Got to do two things today that I hadn't before.

The first was sub in front of a regular class, as I got to fill in for a middle school foreign language teacher. This could have been dicey, given that it's been 20 years since my last French class and I've never taken Spanish. Given that I showed a video in three of the five classes, and there was in-class group work for another, the amount of damage I could have done was limited.

The first period did use a Jeopardy-style game to review several chapters. Having done this with various age groups, I would ask that anyone choosing to do this in the future:

a. Realize that a game-based review will naturally stir up competitive instincts. Have at least some detailed rules and maybe don't use gender-based teams. That just seems to make the competitive part of things worse.

b. Don't have the students make up the questions. Let's just say there was some widely divergent difficulties for questions worth the same amount of points. It'd also probably be a better review if the person making up the test created the questions, as they could then better reflect possible test questions.

c. Think twice about having students run the game. I understand the empowering aspects of this, but I found the students were more interested in getting their teams to win than actually reviewing material.

Continuing on the scandalous line, I also learned from another teacher that one of the regular subs from last year was dating a high school student in a neighboring town (she was 18, but still in school) and selling pharmaceuticals without a licence, if you get my drift. I could have Sub of the Year wrapped up already!

The other first was that I got to stand on Causeway Street in Boston in front of what used to be a McDonalds and enjoy the sunlight. For those of you familiar with the area, you know that that spot has been cloaked in darkness since sometime during Teddy Roosevelt's presidency. This section of the Green Line - from North Station to Lechemere - was the last section of elevated railway in the city.

Not that it'll be missed - in time. For now, I'm sure everyone who has to take a bus from North Station to complete the trip into north Cambridge wishes it were back.

Speaking of North Station, I appreciate the synergy and ease that one terminal for both Green and Orange Lines represents, but would it kill them to put in automatic token machines? Every time I've been through there, regardless of time, there's been a line to get tokens. I'm sure there's a perfectly bureaucratic reason for the lack of such machines.

Just as the George Harrison album promises, all things must pass.

I am now the proud owner of something that looks like a small peppercorn. Hopefully, it doesn't have any friends back at home.

Not surprisingly, I am feeling much better. Given how this one felt, I can only imagine what it's like having one that requires surgery. Let's hope that stays in the imagination. Ouch.

The next time I write here that I've been away due to a lack of things to write about, please find me and smack me in the mouth. Better yet, don't. Just wait. Something will take me down a peg. Yes, I managed to jinx myself.

Sarah and I had a pretty simple plan for the day - we were going to resume our genealogy work on my family. We were just about ready to head out the door when I started having some serious back pain and some pressure in an area where you'd prefer not to have any.

We decided to skip the research, and I took some ibuprofen and cozied up to a heating pad. This didn't help. The pain continued, and I started to have a nice combination of chills and sweats. When there wasn't any real change in my condition, Sarah made the executive decision to take me to the hospital.

So we got there, and I checked in with someone. I waited. I saw a nurse who took vitals and asked some questions. I waited. I then got to do the paperwork, and change all the info they had on me from my last visit, which was in high school. Then I waited. I got called, was given an exam room. And I waited.

Eventually, a doctor came by did some questions, etc., and from everything came to the conclusion that I had a kidney stone (for the record, Sarah came to the same conclusion consulting WebMD, though I wouldn't suggest doing that in lieu of actually seeing a doctor). They did a test and confirmed the doctor's thinking, and I got to have a CAT scan.

This was very interesting. I got to lie down on a platform which moved me through a doughnut-like ring that made up the bulk of the machine. I was told to hold my breath a couple of times while the machine took pictures. I noted the warning not to look at the laser the unit used for some purpose - and violated it repeatedly as for a fair amount of time the place where I could have seen the laser was in my line of sight.

For all that, the CAT was inconclusive. Pictures in the pelvis area weren't clear, so it could be hiding there, or it could be gone already. There's an easy way for me to discover this over the next day or two, but I'm not going to go there. If things aren't better by Monday I need to seek further medical attention.

I did get some pills for the pain, which help.

Oddly enough, while in the ER waiting room I ran into a friend of mine who's a former high school classmate. We got to talk a bit (his exam room was across from mine, and we both got to wait a bit), and it turns out that a former teacher at my old high school has recently released a book detailing her after-school work as a call girl. It should be noted that this teacher was not there during my tenure.

As far as that kind of sideline work, it beats painting houses, I suppose.

Sorry for the lack of posts, but there's been a lack of stuff to say. I've not been called to sub this week, so it's been pretty quiet.

One interesting thing from Sunday was that my church had its official welcoming Mass for parishoners from St. Alphonsus, a chuch out near the Beverly-Danvers line that was shut down. The main difference was at the start, when a procession of items from St. Alphonsus were carried in, such as their crucifix, a statue of the saint, and the church's records. There was also a little time for introductions, and as we've only been going to this church a short while (and usually don't go to the 11 AM Mass), most people thought we'd come over from the other church.

All in all, it went pretty smoothly. I don't think that's going to be the case everywhere. As I think of it, the closings are playing a little havoc with a friend's wedding. The bride's church in Gloucester is being closed, and their second choice was a chuch in Rockport - which is also being closed. Thankfully, they're leaving the building open for some sort of general worship space, and it looks like they'll be able to use it.

The last couple of years on this day I've done a rememberance thing using Sports Night, which in retrospect seems kind of odd. I mean, except for the establishing shots of New York City, the show could take place anywhere. There are plenty of other shows with more of a New York feel, so it's hard to say why I latched on to that one.

Anyway, I was thinking of doing something similar for Washington DC or Pennsylvania, but it didn't quite take. There's no show set in either location that I like that much, and listing my favorite shows set in those locations wound up being a pretty short list.

Instead, I am going to mention one of the more crass 9/11 things I've seen in recent days. There's been an ad on TV for a specially minted coin comemmorating the World Trade Center and the future building going on that site. The catch is that it's minted from silver recovered from Ground Zero.

The coin is minted by some outfit in the Northern Marianas Islands, not sure if it's governmental or not. Regardless, preying on the emotions surroundin 9/11, and using materials taken from what many consider sacred ground, really irritates me. The sad thing is they've waited long enough to make the coin seem almost dignified.

Couldn't they have just stuck to Liberty dollar reproductions?

So now that we've gotten the server issues solved, our dial-up at home is being cranky. I think it's more the BU modem pool than anything else, but regardless it's annoying. My sister in law just got DSL (she works from home), so I'll have to see how she does before taking the plunge.

So the reasonably big news is that I'm working again - sort of. I am substitute teaching at my old high school, making my first appearance in that role yesterday (this a scant week after applying). There were all sorts of deja vu moments, from the mostly familiar surroundings to the teachers who are still there when I was a student. They helped cover the moments when I had no idea what I was doing, which were legion.

I subbed for a resource room teacher, which is kind of like working a structured study hall (there's more that goes into it, of course, but from a sub's perspective it's the first way I'd describe it). Each teacher has one or two students per block that they work with to make sure assignments are being kept up with and to provide assistance if needed. One of the other teachers noted that the students work pretty independently, which was true to form (I also think they were more than willing to skirt things with a sub, which is hardly surprising).

I also got to take some class notes, sitting in on classes in science, history, and math. That was very odd, as I've gotten used to a greater amount of information presented in longer bursts. It was also a little disconcerting to have two of the teachers be younger than me, but that's one of those things that's just going to get worse.

Our school system regionalized with Essex (an even smaller town next to Manchester), and this year marks the first year that the towns have a combined middle school (previously Essex had their kids through 8th grade and then sent them to the high school). They've shoehorned the middle school into the old junior high wing, to which they've added on some "modular classrooms" (read: trailers). There are plans to build both new middle and high schools, but there are various issues holding things up (Manchester parents trying to minimize travel time to any possible school in Essex, and Essex residents trying to get beach rights in Manchester in return for such concessions).

The end result is that the school is pretty darn full, which makes traversing the hallways much more of a chore than in the past. And then there's lunch, which is more crowded and (I think) shorter than in my day. It was bedlam, really. Everyone really needs to suck it up and get some ground broken.

Anyway, as surreal as the day was at times, I am looking forward to going back tomorrow. Sarah thinks that I should venture into teaching full time, I'm still not sure. We'll see how it goes if I ever get in front of a live classroom.

As much as I enjoy using Blogger, the new navbar they let you use to have people search your blog content is really inelegant from an aesthetic perspective. From what I've seen, it just gets chunked on top of the page, covering the top part of the blog so you can't read what's under it. You think they'd work the code to have the bar fit in seamlessly on top and then start the blog. I imagine they'll fix that at some point, but until I see it fit in I'm not using it.

(Come to think of it, I've only seen it on Blogspot-hosted sites. Do you all get the choice to use it, or has it been thrust upon you?)

Blogging over the last week or so has been a little difficult, given that the site's been down. I kept up with it during the Olympics (though it may be of little interest now), but have taken most of this week off.

The problem, as I understand it, is that another site hosted on our server had a security issue, and the company in charge of things took the entire server down to check for problems and otherwise make sure it was secure to their satisfaction. Our original company got bought out, which from what I'm getting second-hand has been the start of our problems.

In any event, once you get to read this we'll he hosted elsewhere and will likely have a new domain name. That assumes the current jackasses actually allow us to get our files so we can transfer them over.

Not much new to report right now. Getting bored with home, especially as one of our neighbors in the next building over has a propensity for yelling. You've heard of indoor-outdoor carpet, she has indoor-outdoor voice. It is most often used when dealing with her son, who is like Dennis the Menace with a crew cut. He also has a little gang of friends, one of whom has a Razor scooter which sounds like it's about to lose a wheel. It's better now that school's back in session, but I hope they're going away for the long weekend.

(UPDATE: As you can see, I'm back. New host, new domain, which hopefully others will change their links to reflect in short order.)

I think I may have a problem - I find that I'm agreeing with Jimmy Roberts more often than not the last few days.

Take his Olympic Moment on the legacy of the Athens Games. His point - that the Games will mostly be remembered for going off smoothly when there was ample concern that they would not - has a solid ring of truth to it. When all was said and done, the Games went off better than expected.

I don't think they'll be seen as one of the classic Games, though. Solid for sure, but lacking that breakout character like Carl Lewis (or on the other end, Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards). Michael Phelps will continue to be pushed upon us for that role, but the immense hype that preceded the Games has, I think, worked against him. His medal total is still incredible, but after pushing the Spitz angle for so long, it makes his result seem something less than it was. That's unfortunate, but not unexpected give the way the US media works.

Speaking of which, NBC should get good marks for its area rug coverage. It's still not wall to wall, but it's a step in the right direction. The ADHD-influenced prime time coverage can go, certainly. Let's hope for Torino they give more consistent coverage of events rather than going from a heat in one event to a half of something else to a rotation of third event before going back to the first - but not before giving us some human interest.

And as much as TripleCast stands out as a joke, perhaps the time is coming where live event coverage with actual sports-oriented production could be provided on a PPV basis. Overkill, perhaps, but if you really like an event it'd be heaven.

In the tradition of James Dinan though, here are my five items for Making it Better: Olympic broadcasting.

1. Show the beach volleyball dancing girls. They were mentioned on-air and in other media, but we never got a chance to judge things on our own. I'm sure the Baron de Coubertin would be horrified, of course.

2. Make advertisers come up with at least 5 different spots. I'm pretty sick of Kristi Yamaguchi and Jonny Mosley pretending to diss their summer counterparts. I also now know that Bank of America processes 11 billion checks a year, and that to them it's about doing one check right and repeating that process 11 billion times.

3. See point number two regarding new fall season promotion. I will never watch an episode of Father of the Pride after seeing the same small rotation of promos for it (then again, I wasn't likely to tune in to begin with).

4. More long-form event coverage, especially in prime time, as I noted before. Let the drama of the events unfold rather than forcing it upon us.

5. A couple fewer US medal ceremonies, please. At one point I heard the Star Spangled Banner three times in something like 7 minutes. I'm not expecting that the coverage will become any less Americentric, but try to even it out at least.

There's a bit of a parallel between the US men's basketball team and the US 4 by 100 meter relay teams. Given the fairly late date for the US track and field qualifiers, you get the sense that the relays teams didn't have much time to run together. So while they didn't have to go through a couple dozen sprinters to get the team, they did try to do what hoops did - win gold without as much team preparation as they may have wanted.

There was a relay camp in Munich leading up to the Games, but clearly the exchanges could have used more work. Clearly, we don't have the same margin we used to in these relays.

While I've not been watching as much, I have also been noting the resurgence of the Red Sox, who are 16-4 in their last 20. They've cut their AL East defecit to 5.5 games, with six games against the Yankees (three here, three there) to come.

The Sox also have three games each against Texas, Oakland, and Anaheim left, which will start to clarify the wild card thing a bit (as will those three teams playing each other down the stretch).

It's good that I have something else to obsess about once the Olympics are over.

Oh yeah, the first major college football game is tomorrow, too. USC versus Virginia Tech. Good times.

Bad night to be Marion Jones, huh? Either falling short of a long jump medal or being involved in a dropped exchange in the 4 by 100 meter relay is bad enough. Both on the same nigh - ugh. You'd expect a reciept from BALCO to come to light just about now to finish her off.

But it's probably a bad night to be a US men's basketball team member, given that you now have to face Lithuania - who beat you earlier - to even get a medal. Regardless of how the bronze medal game turns out, you can be sure that the team members are going to be getting the business in arenas all across the NBA this season. Then again, given the number of players who passed on participating, there's precious few who can actually jaw with impunity.

I think I've seen all the sports but taekwondo now, so I'll have to seek that out. I've got a much greater appreciation for both modern pentathletes and equestrian competitors (human and equine) after watching some of both over the last couple of days. Freestyle dressage, however, may be the most unusual event I've seen during this entire Games. Picture, if you will, a horse prancing to a budget synthesized version of "Karma Chamelion" and you'll start to get my meaning.

And I say this after seeing both synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics over the last couple of days.

Louis Johnson, one of the color commentators for track, now has Tom Hammond Repetitive Announcing Syndrome. At one point tonight he said the exact same thing about a sprinter that Hammond had said about 8 seconds beforehand. Our attention spans aren't getting that short, are they?

Can we let this gymnastics thing die? The competition has been over for days, yet NBC is compelled to continue beating the dead horse. I know Paul Hamm's been taking a beating over the last couple of days, but was the 15 minute puff piece at the end of tonight's prime-time broadcast necessary? It's not like the American public needs the propaganda to change its image of him.

Which makes me wonder what sort of fluffy bit we'll get about the men's 200 meter sweep, to make up for the crowd's temporary hijacking of the event. Maybe we'll just get some sort of smug words about Kenteris, a la Al Trautwig's catty remarks after the Korean gymnast involved in the all-around kerfuffle messed up his individual high bar routine (along the lines of "Paul Hamm never did that.")

Tom Hammond speculated that part of the problem last night was that at least on Greek newspaper implied that the US was behind the whole Kenteris thing. That conventiently ignores the past issues with him making drug tests and his rather spotty appearances on the world track stage since Sydney, but given the current world climate regarding America, you have to figure some greater percentage than normal of regular people are willing to believe nonsense.

Speaking of nonsense, I'm more irritated by the Bush Olympic ad now that his campaign said it's not going to pull it. If I made an ad, and the people who I'm touting voice strong opinion against it, why would you keep running it? You've gotten your publicity, now act like you actually care about the folks whose country you've invaded.

Say hello to Athena and Phevos. They are the mascots for the Athens Olympics, and they're... interesting. I suppose a design based on ancient dolls is OK. Better than that animated owl from Clash of the Titans.

But not much better. While some locals have come around to liking them, they've been derided as looking like condoms or the result of a nuclear accident. An anti-Olympic group took the names, and then bombed a couple of government offices for good measure.

Like most things that turn out this way, it was created by committee, as strong an argument against groupthing as you'd need. You can back that up with Izzy, of course, the computer-generated Atlanta mascot who was so reviled that you saw very little of the thing when the Games actually took place.

Other Games, like Lillehammer and Nagano, had almost no obvious mascot presence (though not surprising when your mascots are a pair of 14th century Norwegian children and a quartet of snow-loving owls).

Not surprisingly, the last Olympic mascot to really catch the public's attention - Cobi, the dog-like mascot of Barcelona - was drawn in a matter of seconds by a Spanish artist who was reportedly under the influence of something when he doodled the eventual mascot (which bodes well for 2010 in Vancouver).

My favorite mascots? Probably Waldi, the daschund used for Munich (solely because it was a daschund) and Hodori, the male of the pair of tigers who were mascots for Seoul (come to think of it, I don't know if the female tiger was that widely used - I've only seen mentions in print).

Anyway, look for Athena and Phevos merchandise at your local Big Lots or Building 19 or liquidation store of you choice soon!

Here's a fun game when Olympic coverage starts to drag - try to find an American athlete who is sporting a visible Nike logo who is not also wearing a yellow Live Strong bracelet. They're out there, but rare.

Unfortunate trend recently noticed: "Born in the USA" being played when an American wins a gold. Heard this tonight in both beach volleyball and track. I fear the first time an Asian competitor is bested and has to hear the line about going to kill the yellow man.

It's been NAFTA night on NBC, as they've given some more in-depth coverage to Canadian diver Alexandre Despatie and Mexican sprinter Ana Guevara. Neither won gold, the ingrates. Dick Ebersol is firing off angry telegrams to their embassies as we speak.

All the "drama" around the men's gymnastics event finals pretty much confirms that gymnastics generally is my least favorite of the summer Olympic sports. I'm glad it's over, except for some "gala" that's being foisted upon us in prime time.

Not helping is that it's given fresh reasons for South Koreans and Russians to dislike the US, not that they needed any.

Two notes from the lighter side:

1. An American in the rifle competition just needed to hit his target to win gold. He mistakenly aimed at the target of another competitor. No medal for him. This isn't the lighter side, though.

The real lighter side is that the American who took silver in the competition did take off his olive wreath during the national anthem - the Chinese national anthem. I don't think anyone expected him to be that respectful.

2. In an early heat of the women's 200 meter dash, a Jamaican sprinter started in lane seven but finished in lane eight. It being Greece, she was not penalized for changing lanes without signaling. Everyone does it.

(Seriously, she didn't get a penalty because the lane was open and switching to it didn't confer any benefit to her - in fact, it probably added a little length to her run.)

I wasn't all that surprised by Paula Radcliffe's failure to finish the women's marathon today. While her results have been stupendous, she's only run in London and Chicago, both flat courses in cool climes. With 100 degree heat and hills that make Boston look flat by comparison, it'd almost have been more surprising if she had won. Look for her in 2008, though, as course designers come in to play rather than history.

Very surprising was the American medal, as marathoning here hasn't been world class since, well, Joan Benoit took the first women's Olympic marathon 20 years ago.

Speaking of which, kudos to NBC for their piece on the women's marathon prior to the race, and for covering the event live. The taped piece was well done and had some good historical context. The coverage was OK, but they really should have trucked in a crew from Boston - we know how to cover marathons on TV.

In vaguely related news, being in Maine this weekend subjected us to more Presidential campaign ads than we get in Massachusetts, and we saw an Olympic-themed one that Bush is running, about the growing number of worldwide democracies and how Afghanistan and Iraq are here thanks to him. It was vaguely irritating, in the gratutitous use of sports for political means sort of way.

Besides, given that an Afghan soldier interviewed for yesterday's Olympic Moment said he would kill his sister if she paraded herself around like one of the Afghan female athletes, there's clearly more work to be done in some corners.

And, surprising, I give props to Jimmy Roberts and crew for today's Olympic Moment on Pyrros Dimas, the Albanian-born Greek weightlifter who went for and missed a fourth straight gold medal in his weight class. These are the sorts of things these spots should cover, not more repetitive crap about overhyped American athletes.

Jimmy Roberts finally ventured into somewhat unfamiliar territory tonight, bringing us up to speed on the women Olympians from Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan while making some larger points on the status of women, in the Olympics (where they didn't get to compete in 1896, in case you'd forgotten from the last time it was mentioned) and generally.

As inoccuous as the piece was, two points came to mind watching it.

1. I don't think any of the NBC family of networks deigned to show any of the competitions where any of these women competed. If it wasn't for this moment, the opening ceremony would have been the only time we saw them (if even then).

2. There are several female US Olympians - May and Walsh, Jenny Thompson, and Amanda Beard are notable - who whenever they are mentioned by a studio host come up over their shoulder in what appears to be a glamor shot. Inge de Bruijn of The Netherlands, by comparison, looks like they just dragged her in from the pool. So we've got nationalism and sexism, kind of the Reese's Cup of socially questionable behavior - "you've got sexism in my nationalism!" and so forth.

In unrelated news, either Tom Hammond has short term memory problems or he thinks we do. He's a little too fond of repetition. When noting the finalists in women's pole vault, he reminded us twice within 3 minutes that no Americans were going. He also likes to remind us about 100 meter dash silver medalist Lauryn Williams' parents (divorced, she's an 8th grade teacher in Detroit, he's devoted to his daughter, and needs dialysis every other day related to a long-term case of leukemia).

From a color commentary volume perspective, there's a tight medal battle going between Carol Lewis (track), Rowdy Gaines (swimming), and Cynthia Potter (diving). I mean, they all do a good job, but don't need to be turned up to 11 to do so.

Merlene Ottey: the pride of Slovenia?

We were just watching the preliminary heats of the women's 100 meter run, and were surprised to see Ottey, the grande dame of Jamaican track, representing a slightly different country.

The NBC commentators didn't give much of an explanation (way to go, knuckleheads). Turns out that she'd been getting some treatment and coaching in Slovenia in the late 1990s, and when the Jamaican team started to try to ease her out for younger runners (Ottey is 44), she opted to move on. She became a Slovenian citizen a couple of years ago. She says she plans to run for Slovenia in the 2006 European championships, which suggests a certain lack of depth in the Slovenian track program at the shorter distances.

In the heat we saw, Ottey was flanked by Jamaicans. They finished 1-2, with Ottey finishing third. They all advanced to the semis.

I'm sure they're partying in Ljubljana.

Going back to yesterday's archery, the men's final involved a 41-year old Japanese contestant who took bronze in Los Angeles. I have to think that 20 years between medals is some sort of record. He took silver.

The coverage gave me a much greater appreciation for archery. The target is 70 meters (roughly 230 feet) away from the participants, and the center ring has the diameter of an orange. Each guy got 12 arrows in an alternate shot format, which makes for good, dramatic coverage. Makes me wish I'd stuck with archery the one time I tried it out at Scout camp.

Oh, we can knock off fencing from the list of sports not seen, as I caught chunks of the men's team sabre final. A tough competition for the US, falling a point short of both making the gold medal match and winning bronze.

As a televised sport, fencing is a little difficult given that it's not always easy to see the touches. I still enjoyed it.

Kudos to Yahoo! for adding a check box so you can filter Olympic results out of their home page. Kudos as well to Allyson for pointing this out to me.

I can now check archery off my list of unseen sports. It's on right now!

Quick hits for now.

* Having seen a fair bit of water polo now, I think it's time that we stopped letting California hog the sport to itself. I've yet to see a game that's not been entertaining, which is saying something for Olympic team sports.

* Is it me, or would the US men's hoops team be better off playing Lebron James and Amare Stoudamire more and Stephon Marbury and Richard Jefferson less?

* Along those lines, I don't know if this is strictly legal, but Larry Brown should fine any player who takes a shot from more than 12 feet away from the basket. Fines are doubled if you take a three pointer. It's hard to tell which has been more atrocious, the long distance shooting or the quarter-hearted "defense" that's marked most US games.

* Speaking of deciding between atrocities, I'm trying to decide which has been the worst moment by an in-studio personality: Pat O'Brien's stupid, borderline insensitive interview with sabre bronze medalist Sada Jacobsen, or Mary Carillo trying to milk humor from a horse passport required for horses to prove they meet quarantine laws ("So you're here for pleasure? Then why the long face, fella?").

Jimmy Roberts gets the lifetime achievement award here for his gauzy "Olympic Moments" which more often than not give further pointless coverage to people and topics previously beaten to death.

* I'll agree with the general consensus that the cable-based coverage has been solid. I would like to see more replays, though.

Not much for an Olympic report today - I was out most of the day, visiting former coworkers at Babson and going to the Red Sox game (more on that in a second). So instead, here's a list of the sports I've not seen yet:

Archery, though there's some gold medal action tomorrow on one of the channels from what I just heard.

Baseball, which I'll need to see before it gets dropped. I caught like one out of Cuba-Japan (I think it was Japan), but I'm not counting it.

Canoeing, on which I really have nothing to say.

Fencing, as I don't count the highlights of the women's individual sabre from yesterday. That's on somewhere tomorrow, too.

Modern Pentathlon, assuming there's going to be any coverage of it anyway.

Synchronized Swimming, which can stay on the list for all I care. But I know I'll wind up seeing some of it.

Taekwondo, wrestling, triathlon, none of which have started yet.

Track and field, as I didn't stay up until 2 am to see the shot put from Olympus and wasn't home to see a rebroadcast.

To the Sox game. The carmine hose put up a workmanlike 6-4 win on the Blue Jays, a game that moved swiftly until Keith Foulke decided to make things interesting in the ninth. We were standing in anticipation of the final out as Foulke was giving up runs on bloopers, and I mentioned to Sarah that perhaps we should sit down, as he got his first two outs easily when we were seated. As if they could hear me, large sections of people behind the plate did just that. So we sat down, too. Foulke got a pop out, game over.

Tonight marked the first big league start for Earl Snyder, just called up for Pawtucket. He was 0 for 3 going into the 8th, and upon taking the batter's box he got a huge standing ovation, the crowd doing everything in its part to will him to his first big league hit. I've never seen something like this before, and it was great to be a part of it. Thankfully, he was up to the challenge, stroking a nice single to left.

Sadly, third base coach Dale Sveum tried a little too hard to get him his first RBI, as he sent Bill Mueller. Given that the ball was out only about midway, he was a good 10 to 15 feet from the plate when the ball got there. He was stupendously out. Somewhere, Wendell Kim smiled.

A couple of firsts to note from Athens today.

The United Arab Emirates got their first gold ever, as Ahmed Al Maktoum won the double trap shooting event. That'll show those punks from the Great Outdoors Games.

The silver went to a shooter from India, which makes me wonder what sort of odds I could have gotten for that 1-2 in any sport.

Women's individual sabre fencing, a new event, brought the US its first fencing medal in something like 100 years. It surprisingly did not go to the American who is the world ranked number one; she finished third. Instead, a 19 year old woman who made the Olympics when a Nigerian fencer dropped out took the top prize, winning over a fencer from China. What little they showed of it on NBC primetime was fun to see, even if it did take me a second to realize that when a fencer's helmet lights up it means they scored the point. I was taking a lazer tag approach and figured they were the one getting touched.

Fencing is one of Bravo's sports, so keep your eyes peeled there.

I also found the first sport that I don't care to watch - sailing. There are like 20 tiny boats out there, and it's less play by play than longish recap. I slogged through half an hour of sailing early this morning in the hopes of seeing some judo or something, but couldn't stay awake. If I never see another Finn class boat again it won't bother me.

One of the problems with seeing the Olympics mostly on tape is avoiding results spoilers. NBC has been smart enough to put a "Spoiler Alert" tag on the screen when there's an interview that may give something away (though I wonder why they bother with such interviews, as it kind of cuts their own throats if people learn a result and decide to watch something else).

I'm finding it hard to avoid spoilers with Yahoo! as my home page, as they've taken to putting all the big results into main headlines. I could pretty much tell you how swimming and gymnastics went as of about 4 pm.

Yahoo! doesn't owe NBC anything to prevent this, but I do wonder if they may alienate users. I expect spoilers on the ESPN web site given its sports focus, and on news sites as they're news providers. I can avoid those if I really want to be surprised. I don't have the same choice if I want to use Yahoo!, even if it wasn't my home page.

I don't think it's going to cause a serious problem, but I'd be curious to see if Yahoo! gets fewer hits during than normal as people learn to stay away if they don't want to see results ahead of time.

I have very little to add in actual sports news, other than I got to see several pairs choke in the last round of the men's synchronized diving, including the US men who were in second. They wound up out of the medals, handing the Greeks a fairly unexpected gold. Much more entertaining than Olympic tennis.

If you could get a cheap flight, and don't mind perhaps sleeping in a public park, there are clearly plenty of good seats still available at the Olympics.

With all the hulabaloo about the venues getting done, actual ticket sales didn't get a lot of attention until now, and the numbers are a little frightening - some said that only 25% of all tickets were sold going into the opening ceremonies.

The issue came up last night during the men's gymnastics, as the lower deck was sparsely populated. Al Trautwig made several comments related to this, mostly aimed at noting that the upper deck was full. Bob Costas also noted that locals had stepped up over the last 2-3 weeks and bought more tickets.

Reasons for the slow sales are myriad, from August being a big vacation month for Athenians to terror concerns keeping some from making the trip. I'd have to think too that demand is much more for medal-round events and not so much for prelims. That would explain the half-dozen or so completely empty bleacher sections at the rowing venue yesterday. It just doesn't make it look any better.

Not sure how dire an issue this is, as with all the infrastructure improvements I don't think Greece was ever looking to make money off the Games. It may linger as part of their history, though, which would be unfortunate. No one wants to be the Unattended Games.

In other news:

* The US lost to Puerto Rico in men's basketball, which is more of an "upset" than an upset. Most folks seemed to think the US was primed for a loss. Just not to Puerto Rico.

If you missed the game, the US more or less checked out until the fourth quarter, and managed to get the lead down to 9 before it got bumped back out to the teens, where it was more often than not (at least when the lead wasn't 20-plus).

Clearly, there's a need for a national team for basketball. I don't know how many times we're going to slap together a bunch of guys before this becomes obvious.

* Iraq's men's soccer team won its second game, blanking Costa Rica 2-0. They played another good game, a little less physical than the Portugal match. They're through to the quarterfinals, which is well beyond anything expected for them.

* Sports watched today: sailing, judo, boxing, table tennis, badminton, softball, soccer, beach volleyball, basketball, weightlifting, cycling, equestrian, and indoor volleyball. As you can imagine, very little of this was seen (or presented) all the way through. Not sure if that'd good or bad.

A few quick postscripts for today:

* Men's gymnastics may be this Olympics' pairs figure skating. Apparently, the main judge for the high bar told the US team a couple of days ago that part of the routines of two gymnasts would be judged at a different point level than in the past - such as at the last world championships. Not sure if any other competitors were hurt by this (NBC's not said anything), but it seems odd.

* Picking up on Cooch's question as to this Olympics' breakout event, Bob Costas put forth badminton.

* I was sick of Michael Phelps before the Games even started. You can imagine where I am with him now.

* Sport that seems less dubious now: synchronized diving. Didn't see much of it from Sydney (not like I sought it out), but after seeing it the last couple of days I've got a much higher opinion. The coverage has been pretty good here, one of the few times the commentators and the technology come together to clearly illustrate what happened. Tune into this when volleyball isn't on.

While there's a good 20 hours of coverage left today (OK, maybe not, but it feels like it with 5 networks in play), here's my somewhat stupid Olympic story of the day:

Volleyball is cool.

Watching a couple of indoor matches today (Germany's surprise win over Cuba and the US loss to China), I remembered how much I like the sport. I've never taken to the beach variety for some reason, and it's hard to see the indoor one outside of Olympics or NCAA tournaments (which always seem to air on weekday afternoons on ESPN).

My one real solid memory of the first Goodwill Games (outside of motoball, soccer played on some sort of moped/dirtbike/motorcycle) was the volleyball tournaments, as I got to watch the bulk of them when not pumping gas (a job I had for about a year, was more fun than you'd think, mostly because the owners trusted me enough to let me work alone).

Along the lines of Olympic objectification, I do wonder why the US women's volleyball team doesn't get more of the Jennie Finch treatment, what with the being in shape and the long legs and all. None of them have quite the Barbie quality that Finch does, I suppose. It also helps that (a) Finch is dating some major leaguer whose name I can't remember, and (b) softball is likely to win gold, while volleyball likely won't medal at all.

That being said, watch more volleyball.

Today's Olympic story is the opening ceremonies. A Reuters article I'm reading now notes the "worldwide television audience" that saw the ceremonies, which is funny given that NBC's not airing it until tonight. It's like I'm reading news from the future.

I am interested to see who the final torch bearer is, but I'm not going to peek. I was going along with the idea of Kostas Kenteris, who won the 200 meter race in Sydney, but his current imbroglio (missed a drug test) may bump him. The next logical choice was Katerina Thanou, who took silver in the 100 meters in Sydney, but she's got the same problem as Kenteris.

Both runners have some history with being tough to track down for drug tests, and they were involved in a motorcycle accident hours after they were supposed to be tested (they'd asked for an extension for the test, claiming that they needed to get personal effects). It's a strange run of events, to be sure.

Add on to this that two players on the Greek baseball team (American citizens who qualified to play for Greece) were dropped from the squad for drug test violations. Not the best start for the hosts.

Assuming Kenteris and Thanou are out as final torch bearer, I wonder if Spiridon Louis has a great-great-great grandchild who could do the honors.

Given the lack of other stuff to write about (life being more or less in stasis currently), I'm going to take the next couple weeks or so to give you my Olympic story of the day. We'll actually start with yesterday, given that Olympic soccer has already started.

Yesterday saw the US women start their tournament with a 3-0 win over host Greece. More of a story for me was the 8-0 pounding that Germany put on China. China is right up there with both Germany and the US, making this blowout pretty surprising.

Japan's win over Sweden was pretty surprising, too, but it looks like that may be the order of the day in Olympic soccer this time around.

Today, the obvious story is the Iraq's 4-2 win over Portugal in the first day of men's soccer. Iraq outplayed Portugal, though the latter team was also snakebit by a shot each off a goalpost and the crossbar. Iraq's been playing well in regional Asian tournaments, and obviously did well enough to qualify here, so as much a surprise as the result is, it's not like the Iraqis got here on sympathy.

The upset opening game loss is becoming a habit for the Portuguese (dropped the 2002 World Cup opener to the US, the Euro '04 opener to Greece, and now this).

Furthering the wackiness: Mali and Ghana tied Mexico and Italy, respectively, in their opening games. Then again, African success in Olympic men's soccer is becoming something of a tradition. Nigeria took gold in Atlanta, while Cameroon (who Mali beat to get to Athens) won it in Sydney.

Back from a weekend in the Detroit area, where I got to play some trash (after a strong undefeated start I took the collar three times to finish fourth) and see the Red Sox play the Tigers, marking the first Sox win I've seen outside of Fenway (it being only the second time I've seen them play outside of Fenway, though).

If yesterday's game had happened last year - where the pitching staff gives up a half-dozen dingers and yet the team still wins - we'd have seen it as another sign from Providence (not the one in Rhode Island) that the Sox were destined. This year, though, it's another reminder of the team's inconsistency.

Not much else to report, other than that the Airport station on the T's Blue Line is light years better than the old one, and that the T is run by idiots. When you can't access automated commuter rail schedule information because it's after office hours, you are run by idiots.

For anyone looking for some fantasy action on the Olympics, ESPN.com is running their challenge game. You pick five countries and get points based on the medals they win (3 points for gold, 2 for silver, 1 for bronze) times a multiplier based on the country's athletic prowess (for example, the US would have to win 25 gold medals to make up a single bronze by, say, Nauru).

If you're interested, I've set up a group:

Name: Baklava and Badminton
Password: opa

I am looking forward to NBC's wall to wall coverage, inasmuch as there will be ways to see things live and that don't necessarily involve Americans. I am looking less forward to their usual cornucopia of tape-delayed prime time coverage.

And we're back. As you may have noticed, the entire Gerbil family was incommunicado for a few days. Turns out that the servers that host us got caught up in some sort of power outage in south Florida and didn't get back on-line until today.

Not that I've had a great deal going on. The weekend was marked by a couple trips to the mall for odds and ends and taking in The Village, which was pretty good (though I kind of anticipated the ending, which I usually don't do with movies like this). On the preview front, saw one for The Aviator, with Leo DeCaprio playing a young Howard Hughes (sadly, Leo will not be playing the collecting-urine-in-jars Hughes). Also one for The Incredibles, a Pixar offering about a family of superheroes. Been to the movies enough that the rest of the previews were ones I'd seen before... I think. In the back of my head there was one other new one, but I've forgotten what it may have been.

Sunday night I had a continuation of a "you can't go home again" moment. When I was growing up, we (my mom and some subset of the kids) would go shopping in north Beverly quite a bit. Needless to say, it's quite different now. The supermarket moved over to where the regional discount chain store used to be, a Staples is moving in where the supermarket used to be, and the Papa Gino's, which I can't even count how many times I ate at or got pizza from, is closed. God help us if it becomes a Starbucks.

Well, the Sox have done it. They've traded Nomar.

As you may have seen by now, the Sox were part of a four team deal that (in part) sent Nomar to the Cubs. At one point this was part of the plan of bringing the Big Unit to Beantown (he's now staying in Arizona, which is fine by me). Instead, we've now gained Orlando Cabrera from the Expos and Doug Mientkiewicz from the Twins (I don't expect he'll be in the Sox lineup tonight).

I suppose I should be happy that the Sox got something of value for Nomar, rather than letting him go via free agency. But there's a mental block about getting rid of Nomar, an iconic player and the first of the first-name only Sox (though I figure Dougie may join Pedro and Manny in that group, if only so people don't have to attempt his last name).

But I do worry about this actually solving the Sox problems. Nomar's been hitting the ball well for a team that's not had a lot of punch. Cabrera's not going to help there. And it does nothing to address the pitching situation, meaning that the Sox may still be aiming for an October run on the arms of Derek Lowe and Bronson Arroyo (not to mention some of the more frightening bullpen denizens). Yikes.

Then there's the Carleton Fisk thing, where the team loses/gets rid of a well-liked player and enters a down period. The Sox are more willing to spend to get talent now, but I still fear that the Sox won't return to the playoffs until 2011 or so. One bitten, twice shy I suppose.

I'll miss the calls of "Nomahhhhhhhhh!" at Fenway.

Sarah's been seeing more obvious security the last couple of mornings, including visible weapons. Probably not surprising given Kerry's arrival. Even so, her trip doesn't seem to be taking any longer (outside of the Beverly-Salem drawbridge being stuck open yesterday, which I don't even think Anne Coulter would blame on the convention).

We also had our first significant protesting today, not sure about what. It didn't seem that big (though an American flag did get torched), and the police moved in and took care of business. My guess is that the protesting will focus on NYC, though with the sitting President being there I'd have to guess the security perimiter reaches out into New Jersey.

Not much else going on with me. Next week is some sort of local civic celebration, and there's a Scrabble tournament at the library. I'd been mulling it, but it's $15 to enter. I'm a little gun shy about tournament Scrabble after reading Word Freak, especially when I may need that money for bills and such. There is a regular Scrabble club at the library, so maybe I'll check that out. I didn't think I could be more of a dork, but there you are. I'd be much better off following Greg's lead into reasonable physical pursuits, but there doesn't seem to be much call for curling or fencing up here.

Though after watching this year's Great Outdoor Games, I was half-tempted to take up shooting. I don't think I could do skeet, but the target stuff looks cool.

My trip into Boston today was, from a transportation point of view, anti-climactic.  Both trips took under an hour, helped no doubt by my not traveling during peak times.  Security was present in some areas (didn't see any at the Beverly depot), but I don't think I drew more than a cursory glance.  I did a little better in the swag department than Sarah, as I got a free T token (taped to a flier from a mortgage company) and free passes on a gambling cruise out of Gloucester. 

Security was much more obvious once I got into Boston.  One of the first sights present when I surfaced at Government Center was a gaggle of MPs.  There was a very visible presence by the US Park Police in the Faneuil Hall/Quincy Market area.  One thing I found interesting was the ring of metal barriers around Faneuil Hall, every third or fourth one bearing a small paper sign reassuring me that the shops in the hall were still open. 

MSNBC had a tent set up on the south side of Quincy Market, which drew a crowd.  I saw one guy being interviewed by a Japanese camera crew, and another guy in a W mask (but wearing several pro-Kerry pins) got his face time, too.  The opposition was represented, too, but by two guys in their early 20s bearing homemade signs.  One of the guys was wearing a visor backwards and slightly askew, a look that always makes me want to slap the wearer.  I hope they aren't on the campaign payroll.

Anyway, there is a definite security presence, but I didn't feel too locked down.  Then again, I didn't try to get too close to the Fleet Center.

The crowds weren't too bad, either.  Lots of convention types (or at least people wearing what looked like credentials, so some of them were likely media) and locals, of course.  According to Sarah, the local action news folks (WHDH, channel 7) had some story on their news today talking about how there were fewer people in Boston this week as compared to last week, and that the convention folks overstated the problems with coming into town.  Sarah and I both thought that actually was the point of what they've been saying for the last 6 months - to get people to stay away if they didn't have to go into Boston.

That being said, it was hardly a ghost town. 

I won't go too far in depth into the interview.  I don't think it went all that well, but as it's my first interview outside of higher education in some time, my antennae may not be fully calibrated.  That being said, I don't expect my call next week will be of the hiring kind.

On the way back home, I could swear there was a guy on the T who I knew somewhat from BU going back to my senior year doing data entry for the physical plant office.  I don't think he's worked at BU for a good 10 years, but I swear I see him from time to time.  It's not like we were tight, so I don't feel compelled to make a re-introduction, but it's funny that someone on that sort of tangent continues to make an appearance, even if it's of my own making.

Sarah, who's just getting used to the commute to Boston, got her first go-round of convention commuting yesterday.  For those of us living up here, we have to take the train to Lynn, get a shuttle bus to the Wonderland T stop in Revere, and then take the subway.  Her report from day one was that getting in was pretty easy (outside of having to get in for a this week only 7 am start time), but getting out was a little more hectic.  She did note that there was an abundance of signage and helpful people, and that there were snacks provided.

She also got a boosterish pack of stuff touting Lynn, though it'd take more than a stress ball and a pen to get me to move there.

As for the convention itself, I don't expect that I'll watch too much of it.  After growing up reading about conventions that took 30+ votes to name a candidate, or where delegations were involving in seating crises, the current stage-managed excuse to party for a week doesn't do much for me. 

Of greater interest is the resurgence of the Red Sox, who are showing some signs of life.  How funny would it be if A-Rod, through his part in the brawl, got the Sox back on track?

Finally, a post from home.

We actually had the computer set up a couple of days ago, but we had a problem with the phone line.  While my call to Verizon suggested an outside problem, turns out the culprit was a bad phone jack in the kitchen.  I was surprised that something like this could take down all of our phones, but what I know about telephony would fit in a gnat's hat box.

In any event, dial-up is actually going pretty well.  I'm patient enough to wait the time it takes, but probably not patient enough if it took much longer.  I think about when I used to dial up from Manchester using the 28.8 on my old Mac Classic - I'm not sure how I didn't snap.  I also got very used to using that text-based Web browser - Lynx?  I hope it's enjoying its time at the old tech rest home; it's probably got the upper bunk rooming with Mosaic.

Sarah and I went to see The Bourne Supremacy, and it was pretty much what you'd expect.  Probably less loud than the first one, but I think it made up for the change in volume with even more jerky camera motion.  I thought we were over that.  In any event, it was nice to see Joan Allen again, though I wish her role had more personality.  Then again, you could say that about pretty much all the characters in the movie.

Previews were a mixed bag.  There was one for Ocean's 12, but no footage - just a date and a promise that everyone will be back (along with Catherine Zeta-Jones, which is vaguely worrisome).  Julianne Moore will apparently extend the unfortunate string of movies where she remains fully clothed with The Forgotten, where lives are rewritten for some nefarious purpose. 

I also think I may have a problem, as I felt way too positive about Ray, a Ray Charles biopic starring Jamie Foxx.  He's got the look down, I'll say that. 

Oh, there was also a preview for a movie called Cellular, where a kidnapped Kim Basinger gets help by calling some guy on a cell phone.  They don't seem to know each other; I'm wondering why she didn't just call 911 or get the operator.  I know, that wouldn't be much of a movie.

Let's see, what else?  I've watched a goodly portion of the Tour de France, and I think if Lance can hold the team together he could win next year, too (he'd also need Discovery to maintain the high level of funding that Postal gives, to help with the tech and pay salaries).  I don't think that'll happen - talk is that Floyd Landis is gone after this year.  As strong as Lance is, he may not be giving up the reins any time soon, so it's probably for the best. 

Job front is going pretty slow, though I have a second interview for a job next week.  In Boston.  During the convention.  I think if I show up on time I should get the job just for working out the logistics right.  More on this as it becomes available.

 

Back at the library again, though I hope to be addressing you from a home computer in the next day or so.  Unpacking what used to be our back room (which will hopefully rise again in a less chaotic version in our front room) is going slowly.  Admittedly I could be working harder at it; heck, I could be doing it right now rather than taking the time to walk over to the library (at least it's a short walk).

For the time being we've spurned high speed connections from Comcast or Verizon, due in large part to cost.  The sticker shock is pretty bad, especially as we've gotten very used to free high speed access from whatever campus we were living on at the time.  Dial-up didn't seem to do too badly during our brief stint with it in 2001, so we'll see how this goes.

We did get digital cable, which is OK.  Early returns suggest that I like the dish better, or at least the dish interface (the TV Guide-sponsored thing is clunky).  The "On Demand" feature isn't too bad.  I've actually gotten to watch episodes of Beat the Geeks and Monty Python this way. 

Phone and mail are in line as well, so we're slowly moving towards normalcy.  Sarah's commute is even going well, though that'll be shot to hell next week by the convention. 

The job thing could be going better, and hopefully will perk up once we get settled.  I was supposed to have a second interview for a job this week, but haven't heard from them.  Sent an email to get an update; I just hope they don't try to have me come in to Boston during the madness.  The travel may last longer than the interview.

Greetings from the Beverly Public Library in Beverly, Massachusetts, where Sarah and I are in the process of setting up housekeeping (or apartmentkeeping, if you want to be more precise).  We moved on Friday, a process that went better than expected, if you measure by the number of expletives used (very low compared to the move to Babson).  Special thanks to Shawn DeVeau for his help in loading the truck!
 
We live downtown, which is pretty convenient.  We're in walking distance to pretty much everything we need outside of a supermarket, which is a pretty short drive.  Parking is ample (there's a municipal lot across the street where you get 4 hours for a quarter) and we're about a block off from police and fire.  There's also about a half-dozen salon-type places in walking distance (the number of such places per person seems really high).  So we did pretty well with location, I think.
 
The apartment itself is a floor in a Victorian, has a few things that need fixing but nothing major.  The one serious issue is storage - no real closet space and very little counter space in the kitchen area.  We'll work through it.
 
Unpacking will dominate this week, which should be fun.  As much as I hate moves, this one went pretty well.

Quick TV notes:

* Caught the first two episodes of I Love the '90s and it was OK, but not as good as the editions for the previous decades. Not sure if it's too recent, that we've already applied irony while living in the '90s so the ironic comments weren't surprising, or if the formula is just getting old. There's no Donal Louge, either, which is unfortunate. But it's OK.

* As much as I like that ESPN is showing other events besides no limit Texas hold 'em for its 2004 World Series of Poker coverage, did we really need a countdown clock to new episodes during PTI?

* Speaking of PTI, Kornheiser and Wilbon need to give Ken Jennings more dap. Perhaps they should get his face into the background?

* Caught the 2 hour premiere of The 4400 on USA, and it was OK. The premise: 4400 people, missing from the 1940s on, are dropped off by Mount Rainer one day by a big ball of somethin'. Our heroes, a rogue Homeland Security agent and a CDC staffer (let's call them Mullder and Skully), try to get to the bottom of where these people were and what the deal is with their somewhat altered being (such as the kid who apparently has a life and death giving touch).

For basic cable, it's not too bad. Peter Coyote plays the regional DHS head, while Michael Moriarity plays one of the 4400 who, like the Hulk, isn't easy to love when he's angry (though in this case he doesn't turn into Lou Ferrigno or turn green or wind up only in part of his pants).

It's on Sunday at 9 or 10 (can't remember), which is dead time enough to keep giving it a look - for now.

Got a reply today from the DNCC about credentials to the convention: thanks, but no. No mention of who did get them, but you have to figure that the usual suspects are involved.

Sorry to say that our moose has been caught. She was tranqulized in Framingham this morning, loaded into a truck, and driven to New Hampshire. While it's likely a better location, I enjoyed having a moose in the neighborhood, so to speak.

OK, time to solicit some help from the public, though Boggie may be the one person Mac savvy enough to help.

I've got things set up such that I should be able to record my tapes to make MP3 files. I have the line in from the stereo to the iMic, which is connected to the computer via USB. According to the sound control panel, there is a signal going into the computer; the meter moves up and down as I turn the volume up or down.

The problem is that the signal never gets to the recording program, either the one that came with the iMic or iMovie, which can record sound. I also don't get music through the output jack in the iMic, though I do get computer sounds.

The iMic does show up as an input and output device, and it shows up in the system window the iMic people tell me to check to make sure it's being read. So I'm a little confused as to what the problem is. Suggestions are more than welcome.

Sarah pointed something interesting out to me while we were at the mall today: the logo on the Pottery Barn Kids bag (and one that they use at the entry of their store) is a child with a lampshade where their head should go. As much as that store is about conspicuous consumption, I didn't think they'd flout the point so clearly. Perhaps having enough money to shop there dulls the higher faculties?

I've been mulling this Kerry-Edwards thing, and I'd like to make three points.

1. All harping on experience is trumped by two words: Dan Quayle. I know, the argument is that in these heigtened times we need someone with experience in case they become President. But if Dan Quayle could be a heartbeat away during the fall of the Soviet Union and the first Gulf War, anyone can.

2. Let's go easy on the insider rhetoric. Our governor, Mitt Romney, took this tack rather than the experience route, saying that Edwards is an insider's choice, even with his lone term in the Senate. Given that the sitting President is the third generation of America's reigning political dynasty (Neil Bush notwithstanding), Romney may want to tread lightly in pursuing this line of attack. My guess is he'll fall in line with the inexperience argument, so this may not be that big a deal.

3. The 'trial lawyer' thing may not work so well, either. OK, it will in some circles. Doctors, for example. But this may not be the best time for a couple of oilmen (especially Cheney, given the trouble Halliburton got into over in Iraq) to dig at someone else's career path. I suppose doctors can contribute more money to a candidate than the average person, but there are a lot more average people who get pissed off by gas prices over $2 a gallon. That does seem to be slackening, but if the prices crest again after Labor Day, look out.

I also question Kerry's assumption about his ticket having the best hair. They clearly win on quantity, but I don't know if the Kramer-inspired pompadour that Kerry sports is anything to write home about.

So what's been going on the last few days?

Yesterday we did our movie-going duty and saw Spider-Man 2. Liked it, especially as it focused more on the mental or psychological aspects of things (or ast least as much focus as you get from a summer blockbuster). Thought Alfred Molina did a nice job as Dr. Octopus.

On the 4th we did our usual, going up to Manchester for the parade and then to my sister's (using her pool while her family was away). The parade was much better content-wise than in the past, good number of bands and even some interesting floats. But it continues to have large delays, either in the "intermission" variety where you have 5-10 minutes between seeing things, or the thing just stops for a similar stretch of time.

I had hoped to see some of my high school classmates, but the impromptu trip to my sister's put the kibosh on that.

For those of you who were at the wedding, you may remember Dean Burgess, an old friend from Manchester who was the groomsman who wasn't my brother or Shawn DeVeau. Saw him at the parade and learned that he'd just gotten engaged, which was fantastic news!

On the 3rd we honored America in a somewhat dorky way by taking in parts of the Minute Man National Park, which runs through sections of Concord, Lincoln, and Lexington. We saw the North Bridge, where colonials turned back the Brits and started the retreat under fire that went pretty much all the way to Boston. We also got to see some of the colonal buildings that were involved in that retreat along the Bay Road.

Walking that part of the road was probably the most amazing part of the visit, as you get a real sense of just how closely fought this thing was. The road itself is about 8 feet wide at best, and at the time would have been open farmland (there are a lot of trees and other growth now). Also pretty amazing to think that this dirt path was, at the time, the main link to New York.

Thinking about dodgeball, we actually played that game under a different name when I was in elementary school: bombardment. Dodgeball, for us, had everyone playing for themselves without any lines. You ran around the gym, were out if you got hit, and got someone out if you caught their throw. Even more diabolical was elimination, where a caught ball allowed anyone who was put out by the thrower to get back into the game. We often went entire recesses without finishing a game.

Then again, this is the part of the country where after bombardment we'd get a drink from the bubbler, or maybe a tonic at home. We also called suitcases Swedish lunchboxes, back then in nineteen-dickety-two. Damn the Kaiser.

If you've not seen Dodgeball yet, you are hereby ordered to go see it. I'll agree with the comments made by others, it's much funnier than you'd think. It's also got some good cameos and other unexpected bits. I'll also say that I now want to work for either "The Ocho" or Obscure Sports Quarterly.

As for previews:

Without A Paddle, some sort of buddy/adventure movie with Seth Green, Matthew Lillard, and a guy I've never heard of before. Pass.

Seed of Chucky, a movie that I hope cost someone their job.

Alien v. Predator, no thanks, though fans of the original films, the game, or CGI geeks will probably like it.

I, Robot, which I bet has more vehicle chases than Isaac Asimov put in the book.

Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle, which gets props for using White Castle. I'm clearly in the wrong demographic for this movie.

While in line to get a soda one of the TVs had a preview for an Anaconda sequel (Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid), which seems like the definition of strinking while the iron is stone cold and stored in the closet. It's probably from the folks who brought us Analyze That and that sequel to The Mask that keeps getting bumped back (release now slated for February '05).

OK, so much for the semis, as I'd have probably called both games wrong. Given that the Greeks continue to surprise, I'm going with them for the final. They seem to have a knack for getting the timely goal.

After going 3 for 4 for the Euro 2004 quarters (missing Greece's upset of France), I passed on the semis. I thus missed calling host Portugal's win over the Dutch (though I'm not sure I'd have actually called it) and predicting midnight for Greece against the Czechs (which I'll still put out there, as they're currently 0-0 at half).

Returning home from errands last night, we encountered several police cars and officers in the street. This is a pretty unusual display for Wellesley. What sparked it? Well, it wasn't a home invader or a gang of punk teens.

It was a moose.

A year-old moose wandered into town sometime yesterday, apparently following a water source (the Charles, they think) and separated from its mom. It wasn't too agitated, but considering that even a young moose weighs a quarter ton there was some concern about the moose getting in front of oncoming traffic. The moose decided to put that concern to the test by crossing Route 9 (divided highway, 2 lanes each way, speed limit averages 45 mph but actual speeds are more like bigger highways), and thankfully didn't get hit. The police did shut the road down for a while, thinking it might cross back. Instead, it wandered into Natick and found a pond to swim in.

The plan, as far as I can tell, is to tranquilize the moose and transport it to more moose-friendly environs. Also as far as I can tell, this hasn't happened yet. Now if someone could just tie the moose to al-Qaeda, it'd be off the streets by lunchtime. Though I can't imagine a moose would do well with the heat at Camp X-Ray.

In case you've missed it (and haven't seen the SI or ESPN the Magazine covers, the Tour de France starts this Saturday. Live daily coverage is available on the Outdoor Life Network (or you can tune into expanded coverage during prime time if you're unlike me and have a job). Do yourself a favor and watch this rather than the CBS weekend coverage, which compresses an entire week of racing into part of an afternoon.

Anyone seeking further information can check out Bob Roll's Tour de France Companion. I'd have liked it to be more about this year's race specifically, but it's a good primer for anyone who has no or a basic understanding of how the race works. The historical information is also good for context, especially when talking about how that history continues to impact the race.

In a typical move for me, I did some checking around today to see what it would take to convert songs on cassettes to mp3 files (considering that a not insignificant number of my tapes aren't available on CD right now). Turns out there's an inexpensive USB device that would allow me to connect a tape player to the computer, and with the right software it looks like it'll work pretty well. Had I only thought of this a few months ago when I knew I'd be moving.

Finally, we're done with the first part of our move. The bulk of our stuff sits in storage, while the rest is in our temporary quarters in one of Babson's grad housing apartments. It's a little light on furniture (it was a staff apartment, and the previous resident had mostly her own stuff), but it'll do.

Given how much of our stuff is already in a box or bag I'm hoping the actualy move will go pretty smoothly. That's probably a pipe dream, but hope will spring etermal until reality crashes in.

As part of our tying up loose ends today, we took our change bottle (a 2 liter soda bottle) to the Coinstar machine in the supermarket (my distaste for rolling coins outweighing their fee). We had a lot of change, earning over $60, even after taking out the fee.

Of course, we had our share of rejected coins. Some were understandable, like the usual collection of Canadian coins. I think, though, that someone who went before us didn't check the returned coin slot. That's the only way I can explain how we got a Canadian $2 coin. They're a little big for the bottleneck.

Also represented in coins we brought back:

Aruba
Trinidad and Tobago
The Netherlands
Cayman Islands
France (a half-franc coin; the only Euro money we got was a 5 cent piece with the Greek logo on it)
Bermuda
Ecuador
Ireland (1p)
Jamaica (whose 5 cent piece has Marcus Garvey on it)
Great Britain
East Caribbean States (some sort of British dependency whose 5 cent piece is this wavy-shaped thing)

There are also several Asian coins that I can't place, though I think more than one country is represented. There is also a Middle Eastern country represented, as the script on the coin looks like Arabic. One of the sides has an ear of corn on it, though, so perhaps I'm not seeing it well.

We also wound up with a New York City transit token and a 1943 steel US penny.

We are mostly done with the first phase of our move, which entails putting most of out stuff in storage for 2-3 weeks before we move it to the final destination. Thankfully, that storage is free, as my boss and the director of my old office were able to arrange the use of a room in this building. That's been incredibly helpful. It'd be even better if we had less stuff.

Kind of a funny thing from this morning. We drove into Brookline to do some errands, with our first stop at the post office on Beacon Street. We get close and start looking for spots, and there are two right next to it, but they're marked no parking for Saturday mornings. We find this odd, but pull in to do a drop off rather than park.

It wasn't until I'd gotten out of the car that I realized why there was no parking - the spaces are in front of a clinic that is regularly picketed on Saturday mornings by anti-abortion activists (around here that generally means Catholic church groups, who are less in your face but use similarly graphic signs, etc.). If memory serves there's some sort of law (fed or state, can't remember) about how close you can park to a clinic.

In any case I was left alone (being an unlikely abortion candidate), not like when we used to walk by the Planned Parenthood on Comm Ave en route to Star Market. It got so I'd just start pointing at the market when we got within protester range.

Living out in the 'burbs, I'd forgotten all about this protesting stuff. The folks out here are too busy taking up both lanes on Route 9 in their Lexus SUV (an encounter we had on our way to Brookline; I even got to honk the horn).

While not an Illinoisan, I'd have to say I don't think I'd have voted for Jack Ryan even without the scandal. It's not so much his politics (which I know nothing of outside of the fact that he was running as a Republican), as it is that he messed up being able to, uh, "snuggle" with Jeri Ryan on a regular basis. That would be enough for most folks, wouldn't it?

I know Dwight's on vacation, but I'd like to start the Fraught Watch now on the upcoming Spears-Federline nuptuals. In case you missed it, Britney is engaged to her current beau, Kevin Federline. You knew it was going to be true love when they got dice tattoos (hers are pink, his blue, of course).

The future Mrs. Federline will also be a stepmom to his two kids, one of which is still in utero. The future Mr. Spears may also owe Chris Judd some money for using his patented system for marrying up.

I don't mind aging - not that much, anyway - but while packing I keep running across old pictures of myself. I don't think I need so many reminders of the hair I've lost or the middle I've gained. This peaked when I ran across my old ID from freshman year, a picture taken during summer orientation when I was tan on top of everything else. Sigh.

One from the where are they now files: while watching CFL coverage on NESN tonight, former World Bowl MVP Yo Murphy caught a TD for Ottawa as they defeated the Toronto Argonauts at a rainy Frank Clair Stadium. Looks like he's getting off to a good start, as are the Renegades, who are 2-0.

No Latvia in the second round of Euro 2004 - they lost to the Netherlands. There'll also be no Germany, as they lost to the Czechs. Your quarterfinal matchups:

Portugal v. England - An interesting matchup, as both teams overcame disheartening first game losses (to Greece and France, respectively) to qualify. I'm going to go with the hosts by a whisker, mostly because they're the hosts.

Sweden v. Netherlands - The Dutch seem to be peaking a little bit more than Sweden, who blasted Bulgaria and then put up two draws to win the pool. So I'll go with them.

France v. Greece - The French should win, but I'm going to be pulling for the Greeks.

Denmark v. Czech Republic - The Czechs were the only team to put up a 3-0-0 record in prelims, and did so in a tough group. I think they'll prevail, though I'm pulling for a 1992 repeat for the Danes.

Denmark made it to the second round of Euro 2004 yesterday by tying Sweden 2-2. Italy beat Bulgaria 2-1, leaving all but the Bulgarians with 5 points. Italy finished third based on goal differential and get to go home, the most surprising non-qualifier yet (Spain doesn't count, as their m.o. pretty much requires an early exit). For their troubles, the Danes will get to play the Czechs, who have already won group D.

Speaking of which, Latvia can move on if they beat the Netherlands and Germany fails to beat the Czechs. It's not as unlikely as it sounds, but it'd be pretty surprising if it happened.

While channel surfing this morning before Perry Mason (OK, I like old cop and lawyer shows), I ran across the video for "Jesus Walks" by Kanye West. The song's been in my head all day. One of the pitfalls of unemployment.

I just spent the last 5 minutes watching CSPAN, as reps from Ohio and California went about the nation's business by discussing a resolution congratulating the Kenyon College men's swimming and diving team on their most recent national title. I know this sort of stuff happens regularly, but you can't appreciate its surreal quality until you watch it live.

Adding to the feeling was that the California rep actually said something along the lines of "I yield myself as much time as I may consume." I don't know what I like better - the self-yielding or the idea that she eats time.

Started packing in earnest today, and have come to the conclusion that we have too many books. There will be no book blowout, though. That being said, still plenty of tapes available for the asking.

Thought it was funny to see the ads on ESPN today for their 2004 World Series of Poker coverage. It starts in July, 2 or 3 months after the thing wrapped. I suppose if people keep watching their 2003 WSOP shows there's no need to be timely or to rush. It reminds me of when CBS used to show NCAA championship games in sports like lacrosse and track well after they were actually played. I wonder how many people got suckered into bets on those?

Kudos to NESN, who is now showing CFL broadcasts. They had Ottawa-Winnipeg on the other night, and have the Hamilton-BC game on right now. It's tape from last night, but given the coverage we had before - none - this is a nice change.

On the eve of starting a series with the Red Sox, Barry Bonds noted that he'd be happy to end his career in the AL - except not in Boston, which is "too racist" from what he's heard from his dad and some unnamed group of "guys."

I'd like to say that, based on what I've heard from my own set of "guys" I think Barry Bonds is an idiot, and it doesn't seem to be changing nowhere.

Oh, I may have been a little abrupt in writing off Latvia, as they tied Germany in their Euro 2004 game today. It's still an uphill road - Latvia has to play the Netherlands next - but they've got a little light left. Moreso than Bulgaria and Russia, at least. They both look done.

We were in Target this morning and had our first sighting of Coke's new C2, on sale by the registers. Of course, I grabbed a bottle.

Let's just say if C2 is what it means to be low-carb, I'm sticking to pasta. Coke cut the calories and sugar by using aspartame, acesulfame potassium, and sucralose (known commercially as Splenda) to sweeten. Something in that combo, though, left me with a bit of an aftertaste, a sour-soapy flavor that, while not strong, wasn't particularly what I was looking for.

Suffice it to say that I won't be trying it again. If I want to cut carbs, I'll just go straight to diet soda or water, thanks.

I've not been able to watch any of Euro 2004 (don't have digital cable for the PPV package, and the Spanish language stations don't seem to be airing games), but I've found my rooting interest: Denmark.

Not sure why, exactly. I think it comes from a country of 5.5 million doing so well on an international stage. They look like they'll go on to the next round (they play Sweden next, and both can advance with a draw, though Denmark's +2 goal differential isn't that strong considering the Azzuri will play Bulgaria). They've also gone past the first round of the last two World Cups. They even won Euro 1992. So I figure I'll go with them. They seem to be a better shot than Latvia, who's in the same group as the Netherlands, Germany, and the Czechs. Thanks for nothing there.

To wrap this item up, the Lady Hornets did not prevail in the state tennis finals yesterday, dropping the match 3-2 to a school whose name I can't remember. Another great season, though.

In a completely unrelated announcement, the impending move necessitates a bit of pruning. Part of that will be paring down my tape collection, which stands at somewhere over 400 titles. Considering how infrequently I listen to it, it can stand a winnowing. I'll probably hold on to stuff that's out of print (which, to allay the fears of one reader in particular, is not that large a percentage of the total), but the rest is up for grabs.

I'll be trying to sell some of the more coherent parts of the collection on eBay, but am more than willing to give away tapes as well. To that end, you can browse titles at Mark's Tape Blowout!, which will list what I have. It is also conveniently linked at left.

You want something, email me. That simple.

The Manchester-Essex girls tennis team did prevail over Cohasset, and for more than the tangential revenge I mentioned. Turns out that in the same spot last year, Cohasset beat the Lady Hornets en route to the title. Hopefully this table-turning will lead to similar results.

Today is my last day at Babson in an official capacity, though I'll be around campus for a couple of weeks preparing to move and such. My last official act as an employee, believe it or not, was playing for the student affairs softball team in a game against the athletic department. In true softball fashion, we gave up five runs at the top of the first, but scored six in the bottom half of the frame. We wound up winning 15-10 or something like that.

I had my first good game in about 3 years, going 2-3 with a run scored (though I don't think I got the RBI from my first ups, when I reached on an error). So that was nice.

On my first day of unemployment my former co-workers are taking me out to lunch and for a round of miniature golf. That will be followed by several days of putting things in boxes and, hopefully, interviewing.

Various parts of my high school and current lives are intersecting today, as the girls' tennis team from my high school is taking on Cohasset in the state semifinals right here in Wellesley. The last time I remember us playing Cohasset in anything was my junior year in high school, when we went down there to play them in football and lost. Perhaps we can get some tangentially-related revenge - if the weather holds out.

Sarah and I went to see the latest Harry Potter movie last night, and we liked it very much. I would agree with all the points that John Heaton made on the film (or at least the ones that would be more likely for someone who's read the first three books once).

Today we went looking at apartments, and found one that we liked much more than the other ones we saw. We'll see how it goes.

During our travels, though, we did see something that will get a reaction out of you BU types who are of an age more like mine than not: the Sesquientennial double-decker bus! For those of you who never saw it, BU obtained a double decker bus that they incorporated into their 150th anniversary celebration. The last I knew of it it was full of information on US presidents and touring local schools.

Now, it sits in a small lot in Beverly. And it doesn't look like it'll be moving soon, given that it's missing most if its nose.

I'm no expert on state funeral etiquette, but I do feel pretty confident that the woman sitting between Justices Rhenquist and Souter shouldn't have done the big smile and wave thing, followed by the "call me!" hand sign, to someone else in the National Cathedral.

Though I did see Colin Powell give a smile and wave in an earlier shot. His was much less demonstrative, though, which is probably more fitting for the solemn occasion.

In case you hadn't heard, those idiots who run the BCS have decided the way to fix things is to add another game to their rotation that will happen about a week after their four bowls. That game will rotate among the four hosts, meaning that once every four years a city will get to double dip with their regular bowl and the new, as yet unnamed game (which for our purposes we'll call the Avarice Bowl).

The best thing about the Avarice Bowl is that it will solve none of the problems with the BCS. While it's styled as a national championship game, it does not correct the problem that led to last year's split title. The Avarice Bowl will also never see a team from a non-BCS conference. They should still feel lucky that the BCS deigns to give them an opportunity to perhaps appear in one of their contests.

There was talk of more formula-tweaking to help avoid last year's situation. I assume this is based on all the success they've had with previous tweaking.

With the timing of the Avarice Bowl, we'll also now have a major college football season that stretches from mid-August to mid-January. But remember, we can't have a playoff because it would take the players away from school too much and last too long. Just ask those teams in the other three divisions who have a playoff system.

I don't suppose we needed more proof that the BCS is a sham or that the NCAA might as well sell out to the pros. But the Avarice Bowl is perhaps the most naked cash grab in college sports history. It also confirms P. T. Barnum's maxim about suckers being born every minute, because as much as people will complain about the Avarice Bowl, those same people will still watch it (myself included, unless I don't like the teams).

And that's the worst part of this. The BCS hierarchy knows it can get villified for essentially putting a new coat of paint on a lemon and still come out making money. I would say that they should leave academia for the corporate world, but they pretty much already have.

I am no longer my division's reigning closest to the pin putting champion, losing the title today at our end of year BBQ. I was hoping to repeat and ride off into the sunset, but I underplayed both putts on the fast sports court surface. Next year I'm sure they'll be back to an outdoor chipping contest, as in my Babson tenure we've never had this event outdoors. Now that I'm going the sun can come back out.

I also started to clean out my desk today, and I'm thinking of just firebombing my corner of the office. It would be easier.

Finally, please take a couple of seconds to remember Ray Charles, whose version of "America the Beautiful" is, for me anyway, the best version of a US patriotic song ever. Godspeed, Ray.

Thinking about that other pretend cowboy with an airport named for him, there's some movement afoot in Orange County to rename it "The O.C. Airport at John Wayne Field" or some similar nonsense.

So Wayne has to have a long career and die of cancer to get the airport named for him. All Fox had to do was recycle some 90210 scripts and spring Peter Gallagher's eyebrows from the lab. Is there a word that fully describes how pathetic this idea is?

Got sucked into watching Last Comic Standing tonight, which wasn't as bad as I feared but wasn't all that great, either. I missed the start of the show, but over the course of a half-dozen cities (NYC, Boston, Chicago, Tampa, Nashville, and Dallas) they gave away fewer than half the 40 semifinal spots. I fear how many Hollywood rejects got a free pass.

One who did, though in New York, was Sue Costello, who you may remember from her brief, brief tenure on the Fox sitcom Costello, the first show to get the axe in the 1998-99 TV season. She even referred to getting too much too soon after making the semifinals. Still, it strikes me as being against the premise of the show to allow someone who has already had a shot at TV to get another turn at the wheel, so to speak.

Another familiar name is Frank Santorelli, a local comic who got one of the two slots from Boston. He's a local institution, has done some TV work (it looks like he's got a small recurring role on The Sopranos), but is using this show for more national exposure. I'm a little less dubious about his inclusion, but still think he's too well-known, at least locally.

Jay Mohr is technically the host, but it seems like all he has to do is stand in Times Square and segue. Nice work if you can get it.

Anyone really curious as to how my weekend in Houston went can now read the recap, available in the Travelin' Jones section linked at left. You'll probably get a sense of my take from the title.

The local news started with some Reagan coverage tonight, and had a shot of Arnold Schwarzenegger paying his respects. Interestingly, when he crossed himself he went from right to left. Which means either:

a. he's Orthodox, which seems odd for an Austrian
b. the tape was backwards, which is entirely possible given the station involved (our tabloid NBC affiliate)
c. Arnold's not been to church in a while

Shawn De Veau is up from off the bench, and well worth reading for his personal take on the 60th anniversary of D-Day.

Apologies for the radio silence over the last few days, the missus and I were in Houston volunteering for the NAQT High School National Championship quiz bowl tournament. I'll have a write-up about it in the travel section sooner or later, which should be interesting given that we saw almost none of the city.

As for the big news of the weekend, I have mixed feelings about the Ronald Reagan legacy. I have some difficulty picking out the things that happened because of him and those things that were perhaps more of a team victory. The slant of coverage on foreign affairs is also interesting, but not surprising. I don't know how much anyone wants to delve into the contradiction of his drive for smaller government while jacking up spending. Of course, the money spent on defense comes back around to support the foreign policy stuff, but still.

While I don't often venture into the political here, I did something today that could, for at least the short-term, change that.

I applied for a Democratic National Convention press credential.

As you may have heard, the Dems are looking for a few good bloggers to cover the convention. My guess is that they'll most likely select from the well-known political bloggers who are out there.

But I think there's value to letting in someone who is, for all intents and purposes, an amateur. I don't have a reputation to play to or a desire to enhance my "brand." My hope would be to give a "Democratically independent" view of the convention.

I'm also less of a demagogue than some, which would translate into a better level of discourse than a sound bite or a quote and snarky comment. Not that I can't do that - it has its place - but there's going to be enough of that to go around.

There is one angle I'd approach if given the chance, and that's trying to explain why an individual should care about the convention, if not the political process in general. Between the yelling and the money and the shenanigans, the average American doesn't seem all that interested in politics. I'm not sure if a convention, given its organizational nature, is the best place to try for a grass-roots awakening, but it's worth a shot.

It'd also help that I've always lived in the Boston area, and thus have that lens to examine the convention through. That may bear more fruit in the convention trappings than the convention itself.

So there it is, in at least rough form. Readers are more than welcome to make comments that would speak to my abilities to cover the convention!

I'm feeling a bit muddled today, for what I think is a combination of reasons:

* Weather We've not really had a consistently nice stretch of days in some time. The sun is out right now, but the average day over the last couple of weeks has been 58 degrees and grey.

* Work More the impending end of work than anything else. It's not quite the senior slump, but whatever I'm going through lives around the corner from it.

* Home I've not gotten a firm date for when I need to be out of my apartment. I'm working with a July 1 date, but some confirmation would help in terms of getting out and actually seeing places.

* The Sox Given what some of you go through this shouldn't be a problem, and I apologize for being frustrated with a team that's 31-21.

There are probably other things, too. But that's enough for now.

Saw what appears to be Anheuser-Busch's respons to the Miller "President of Beers" ads yesterday, notable for the return of the lizard spokesreptiles.

It was also notable for being a very poor ad. It really sounded like some VP was pissed off and wrote a memo that got turned into the ad's script. The ad tended to focus on Bob Odenkirk and made a lame comparison between his character and the back end of a Clydesdale. Overall, though, the ad was as crappy as your average Bud product. It was a traveshamockery, you might say.

(NOTE: This post does not constitue an endorsement for Miller beers, which also tend to suck. If the ballot included in a recent Sports Illustrated is accurate, you can write in a candidate, and I would heartily endorse any of the following: Harpoon, Tremont, Ipswich, Newport Storm, Geary's, Magic Hat, Saranac, Goose Island, Anchor, Sierra Nevada, Rogue, or Pyramid. Feel free to nominate your own favorite in the comments.)

There's a poll on ESPN.com asking to pick "America's Team" out of the Lakers, Yankees, Cowboys, and Notre Dame football. Seeing these choices made me realize what an active dislike I have for the three pro teams among the options. If any of them are America's team, I'll be busted for treason any day now.

On the flip side I do consider myself a Notre Dame fan, which I can track back to my dad. But he was also a nominal Cowboys fan (having grown up in Dallas), which didn't rub off at all. To be fair, though, I think if you asked him to rank his favorite football teams it'd be ND first and whoever was playing the Patriots second.

(If I've not mentioned it, my dad had a fairly serious antipathy for the Pats based primarily - from what I can remember - on the Sullivan family. Not sure why he continued to dislike them so once they were gone, but at some point I assume it became second nature.)

Interestingly, the Atlanta Braves weren't an option. They're probably the one pro team who's tried to use the "America's Team" bit that I can stand to watch. I assume the snub was for business reasons.