend we are a family of fans with the greatest stadium in the game, there's just not enough room for us all.

Mis-translated spam?
Topic: Spam
Here's one that I imagine was originally in Hindu or something and the guy in charge of tranlating the subject line for it knew zero English so he ran it by some website that translates things but he didn't realize that it doesn't translate obcenities and so he came out with a suprisingly refreshing Spam subject title of:

Get Huge in the Pants

He's probably been fired and his bosses are having a good chuckle at it as we speak.

How to rent a negro
Topic: Books
It's the title of a book that has caused quite a stir. Check out the website for yourself at www.rent-a-negro.com.

But this post is about a reader review on Amazon, check it out:

I'll tell you how to rent a negro..., October 12, 2005
Reviewer: SmokeyMcPot "Bong" (WestSide) - See all my reviews
Now I was a slave way back when, and I remember how my mama used to say "Oh Smokey, we gonna follow that secret railroad and get outa here" but i tell you, it never happened. My mama tried to get away from our owner, R.P McMurphy who was a big cotton seller, and he shot her down! Shot her down like she was a dog with rabies instead of my mama! I will never forget that day, and I will nevere forget the day that I finally escaped from him either. But that's a story for another day.

LPGA Tour and Annika
Topic: Golf
After Michelle Wie got the spotlight despite Sorenstam's dominance, this is what one player had to say about Annika:

``When Annika comes to play, Annika comes to win,'' Lorie Kane said after she finished her round Sunday, the scoreboard behind her on the 18th showing Sorenstam up by 10 shots early on the back nine. ``It doesn't matter who else is playing. When she tees it up, she means business. That's why she is one step ahead of all of us.''

That's why she's a step ahead of you? What are you thinking about when you tee it up then? Other women? Annika in a wet t-shirt?

No wonder no one watches the LPGA.

Sick of seeing "the replay"
So the White Sox got a gift last night, get over it. I'm sick of hearing about it. It's done, this happens in baseball all the time, get over it.

Plus I hate having to listen to people who don't know anything about the game talking ad nasueam about this stupid play.

Guatemala's dreams are dashed
Topic: Guatemala
After all the flooding and all the death and destruction, there was one thing that would've brought the guatemalan people together to feel proud, to be resilient, to move one.

And so Guatemala beat Costa Rica last night in the last game of World Cup Qualifying. What did it mean? Nothing, because Trinidad & Tobago beat Mexico and moved ahead of us for the last spot. They still have to beat Bahrain, but at least they have a shot.

Once again, we will NOT be going to the World Cup.

There was a poll on the front page of www.elperiodico.com.gt that asked "what now?" Most of the votes agreed with my opinion: Stop investing so much money into this one sport and spread some of the love to other sports.

This is the problem with sports in guatemala: they aren't treated like professionals and, consequently, they don't behave like them.

If you're most famous athlete of all time, Mateo Flores (he won the Boston Marathon way back when), is now a poor old man living in a hut with barely anything to eat - you know shit's messed up.

On goes the saga of "professional soccer" in Guatemala, breaking people's spirits once again. Ironically enough, the name of the stadium where the team plays is the Mateo Flores stadium.

Blog and Notebooks
Topic: Writing
The amount of stuff I've written both on the Blog and in the original Notebooks has been down considerably for a while now. It's really not that hard to see why.

When you're in a relationship you have someone to talk to every single day, either on the phone, in person, or through email. What this shows is how writing (for me, at least) in the notebooks and on the blog isn't about saying "Hey, look at me!" It's more about getting things off my chest. Things that I think of and want to express. Nowadays I just tell Mindy about them and I'm freed from the pestering of that idea. There is no need to write it down anywhere, it's already been expressed.

Good News from Bulls Camp
As I watched the Bulls last season I wondered about Ben Gordon and what they kept saying about him: that the only reason he wasn't playing more or that he wasn't as good as he could be, was because his defense was suspect.

That was it. It was the only thing people agreed on that he wasn't very good at.

And I wondered, if I was a player, and I heard that kind of stuff. Well, I would want to hear it, for sure.

I wondered, if you're a player like that, in that situation, why wouldn't you go into the offseason and just work your ass off on that one thing that everyone agrees you don't have? Why not? Wouldn't that make you into an undiputably great player? Wouldn't it?

Athletes are primadonnas and they suck and they want more money and think they deserve it, blah blah blah - basically, they don't think as ligically as the fans would like.

But some do, and news from the Bulls camp so far tells us that Gordon isn't one of those guys. Skiles is impressed that it's exactly what he'd done - he's worked hard at it.

Can't wait to see it on the court.