The Garden

Answering Machine

2007-03-20T18:12:00.000-04:00

If you'd like to leave me a message, please wait for the beep. Or not.

Fallow

2006-03-01T20:02:00.000-05:00

Gosh, I haven't written here in a long time. Did you miss me? I wonder. (I do hope so.)

So what have I been doing? Too much. For one thing, I've been figuring out how to be single again. For another, I've been coping with a new job. (Hey, I got a promotion!) I've also been trying on middle age. Whew. Like I said, it's been too much. Happily enough, I've caught enough Flyers games to balance things out a bit.

So I haven't been writing here, and I've been putting off—for far too long—ending this experiment altogether. The time has come, though.

I absolutely enjoyed having this space. I could write silly things about music and sports and coffee-flavored beverages. I could vent about traffic, bad cheesesteaks, and people who sit too close on commuter trains. I could, and I did. I wish I had time to continue doing all that. If I figure out how to find the time again, I'll be sure to let you know.

Until then, thanks for reading. It was an honor that you did. I'll miss this place, and I'll miss you.

Goodbye.

P.S. Please feel free to use the commenting feature to leave me a message.

Is this blog dead? Maybe not!

2005-10-26T22:50:00.000-04:00

My blog is worth $15,242.58.
How much is your blog worth?

(Link via Marginal Revolution.)

What's my place in humor?

2005-08-03T17:51:00.000-04:00

Well, according to a strangely compelling quiz, I'm....

The Wit

(56% dark, 26% spontaneous, 16% vulgar)

CLEAN

COMPLEX

DARK

The Office

your age and gender

83%

dark

spontaneous

16%

vulgar

The 3 Variable Funny Test

jason_bateman

OkCupid Free Online Dating

(Quiz-taking prompted by Prettier Than Napoleon, who is on the cutting edge.)

Friday Spies: The "I've Been Bad" Edition?

2005-07-29T22:17:00.000-04:00

It's been nearly a week since I last posted, and I have no good excuse. Oh, it's been a busy week at work, and it's been hot, and I've started about a dozen different posts . . . but I just haven't been able to get it together. Maybe answering this week's questions from the boys at BTQ will help:

1. What five things should you never buy used?

P.S. I wish I'd said porn! Best. Answer. Ever.

2. Sony BMG just ended a payola investigation by settling with New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. So let's engage in some reverse payola: What song or artist would you pay to never have to hear again, and how much would it be worth to you? I'd pay a good part of a day's salary to erase the theme song from Laverne & Shirley from my memory.

3. In honor of the new Bad News Bears: Did you ever play Little League, or other organized youth sports? You may be surprised, but the answer's no. I grew up in the sticks, and the nearest league was a long way away. Do you feel sorry for me?

4. What was your biggest fashion faux pas? I'm probably repressing the worst examples.... One summer, though, I did go through an unfortunate phase involving lots and lots of pleated Ralph Lauren shorts. Just say no to the pleats, ok?

5. In honor of all our readers who took the Bar Exam this week: What was the hardest test you ever took? The answer might be the bar exam, which I took nine years ago this week. I never really thought I might fail, though, so maybe that's not the answer. On the other hand, as I've recounted before, I went sleepless for two straight nights during the bar exam. That was tough on me. Oh, let's go with the bar exam, then. And if that's not, then it was a pop quiz I took in science class in the sixth grade. (Really.)

Phillies 2, Padres 0.

2005-07-23T20:59:00.000-04:00

Yes, I was there. It was a day game (the Fox Game of the Week), and it was a day made for sunscreen. Whew.

The Phillies looked good, executing well when they needed to. The highlight of the game for me occurred when pitcher Rob Tejeda hit a triple in the fifth inning. Sadly, even though there was only one out, the Phils couldn't get Tejeda home. I love it, though, when a pitcher shows some skills with the bat.

Except for the sun, it was just about a perfect day at the ballpark for me. I got there early enough to snag a cheesesteak from Geno's (with Wiz, without onions), and I survived the heat with the aid of plenty of water ice (lemon). And, of course, the Phillies won.

Friday Spies: The Navel-Gazing Edition

2005-07-22T20:18:00.000-04:00

Here's what I have to say about this week's questions from BTQ:

1. Why did you start blogging? Mostly, I think, I was just bored. I also felt that I had things to say but nowhere to say them. (Unfortunately, my job still keeps me from writing about many of the topics that I'm most interested in addressing.) In other words, I needed a life, and I thought I'd give this a try. Plus, back when I started, in November 2002, I got to feel (sorta) like an early adopter.

2. Are the reasons you blog now the same as when you started? If not, what's changed? I obviously still need a life. And I still like having someplace to say what's on my mind. These days, I particularly enjoy interacting with my four-and-one-half regular readers. When I started, I wasn't even sure I'd have any readers aside from friends and family, and I definitely didn't anticipate that I'd form web-based quasi-relationships with people I didn't already know.

3. What would make blogging better for you? If I could be Jason Kottke and blog full-time, the Garden would be a helluva place. Actually, it might be a sort of whimsical alternative to How Appealing.

4. Do you have comments on your blog? Why or why not? Do you comment on other blogs? What motivates you to post a comment? Well, of course, I have comments. Why? I like conversations. (This conversational aspect is a big reason that blogging took off.) For the same reason, I'm an avid commenter. Sadly enough, I'm a lot more likely to comment elsewhere than I am to receive comments here. Hint, hint. Throw me a bone sometime, ok?

5. What is your philosophy of the blogroll? This has definitely changed over the years. Originally, the blogroll was just a list of blogs that I visited regularly. It was mostly for me; I actually used the links. Now, however, I use a newsreader to keep up with my favorite blogs, and the blogroll is more of a list of recommendations to others. And, hey, I have good taste. Check out the blogs in my blogroll; you'll like 'em.

This post culminates in romantic loneliness.

2005-07-21T21:06:00.000-04:00

People are lining up at Broadway theaters, sometimes hours ahead of performances, and no one is exactly sure why. It's almost un-American.

I recently mentioned my childhood affinity for Emergency!, the early 1970s TV show about two L.A. paramedics, and now I learn it's coming out on DVD (link via Lost Remote). Woo hoo! And so is Adam-12! I can't wait. (Gosh, I guess you now know precisely what kind of kid I was.)

It may be the Oklahoma in me, but I always like a good picture of a grain elevator. Check out this one from Sam Javanrouh's Daily Dose of Imagery. Why do I like grain elevators so much? Well, I think I associate them with a sort of romantic loneliness, probably because I typically see them in gorgeous places that are rapidly de-populating. Anyway, the grain elevator speaks to me.

Speaking of Oklahoma, would you be interested in a t-shirt based on the state's first flag? Very cool.

Speaking of romantic loneliness(?), the beautiful poster for Brokeback Mountain conveys something along those lines. I really, really hope director Ang Lee credibly captures Annie Proulx's short story about two cowboys in love. The film is set to open in December.

Topics for a New Week?

2005-07-18T22:18:00.000-04:00

At Coffee Hour, a Unitarian Universalist group blog, Matthew Gatheringwater engagingly asks how individuals react to theological change in their faith communities. Today, in UU circles, the question is whether religious humanists like Gatheringwater will continue to have a home in a faith that is increasingly open to neopagan spirituality and symbolism. Sixty years ago, though, the question was whether Unitarianism would be open to religious humanism. Gatheringwater sees the ironies in that, discusses why UUism may be particularly prone to theological change, and asks how someone would know whether she still "belonged" in her religious home.

I haven't read anything lately that was more insightful. If you have any interest in the topic, be sure to check out the interesting reader comments, too. Highly recommended!

Sam Javanrouh lives a long way from Louisiana, but a Daily Dose of Imagery photo—called "Water Lines"—sure made me think of Lake Pontchartrain. I miss living someplace exotic.

Lleyton Hewitt, the world's second-ranked tennis player, still needs a sensitivity coach. Oof. And, hey, I think I might just be the man for that job.

It's summertime, and kids get sent to camp. But gay re-education camp? How medieval. (Link via The Kitchen Cabinet.)

Two posts by Tyler Green on his recent trip to Marfa, Texas, are must-reads for fans—like me—of minimalist Donald Judd. Right here and right now, I vow to get to Marfa this year. Who's going with me?

Magazine Triage

2005-07-17T01:18:00.000-04:00

I didn't do much blogging, I know, but I had a great weekend. It's amazing what the freedom of a rental car will do for someone who usually drives an unreliable jalopy....

I also did a little work around the apartment, and it quickly became clear to me that I had a problem: The magazines had taken over. I love magazines, and I subscribe to way too many. Often, when a new issue arrives, I'll see an interesting article and tell myself I'll read it when I have time. There's never enough time, of course. The magazines just stack up.

It was time for magazine triage. Magazine triage, of course, requires sorting into three piles—the magazines that can't be saved, those that must be read immediately, and those that can be saved for later. Things were out of hand, though; in fact, I was fairly close to declaring magazine bankruptcy. So I was aggressive in tossing magazines away.

Just to give you a sense of how bad the problem had gotten, here's the stack of magazines I faced when I started:

Whew. That's a serious problem, huh? After the triage, the stack is down from 102 to a more manageable 17.

It's good to have a fresh start. I feel lighter now.

Friday Spies: The "Living and Dying in 3/4 Time" Edition

2005-07-15T19:02:00.000-04:00

It's summer. According to my my referral stats, traffic to the Garden has been near an all-time low, and—as a consequence—I have little motivation to blog. Sigh. Happily enough, the boys from BTQ have given me my weekly assignment, and I'm proficient at following orders. New content is good, even if the only people reading it are actually looking for pictures of a shirtless Handy Andy Kane. Anyway, here are my responses to this week's Friday Spies questions.

1. What time do you go to bed? What time do you wake up? Ideally, I would go to bed at 10:45 p.m. because I absolutely have to wake up at 6:45 a.m. to be at work by the stroke of 9 o'clock. It's usually closer to midnight, though, when I go to bed...so it's no wonder that I'm almost always seriously dragging by the end of the work week. I'm one of those people who really needs his eight hours of sleep every night....

2. What do you want done to/with your body after you die? I haven't given this enough thought, and I hope I still have some time to make the right decision. My family has a plot in a particularly ugly cemetery in my hometown. I don't think I want to be buried there. I've thought that it might be nice to be buried in a rural, quiet cemetery somewhere further out on the Oklahoma prairie (maybe where one set of my grandparents is buried?), but I've obviously made no arrangements. Cremation is something for me to consider, too.

3. Describe your dream house. I've said this before, but my dream house would be fit for Dwell Magazine. I like modern architecture, glass, concrete, wood—and, yes, there'd probably be a stream nearby.

4. Are you an excellent driver? Do you speed, or drive the speed limit? Ever been ticketed? I'm a good driver, although I'm not sure I can honestly claim to be an "excellent" one. After all, I (a) never took a driver's education course and (b) only drive about once a week. That said, I grew up in a part of the world where long distances are driven as a matter of course, so I'm comfortable behind the wheel.

As for speeding, well, I rarely drive more than five mph above the limit. But, um, I have been ticketed—once—for speeding. I was clocked going 31 mph where the speed limit was a mere (bogus!) 15 mph. (For context, this occurred on campus when I was in law school. Did I mention it was bogus?)

5. What is your favorite animal, mineral, and vegetable? Gosh, this is hard—especially the mineral. [Insert a 30-minute pause here, reflective of the time it took me to ponder this.] My favorite animal is probably just the dog. Dogs are loyal, playful, and loving. How anyone can resist a good dog escapes me. As for, um, wild animals, I'm particularly fond of manatees....

I've apparently never contemplated what my favorite mineral might be. After a good deal of thought, I decided to go with sapphires. I'm not entirely sure why. They're pretty, I guess. I nearly chose table salt, by the way....

My favorite vegetable is asparagus. The black-eyed pea is a close second.

It's puzzling, I know.

2005-07-12T23:03:00.000-04:00

Should God, if He/She/It exists, have gone to engineering school? David P. Barash suggests that the answer is yes:

Ask yourself, if you were designing the optimum exit for a fetus, would you engineer a route that passes through the narrow confines of the pelvic bones? Add to this the tragic reality that childbirth is not only painful in our species but downright dangerous and sometimes lethal, owing to a baby's head being too large for the mother's birth canal.

This design flaw is all the more dramatic because anyone glancing at a skeleton can see immediately that there is plenty of room for even the most stubbornly large-brained, misoriented fetus to be easily delivered anywhere in that vast, non-bony region below the ribs. (In fact, this is precisely the route obstetricians follow when performing a caesarean section.)

And that's just the beginning. Barash notes that the prostate is situated too close to a man's urinary system, the male reproductive system is arranged in a way that no "minimally competent designer" would have chosen, and knee joints wear out too easily. And then, of course, there's the lower back. Mine is actually hurting today....

I love a good enthronement. And, oh, by the way, Monaco's Prince Albert just might be the answer to one of those questions I didn't answer yesterday. I'll think about it some more.

BoiFromTroy, who is tired of hearing that baby pandas are about the size of a stick of butter, is having a Baby Panda Analogy Contest. I point this out (a) because it's really amusing and (b) because it's a good launching point for me to blog about what I really want to talk about: What must Mama Panda be thinking?

Ok, Mei Xiang must surely know that she didn't mate this year, right? She, of course, has no idea what happened to her while she was under anesthesia. So, did she have any clue she was having a baby and, if so, when did she realize it? Is she confused by how she got pregnant? Does she think it might've happened when she wasn't paying attention? Does she think she just forgot that she mated? Does she think some sort of quasi-religious miracle has happened? Or am I just expecting too much self-awareness from a dumb panda, anyway? Inquiring minds want to know.

I might should blog about the use of multiple modals in Southern American English (link via Marginal Revolution). As some of you know, I actually say stuff like that all the time.

Having some experience of his own now, Jason Kottke understands why movie critics use a four- or five-star scale—not the 100-point scale he tried.

Did the passing in 1993 of the New York Times crossword from the hands of (word-)curmudgeon Eugene T. Maleska to puzzlemeister Will Shortz signal an important cultural shift? Grant McCracken of This Blog Sits... thinks so. At the same time that academics were newly recognizing (or admitting) that so-called popular culture demanded a complex critical engagement in readers/viewers, he says, the NYT puzzle "began to demand a dynamic engagement" from its fans, too. One now has to learn from the puzzle in order to do the puzzle. Wow.

Speaking of puzzles, will every blog soon need its own puzzleblogger?

If I could be . . .

2005-07-11T21:33:00.000-04:00

I had a long day at work, and I'm not sure how much real blogging-energy I can muster tonight. This is probably a good chance to do this interesting little meme that I spotted ages ago at Mode for Caleb. I'm simply supposed to finish five sentences from the following list:

If I could be a scientist...If I could be a farmer...If I could be a musician...If I could be a doctor...If I could be a painter...If I could be a gardener...If I could be a missionary...If I could be a chef...If I could be an architect...If I could be a linguist...If I could be a psychologist...If I could be a librarian...If I could be an athlete...If I could be a lawyer...If I could be an inn-keeper...If I could be a professor...If I could be a writer...If I could be a llama-rider...If I could be a bonnie pirate...If I could be an astronaut...If I could be a world-famous blogger...If I could be a justice on any one court in the world...If I could be married to any current famous political figure...

If I could be a musician, I'd be a guitar-strumming singer-songwriter who aspired, someday or other, to open for Dar Williams.
If I could be a linguist, I'd try to keep a dying language or two—probably American Indian languages—alive.
If I could be an athlete, I'd be a professional tennis player. (Is anyone surprised by that?) And, yes, Mary Carillo, I'd be a clay-courter. In most things in life, it seems, I'm better as a counter-puncher.
If I could be a world-famous blogger, I'd be just like Jason Kottke. Micropatrons, anyone?
If I could be a justice on any one court in the world, I'd be a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. And, hey, I hear there's an opening!

Hey, this was actually a lot of fun. In fact, the hardest part was choosing just five of the sentences to finish. I bet you were just dying to know which current political figure I'd marry if I had the chance....

Heaven really is a place on Earth.

2005-07-11T07:27:00.000-04:00

I've been seeing a lot of interesting shots on my favorite photoblogs:

"Angel," Justin Ouellette, Chromogenic.net: Every time I look at this, I'm so, so impressed. It's sort of a cross between an establishing shot from an old b&w film and, well, actual heaven itself.

"O'ahu Signs," Mike Epstein, Satan's Laundromat: As I just pointed out, I've never been to Hawai'i. This folio of O'ahu's, um, underbelly makes me really want to visit. Highly recommended.

"Moon at the Beaches," Sam Javanrouh, Daily Dose of Imagery: Despite the title, I thought this photo showed the sun. Who knew that a Toronto beach would be so beautiful at 1 a.m.? Javanrouh, by the way, has made this picture available for use as desktop wallpaper. I'm using it, and I'm enjoying it.

"Mini Cooper in Blue," Peter Tongco, Manila in Byte Size Edible Pieces: Did this attract my attention because I ought to buy a new car? I don't know, but this Mini is awfully sweet.

Warning: Earwax is mentioned in this post.

2005-07-10T13:11:00.000-04:00

The Impulsive Buyer tried earwax-flavored jelly beans so you wouldn't have to. Ewww. I have to admit, though, that I'm intrigued by the idea of spinach-flavored jelly beans....

A New Yorker won 12 round-trip flights for two anywhere in the world. When he did the math, however, he discovered that he'd pay more in taxes than it would cost to buy that many tickets. Serious bummer, huh?

Garrett Fitzgerald just got around to watching the best concert film ever, Stop Making Sense. Gosh, I miss the Talking Heads....

This is one of the most depressing things I've read in awhile. Somehow or other, Tyler Cowen got it into his head that Woody Guthrie was a Texan. Egad! The great Woody Guthrie was from Okemah, Oklahoma. I thought every Guthrie fan knew that.

Speaking of Oklahoma: Okiedoke reminds that, if things had worked out just a bit differently, I'd be from Sequoyah, not Oklahoma.

And, finally, is it really possible that taking regular showers might be dangerous?

Friday Spies: The "We Are Really Reaching This Week" Edition

2005-07-08T15:24:00.000-04:00

Here are my answers to this week's questions from BTQ:

1. Tropical Storm Cindy and Hurricane Dennis are causing trouble in the Southeast this week. Share a natural disaster story. Given all the time I lived in New Orleans, you'd think I'd have a good hurricane story, but I really don't. I was in New Orleans, though, for the flood of May 1995—when the city received more than an inch of rain every hour for more than a day. I was in the midst of law school finals (as a 2L), and I was already pretty stressed. At some point during the day, I realized, too, that my car—which was in a fairly high spot—might get water in it. And there was nothing I could do about it. To move my car, in any possible direction, I'd have to go through water. So, as the rain kept falling, as I kept trying to study (for my American Legal History final, by the way) despite a persistent power outage, water slowly edged up to my car and took it over.

My final exam, by the way, was postponed. I spent the next couple of days (a) studying for a different final and (b) trying to get some delightful-smelling water out of my car. Good, good times.

Random aside: I'm not working today because the remnants of Tropical Storm Cindy took out a tree this morning on my commuter rail line. Unfortunately, it didn't happen until I was already on the train, so I was stuck there for an hour or so until the conductor decided to return us home. On the walk back home from the train station, a car—going, oh, about 50 mph in a 35 mph zone—splashed water all over me. More good, good times.

2. What is your favorite work of art? On one level, I'm not sure how I ought to choose. Yet, when asked, I immediately thought of "Point of Tranquility" by Morris Louis. If you'd like to see it in person, and you should, it's usually in the display rotation at my favorite art museum, the Hirshhorn.

3. Do you squeeze the toothpaste tube from the middle or the bottom? Occasionally, I vow to start squeezing exclusively from the bottom, but I rarely remember until the tube is a complete disaster.

4. What is your favorite "cult" film? Pedro Almodóvar's Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. I wonder if it even qualifies....

5. Would you go into space if given the chance? Where would you go? I wouldn't mind going into space on the Enterprise from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Life there was all modern, and there was an interesting, diverse community on board. Going into space in the next few hundred years probably won't be anything like that, though, so I'll have to pass. Can I go to Club Med instead?

Smooch.

2005-07-05T22:28:00.000-04:00

Prettier Than Napoleon reminds us that tomorrow is International Kissing Day. How should you celebrate? Well, PTN urges participation by "creating a kissing-themed post, sharing a kissing story, or just plain kissing someone." I'll see what I can do.

Bisexuals, bicycles, and an exterminator, too

2005-07-05T22:21:00.000-04:00

New research, reported prominently in today's New York Times, suggests that most bisexual men are actually only attracted to other men. Of course, every gay man I've ever known has thought that, so I guess we shouldn't be surprised. If Ann Althouse's post, and particularly the comments to her post, are any indication, however, some parts of Blogistan were taken aback. (Some of the comments are laugh-out-loud funny, by the way. For instance, one Althouse commenter seems to think that that he turns lesbian heads.)

I certainly enjoyed this list of Seldom Asked Questions about Japan (link via Marginal Revolution). If you've ever wanted to know why Japanese people slurp their noodles, won't cut their fingernails at night, or keep their bicycle seats so low, this is the list for you, too.

Today's tasty photoblog pic(k): "Chinese Cakes," by Tracey Hoyng, Shutterbug. (By the way, the photo reminds me of those beautiful paintings of cakes and pastries by Wayne Thiebaud.)

At F Minus last week, an exterminator gave a husband and wife the bad news. If your sense of humor is as offbeat as mine seems to be, I'll bet you laugh....

Still 10 to Go

2005-07-05T19:38:00.000-04:00

Bold the states you've been to, underline the states you've lived in and italicize the state you're in now...

Alabama

Arizona

Arkansas

California

Colorado

Delaware

Florida

Georgia

Idaho

Illinois

Indiana

Iowa

Kansas

Kentucky

Louisiana

Maryland

Michigan

Minnesota

Mississippi

Missouri

Montana

Nebraska

Nevada

New Jersey

New Mexico

New York

North Carolina

North Dakota

Ohio

Oklahoma

Pennsylvania

South Carolina

South Dakota

Tennessee

Texas

Utah

Virginia

West Virginia

Wisconsin

Wyoming

Washington D.C.

Go here to have a form generate the HTML for you.

(I, um, caught this meme at Ministrare. By the way, you can see the same information about me, in a different form, here.)

A Small Holiday Crop

2005-07-04T11:53:00.000-04:00

More than one blogger has pointed to this interesting Wall Street Journal article on odd requests that interviewers now make. (I definitely hope the handwriting analysis doesn't catch on. Legibility is not my strong suit. Thanks, Law School.) But I was just as intrigued by some of the comments to The Obscure Store's post: One commenter was asked to walk like a duck at a pre-hiring physical. If that wasn't an audition to be a stadium mascot, then I don't have any idea what that was about....

At Ten Years of My Life, Matthew Haughey posted a photograph entitled "Testosterone clean up, aisle five." Gosh, that made me smile. Click the link, and you'll see why.

I'm also taken with a Zone IX photo entitled "blue thistle." Steven Noreyko takes the most exquisite close-up shots.

Religion is a rarely covered subject here at the Garden, but I was intrigued by Left Coast Unitarian's recent visit to the chapel at DFW airport. When traveling, I've wondered what those airport chapels are like. They seem like something from another era—before traveling became a harried, your-connection-is-in-32-minutes kind of thing. I suppose the airport chapel makes particular sense at large airports, where international flights and long layovers are commonplace. And as a commenter to LCU's post points out, some religions ask adherents to pray at several points of the day; it can't always be easy to find a quiet place to do that.

While I'm on the topic of religion, I found interesting a recent Boy in the Bands post about the communion cup that Christians use. There's an interesting history behind the move in some denominations from the common cup to the individual communion cup.

Sorry, Redcoats.

2005-07-04T11:29:00.000-04:00

It's Independence Day!

Warning: This is not a nut-free post.

2005-07-03T00:09:00.000-04:00

Kaliningrad—a little bit of Russia that's surrounded by Poland, Lithuania, and the Baltic—is having a celebration. The BBC's news story, though, calls Kaliningrad an "enclave." I don't think that's quite accurate, however. This is just more proof, by the way, that I really should've been a high school social studies teacher.

I love lists, and Jeffy B's list of the 10 best Saturday morning breakfast cereals is a good one (link via Okiedoke). The allure of Cap'n Crunch eludes me, though. I couldn't even get it down when I was a sugar-addicted kid. I'm with him on the Froot Loops, though. Yum.

Even though I'm an ex-pat, too, I can't help but be sad that Jeffrey Rowland recently moved the brilliant web comic OverCompensating (and himself) to Massachusetts.

I've never eaten a single pistachio. And after reading about Dan's trip to the emergency room, I'm not sure I'll ever risk it. Anyway, only Dan could make 70 pistachios and a near-death experience so much fun. There are pictures, too! You should take a look.

Tyler Green of Modern Art Notes is living the life I want. First, he visits Spiral Jetty, and now he's in Marfa, Texas. I keep intending to make a pilgrimage to Marfa to see, among other things, the Chinati Foundation—the art museum founded by minimalist (he hated that word, I think) sculptor Donald Judd. But I don't think I'd make a pilgrimage to west Texas in July.... Update (7/10/05): When I said I wanted Tyler Green's life, I didn't mean the flat tires out in the middle of west Texas. Thanks, anyway.

Eugene Volokh has been thinking about words that straight men don't use, and he nominates "adore" as one such word. But I really don't think many gay men use that word, either. I have a candidate, too, but it's a word I'd probably never use here. Hee. (Email me or leave a comment if you're curious.)

I said something yesterday, I know, about having no life. Now that I think about it, though, the Japanese mental health counselor(!) who memorized pi to over 80,000 places makes me seem well-centered.

Saturday Spies?

2005-07-02T20:19:00.000-04:00

I know, I know. This is supposed to be the Friday Spies. I was too busy yesterday having absolutely no life to get to the questions from BTQ, though.

1. Is Tom Cruise correct that we're not alone in the universe? We're probably not alone, especially if bacteria or insects (or the extraterrestrial equivalents) count. I'm less certain that sentient life exists outside of (or even on?) Earth, but it may. If it does, I seriously doubt that we have much in common.

2. What is a fashion trend that you would like to see go away, and what is a fashion you would like to see come back in style? I really don't understand the allure of the clamdiggers that French Open champion Rafael Nadal wears. They really don't look good when someone a little less fit wears them. And, yes, John McEnroe, I'm talking to you. Meanwhile, as odd as it may be, I'd like to see tri-corner hats come back into vogue.

3. I was going to ask what city will win next week's vote on the host of the 2012 Olympics, but everyone knows it's going to be Paris, so I decided to tweak it: What city that you have visited (or lived in) would be a good Olympic host city, and why? The Summer Games need to be conducted in a large city, one able to put together several spectacular, separate venues. Public transportation should be—or, at least, should potentially be—good, too. Other than Mexico City, which has already hosted the Games, I'd say New York is the city I've visited that best qualifies. It's a shame NYC couldn't really get its bid together for 2012. Maybe 2016?

4. Happy Canada Day to our readers in the Great White North! In light of that holiday, and our own upcoming Independence Day, tell us your favorite Independence Day memory. Well, I didn't get my answers up quickly enough to join BTQ in wishing Canadians a timely Happy Canada Day. For what it's worth, I nearly flew to Ottawa this weekend to avoid the Live 8 madness going on here. I've always wanted to visit Ottawa, and the summer seems like the right time. Does anyone out there have any advice about visiting Ottawa?

Gosh, that was a serious digression, huh? I'll focus, I promise. As for my favorite Independence Day memories, I guess I have to choose between (a) meeting Gary Coleman at a charity event in New Orleans in 1996 (I think) or (b) some childhood 4th at home with family, fireworks, and watermelon. I think I'll go with the latter, even though I can't even really be sure I'm not mixing and matching several childhood Independence Days....

5. The Supreme Court ruled this week on one set of commandments, but we want to hear yours. What are the Ten Commandments of [X]? Pick a topic and reveal its ten most important rules. Phrasings with "shalt" appreciated but not required. And without further ado, I present:

The Ten Commandments of Driving a 14-Year-Old Bomb

I. Thou shalt always wear sunglasses when driving in fashionable neighborhoods.
II. Thou shalt always take your cell phone and AAA card on trips.
III. When pretty people are spotted in a parking lot, thou shalt pretend that you're actually walking toward the Lexus.
IV. At every opportunity, thou shalt remind friends that you usually take public transportation.
V. Under current gas prices, thou shalt never fill up the tank because one's gas should never be worth more than one's car.
VI. Thou shalt cultivate mechanics and tow-truck drivers as friends.
VII. Thou shalt memorize what exactly to do to that doohickey under the hood when the car stalls on hot days.
VIII. Thou shalt continually save money to purchase something better.
IX. Thou shalt investigate which charities will accept donations of automobiles, whether "running or not."
X. Thou shalt purchase fuzzy dice and other paraphernalia that "fit" the look.

Seven Wee Observations

2005-06-30T23:34:00.000-04:00

If you're looking for some new desktop wallpaper, you should check out a striking photo of Toronto that Sam Javanrouh of Daily Dose of Imagery has made available for use.

More than 80% of 18- to 30-year-old Italian men still live at home, according to a study conducted by the Center for Economic Policy Research. Similarly-aged men elsewhere in Western Europe, as well as in the United States, are much less likely to live at home. Italian parents, it seems, enjoy keeping their sons nearby. I wonder what the rates are for Italian-American men.... I once accidentally brushed up against one, and his mother was more than a little protective. I may still have the scar.

Graham Jeffery of Sensitive Light took some photographs at Leicester City's gay pride parade. I'm particularly taken with a photo of one butch man; he's wearing a white t-shirt, handmarked "Puff" in pink (lipstick?). Striking.

Now that Amber has finished law school, Class Maledictorian has a new name—Prettier Than Napoleon. It took me forever, but I finally remembered to adjust my sidebar link. While I'm blogging about Amber, this seems like a good time to remind my four-and-one-half regular readers that her pet project, International Kissing Day, approaches. Sadly enough, it looks like I'll be all alone on July 6. Sigh.

Eszter Hargittai of Crooked Timber recently had to prove that she'd been on a flight. Her return trip was cancelled by the airline, which said she hadn't flown on the outbound flight. In the end, all she could produce was an airline water bottle. Several times, I've been asked to prove that I'd actually been on a flight; for that reason, I always save the boarding passes until my entire trip is over. But as Hargittai points out, in these days of home-printed boarding passes, "proving" you flew isn't as easy as it once was.

Last year, on a work trip to Utah, I chickened out on visiting Spiral Jetty, Robert Smithson's famed environmental art project. The rangers made it seem like a big commitment. Tyler Green of Modern Art Notes wasn't dissuaded, though, this week, and he offers a detailed report. It sounds like he got to see the Jetty in its prime.

Here's Francis Strand of How to Learn Swedish in 1000 Difficult Lessons on the news that Spain has legalized same-sex marriage: I think you can safely say that the Catholic Church is reaping the rewards of its collusion with Franco.

Ok, I've done one good thing today.

2005-06-30T21:57:00.000-04:00

Drama (and other stuff, too)

2005-06-29T23:06:00.000-04:00

I promised yesterday to blog a little about my long weekend in New York. This is probably one of those posts that only my most devoted reader (hi, Mom!) will read, but a promise is a promise. Here are the highlights:

Doubt: I'm really not a theater geek, but I would be if I saw more plays like John Patrick Shanley's Doubt. As you probably know, the story involves suspicions by a 1960s-era nun that a priest may have done something (the obvious something) improper. Doubt, of course, is the theme. There are the doubts that the priest did anything wrong. Just as interestingly, the priest himself admits to some theological doubts. The audience wonders if that's why the nun is suspicious? But we know she just might be right, too.

The play is so well written that I didn't want the performance to end. The acting, too, was superb. Cherry Jones certainly deserved her Tony for playing the accusing nun, and I don't know how Brían F. O'Byrne didn't get one for his performance as the priest. O'Byrne's sermons—especially the opening one built around the idea that doubt can be the actual bond of a community—were riveting. If sermons in the Catholic Church were really that good, I'd convert.

There aren't many plays on Broadway that I'd pay to see several times, but Doubt is definitely one of them.
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?: I was familiar with Edward Albee's story and that, combined with the three-hour running time, worked my nerves a little bit. The acting, however, was memorable. Principals Kathleen Turner and Tony-winner Bill Irwin (I'm still not sure how he beat O'Byrne, though) were quite good. David Harbour, in a supporting role, was a revelation. I'm going to keep an eye on his career.

Virginia Woolf will probably be closing soon. If you're in the area and have some real interest in the piece, it's probably worth your while.
The Cherry Orchard: I guess I didn't get enough of this in the ninth grade. Actually, this wasn't my idea, but I didn't really object.... Anyway, this performance of the Russian workhouse, put on by the Atlantic Theater, was pleasant—but it didn't make me want to go re-read all the Chekhov classics or anything. Actually, I kept thinking that the play wasn't making me sad enough. The family, after all, is facing ruin; in the Atlantic's performance, though, it's hard to care very much. I'm not sure whether to blame the cast or the direction, but I think there's enough blame to go around. I just wasn't forced often to think about the family's plight; when I did, it seemed that everyone would probably be all right.
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee: Of all the things I saw in New York, this was the only one that was really my idea. What fun! I'm a veteran of the spelling-bee wars, so I could sympathize with this musical populated by, well, sympathetic spelling misfits. Putnam County surely won't change your life; it definitely didn't make me think the big thoughts that Doubt did. And—quite frankly—the music isn't all that memorable. The production just keeps you smiling. That's enough for me.

By the way, I'm so glad I resisted when a Putnam County staffer approached, prior to the show, asking whether I was a good speller. Some "good spellers" actually end up on stage, (mis)spelling words. I may have missed out on my Broadway debut, but I definitely didn't need to regress to my 13-year-old self on a Broadway stage....

So, yeah, I saw a lot of theater over the weekend. During the third hour of Virginia Woolf, I was pretty sure it was too much theater. But I'd do it all again, really. Still, despite seeing all that "real" theater, some of the best drama I saw was on Christopher Street on Sunday. Real life is good, too.

Catching Up

2005-06-28T21:27:00.000-04:00

I didn't really intend to take a break from blogging. Sorry about that. I took a few days off and went to New York. I had the best of intentions—and wireless access, too, of course—but I still didn't find time for blogging. Maybe that's a good thing?

Anyway, I have a little catching up to do. Most urgently(?), I need to take a look back at my Wimbledon picks before the whole dang tournament is over. So let's get to it.

How'd I do with my first-round picks? Wow! Of the 64 first-round men's matches, I correctly picked the winner in 51 (79.7%). That's, by far, the most accurate prognosticating I've done since I started doing picks in early 2003. My previous best was at the 2003 U.S. Open, when I correctly picked 47 (73.4%) first-round men's matches. (My low point was at the 2004 Australian Open, when I picked only 41.) So, obviously, I'm pretty darn pleased.

My only regret is that I didn't correctly pick 80% of the first-round matches. That has long been my goal. And I'd've managed it with just one more correct pick. So close. How could I have picked Tuomas Ketola instead of Alex Calatrava, anyway?! Hee.

How did my projected men's quarterfinalists fare? Ok, it's time to get a little more humble. On the men's side, I only correctly picked four of the eight eventual quarterfinalists: Roger Federer (seeded #1), Andy Roddick (#2), Lleyton Hewitt (#3), and Sebastien Grosjean (#9). Of those four, only the Grosjean pick is particularly satisfying, as I went with Grosjean over the higher seed, Tim Henman. (Hey, maybe the Garden curse of Henman worked!)

Here's the skinny on my remaining four picks:

In one section of the draw, I picked Joachim Johansson (#11). Well, I was right to avoid the section's highest seed, Nikolay Davydenko (#8), but I didn't see that Johansson would fall in the third round to the hard-serving, hard-hitting, hard-headed(?) Fernando Gonzalez (#21).
Like much of the tennis world, I liked the chances of Mario Ancic (#10)—who came into the tournament off a win on the grass at 's-Hertogenbosch—but the Croat didn't live up to the hype. Instead, he fell, in an upset, to Feliciano Lopez (#26). Lopez has had an incredible tournament, as he upended both Ancic and Marat Safin (#5). I would never have picked Lopez to be the quarterfinalist, so I guess I shouldn't feel too bad about this miss.
This one hurts. I picked the unseeded Max Mirnyi to be one of the quarterfinalists, and it nearly happened. Mirnyi lost in the Round of 16 to Thomas Johansson (#12). If I'd been right, this would have been a helluva pick.
I don't know what I was thinking, really. Somehow or other, I got it into my head that this might be the breakthrough tournament of Radek Stepanek (#14). I knew he'd have to get through former Wimbledon finalist David Nalbandian (#18) in the third round, but I thought he'd manage. Nalbandian, after all, hasn't had the best year. Nalbandian, of course, is the quarterfinalist.

So how do I see the rest of the tournament shaping up? (I'll stick with my original picks to the extent possible.)

Semifinals

~~Ancic~~

~~Stepanek~~

Final

Champion

Obviously, this is still Roger Federer's tournament to lose.

How did my projected women's quarterfinalists fare? Ugh, this is an even more depressing story. I correctly picked a mere three of the women's final eight: Maria Sharapova (#2), Amélie Mauresmo (#3), and Sveta Kuznetsova (#5). Things went wrong everywhere else:

Yes, I failed to put the top-seeded Lindsay Davenport in the quarterfinals. I really thought this might be the tournament where the under-seeded Kim Clijsters finally gets her due. Clijsters will have to wait, and—oh, by the way—Davenport's grass-court game looks better than ever.
In a particularly weak section of the draw, I thought (guessed?) that Jelena Jankovic (#17) might come through. In the third round, Jankovic fell to Anastasia Myskina (#9), who has struggled mightily this year. Myskina was the quarterfinalist. Good for Myskina, bad for my picks.
Shockingly enough, Justine Henin-Hardenne (#7) went down in the first round to Eleni Daniilidou (hey, I had that as one of my tasty first-round matches). The quarterfinalist, as it turned out, was veteran Mary Pierce (#12). I surely didn't see that coming, but, um, neither did you.
I thought Serena Williams (#4) would be a quarterfinalist, but she finally succumbed to an ankle injury and Jill Craybas. Serena's sister Venus took the spot in the quarters.
Finally, in a section of the draw that I could never make myself care about, I thought the perennially underachieving Vera Zvonareva (#11) might be the quarterfinalist. As it turned out, the perennially underachieving Nadia Petrova (#8) took the spot. You know what? I still don't care about this section of the draw.

The women are already at the semifinals stage, so here's how I see the few remaining matches:

Final

~~Clijsters~~

Champion

~~Clijsters~~

Davenport's game is just looking invincible right now.

Miscellany: I usually offer a detailed analysis of my picks for first-round upsets. It's so late in the tournament, though, that that task hardly seems worth the effort. I'll just look at the big picture, ok? On the women's side, I picked eight first-round upsets of seeded players. I was right about five of those matches. I'm particularly proud of projecting that Ai Sugiyama (#23) would fall to the unheralded Roberta Vinci.

On the men's side, I picked a mere four first-round upsets; I was right about three of those matches. Darn that Cyril Saulnier for not upsetting Dominik Hrbaty!

I also picked eight qualifiers, wild cards, and lucky losers who might see the second round. I was right about five of those—including new British tennis darling Andrew Murray.

Are we caught up? Well, maybe with the tennis. When I get a minute or two, I'll blog a little about my trip to NYC.

Mets 4, Phillies 3

2005-06-23T22:02:00.000-04:00

I'm beginning to think I'm bad luck for the Phils.

Five More Easy Pieces

2005-06-22T20:10:00.000-04:00

A South Korean baseball player has been busted for keeping frozen cabbage leaves under his cap. To keep cool, of course. Should that be against the rules? I don't think so! It's just smart. And weird. But definitely smart, too.

I absolutely love Paul Petroniu Marza's photo of "a happy guy". And for reasons that are unclear even to me, I love that the picture was taken in Turkey. Anyway, such joy!

Mary Duncan explains how her English language bookstore finally succumbed to the new Russian bureaucracy (link via Bookslut, of course). Very interesting.

Where should the windmills go? Well, let's check the wind map of the United States (link via Marginal Revolution).

You probably noticed it before this hilarious New York Observer piece explained it, but this is apparently going to be a "too-low-in-the-ass, too-tight-everywhere-else jeans" kind of summer for American men (link via The Obscure Store). Here's a snippet:

'Ass cleavage is really in right now,' said Antonio Jeffery, a national denim specialist at Diesel Jeans in Union Square. Ass cleavage, like regular cleavage, used to be strictly for women. Even the least careful observers of fashion will recall that a few years back, the rises on women's jeans plummeted with the stock market; at one point, pants got so low that Christin[a] Aguilera was literally prancing in assless chaps. This summer, it's the men who are artfully displaying the tops of their bottoms, as dudes, gay and straight, squeeze themselves into ever-lower-riding jeans from Paper, Prada and Levi's. Even the Gap's in on the action, selling its '1969 extra low boot fit (burnished sky)' denim.

Five Easy Pieces

2005-06-21T20:59:00.000-04:00

Dear Lynda Carter: Your Wonder Woman jewelry has finally been found, and Jesse Metcalfe is wearing it.

The list of items most frequently shoplifted is a bit heartrending (link via The Volokh Conspiracy). There's a lot of pain underneath all those stolen pain remedies, pregnancy tests, and cans of infant formula. (By the way, do people shoplift items like Preparation H, condoms, and Monistat because they're embarrassed to face the cashier? The list sure made me wonder....)

This may sound a little bit weird, but I've been killing big chunks of time playing the CBC's online curling game (link via Curling Blog). It's seriously addictive.

Have you visited Daily Dose of Imagery lately? If not, you may have missed this stunning shot of a train passing through some beautiful greenery.

"You are already naked," Steve Jobs reminded the Stanford University grads (link via Renegade Buddha). "There is no reason not to follow your heart."

The Music Meme

2005-06-20T22:53:00.000-04:00

Jim Calloway, my online buddy and fellow Oklahoma attorney, handed the ubiquitous Musical Baton Meme off to me. I certainly don't need much of an excuse to blog about music or, well, myself, so this is the perfect assignment for me. Anyway, here are the questions and my responses:

1. What is my total volume of music? As of today, I have 29.4 GB of music on my computer (and my iPod). That's really just a fraction of the total music that I own, as I'm still pretty much wedded to my CDs. Without conducting a major census, I think it's fair to say that I own over 1,200 CDs right now; I've ripped about one-quarter of them. I don't download much music, because—at some deep level—I just feel more secure in owning, um, objects. Maybe I'll eventually join the 21st century.

2. What is the last CD I bought? This is a slightly embarrassing question because I actually bought eight CDs when I last went shopping:

Best of Natacha Atlas, Natacha Atlas;
Cold Roses, Ryan Adams and the Cardinals;
Everyman . . . Everywoman, Yoko Ono (yes, really!);
Fisherman's Woman, Emiliana Torrini;
The Forgotten Arm, Aimee Mann;
Georgia Hard, Robbie Fulks;
Haughty Melodic, Mike Doughty; and
Stand Up, Dave Matthews Band.

If I had to recommend only one of these, by the way, it would be Emiliana Torrini's Fisherman's Woman. I hate to invoke a cliché, but Torrini has an angelic voice. If you're curious, you can listen to several samples of her work on a recent, archived episode of WNYC Radio's The Next Big Thing.

3. What song is playing right now? I currently have iTunes set on shuffle, and it's playing a song called "Ein seltener Vogel" ("A Rare Bird," maybe?) by Einstürzende Neubauten—the German pioneers of industrial rock. As soon as I finished typing that, iTunes switched to one of my favorites, "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots," by the Flaming Lips.

4. What five songs do I listen to a lot because they are special to me?

"Insensitive," by Jann Arden: You probably remember this song, which was a hit for Arden circa 1996. According to iTunes, this is the song I've played the most over the past nine months. Why? Because (a) Arden's performance is heartwrenching and (b) I once lived this song:
Oh I really should have known
By the time you drove me home
By the vagueness in your eyes
Your casual good-byes
By the chill in your embrace
The expression on your face
That told me you might have some advice to give
On how to be insensitive
That song will always make me think of a particularly bittersweet time of my life occurring about the time of Arden's release. (By the way, Belgian singer-songwriter Jasper Steverlinck recently released an exquisite cover of "Insensitive.")
"Sugar Creek," by Jeb Loy Nichols: You probably haven't heard this one, but it's a love song that chronicles an easy time in a, well, sweet relationship. It reminds me of a similar time in my own life. Random fact: I've seen Jeb Loy Nichols in concert more times than I've seen any other artist.
"Come on Eileen," by Dexy's Midnight Runners: This is music from back in my day (i.e., when I was in high school). It's infectious, and it makes me smile like no other song.
"Something about What Happens when We Talk," by Lucinda Williams: Williams, born in Lake Charles, La., and raised all over the South, has an accent that sounds exactly right to my Oklahoma ears. This song, which details a relationship built on words, gets me right in the abdomen. "But all I regret now is I never kissed your mouth," she sings. Yeah.
"Loser," by Beck: Strangely enough, this reminds me of law school, probably because I can distinctly remember driving around uptown New Orleans in my decidedly uncool car (a 10-plus-year-old Mercury Lynx), windows down, Beck on the radio. (I also enjoy a cover of "Loser" by avant-hillbilly banjoist Danny Barnes. Really.)

5. What five people will I pass the musical baton to? Well, to avoid the chain-letter feel, I'm not going to nominate anyone formally. But, um, maybe somebody like Joe of Watching Myself Gavotte, Steve of The Sporting Life, or someone else will take the baton from me.

My Wimbledon Men's Picks

2005-06-19T21:55:00.000-04:00

It's entirely possible, I think, that the best men's match has already occurred at Wimbledon. During the qualifying(!), two titans met up: Novak Djokovic outlasted South African Wesley Moodie, 4-6, 6-0, 6-7 (2-7), 7-6 (7-4), 6-3. Gosh, I wish I'd seen that.

And that's just what kind of tournament this is. There are many, many players in the mens' draw who have some serious grass-court skills. Although this depth of talent may make the tournament hard for me to pick, it should be a fun tourney to watch.

Here's how I see the men's quarterfinals (from the top of the draw to the bottom):

Roger Federer (seeded #1) - According to British oddsmakers, apparently, Federer is a 4-6 favorite to win. That sounds about right to me.

Joachim Johansson (#11) - The top seed in this section is Nikolay Davydenko (#8), who seems to have never won a sanctioned match on grass. I think the quarterfinalist will be decided in a fourth round match between Mikhail Youzhny (#31) and Johansson. I'll go with the young Swede.

Lleyton Hewitt (#3) - Hewitt, who was seeded one place below his actual ranking, can tap into his annoyance with the seeding committee all the way to the quarters. A potential match-up with Taylor Dent (#24) in the Round of 16 looks interesting.

Mario Ancic (#10) - The tall, big-serving Croatian just won at 's-Hertogenbosch. He has momentum, and he likes the grass a lot more than the section's highest seed, Marat Safin (#5). Look for Ancic to be hanging around late into the second week.

Max Mirnyi (unseeded) - This is an odd, interesting section of the draw. Truthfully, any one of the seeds—Thomas Johansson (#12), Tommy Haas (#19), Jiri Novak (#28), or Olivier Rochus (#33)—is a plausible quarterfinalist. Mirnyi, though, just made the final at Nottingham, and my gut feeling is that the unseeded veteran will be the quarterfinalist.

Radek Stepanek (#14) - Rafael Nadal (#4) is the top seed in the section, but I don't expect the French Open champ to make it beyond the third round. In my mind, the quarterfinalist will either be Stepanek or young French phenom Richard Gasquet (#27). Gasquet just won at Nottingham, but I think Stepanek may just be a smidge better right now.

Sebastien Grosjean (#9) - The quarterfinalist will surely either be Grosjean or local favorite Tim Henman (#6). Both are fine grass-court players; Grosjean, though, won't have to deal with the hometown pressures that the mentally delicate Henman must face.

Andy Roddick (#2) - If my draw is correct, Roddick will have to get past big-serving Ivo Karlovic, up-and-comer Robin Soderling (#30), and Ivan Ljubicic (#20) to get to the quarters. It may be tough, but expect to see Roddick in the second week.

What does the rest of the tournament look like?

Semifinals: Federer vs. Ancic; Stepanek vs. Roddick.
Final: Federer vs. Roddick.
Champion: Federer.

What first-round upsets do I see? I saved most of them for my women's picks, but here are a few:

Lars Burgsmuller over #16 Mariano Puerta;
Guillermo Garcia-Lopez over #17 David Ferrer;
Cyril Saulnier over #22 Dominik Hrbaty; and
grass-court stalwart Wayne Arthurs over #32 Filippo Volandri.

Other tasty first-round matches:

Jonas Bjorkman vs. qualifier Jeff Morrison;
Jan Hernych vs. James Blake;
Karol Beck vs. Mark Philippoussis;
Raemon Sluiter vs. #18 David Nalbandian;
Gasquet vs. Philipp Kohlschreiber;
Vince Spadea vs. Nadal;
Henman vs. Jarkko Nieminen;
Victor Hanescu vs. Kenneth Carlsen;
Michael Llodra vs. Grosjean;
#15 Guillermo Coria vs. Tomas Behrend;
Jürgen Melzer vs. Ljubicic; and
Soderling vs. Igor Andreev.

Qualifiers and wild cards likely to advance: I've picked several qualifiers to visit the second round. They include: Danai Udomchoke, Noam Okun, Arnaud Clement, Gilles Elseneer, Djokovic, and Tuomas Ketola. I like the first-round chances of one wild card, Andrew Murray. And, if he's healthy, lucky loser Justin Gimelstob should see the second round.

I'm tired of picking, ready to do some actual watching.

My Wimbledon Picks—The Women's Draw

2005-06-18T22:40:00.000-04:00

Yes, once again, it's time for me to make foolhardy picks for a Grand Slam tennis tournament—this time, Wimbledon. I'll start with the women's draw, which is one of the most interesting I've seen. There are just so many women capable of winning a top event these days. This should be good.

Here's how I see the women's quarterfinals. As always, these are in the order you'd see them from the top of the draw to the bottom:

Kim Clijsters (seeded #15) - The quarterfinalist in this section should be decided in a Round of 16 match between Clijsters and top seed and world No. 1 Lindsay Davenport. Those same two players met in the fourth round at the French Open, and (strangely, just as I predicted) Davenport won. This time, though, I'm going with Clijsters. She seems to be fairly healthy, is coming off a win at Eastbourne, and is obviously much better than her current ranking (which is due to a string of injuries). As long as Clijsters's knee problems don't return, I think she may finally capture her first Grand Slam title.

Svetlana Kuznetsova (#5) - Kuznetsova, the current U.S. Open champ, has a great draw. I don't see anyone in the section who might challenge her. In fact, if Kuznetsova should happen to stumble early, I think an unseeded player—veteran Magdalena Maleeva, maybe—might well be the quarterfinalist.

Amélie Mauresmo (#3) - Mauresmo is such a head case that I'm reluctant to make her my pick. She's just the class of the section, though; in fact, I don't see anyone in the entire quarter of the draw who might stand in her way.

Jelena Jankovic (#17) - As I just indicated, this is a fairly weak quarter of the draw. The top two seeds in this particular section don't seem like good picks. Anastasia Myskina (#9) is struggling, and Elena Dementieva (#6) doesn't have a game for the grass. In my mind, this section comes down to Jankovic and the veteran Amy Frazier (#28). I give Jankovic the edge in a potential Round of 16 match between the two. Strangely enough, Jankovic's toughest challenge (before the quarters) might end up being in the first round, where she faces a tough Russian—Anna Chakvetadze—who has played awfully well so far during the short grass-court season.

Justine Henin-Hardenne (#7) - The French Open champ is not my pick to win the entire tournament, but she shouldn't have any trouble emerging as the quarterfinalist. If you're looking for a dark horse, watch out for Vera Douchevina, who might well face Henin-Hardenne in the Round of 16.

Serena Williams (#4) - She'll have to get by two tough players—Marion Bartoli (#29) in the third round and sister Venus (#14) in the Round of 16—but Serena should manage. In fact, I expect the current Australian Open titleholder to be a real contender this year on the grass.

Vera Zvonareva (#11) - This section of the draw is so uninteresting, especially in comparison with the rest of the draw, that I really couldn't make myself focus on it. The quarterfinalist will probably be decided in a fourth-round match between Zvonareva and fellow Russian Nadia Petrova (#8). In my mind, that match is close to a toss-up.

Maria Sharapova (#2) - The defending champion should challenge again. Look for her to ease by Tatiana Golovin (#18) in the Round of 16.

What does the rest of the tournament look like?

Semifinals: Clijsters vs. Mauresmo; S. Williams vs. Sharapova.
Final: Clijsters vs. Sharapova.
Champion: Clijsters.

How about some first-round upsets? I see a bunch of this year:

Lucie Safarova, fresh off the final at 's-Hertogenbosch, over #12 Mary Pierce;
Douchevina over #19 Ana Ivanovic;
Kristina Brandi over #21 Francesca Schiavone;
Roberta Vinci over #23 Ai Sugiyama;
Maleeva over #24 Shinobu Asagoe;
Tamarine Tanasugarn over #25 Karolina Sprem;
Emmanuelle Gagliardi over #26 Flavia Pennetta; and
Katarina Srebotnik over #31 Anabel Medina Garrigues.

Other tasty first-round matches:

Anna Smashnova vs. #13 Elena Likhovtseva;
Chakvetadze vs. Jankovic;
Frazier vs. Mashona Washington;
Henin-Hardenne vs. Eleni Daniilidou; and
's-Hertogenbosch champ Klara Koukalova vs. Laura Granville;.

Tomorrow, I'll post my picks for the men's side.

This is a jelly-free post.

2005-06-18T00:57:00.000-04:00

The Impulsive Buyer explains why peanut butter should not be used in the bedroom:

First off, the smell of peanut butter is not sexy, unless you enjoy slapping shells with Mr. Peanut. One of the few things that can make the words, 'I wanna lick your (insert body part here),' not so sexy is peanut butter breath. Also, that sentence is no longer sexy when it begins or ends with a name that's not yours....

There's a reason why Mr. Owl bites to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop instead of licking all the way through. He knew the tongue is a muscle and it will get tired. If your tongue gets tired from licking up peanut butter, it's going to be too tired to lick anything else, like nipples and in between toes.

Wow. How thorough!

As I mentioned last month, Japan has embarked on a summer of casual dress. Amazingly, there's an interested group known as the Federation of Japanese Necktie Unions. (Imagine what the meetings are like.) Un-amazingly, the necktie lobby(!) is not happy about the summer of Cool Biz.

If, like me, you read Shirley Jackson's famous short story "The Lottery" in school, but then never made it beyond that, you may find this bibliography of her work helpful (link via Bookslut). I've got some catching up to do.

Pity the attendees of the Garfield High School graduation. There are 44 valedictorians, and 35 of them have opted to speak (link via The Obscure Store). I was horrified that a class could somehow have 44 valedictorians until I read in the story that another school has 58. How much of an honor is being valedictorian if you have to share it with so many others?

If you want to live a good, long time, you're going to need a steady supply of friends. Not family, mind you, just friends. (That speaks volumes.)

Friday Spies

2005-06-17T23:11:00.000-04:00

This week's questions from the boys at BTQ:

1. Which relationship will last longer, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie ("Brangelina"), or Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes ("TomKat")? I have to go with TomKat. Tom, I know, has gotten a lot of bad publicity lately, and I'm awfully suspicious about that entire Scientology thing, but he just seems to be truly and absolutely happy. In fact, he's giddy. Plus, Tom and Katie are now engaged. They're going to be together for a good while. Brangelina, meanwhile, won't last: He's either a slug, on the rebound, or both; she's a bit of a nut.

2. Less importantly, which will have nuclear bombs first, North Korea or Iran? I'm no expert, but I think the answer's North Korea. Isn't there a fairly significant chance that North Korea already has the bomb?

3. What is your dream car? This is an odd question to ask of someone who (a) owns a 14-year-old Ford Tempo and (b) drives about once a week. In other words, when it comes to automobiles, I'm just not particularly ambitious. (I was tempted to say I'm not particularly "upwardly mobile." I'm sorry.) My dreams are of Mini Coopers or—when I'm really daydreaming—of Saabs. When I was a kid, I remember being awfully impressed that Saabs came equipped with seat warmers.... If I won the lottery, I suppose I might buy something stylish like a Jaguar. I know a lot more about the subway than automobile models, though.

4. What book have you read the most times? Probably Peter Jenkins's A Walk Across America, which I read several times when I was in high school and college. It's not great literature, but the idea of actually walking an incredible distance—and meeting regular people along the way—completely appealed to me.

The book I've re-read the most as an adult is probably Eric Wolf's Europe and the People Without History, which played a big role in my master's thesis.

5. Are you a matchmaker? No. I'm way too self-absorbed (i.e., concerned with my own relationship status) to be fixing up my friends. I hope that doesn't make me a bad person. No, wait. Actually, I don't really care if it makes me a bad person. (See?! I am way too self-absorbed.)

I think I'm too tired to blog. Let's talk on Friday.

2005-06-16T22:09:00.000-04:00

I was tuckered out after a hard day of work. When I got to the train station at 5:35 p.m., though, passengers were being advised "to seek alternate means of transportation." There are no words more disturbing to me as a commuter.... (Happily enough, I hadn't heard them since 2003.) Four hours later, the power outage resolved, I finally stumbled in my front door.

I really do need to find some alternate means of getting home, I guess. Ugh.

I'm suddenly a media critic.

2005-06-15T22:15:00.000-04:00

I guess much of the recent coverage of Michael Kinsley was occasioned by the odd announcement that his L.A. Times editorial page is going to start featuring "wikitorials." As this week's fascinating New York Times article on Kinsley explained, wikitorials will be online editorials that readers can continually edit "to [their group] satisfaction." Does that even make sense as a concept? Why would I want to read "the opinion" of a bunch of disconnected readers, some up to mischief, some ill-informed, some with unseen agendas—especially when all these participants will actually hold widely disparate views on any difficult subject? The wikitorials will either change radically from minute to minute, or they just won't make sense at all. (You'll probably have to follow the site religiously just to make any sense of the feature.) In fact, these wikitorials may make groupthink seem respectable by comparison.

But you know what? I've decided that bizarre ideas are what Kinsley wants to be all about. I've been fascinated with Kinsley since his days on CNN's Crossfire. He was so stiff on that program, so startlingly ill-suited to working on television (or, perhaps, with the show's stilted format), that I found the show riveting. I had to watch. In fact, I watched so often that I sort of felt, finally, that I "got" Kinsley. Whether or not I agreed with him on a given day, I couldn't shake the feeling that he was more interested in getting to a policy position in an unusual way than in being correct or informative. I decided he'd prefer to be seen by the world as innovative than wise. That's sure an odd preference for a pundit to have.

I know that characterization sounds negative, and—to a large extent, I guess—it is. But just when I'd decided that Kinsley was, at bottom, insubstantial, he helped put together Slate. Slate, in my view, is a truly brilliant concept: It's the best possible magazine that our post-magazine era could possibly produce. It's constantly updated, as any web-era staple should be; but it's also a quality, general-interest publication that (in a more traditional format) would've fit right in 30 years ago on the coffee table. Slate is Life Magazine on steroids, and I like it. If Kinsley's innovative-quirkiness-for-the-sake-of-innovative-quirkiness approach helped him produce Slate, well, he can't be all bad.

Still, it's no surprise that Kinsley's new L.A. Times gig hasn't gone smoothly. It's hard to imagine a more change-resistant environment than an establishment newspaper's editorial page, and it's hard to imagine any boss being more oblivious to such an environment than Kinsley. Consider, in this regard, this snippet from the New York Times piece:

Michael Kinsley shook up the editorial staff of The Los Angeles Times recently, transferring four of his eleven writers, letting one go, and outsourcing some editorials to freelancers.

But many on the newspaper's staff knew what was coming because Mr. Kinsley, who was hired to oversee the newspaper's editorial and opinion pages last spring, accidentally left a Power Point document describing his plans on a Xerox machine in their office in early May. He said he had intended to share his ideas at a company management retreat.

Did Kinsley go to the Mr. Magoo School of Management or what? Just imagine what it's like to be one of his employees. He's all about innovation, so you know the changes will never end. Plus, given his extreme focus on the bigger picture, he'll forget that he's affecting the actual lives of real employees. One day, you know, you'll find your pink slip—or, probably, the 21st-century equivalent of a pink slip—on the copy machine. Egad.

If the idea of the wikitorial is any indication, Kinsley's stint in L.A. won't be nearly as successful as his time in Seattle for Slate. How could it be? How often can quirky innovation for its own sake lead to success? Maybe once in a lifetime? Hasn't Kinsley already been as lucky with his life-strategy as he could possibly expect?

As for what ails the newspaper editorial page, I don't think it takes a Michael Kinsley to do the diagnosis. As Timothy Noah cogently explained yesterday at, yes, Slate, it's silly to think that any newspaper can sustain a singular, cohesive, interesting editorial voice. A newspaper editorial is, and—worse—reads like, something only a committee could produce. Noah thinks newspapers should just abandon the editorial and devote that space to what already works on the Op-Ed page: edgy, signed editorials by writers who represent a range of worldviews. Isn't he right?

Update (6/17/05): As you might've expected, the first day of the wikitorial was a bit of a mess. Kinsley, of course, was pleased.

Second Update (6/21/2005): After three days, the Times had to suspend the wikitorial feature because of the overwhelming number of "inappropriate" posts. Who couldn't see that coming? Does Michael Kinsley still think the wikitorial was a success?

I don't think this could get any more eclectic....

2005-06-13T22:51:00.000-04:00

The most compelling thing I read this weekend was the New York Times Magazine piece on gay romance novels. I think I may have finally found my true calling. In my world, the second baseman always falls for the nerdy, self-conscious, bored lawyer. And they live happily ever after.

Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty, the environmental art project (which I blogged about most recently here), may be returning to "normal." Record snowfall has caused the Great Salt Lake to rise, causing the Jetty—after several years of drought—to take on a more familiar appearance. Be sure to check out the pictures at the CNN.com link.

Marvin, the Impulsive Buy-er, recently test-squeegeed a women's hair removal product. You'll definitely want to read the entertaining review. The picture is a must-see, too.

Razzi's Photolog is always worth a look, and this new picture—called "Hemisphere"—will show you why.

I won't wear a bolo to your wedding, I swear.

2005-06-11T22:19:00.000-04:00

Dear Maurice J. McDonough High School: A bolo may well be a fashion mistake, but it is a tie. Give the man his diploma.

Life and Deatherage recommends the comic strip Brevity. It's no F Minus, but I did smile at this and this.

As Non*Glossy attests, it's already summer—even, apparently, in Montreal: Yum, watermelon.

Having killed Enterprise, UPN can now turn its full attention to ruining Veronica Mars, last year's most compelling show. What's the plan? Oh, just to deemphasize the characters we loved while making the show more interesting to viewers of, of all things, America's Next Top Model (link via The Yin Blog). Bizarre.

That I read—and am now blogging about—this wedding story from the New York Times is baffling to me. I'm definitely not in the mood for a romantic story. But the story of how Valerie Merahn and Michael Simon went from Not Dates to spouses is pretty darn sweet.

I really can't believe I wrote that.

Friday Spies

2005-06-10T21:06:00.000-04:00

This week's questions from BTQ:

1. What is the earliest movie you remember watching in the theater? Digby, the Biggest Dog in the World. My already-married big sister, the best big sister a boy ever had, took me. The next year, she took me to see Benji. I was very big on dog stories....

2. If you could strike one word from the English language, which word would you choose and why? Pusillanimous. Why? 1.) I can't see or hear the word without thinking the user is pretentious. 2.) It has a really, really, really ugly sound. Runner-up word: lugubrious.

3. If you were a superhero, what would be your kryptonite? This is a tough question, for reasons that Class Maledictorian explains:

Your kryptonite needs to be something that's somehow tied to you and your powers and which your enemies have some risk of possessing, but it should be sufficiently rare that you can still be called a superhero.

I'd like to my superpower to be logic (or the ability to know the truth), and there's only one thing that can absolutely dull that: romance. So, yes, love is my kryptonite.

4. Would you rather win an Emmy, Grammy, Tony, Golden Globe, Oscar, Pulitzer, or Nobel Prize? What work would you win it for? The Nobel Prize is surely the most prestigious, and I feel like I ought to pick that. But for peace or literature, please. The rest of the awards—especially the prizes for economics—are pretty silly. But you know what? I'm not going to pick what I ought to pick. I want to win an Emmy for comedy writing, so that's my choice.

Is there anybody who'd really rather win a Golden Globe award?

5. What is your catch phrase? Don't have one? Then make one up! According to some people, I pepper my everyday speech with one catch phrase after another. But "have fun," a farewell remark, is one of my current faves. I'm also currently big on "you can mark that a bargain," which is something I first heard from a high school classmate.

The hostage crisis continues.

2005-06-09T20:29:00.000-04:00

Yeah, I had another bad day. It's hot, everyone around me seems to be agitated, and I'm having transportation problems. So, in lieu of cranky blogging, how about links to four cool photographs: three destinations and, well, a goldfish?

"Broadway & Wall St.," Justin Ouellette, Chromogenic.net.
"Rio e Niterói - por-do-sol," Eulina Rego, Crocante Fotolog.
"Last trip," Peter Tongco, Manila in byte size edible pieces.
"Nice meeting you," Paul Petroniu Marza, Introniuspections.

Tomorrow is Friday. Surely I'll be in a better mood by then.

I'm blogging through a bad day....

2005-06-08T21:53:00.000-04:00

Is it ethical for a straight couple to marry in a jurisdiction that doesn't permit same-sex marriage? Ian Ayres, author of Straightforward: How To Mobilize Heterosexual Support for Gay Rights, has some thoughts on the new moral calculus of opposite-sex marriage.

In The Genius Factory: The Curious History of the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank, as excerpted at Slate, David Plotz writes:

[A particular sperm bank] has something it calls—I'm not kidding—its 'doctorate program.' For a premium, mothers can buy sperm from donors who have doctoral degrees or are pursuing them. What counts as a doctor? I asked. Medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, optometry, law, and chiropractic. Don't say you weren't warned: Your premium 'doctorate' sperm may have come from a law student.

Wow. Well, I totally didn't see that slam of lawyers, and particularly law students, coming. I was absolutely sure chiropractors (or, maybe, optometrists) were going to take a hit . . . but I suddenly found the zinger aimed at my very own profession. Ouch.

I guess mommas really don't want their babies to grow up to be law students....

How about a list of weeds you might encounter on your morning commute (link via Kottke)? My favorites: gazeweed, iPodpea, and kneecreeper.

At Sushicam, Jeff Laitila has an entertaining essay about an ethnocentric buffoon of a tour guide he encountered this week in Tokyo. And, of course, the photographs are nice, too.

Are ties in NHL hockey (as if that even exists anymore) really so distasteful that we must turn to overtime gimmicks to avoid them? Aren't shootouts really more about chance than—hey, here's a concept—deciding which team is better?

Tennis and—yeah—some other stuff, too...

2005-06-07T21:14:00.000-04:00

I haven't written anything about tennis in days, so I guess I owe the blog some final thoughts about the French Open. Gosh, do I have any final thoughts? Not really. Nothing profound, anyway. I guess it'd be fair to point out that I—ahem—correctly picked both the men's and the women's champions from the outset. But who likes to brag? (Um, me.) And I'd also like to point out how, sweetly early in the tournament, I realized that surprise eventual finalist Mariano Puerta was someone we should be watching. Correct. Does any of that make up for all those wrong picks I made? Probably not....

While I'm thinking about tennis, did you happen to catch commentator Mary Carillo's brilliant "Living Life on Clay" piece for ESPN? In the piece, Carillo—who's easily the best tennis commentator on American television today—described why she'd like her two kids to live life like clay courters. You'll definitely want to check out the entire piece, but here are some of the admirable traits Carillo sees in a life on clay:

To know that not everyone who thinks, thinks alike.
To know that the ground will shift under their feet; that it pays to be flexible, and patient.
That lateral thinking is often rewarded, so try to look around the corners of your problems.
That small things are hard to do...but everything, everything counts.

I guess I'm a true tennis fan, but Carillo's use of clay-court tennis as a metaphor for life sure struck me as spot-on.

That said—and I guess this is an appropriate observation at the beginning of the Wimbledon warm-ups—isn't Carillo necessarily saying that she doesn't like the values that grass-court tennis teaches? Again, I don't really disagree: The serve-and-volley, might-makes-right ethic of grass-court tennis isn't something I'd want kids to mimic.... But, um, will Carillo mention that during her upcoming Wimbledon coverage? Hee.

If you didn't get enough of new tennis superstar Rafael Nadal during the French Open, you might check out one of the most polished fan sites I've ever see: Vamos Rafael.

Has blogging jumped the shark? Left Coast Unitarian thinks so and offers up an "I'm blogging this" t-shirt at Six Flags. That's pretty darn good evidence, really....

In one of my most-read posts of the year (thanks, Slate), I said I found more in The Huffington Post to like than to dislike. Nearly a month later, I'm still enjoying my visits to THP. But I'm pleased to see there've been a few changes. As I said in that initial post, for Huffington to work as a blog, the site was going to have to find a way to let the reader aggregate the posts of favorite bloggers. Well, THP quickly provided that necessary feature: Now, in addition to being able to search the blog archives, the reader can easily see all of a particular Huffington blogger's posts. With that obvious feature, I can now recommend that you check out all of the entertaining posts of THP standout and Maxim UK editor-in-chief Greg Gutfield. (If you only have time to read one Gutfield post, this one is a particular fave of mine.)

I'm smitten with this Shutterbug pic of what I think are some shopping carts. Wow. I'm also taken with a Daily Dose of Imagery photograph of a colorful Ford truck.

D'backs 10, Phillies 8

2005-06-06T22:29:00.000-04:00

It's a bad sign, you know, when the visiting team scores five runs before you even get to your seat. Anyway, I was there today as the Phillies' winning streak ended at six games. Even in losing, though, the Phils looked pretty darn good. In fact, they nearly pulled off an improbable come-from-behind victory in the bottom of the ninth.

By the way, summer has definitely arrived in Philly. I'm not sure if I can take any more day games until, oh, September....

Today's Collection

2005-06-04T23:06:00.000-04:00

Sam offers up a Venn diagram of the British Isles (link via DarrenBarefoot.com). If you're mathematically minded but a little hazy on your geopolitics, this might be perfect for you.

At Crescat Sententia, Raffi Melkonian forwards a disturbing story about the state of American pie. Really. It's a $3.95, no-butter, no-fresh-fruit, factory-processed kind of pie world. How depressing.

Ann Althouse is nostalgic for the "beauty and innocence" that she thinks once characterized the spelling bee. Her post is a bit confused: Does she think the kids are too nerdy or not nerdy enough? How exactly did the "new success" of the bee lead to some contestants becoming "smartasses." It's not clear.

But more fundamentally than all that, what's the "beauty and innocence" that Althouse misses? Parents living out their odd fantasies through their children? Kids spending every day memorizing long lists of obscure words (when they could be learning something useful or, even, having some fun)? The all-out tension of the actual bee, which is structured so as to maximize pressure and attention on a child over and over until a mistake is inevitably made. Oof.

If there was ever any "beauty and innocence" in the spelling bee, it died long before Althouse or I were paying attention.

Ian Ayres and Jennifer Brown, authors of Straightforward: How To Mobilize Heterosexual Support for Gay Rights, have been guest-blogging at Lessig. Today, Brown got down to some of the practicalities, noting circumstances when straight people can be ambiguous about their own heterosexuality in order to promote equality. It's an interesting post; in essence, it describes how a straight person can helpfully blur the sexual categories by going into a sort of closet of vagueness. I'm definitely going to order the book. I've got to wonder, though, how these ideas fill a book. Ayres and Brown's guest-blogging has been fairly jargon-laden. Will this be 10 chapters of theory and one chapter of pragmatics? And, truthfully, wouldn't these ideas be more successful (more apt to reach a wide audience) if they were in a persuasive, um, pamphlet?

Friday Spies

2005-06-03T23:02:00.000-04:00

This week's Friday Spies questions were submitted by Begging the Question readers:

1. From Janie Q: "How about your favorite TV show when you were a kid, and why hasn't it been remade into a movie, or if it has, how was that movie, or maybe it shouldn't be remade at all?" When I was a kid, some of my favorite TV shows were The Carol Burnett Show, The Brady Bunch, and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. But wouldn't a campy remake of Emergency! be great? You'd just need some real firefighters, this generation's Randolph Mantooth (any nominations?), and some silly southern California emergencies....

2. Stag asks: "Tell us about your favorite vacation or your fav place to go on vacation." I love Yellowstone National Park, and I really enjoyed the trip I made there in 2002 with the ex-flatmate. Fittingly enough, I described that trip—which included a freak hailstorm and a plague of insects—in a 2003 Friday Five (see Question #2).

3. Soup inquires: "Are you a fan of Get Fuzzy?" Regular readers know that I'm fussy (not fuzzy) about my comic strips. For me, Get Fuzzy is too wordy (yeah, I know I'm in trouble when I don't have time to get through a comic strip), and—in the end—the payoff's not worth the effort. In other words, Get Fuzzy is no F Minus, which is my current comic strip fave....

4. Sebastian Haff has a burning desire to know: "[Which] celebrities [do] you think are most likely to pose in Playboy and why[?]" This is tough, not least of all because Playboy is way outside my area of, um, expertise. I'm thinking the most likely candidate is a just-past-her-prime B- or C-level actress who has always gotten most of her self-identity from her looks. I think I'd rather not name any actual names, though.

This post mentions at least three forces.

2005-06-01T22:11:00.000-04:00

A National Geographic multimedia feature lets you experience the inside of a tornado (link via Garrett Fitzgerald's Blog). Really. Admittedly, I'm fascinated by tornadoes—being from Oklahoma will do that for you—but I think you'll enjoy this, too.

"Gay is the new cousin," says Frank Paiva—who's been attending a lot of high school proms as the "gay best friend." Paiva's first-person account of spring prom season was one of the highlights of Sunday's New York Times (hat tip: Towleroad).

At The Sports Economist, the Eclectic Econoclast (since when do economists need pseudonyms?) argues that Title IX has inhibited the growth of lacrosse. I'd be a lot more sympathetic to that argument if I didn't know that university women now play lacrosse, too.... (By the way, the comments to EE's post are also worth a look.)

Three (Very) Quick Thoughts

2005-05-31T22:36:00.000-04:00

At Marginal Revolution, Tyler Cowen recently wrote about some of the music he loves in the genres he hates. Cool idea, huh? But does this particular discussion really make sense?

Post-1965 Country music - You can argue about that date, but New Jersey boys aren't going to like Garth Brooks or Shania Twain. Shelby Lynne, on the other hand, is the best of Loretta Lynn and Dusty Springfield rolled into one, only circa 2005.

First of all, Cowen seems to be saying that he likes Loretta Lynn, right? But much of Lynn's work, and a lot of her best work, occurred after 1965. To be fair, Cowen said the date might be arguable, and I suspect (admittedly, this is just a wild guess) that what Cowen meant to say is that he doesn't like the string-heavy Nashville Sound country music of the 1960s or the faux-country pop music (Kenny Rogers, Barbara Mandrell, Eddie Rabbitt) that dominated the 1970s. More than a handful of artists resisted those pop impulses, though, and here I'm thinking of Lynn, Tammy Wynette, Dolly Parton, Gary Stewart, etc. The artists I just mentioned did their best work after 1965.

That quibble aside, though, I'm still puzzled. Cowen says "Jersey boys aren't going to like Garth Brooks or Shania Twain." But isn't that precisely who propelled Brooks and Twain to superstardom? I mean, really. In fact, isn't that why Brooks and Twain became household names—because Jersey boys were suddenly buying their albums? I don't think you can blame the excesses of the Twain and Brooks era on the kinfolk down in the holler. Golly.

P.S. For the record, I'd like to say that Brooks's early work (i.e., his first album or two) was more country than some remember.

Just a few days ago, I was whining—but, oh, so mildly—that I'd never been a groomsman. Now I've learned that my only sibling, a sister, has eloped! I was counting on that wedding to end my streak. Hmph.

What do some never-married women say? Always a bridesmaid but never a bride? I may have that beat. Never a groom and not even a groomsman.

I keep going back to a Chromogenic.net picture entitled, unromantically enough, "Holland Tunnel Ventilation." Somehow or other, it's engrossing.

What New Orleans restaurant am I?

2005-05-31T22:28:00.000-04:00

You are Commander's Palace, a grand old dame of the Garden District. Traditional yet always vibrant, you are never afraid of innovation but you seldom carry it too far. Some locals claim you have become a tourist trap, but your loyal patrons know there is no restaurant in town that treats its regulars with more finesse.

What Famous New Orleans Restaurant Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

(Quiz-taking prompted by the quizmaster herself, Poppy Z. Brite.)

The Men's Quarterfinalists

2005-05-31T00:20:00.000-04:00

Ok, remember when I saved the word "dreadful" for later? I was saving it for now: Of my eight picks to reach the French Open men's quarterfinals, only two turned out to be correct. Two! I don't remember ever doing so poorly. And what's especially frustrating is that several of my picks just missed. Really. Anyway, let's get right to the heartbreak:

Roger Federer - It would've been hard to be wrong about this, and I wasn't. It's difficult—even for me—to give myself credit for something so obvious.

David Nalbandian - If you look at the men's draw, you'll see that Nalbandian just missed the quarterfinals, losing in five tough sets to unseeded Romanian Victor Hanescu. If you look back at my first post, you'll see that I recognized Hanescu was a contender in this section of the draw. Still, I thought the challenge was in deciding whether the quarterfinalist would be Nalbandian or fellow Argentine J.I. Chela. I was wrong. (I'm getting awfully used to saying that.)

Rafael Nadal - Yes, I was right about this. And if you're keeping track, yes, I was right about the two most obvious picks for the quarterfinals. Yes, I was wrong about everything that was even mildly difficult. Yes, yes, yes.

Gaston Gaudio - I was so close. On my bracket, I correctly put both defending champion Gaudio and David Ferrer (#20) into the Round of 16. I figured their match would be close, but I didn't see Ferrer taking out Gaudio in five sets. (Gaudio was up, 4-0, in the final set, too! I think maybe some of my picks were actually curses.)

Guillermo Coria - Coria was upset today by #12 Nikolay Davydenko, who has had a super clay-court season. I correctly projected that both Coria and Davydenko would be in the Round of 16, but I never really thought Davydenko might get by Coria.

Juan Carlos Ferrero - I think I wanted to believe Ferrero was back, and —truthfully—I'm still not convinced he isn't. He looked awfully good in losing to #3 Marat Safin. When I was making my picks, I fretted and fretted over whether the quarterfinalist would be Ferrero or Safin. Silly me! Not only did I not foresee that Safin would beat Ferrero, but I didn't see that Safin would then himself lose to #15 Tommy Robredo.

Andre Agassi - In retrospect, this was a silly pick. Sure, Agassi is still a contender here and there, but he's getting older and this is a long, grueling tournament. I should've just gone with one of the dirtballers in this section. The obvious choice would've been Guillermo Cañas, and—duh!—Cañas is the quarterfinalist.

Andy Roddick - Yeah, as I've already confessed, this was a silly pick, too. I think I redeemed myself, some, by quickly picking the unseeded Argentine, Mariano Puerta, to take Roddick's place in the draw. And, indeed, Puerta has made it (pretty darn easily) to the quarterfinals.

So, two for eight? I think we can all agree that that's dreadful prognosticating. What's worse is that, aside from Hanescu, none of the actual quarterfinalists is all that shocking. That's the tricky thing with picking the French Open, I guess. There are just so many dirtballers out there who can conceivably threaten in any given tournament.

How do I see the second week now?

Semifinals

~~Coria~~

~~Agassi~~

Final

~~Coria~~

Champion

I absolutely can't wait for the Federer-Nadal semifinal. That's the match that'll surely decide the championship. In fact, Sunday's final may well be an anticlimactic, all-Nadal (or all-Federer) affair.

The Women's Quarterfinalists

2005-05-30T23:44:00.000-04:00

It's time to look back at my French Open picks and berate myself for all the silly, silly predictions I made. Looking first at the women's draw, I have to say my performance was pretty dreadful. But let's save "dreadful," because I'm going to need that sharp of a word when I look at the men's quarterfinalists. Goodness.

Lindsay Davenport - If you'd told me after I made my eight picks that I'd be right about only three, I (a) wouldn't have been all that surprised and (b) would've assumed that Davenport was one of my misses. She just hasn't ever played that well in Paris, and she put almost no time this year into preparing for the red clay. But somehow or other, through a lot of ugly tennis, Davenport made the quarterfinals. I'm still not sure exactly how she got past Kim Clijsters in the Round of 16, but I certainly can't complain about getting something right.

Patty Schnyder - I was convinced that Schnyder's excellent year on the clay would continue. The eighth seed played well, but she succumbed to former champion Mary Pierce in the Round of 16. It's a miss for me, sure, but I did say nice things about Pierce's chances in my first post. I know, I know: You don't give partial credit.

Elena Dementieva - Yes, I was wrong about this one, too. I dislike Dementieva's game, but I thought she'd vindicate her seeding (at #4). Yesterday, however, she fell, 7-5 in the final set, to #16 Elena Likhovtseva. Score this as another miss. By the way, I didn't even have Likhovtseva in the Round of 16; I figured she'd lose to Silvia Farina Elia (#18) in the third round. Gosh, I'm too honest, I think. I didn't have to mention that miss.

Venus Williams - Gosh, to be right and still to be so wrong! As I said in my original post, the top seed in the section—defending champion Anastasia Myskina—just doesn't have it together. Given that knowledge, I tried to do the right thing, picking the second highest seed from the section, Williams. Williams, though, was upset by a Bulgarian teenager, Sesil Karatantcheva, and I definitely didn't see Karatantcheva as the quarterfinalist. Who could've? Spare me a little partial credit here? Pretty please?

Tatiana Golovin - I said this was my shakiest pick for the women's quarterfinals, and I was absolutely right. Golovin lost in the third round to the higher seed, Elena Bovina (#12), and Bovina, in turn, lost to Nadia Petrova (#7). In my defense (gosh, do I keep saying that?), Petrova came into the event with an injury, so it was hard to pick her. Still, a miss is a miss.

Amélie Mauresmo - Well, yes, this is my fifth miss in a row. Thanks for noticing! Mauresmo succumbed in the third round to her annual French Open nerves—and, oh, to young Serbian phenom Ana Ivanovic (#29). I didn't see Ivanovic as a possible quarterfinalist. Apparently, I should've.

Justine Henin-Hardenne - It looked for a long while today like I was going to be wrong about this pick, too. Henin-Hardenne, though, finally put away Sveta Kuznetsova (#6) in three tough sets. Henin-Hardenne will have to start playing better soon if she's going to vindicate my prediction that she'll win it all. Having been wrong about so much, it'd be nice to be right about the eventual champion....

Maria Sharapova - Well, yes, I did manage to get this pick right.

So that's the recap. I went three-for-eight in picking quarterfinalists, and that's nothing to gloat about. (I did have nine of the players who made the Round of 16.) Looking back, of the five quarterfinalists I missed, I don't think I had a prayer of picking at least three of them (Likhovtseva, Karatantcheva, and Ivanovic). I could've conceivably picked Pierce, but that would've been one helluva pick. It's only my failure to pick Petrova that really haunts me....

Well, with some substantial holes in my bracket, I need to reevaluate my picks for the rest of the tournament. Here's how I see things now (I'm sticking with my original picks to the extent possible):

Semifinals

~~Dementieva~~

~~Mauresmo~~

Final

Champion

So, yes, I can still be right about the finalists and the champion. Given how poorly both Davenport and Henin-Hardenne have played, however, I'm anything but confident. I truly wouldn't be surprised now if the finalists were Mary Pierce and Maria Sharapova.

Since I'm awake, I blog in the wee hours.

2005-05-30T03:14:00.000-04:00

This picture from Paul Petroniu Marza's Introniuspections just oozes Danish-ness, don't you think?

When I get a few minutes, I'm definitely going to read this long-ish ESPN.com piece on the gay All-American lacrosse player (link via Off Wing Opinion).

Speaking of long-ish sports pieces (hey, is this one a long sports-ish piece, too?), yesterday's New York Times Magazine had an interesting feature on the man who's arguably the best poker player of our time, Daniel Negreanu. If you watch as much televised poker as I do, you already know quite a bit about Negreanu. You'll learn a little bit more from the Times Magazine feature....

If there's any justice, Santa will leave this unbelieving Scottish poster artist a 20-foot-by-10-foot stocking stuffed with an enormous amount of coal.

I've seriously fallen for this work by mixed media artist William DeBilzan (hat tip: Rashomon). Unfortunately, I don't have $7,500 to spare—even if the stick figures really get to me. (And they do.)

Redecorating is hard work.

2005-05-29T23:12:00.000-04:00

If you're one of my four-and-one-half regular readers, you'll notice that I spent my long Memorial Day weekend doing some redecorating. I'd grown bored with the old template, which I started using nearly a year ago, but I couldn't find anything I liked better . . . and I definitely realized I didn't have the time or patience to design a whole new look by myself. Happily enough, I recently stumbled onto this template—it's known as Ice Bubble, by the way—at Blogger Templates, a site that's chock-full of interesting templates. In between watching French Open tennis and Formula One racing, I customized the template and decided it was ready for your eyes.

That said, it wouldn't surprise me at all if there are still a few things not working quite right. I've tested the site with new-ish versions of both Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer, but I know I have visitors who use other browsers. Please let me know if your particular experience with Ice Bubble isn't everything it should be. I suspect, too, that some posts in the archives may seem a little askew. I probably won't change anything in an old post unless it's unreadable or confusing; if you see a candidate for some serious tinkering, though, please feel free to call it to my attention.

My only regret with Ice Bubble is that it's, well, not green. Since I started blogging in November 2002, I've clung to the garden motif—which, of course, made green a natural color. I like Ice Bubble enough to embrace its all-out blueness, but I've got to ask: What kind of garden is blue?

A Saturday Seven

2005-05-28T12:42:00.000-04:00

International Harvester once made refrigerators?! Oh, excuse me, IH "femineered" them (link via Dustbury). How truly 1950s.

Yesterday's F Minus was brilliant. I guess you can't go wrong with talking animals, Noah's Ark, and a warped point of view.... Anyway, I'm completely sold on Tony Carrillo's strip. Why don't we get quality comic strips like F Minus in our newspapers anymore?

Is there no end to British tennis player Tim Henman's ability to whine? And is there no end to the lengths that Wimbledon officials will go to give the British No. 1 an edge? Hmph. Here's a Garden curse for you: May Henman lose in the first round.

Since I didn't even know Fresca still existed, the makeover is probably a good idea. Fresca? I'll stick with Tab, thanks.

Cool Pic Alert: I highly recommend these Brazilian drops.

The concept of sundries is apparently new to Mesa, Arizona. Odd.

Today's New York Times contains a profile of Beate Sirota Gordon, the American woman who wrote the women's rights provision in Japan's postwar constitution. I smiled at this:

Colonel Kades said, 'My God, you have given Japanese women more rights than in the American Constitution,' " she recalled, referring to Lt. Col. Charles L. Kades, head of the constitutional steering committee. "I said, 'Colonel Kades, that's not very difficult to do, because women are not in the American Constitution.'

Hot Damn!

2005-05-28T11:22:00.000-04:00

What would the Garden look like if I broke out into Redneck dialect? I could probably show you on my own, but I don't have to. Here's a snippet of my recent diatribe against straight men, as rendered by Psyclops.com's Redneck Translator:

Thar dang article detailed thar dang elaborate rituals thut thar (some) straight fellers go through 'n orduh tuh hang out n'all one anothuh while, gasp, not appearin' tuh bay gay, pardner. One felluh re-counted, fuh example, how bubba went tuh an art museum n'all ah cousin but went out uv his'n way tuh look at thin', hot damn! separately; bubba also pretended not tuh know much about art, Leroy! Anothuh felluh explained thut thar bubba just couldna brin' himself tuh eat n'all ah cousin at an Italian re-staurant thut thar had music, ambient lightin', pardner. 'n ah brew list.

Bubba pretended not tuh know much about art, Leroy! (Hat Tip: Mode for Caleb.)

Friday Spies

2005-05-27T22:43:00.000-04:00

This week's questions from BTQ:

1. What is the best thing about the city in which you live? What is the worst? I actually live in the 'burbs, but my answers are going to be about Philly. My favorite thing about the city is, I guess, Independence Hall (which, by the way, I can see from my office window). As a kid (one who'd never been to Philadelphia), I was fascinated by American colonial history—and especially the American Revolution. So it's a real treat for me to live and work where I do.

The worst thing about Philadelphia: Crime? Grime? Something else that rhymes with crime or grime? The usual big city stuff, I guess.

If you made me give my answers about my particular 'burb, I'd have to say the best thing is, of all things, a horse show. The worst thing: Hmm, strip malls, maybe?

2. Describe an idea or invention of yours that you would like to see turned into reality. I think some tiny Oklahoma tribe should legalize same-sex marriage and use the lure of marriage licenses to attract gay/lesbian visitors (i.e., marriage tourists) to a tribal luxury resort. It wouldn't necessarily matter whether other jurisdictions would recognize the marriages (that, of course, might be an interesting legal question). Gay and lesbian couples have been flocking to Massachusetts and Canada to get married, even when they realize there's little chance their marriage license will have legal effect in their home jurisdictions.

How do I envision the resort? I'm imagining a sort of cross between a Niagara Falls/Poconos hotel, the Mohegan Sun, and a "traditional" Oklahoma bingo parlor.

3. Name an overrated author, musician, and movie. Name an underrated author, musician, and movie. As for the overrated, I'll go with:

Author: Joan Didion
Musician: Sarah McLachlan
Movie: Forrest Gump

As for the underrated, I'll go with:

Author: Sinclair Lewis, if a Nobel Prize winner can be underrated (and I think he can)
Musician: Jeb Loy Nichols
Movie: Short Cuts.

4. If your life were a sitcom slated to air in the fall, what would the show be called? Who would you cast in the starring role? And for extra credit, give us a brief treatment of the show. Jason Bateman stars in Drawn Out as Green, a mildly exasperated Philadelphia lawyer who'd give anything to move to New Orleans and open up a snowball shop. Unfortunately, duty, justice, and other responsibilities keep getting in the way. Hilariously, I guess. And, oh, all of Green's co-workers and friends morph, occasionally, into outrageous and demanding cartoon characters.

5. When is the fun supposed to start? Yeah, I have no idea.

My French Open Picks—A First Look Back

2005-05-26T22:20:00.000-04:00

I should've already gotten to this, but I'm just been too pooped to blog for a couple of days. It's hard to work a full day, watch five or so hours of TiVoed tennis coverage, and still blog, you know? Anyway, here's my overdue first look back at my French Open picks.

How'd I do with my first-round picks? I did ok, just slightly below my norm. Of the 64 first-round men's matches (as always, I didn't pick every first-round match on the women's side), I correctly picked the winner in 43 (67.2%). That's four below my best-ever performance, when I correctly picked 47 of the men's first-round matches at the 2003 U.S. Open. My worst performance ever: the 2004 Australian Open, in which I correctly picked only 41 of the first-round matches.

It's not thrilling, but I'll take 43.

How are my projected quarterfinalists doing so far? Fairly well. All eight of my projected women's quarterfinalists survived the first two rounds of play. I can't be unhappy about that. Unlike some well-known prognosticators (hmmm, didn't Jon Wertheim's original seed report have Myskina going through to the semis?), too, I didn't make the mistake of picking defending champion Anastasia Myskina, who has struggled of late. Myskina, as you probably know, fell in the first round (to Maria Sanchez Lorenzo).

Two of my eight men's quarterfinalists, however, have already left the tournament. Andre Agassi lost in the first round to qualifier Jarkko Nieminen. (I did say that was a tasty first-round match. Doesn't that count for anything?) Today, fellow American Andy Roddick departed, losing to journeyman José Acasuso. I can't say I'm all that surprised by either loss. Agassi is obviously showing some age (who isn't?), and Roddick has never played that well at Roland Garros. So why'd I pick 'em? Well, that entire quarter of the draw was open, and I thought Agassi and Roddick were my best bets.

Now that the American seeds are gone, their quarter of the draw is even more open. Golly. It's so open, in fact, that I'm going to do something bold and picked an unseeded player, Mariano Puerta, to come through the draw as the semifinalist. Really. If I'm right, I'll look damn smart. If I'm wrong, I hope you'll do me the courtesy of forgetting I mentioned it.

I still see a Nadal-Coria final, by the way, with Nadal taking the title.

How did I do with the projected first-round upsets? I picked two first-round upsets in each of the draws. I was right, well, half of the time. On the women's side, I correctly predicted that Virginie Razzano would beat #25 Dinara Safina, but Meghann Shaughnessy didn't quite get by #27 Amy Frazier (that match did go to 7-5 in the final set). Likewise, on the men's side, I rightly picked Puerta to upset #13 Ivan Ljubicic, but #33 Robin Soderling didn't fall to Fernando Verdasco (that one did go five sets, though). Obviously, I didn't pick the upset of Agassi, but—overall—I'm pleased enough with my upset picks.

How'd my qualifiers and wild cards do? I highlighted five qualifiers and wild cards. Three of the five did advance in the first round. That's so-so. The pick I'm happiest about: I correctly predicted that "lucky loser" Flavio (ah, Flavio) Saretta would upset Greg Rusedski.

Where will I be this long Memorial Day weekend? In front of my TV set, watching some dirtball. I can't wait....

Hugs and kisses? No.

2005-05-24T20:43:00.000-04:00

Straight men are apparently freaks. First, a few weeks ago, we were confronted with a strange New York Times piece about "the man date." The article detailed the elaborate rituals that (some) straight men go through in order to hang out with one another while, gasp, not appearing to be gay. One man recounted, for example, how he went to an art museum with a friend but went out of his way to look at things separately; he also pretended not to know much about art. Another man explained that he just couldn't bring himself to eat with a friend at an Italian restaurant that had music, ambient lighting, and a wine list.

Some of the other bizarre "rules" for man dates:

Having brunch with a straight friend is definitely out, and—as we have seen—even having dinner together can be, um, challenging. The answer: just have drinks.
Speaking of drinks, beer and hard liquor are safe. Wine might be ok for one man, but two straight friends on a man date would never share a bottle.
Restaurants with coat checks and/or candles are too gay, but a steakhouse will always be acceptable.
Straight guys on a man date would never cook for one another, unless—possibly—the cooking were on a grill.
A man date should always be Dutch treat.
Guys can go to a movie together, but they shouldn't see anything romantic. And straight guys can make any movie safer by leaving a seat between them.
Any planned "man date" can be cancelled, no questions asked, if one gets a date with a woman.

If all that weren't enough, now we get the news that straight men are confused by the prevalence of social hugging (link via The Obscure Store). For straight guys, it seems, hugging necessitates all sorts of posturing and subtle cue-giving:

The male hug is complicating everything.

Men accustomed to the automatic and dependable hand clasp accompanied with a brisk up-and-down pump at dinner parties and college reunions, now must preface their greetings or goodbyes with intricate and split-second calculations based on body language, length of friendship and other factors.

Do I shake or do I hug?

Making the right choice matters. If one guy goes for the hug, but the other decides upon a handshake, they might collide. An excruciating dance will follow, as the poor lads work feverishly to determine what to do with their hands, their arms, their bodies.

And, egad, if a hug goes wrong, the experience "will haunt" subsequent encounters and the men may avoid socializing together again.

How exhausting. Get some therapy, guys.

Useless personal information, marital satisfaction, and—yes—turgidity...

2005-05-23T23:08:00.000-04:00

How about some useless personal information? Tonight, as I drove home from the train station, the odometer on my 1991 Ford Tempo—no, I'm not kidding—finally surpassed 66,000 miles. That works out to less than 5,000 miles per year. How'd I manage that? Well, I inherited the car from my grandfather, who drove it very little. I'm obviously my grandfather's grandson, too, because in the five years that I've owned it, I've driven the Tempo mostly to and from the nearby train station and to the supermarket.

What does this reveal about me? Choose one of the following:

You really don't have to tell me how you answered. Really.

Self-deception appears to be the key to a successful relationship (link via Marginal Revolution):

Psychologists believe that what they are observing in couples who [score higher on marital satisfaction] are strongly selective memories that ignore inevitable negative events over the course of marital history. Maybe a distorted view of your marriage that emphasises the positive and forgets the negative is crucial to accounting for who stays and who flees when it comes to relationship endurance.As the article indicates, "[i[f you are going to insist on being realistic, then maybe marriage is not for you." I knew it!

It's not often that I blush when reading The Volokh Conspiracy, but this post by Eugene Volokh about, um, turgidity got me a little bit pink.

French Open Picks—The Men's Draw

2005-05-22T23:04:00.000-04:00

I've spent nearly the entire day with the French Open men's bracket in front of me. As I try to pick every single match on the men's side of a Slam, my prediction process can eat up some time. Remember that if you're ever looking for a way to distract me for 10 straight hours, ok? Today, it was a fretful 10 hours, as I seemed to be faced repeatedly with impossible decisions:

Who will win in a hypothetical third round match between Dominik Hrbaty and Carlos Moya?

Which Argentine will be the one to face Roger Federer in the quarterfinals?

If I decide that Andy Roddick won't make the quarterfinals, which player from that section of the draw will fill the void? Ivan Ljubicic? Mariano Puerta? Nicolas Massu? Filippo Volandri?

You get the picture. I'm indecisive, and this process requires a lot of decisions. Not a good combo.

Anyway, let's get to it. As always, I'm starting at the top of the draw. My projected quarterfinalists are:

Roger Federer (seeded #1) - Clay is the world No. 1's weakest surface, but he's still one of the very best clay-court players. No question. I don't see anyone—including either Hrbaty or Moya—who might threaten Federer's place in the quarters.

David Nalbandian (#10) - As I indicated, this was a tough section of the draw to predict. I quickly decided that Tim Henman, the section's top seed, was unlikely to repeat last year's trip as the tournament Cinderella to the semifinals. (My Cinderella, what big feet you have!) I simply couldn't decide, though, whether the quarterfinal spot should go to Nalbandian or Juan Ignacio Chela (#31). I first wrote in Chela because I think he has a good shot, one on one, against Nalbandian. As I thought more and more about it, though, I realized that Chela's trip to the quarters was fraught with a lot more danger (Rainer Schuettler, Victor Hanescu, Henman). So, taking the easy route, I decided to go with Nalbandian.

Rafael Nadal (#4) - We should all get a grip, I suppose. Nadal's never even played the French before, and he's already everyone's favorite. Nadal has had a helluva spring, though, and the French is just the tournament where a newbie might prevail. Punch my ticket for the Nadal train, too, please.

Gaston Gaudio (#5) - Last year, when Gaudio surprised everybody by winning the French Open title, I was sure I wouldn't be penciling his name on a 2005 quarterfinal line. A year later, I'm a believer. Gaudio can play, and he's had a good, good spring on the clay. I'm particularly looking forward, by the way, to a Round of 16 match between Gaudio David Ferrer. Tasty stuff.

Guillermo Coria (#8) - Coria's is not the easiest draw. To get to the quarters, he'll have to get by Mikhail Youzhny (#29) or, more likely, Jürgen Melzer before tackling someone like Nikolay Davydenko (#12), who just won in St. Poelten. Despite that, it's almost inconceivable to me that Coria won't make the quarters.

Juan Carlos Ferrero (#32) - Ferrero, who seems to have been battling back from injury for years, finally seems to have his game where it should be. Still, is it too soon to expect Ferrero to get by Australian Open champ Marat Safin (#3) as well as a top clay-courter like Tommy Robredo (#15)? I think the answer just might be no.

Andre Agassi (#6) - At this stage of his career, I definitely think Agassi is a longshot to win the title. But I don't see anyone—save maybe Feliciano Lopez (#24)—who might keep Agassi out of the quarters.

Andy Roddick (#2) - As I foreshadowed above, I don't really think Roddick is likely to make the quarters. It's a competitive section of the draw, though, and I can't really say that I like the chances of Ivan Ljubicic (#13), Nicolas Massu (#22), Filippo Volandri (#27), or Mariano Puerta any better. So Roddick it is. If Roddick goes early, my backup choice is the unseeded Puerta.

As for the rest of the tournament:

Semifinals: Federer vs. Nadal; Coria vs. Agassi.

Final: Nadal vs. Coria.

Champion: Nadal.

And the miscellaneous picks?

First-round upsets: There are two I'd be willing to bet on. Look for (a) the aforementioned Puerta to upset Ljubicic and (b) Fernando Verdasco to defeat #33 (don't ask) Robin Soderling.

Other tasty first-round matches:

Michael Llodra vs. Fernando Gonzalez (#25);

Potito Starace vs. Henman;

Paradorn Srichaphan vs. Radek Stepanek (#16);

Melzer vs. Wayne Arthurs;

Vince Spadea vs. former champion Albert Costa;

former champ Gustavo Kuerten vs. David Sanchez;

Agassi vs. qualifier Jarkko Nieminen;

French phenom Gaels Monfils vs. Guillermo Cañas (#9); and

José Acasuso vs. Max Mirnyi.

Qualifiers and wild cards likely to advance:

In a battle of two wild cards, I like Gilles Simon's chances to beat Olivier Patience.

Although he shouldn't have needed the wild card, Arnaud Clement is my favorite over Alexander Popp.

In one of the toughest first-round matches to pick, I'll take Antony Dupuis over fellow qualifier Kristof Vliegen. (Yes, more Liquid Paper was required.)

In another battle of qualifiers, I like American James Blake over Tomas Tenconi.

Finally, I'm picking lucky loser Flavio (ah, Flavio) Saretta to "upset" Greg Rusedski.

Enough already. I'm ready for the actual tennis.

My French Open Picks—The Women's Draw

2005-05-21T23:56:00.000-04:00

I haven't been able to watch as much tennis as I'd like this spring, but that's not going to keep me from offering my picks for the French Open, which starts Monday. Tonight, I've been looking at the women's draw. The top half of the draw was so puzzling to me that I nearly gave up; happily enough, the bottom half made a lot more sense to me. You may want to keep that in mind when you think about these picks for the quarterfinals.

As always, these are in the order you'd see them from the top of the draw to the bottom:

Lindsay Davenport (seeded #1) - I get some occasional criticism that I'm too likely in my picks to go with the highest seeds. Here, though, I was all prepared to with Kim Clijsters, who's returning from injury as the #14 seed. (She's obviously a much better player than her seeding reflects.) In fact, I was set to put Clijsters all the way through to the final. But Clijsters strained some knee ligaments at the German Open a couple of weeks ago, and it wasn't clear until today that she'd even play in Paris. I'm still tempted to pick her; she's been a force of nature all spring, after all. Still, given the injury, I think I have to go with Davenport, the top seed. Send in those emails now.

Patty Schnyder (#8) - Yes, I'm going with the top seed in this section of the draw, too. Sue me. Schnyder has had a great clay-court season, and I'm not entirely sure Vera Zvonareva (#9), the other top seed in the section, will get by former champion Mary Pierce (#21) in the third round.

Elena Dementieva (#4) - I hate Dementieva's game. She has no serve, and she has no nerve. (Suddenly, I'm Muhammad Ali.) But the clay neutralizes many of her service problems, and her nerves shouldn't be a problem in the early going. Unless Silvia Farina Elia (#18) can stop her, Dementieva—who was a finalist last year—is your quarterfinalist. As you'll see below, I think Dementieva's even likely to make it further than the quarterfinals. Look for some boring, poorly played matches in the second week. Grrr.

Venus Williams (#11) - Please take note that I'm not going with the section's top seed, Anastasia Myskina (#5). Myskina's form has been questionable lately, and Williams comes into the French with a win in, of all places, Istanbul. Williams should be the quarterfinalist.

Tatiana Golovin (#17) - Once again, I'm not going with the seeding committee. The top seed in this section is Nadia Petrova (7). I like Petrova, and I respect her clay-court game, but I'm just not sure about her current form. She injured her thigh a few weeks ago in Rome, and she hasn't played since. Petrova's injury seemingly leaves room for Golovin or, even, veteran Dally Randriantefy. Golovin had some good results in the first part of the clay-court season, so I'm going with her. Admittedly, though, this is my most suspect pick....

Amélie Mauresmo (#3) - Coming off a win at the Italian Open, Mauresmo has to be viewed as one of the favorites. Unless the pressure of playing at home gets to her, she ought to find an easy road to the quarterfinals.

Justine Henin-Hardenne (#10) - Like Clijsters, Henin-Hardenne has returned from injury with a good-looking, confident game. I really don't give the top seed in the section, Svetlana Kuznetsova (#6), much hope of defeating the former champion.

Maria Sharapova (#2) - Sharapova is not the second best player in the game right now, but she looked good in Berlin and Rome. She should make the quarterfinals. If the quarterfinalist isn't Sharapova, it'll probably be Nathalie Dechy (#13) or Ai Sugiyama (#23).

What does the rest of the tournament look like?

Semifinals: Davenport vs. Dementieva; Mauresmo vs. Henin-Hardenne.

Final: Davenport vs. Henin-Hardenne. (And, yes, I'm probably crazy for putting Davenport through to the final. I just can't convince myself that Dementieva, Schnyder, or V. Williams are any more likely to make the final.)

Champion: Henin-Hardenne.

Interested in some miscellaneous picks?

First-round upsets: I like Virginie Razzano's chances to upset #25 Dinara Safina, and I'm picking Meghann Shaughnessy to beat #27 Amy Frazier. I'm sure there'll be other upsets, too, but these are the only two I'd be willing to bet on.

Other tasty first-round matches:

Davenport vs. Katarina Srebotnik;

Vera Douchevina vs. Pierce;

Jelena Jankovic (#15) vs. Anna Smashnova-Pistolesi; and

former champion and current old-timer Conchita Martinez vs. Henin-Hardenne.

Tomorrow, I'll post my picks for the men's draw.

Ten Things I've Never Done

2005-05-21T00:04:00.000-04:00

I know I've said how Ann Althouse drives me crazy, and she does, but I have to give credit where it's due. I first saw this beguiling meme at Althouse.

I've never:

1.) Been to New England.

2.) Had Scotch.

3.) Illegally used any controlled substance.

4.) Been a groomsman. (And you know how much I like weddings!)

5.) Gotten all the way through James Joyce's Ulysses.

6.) Negotiated with a car salesman.

7.) Attended an opera.

8.) Played a table game at a casino.

9.) Shaved with a non-electric razor.

10.) Been fired.

Friday Spies: The "Would You Rather" Edition

2005-05-20T23:26:00.000-04:00

I haven't had any (good) reason to ramble on and on about myself—on Fridays, anyway—since The Friday Five's demise. Since my self-absorption knows no end, I've decided to give Begging the Question's Friday Spies feature a try.

This week, I have to decide whether I'd rather:

1.) Live alone on a deserted island for 10 years or be paid handsomely to live at Neverland Ranch with the King of Pop for one year? Ten years is a long time, and it's definitely a long time to be lonely. Lonesomeness is one of my "issues." So I'd take the lucre and the short-term madness that I'm sure Neverland Ranch would hold. But, hey, I'm calling the cops if they need to be called....

2.) Be deaf or blind? As much as I'm a music hound, I'd have to take deafness. I have a horrible memory, and I think that would make being blind a serious challenge. Plus, with my sight, I could at least be sure that my hair wasn't messed up. Yes, I'm that vain.

3.) Have skin which changed color depending on your mood or visible sight lines? Being a human mood ring holds some allure, especially if the colors are nice. I can't imagine any advantage at all to the visible sight lines, although I bet I'd get pretty good at looking where I wanted on the sly.

4.) Spend a year in prison or a year on tour with Celine Dion and John Tesh? Too easy. Prison is awful. I probably wouldn't be able to defend myself against a cellmate, but I'm pretty sure I could take Celine and/or Tesh in a fair fight. Believe me, though, I'm taking the iPod on the tour....

5.) Have a threesome with your close friends or with total strangers? What are the odds I can find two dates? At the same time? Ok, that's no answer, I know. Well, if I can choose which close friends, I'd go with that option—as unappealing as it is. With the right people, the, um, experience could probably be more funny than traumatic. If I can't choose which close friends, I'd go with the strangers.

I'm reflecting. (There's a puzzling metaphor for you.)

2005-05-20T22:30:00.000-04:00

As you may remember, I declared email bankruptcy last summer. Well, as iBeth makes clear, one can declare blog bankruptcy, too.

Today's New York Times asks whether Japanese businessmen will be coerced this summer, for environmental reasons, into casual dress. I didn't read anything today that was more interesting. Really. Highly recommended.

It was a long winter for me, but this recording—of the sounds you'd hear after a Flyers goal—gave me my first hockey-related smile in ages (hat tip: The Sporting Life). Please, please, please let there be NHL hockey next season....

This Daily Dose of Imagery shot of a building reflection is downright stunning.

I foresee another clumsy dismount.

2005-05-19T21:05:00.000-04:00

Grant of This Blog Sits entertainingly deconstructs Dave Chappelle's metaphor of the "clumsy dismount." The next time I royally screw something up, I won't be a bit surprised if the words "clumsy dismount" come out of my mouth. Brilliant.

Do you ever read any of the secret-laden postcards sent to PostSecret? Many are so, um, profound that I sort of doubt they're real. They're just too spot-on. I still read, though. Anyway, a new batch of secrets is up; my favorite says: I donated 40 dollars to the tsunami relief fund & now that I'm broke I regret it.

Lynn S. of Reflections in D Minor finds herself addicted to, of all things, popsicles. She tells a good story about it.

Just in case you're following this: Crescat Sententia's Will Baude has responded to my (tepid) criticism of his habit of having more than 120 books—most unread—checked out at once from the university library. I remain unconvinced. Using utilitarian analysis, Will B. contends that the benefits of his having quick access to the books likely outweigh any costs to other library patrons. "[I]t seems unlikely," he says, "that the world would be a better place if the books were strewn through obscure stacks rather than sitting on my bookshelf." In that vein, he notes that the books have not been frequently checked out. Good points, yes. And I might be persuaded if Will B. had only seven, 15, or even 25 library books in his possession. But he has more than 120! As even he concedes, "a handful of people" might be inconvenienced by his practice. Indeed, given the startling number of books we're talking about, inconvenience to someone seems likely. And at what benefit? Well, Will B. originally mentioned that he hadn't read most of the books. So he's apparently inconveniencing at least a handful of other patrons, who can't get the books/information they need when they need it, and he's not even getting good use of the books these other patrons need.

It's definitely not what I'd do.

I was there.

2005-05-19T18:53:00.000-04:00

Phillies 7, Cards 4.

Four Completely Unrelated Thoughts

2005-05-18T21:54:00.000-04:00

It's a good thing I don't work for National Public Radio because there's no chance—given my accent, anyway—that I can make "auto" and "otto" sound much different (link via Romenesko). "Err" vs. "air"? Check. "Oil" vs. "all"? Check. But "auto" vs. "otto"? No way, sorry.

Lily of The Kitchen Cabinet has something interesting to say about Jennifer Wilbanks, the runaway bride: Since it was perfectly legal for Wilbanks to "disappear," can she really be expected to reimburse authorities for their search?

A student in Ms. Frizzle's health class asked her if she preferred pads or tampons. Really. Can you imagine?

I have fallen for F Minus, a comic strip by Tony Carrillo. Yesterday's, for instance, is both funny and refreshingly offbeat. And check out this sample of five F Minus strips. Each made me smile. How often can you say that about the dreck that fills most newspaper comics pages? Highly recommended.

Three Short Items

2005-05-17T20:21:00.000-04:00

First, we had the news, noted here, that the brains of gay men and straight men are "lit up" by different smells. Now, we get the (fittingly parallel) news that gay and straight armpits actually smell different. (If you want to read the news article yourself, you may find this BugMeNot link handy.)

Ah, daisies.

I don't blog about legal matters, but I don't think I cross any lines simply by mentioning, without necessarily endorsing, a Volokh Conspiracy post today about whether "negligent sex" should be actionable. Yeah, negligent sex. There's a concept. By the way, if you're male, the fact pattern under discussion may be difficult to ponder. Ouch.

Update: I see now that Eugene Volokh also blogged about this topic—with a bit less seriousness—at The Huffington Post.

A Motley Monday Collection

2005-05-16T22:13:00.000-04:00

Steve of The Sporting Life lists some Amazing Race teams he'd like to see. What a hoot. My fave: Andrew Sullivan and Rosie O'Donnell. The mind reels.

Indiana has finally decided to give in, all the way, to daylight savings time. Welcome to the 20th century, Hoosiers! (Wait, we're in the 21st century now!) Next up: There'll be hearings to decide if the 10 Central Time-observing counties or the 82 Eastern Time-observing counties should switch for the sake of statewide uniformity. No one's asking me, but I think uniformity is overrated....

Kelly Reilly, president of NBC Entertainment, says the coming season will probably be the last for The West Wing (link via Lost Remote). He ensured that (grrr) by moving WW to Sunday nights at 8 o'clock—where American Dreams recently died.

Although I sorta wish more of this exquisite Daily Dose of Imagery shot were in focus,I can't stop going back to look at it. Why is wet patio furniture so alluring to me?

Crescat Sententia's Will Baude attempts to justify what strikes me as pretty much unjustifiable: He currently has more than 125 Yale library books checked out to him. Seriously! And most of them are still unread.

I'm not buying it. You can't infer that no other patrons needed books simply because they didn't formally recall them. They may have done without needed information or gone to great trouble and/or expense to get books elsewhere. When I was in grad school, I used to get so irritated about books that were always checked out. Often, I didn't really have the time to wait for a formal recall. I might've gone batty if I'd thought there was a significant chance that a book of my dreams was sitting, unread, alongside 120 other library books.

I'm not even sure a student writing her doctoral dissertation could truly justify having that many library books—let alone, unused library books—at one time.

Sharing iPod earbuds is truly an intimate experience, as Gregunderwater can attest.

My World View . . . Apparently

2005-05-16T20:55:00.000-04:00

What's my world view? There's a quiz, naturally:

You scored as Postmodernist. Postmodernism is the belief in complete open interpretation. You see the universe as a collection of information with varying ways of putting it together. There is no absolute truth for you; even the most hardened facts are open to interpretation. Meaning relies on context and even the language you use to describe things should be subject to analysis.

Postmodernist

94%

Materialist

81%

Modernist

75%

Existentialist

75%

Romanticist

63%

Idealist

56%

Cultural Creative

38%

Fundamentalist

19%

What is Your World View?
created with QuizFarm.com

(Quiz-taking prompted by Class Maledictorian.)

I've been away, and there's a lot to catch up on.

2005-05-15T17:06:00.000-04:00

Do men and women use cell phones differently? Research from Britain suggests that women are more likely to prefer text messaging, while men are more likely to prefer old-fashioned talking. Is that interesting? I'm not sure. I'm a fan of text messaging, but that's probably more a feature of who normally calls me. If it's someone I really like, talking is better.

Amber of Class Maledictorian offers advice about law school, including:

something very similar

Excellent advice, I'd say.

Renegade Buddha calls attention to BookCrossing, which is a sort of WheresGeorge.com for books. You leave a tagged book in a public place and hope someone picks it up. If someone does, she can go to the site, record the find, and pass the (newly-read?) book along again.

I do something similar with my issues of One Story, the clever literary mag that features, of course, a single story with every issue. I don't tag my released issues, of course, so I'm not able to track them on the web. If I like the story, though, I leave the issue on a train, in the laundry room, in a waiting room, somewhere. I hope I'm not just littering and that someone, occasionally, reads the story I've left behind....

I'm really taken with this Sushicam shot of a pathway to a residence. (Here's a link to the accompanying journal entry.)

Boi from Troy recently found himself in a conversation with Wink Martindale. How truly bizarre. Any Tic Tac Dough fans out there?

Cheesesteaks are great, but...

2005-05-15T16:05:00.000-04:00

On the Oklahoma City craigslist, an ex-resident listed some of the things he misses about Oklahoma (link via Dustbury):

I miss snow cones, Robertsons' beef jerky, REAL barbecue, thunderstorms, crickets, 23rd street piercing studio, Gary England's tornado alerts, Garfield's perfect margaritas, Sonic (oh my god! to have a blue coconut slush and some onion rings right now!!!), sweet tea, skinny dipping in shawnee lake, the okc zoo, funnel cakes, Henry Hudson's...

This is really a list of things to miss about Oklahoma City. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.) Gary England is an OKC weathercaster, Shawnee Lake is a western Oklahoma spot, etc. And I have no idea why our correspondent can't get snow cones and funnel cakes in Oregon. But those are small quibbles. Here's some of what I miss about eastern Oklahoma (you'll note some overlap):

Sonic

Lake Eufaula

Tulsa art deco

Tahlequah street signs

Ouachitas

It must be time for a visit to the home planet.

Now where were we?

2005-05-14T23:59:00.000-04:00

I'm back from a few days in New Orleans. Regular posting will resume as soon as, um, I think of something to say.

Fourteen Seconds of Fame

2005-05-10T21:28:00.000-04:00

I had a strange day. First and foremost, it's not every day that the Garden gets linked by Slate's "Today's Blogs" feature. (Hi, Slate readers.) How'd I manage that? I have no idea. But I represent the minority, it-ain't-so-bad viewpoint on The Huffington Post, and there may just not have been that many positive-ish points of view in Blogistan to choose from....

Anyway, when I checked my referral logs tonight to see which of my four-and-one-half regular readers visited today, I was flabbergasted to see that dozens of Slate readers had visited. According to the good people at StatCounter, they're spending an average of, oh, about 14 seconds here. (Any Slate readers make it this far?) Still, it's nice to be noticed once in awhile. Even very, very briefly.

There was one other unusual thing in my referral logs today: Someone from my favorite law school Googled my name and found the Garden. I wish I'd gotten an email out of it. It's been a long, long time since I was a student, and I certainly doubt my name comes up that often. I'm memorable, but—you know—time heals all wounds. So I'm curious. Inquiring minds and all that.

Despite today's distractions, I did manage to do a little surfing for you:

The market for plastic wedding cake toppers sure isn't what it used to be (link via, yes, The Huffington Post). If I ever manage to snag me a mate, I'm definitely lobbying for the plastic topper. It's an essential, right?

The key to building an effective team is mixing in a little new talent (link via Kottke). Otherwise, everyone's too bored to be brilliant. Try to work this news in at your next business meeting, ok?

For news on urology, keep reading.

2005-05-09T21:39:00.000-04:00

Arianna Huffington's Huffington Post premiered today. I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised. The Post's layout is attractive and uncluttered. The news feed is an unexpected pleasure. I was taken with, or at least entertained by, several first-day posts. (If I had to choose just one, I'd point to this inaugural post [on gay marriage] by writer Jon Robin Baitz. The post is prickly and thought-provoking, and I probably agree with as much of it as I disagree with. Nice.)

All that said, the Post is going to need some adjustments. If it's really going to feature a bazillion different posters, and if all those bloggers are going to be posting all the time, the reader is going to have to be given a filter. "The Blog," which dumps one post on top of another ad infinitum, is just too chaotic. If I want to read, oh, John Cusack's posts, I ought to be able to click on his name and just read his posts. I don't want to have to continually search for his posts—or be constantly monitoring the site just in case he posts. Still, that's a pretty minor tweak, and I'm sure something like that will eventually come.

What's been most amusing today has been the reaction of "old guard" bloggers. Take Ann Althouse, for instance. She complained all day today about the Huffington Post. I think that's telling.

Fearless prediction: I'll spend the next 24 hours making small talk about the news that the brains of gay men and straight men get, um, "turned on" by different smells. Most of the time, by the way, I'm too congested to smell anything....

I'm pretty sure I won't make any sense here, but this striking Shutterbug pic—of a highway light surrounded by incredible quantities of smog-shade sunlight—somehow captures a sort of moderate, 1970s-ish listlessness. (I told you this wouldn't make sense!) Wasn't a shot like this in the opening credits to TV's Alice? Shouldn't it have been?

Whatever the photo actually captures, it's a breathtaking shot.

When you're on your way to the urologist for a biopsy, be careful when flipping the bird (link via Kottke).

I am L-A-Z-Y.

2005-05-08T21:04:00.000-04:00

I'm ashamed of how little I've gotten done this weekend. I slept a good chunk of the weekend away, and my major accomplishment this afternoon was turning over periodically while I watched the Spanish Grand Prix from my sofa.

Here's a little blogging penance:

NewsDesigner.com recently blogged about an ingenious Portuguese ad campaign that uses flags to make social commentaries about various countries (hat tip: Kottke). Wow.

Although it's not (yet) in my blogroll, Crocante Fotolog is one of my favorite photoblogs. This shot from Eulina Rego will explain why. No other place looks quite like Brazil, I guess.

Renegade Buddha, a new blog from a self-proclaimed "30-something entrepreneur, slowly reforming margarita-mixing wildman, and closet Buddhist," looks to be worthy of attention. For a taste, check out this post on the ultimate irrelevance of consumer Buddhism.

I miss China Beach.

2005-05-06T22:03:00.000-04:00

I missed a day of blogging. I bet you thought I wouldn't be back for six weeks.

I didn't blog last night because I was at the National Constitution Center to attend a program called "Constitution on TV: Writing 'The West Wing.'" No big stars were there; the only actor was Melissa Fitzgerald, who has a recurring role as Carol (an assistant in the White House press office). I went primarily to hear from the writers, especially John Sacret Young. I love the way The West Wing makes law, politics, and policy seem so interesting and, well, like such noble callings. It's the writing, of course, that really does all that.

Young was also the creator and executive producer of one of my other all-time favorite TV shows, China Beach. Beach, as you may remember, provided a sort of cockeyed look at the Vietnam War through the eyes of women who worked at an evac hospital. After the lecture, as Young signed my copy of his new memoir, Remains: Non-Viewable, he told me that "they" were working on getting China Beach out on DVD. That's exactly what I wanted to hear.

If you were a fan of China Beach, you won't be surprised to learn that the hold-up has been the music: It's expensive to license music for DVD releases (see, e.g., Northern Exposure), and music was very, very important to China Beach. However "they" manage it, though, it'll be good to have the series on DVD. I really miss the show—its quirkiness; its commentary on war, gender politics, friendship; the high-caliber acting (from Dana Delany and Marg Helgenberger, among others); and the creative way, especially in the final season, it played with time.

I hadn't really intended for this post to move so quickly from The West Wing to China Beach, but it did, and that's not all that surprising. Good things make me think of other good things.

At mid-week, life just doesn't make that much sense.

2005-05-04T20:27:00.000-04:00

Like Steve of The Sporting Life, I'm trying to figure out that ubiquitous American Express magazine ad featuring Laird Hamilton. (Look for me in the comments to Steve's post. I'm always way more interesting at other blogs.) You've got two half-naked men, a baby, and a dog. In other words, it's (beware: understatement ahead) kind of a gay vibe. Yet Hamilton's straight. What does it all mean?

I get all discombobulated when I'm reading SI or Entertainment Weekly and suddenly stumble onto the ad.

I've got to give today's award for Most-Bizarre-Yet-Strangely-Interesting Post to Tyler Cowen of Marginal Revolution. Cowen turns to game theory to decide when a willing informer threatened with torture should actually squeal. Economists can be a little bit warped, you know. In the end, though, the answer isn't all that clear....

Speaking of strange, I'm thinking of adopting a poet at Poets.org (link via Bookslut). Should I pick someone famous (Allen Ginsberg, maybe), or should I pick one of my lesser-known favorites (Joy Harjo, possibly)?

I regress.

2005-05-03T22:06:00.000-04:00

It's laundry night here at Garden headquarters, so there's no time for any long-form blogging. You don't even expect that from me anymore, anyway, do you?

On my train, I've been reading "Early Round Upsets and Championship Blowouts," by Rick Harbaugh and Tilman Klumpp of Indiana University (link via The Sports Economist). The paper may help explain how (a) the Chaminades of the sporting world can sometimes get by the Virginias yet (b) any tournament final inevitably seems to pit Duke against UNC or the like (yawn). Despite all the charts and formulas, the paper is highly recommended.

Need a quick refresher in regression analysis before you read that Harbaugh/Klumpp piece? Well, Marginal Revolution's Alex Tabarrok took a stab today at giving the "shortest, non-technical, yet reasonably accurate explanation" of regression. It's just a paragraph. And it's good for you. Yummy and nutritious.

Manila in Byte Size Edible Pieces currently features a cool picture of a volcano.

Cincinnati Reds pitcher Joe Valentine has two moms (link via Towleroad). It's a shame that something so commonplace is still so newsworthy on the sports pages—really, isn't it about time some active MLB player himself came out?—but it's a nice, nice story.

Something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue

2005-05-02T20:00:00.000-04:00

Can you stand three posts in three days? Gosh, I may set an indoor land-speed record or something....

I'm thrilled to see that Class Maledictorian is as puzzled as I was by Ann Althouse's bizarre comments on the appropriateness of having a formal wedding after longtime cohabitation.

Poignantly enough, here's more proof that you can die of a broken heart. Men can, anyway. So go on, cohabitors, celebrate and be merry.

In case you wondered where I was from February 8 until April 30...well, I spent most of that time watching poker on TV. This weekend, for instance, I cozied up to NBC's coverage of the National Heads-Up Poker Championship. Like pPlayer.com, I found NBC's coverage to be unsatisfying—consisting of lots of pretty icing, but offering up only empty calories. If you're going to watch televised poker—and, let's face it, I am—you want to see some hands, right? In the future, NBC, give us more hands and fewer feature stories and pointless interviews.

I also have some real doubts about the Heads-Up format, which puts 64 poker players in a traditional tournament bracket to compete in one-on-one play. This is different, to be sure, because heads-up action is normally the exception in tournament play, happening only at the very end of the final table. I find the heads-up game to be a lot less interesting. Because there's only one opponent to worry about, there are a lot fewer variables for the players to consider. Plus, the players necessarily become so much less choosy about the hands they'll play that the cards begin to seem more irrelevant than ever. I realize that the action in Texas Hold 'Em is often in the betting, but—at some point—the cards can become so unimportant that I'm not sure we even have a card game anymore. The National Heads-Up Championship fetishizes what is, for me, one of the least interesting and least representative parts of the game....

And, no, I have no idea how I got from weddings to broken hearts to poker. I'm pretty sure, though, that I'm not the first person to take that particular road.

My Majesty

2005-05-01T16:14:00.000-04:00

I love May Day. It all started on a May Day over 30 years ago when I was in the second grade, and Mrs. Edmonds's class elected me the King of May. As I recall, I narrowly edged Ralph Ayers, and Lisa Moore was voted Queen of May. I got a construction-paper crown and everything. So this is my month, ok? Don't mess with me. It is so ordered.

Today, His Highness would call your attention to the following:

The Times's opinion page today contains an essay by Orlando Patterson and Jason Kaufman, offering their theory as to why cricket failed to thrive in North America (link via Crooked Timber). The short answer is that North American elites, unlike those elsewhere, were so concerned about maintaining status that they kept their game close, limiting mass interest. Meanwhile, the North American masses turned their interest elsewhere, to baseball and hockey, and—importantly—sporting goods manufacturers went with them.

It's not a theory I would've been drawn to right away. I would've focused more on my gut feeling that cricket tends to thrive today in Commonwealth countries—and particularly those that were the most tied, culturally, to the United Kingdom during the late Victorian Era. That seems to be the (most recent?) crucial time when so many national sporting affinities were cemented. The U.S., of course, wasn't a Commonwealth country, and adopting anything British-y here might have offended whatever was left of our revolutionary tendencies. But what about Canada? My theory doesn't explain why Canadians went for hockey, not cricket. So maybe Patterson and Kaufman have the goods. Or, hmm, maybe Canada's just an outlier (or a different case because of its continual need to separate itself from both the U.S. and Europe).

When I ever get caught up on my reading, I'm definitely going to check out the American Sociological Review paper that prompted the piece in the Times.

Speaking of the Times, this entire "Shopping" piece seems to have been built around the fact that a man in the Houston burbs built a shed in his backyard so he could play poker (link via pPlayer.com). I think this may say more about life in the suburbs (and the need for personal space?) than it does about the current poker craze, but it's still an interesting read.

This Slower.net picture of a wheelbarrow and some grass just about sings spring, and May, to me.

I don't know why Ann Althouse's (nonpolitical) opinions annoy me so much, but they often do. For instance, I don't even watch American Idol, but I feel my blood pressure rise whenever I read one of her all-too-frequent AI updates. I don't know which contestant is her favorite, but I'm definitely for someone else.... Anyway, today, Althouse annoyed me with this inane commentary about weddings:

Am I the only one who thinks a big wedding is inappropriate for two people who have been living together?

Well, there are lots of good reasons to dislike big weddings. Like Althouse, and probably you, I was pretty much horrified by the idea that the runaway bride's wedding plans included 14 sets of bridesmaids and groomsmen. That's not a wedding. It's a Mardi Gras ball. It's a cotillion. It's conspicuous consumption.

But any good reasons to dislike big weddings are completely unrelated to whether the couple cohabitated before the wedding. Weddings mark an important change in social status—maybe the most important status change that many of us will ever experience. Even when a couple has lived together for awhile, there's a big social difference between being a longtime boyfriend and being a new husband. I want to celebrate when my friends, even those who've been "together" in some sense for a long while, decide to make things permanent with an appropriate ritual. It's a happy occasion, and my happiness isn't lessened by the likelihood that the couple has already, as Althouse put it, "consummated the relationship." Oof.

Go ahead, invite me to your wedding.

I'm blogging like it's 1999.

2005-04-30T23:05:00.000-04:00

There aren't any good reasons—and, at the same time, there are lots of good reasons—why I haven't blogged in ages. Maybe I'll write about it all sometime. For now, here's just some old-school (i.e., short links that interested me) blogging for you:

What would the quadratic formula look like if the IRS had discovered it? Well, this (link via Dustbury). Freaking brilliant.

The CIA World Fact Book has been freshly updated. What's new? Well, Akrotiri and Dhekelia are. It doesn't get much more obscure than that....

I love the sights (and sounds) of pool, so this Zone IX pic made me smile.

Today's New York Times article on bride abductions in Kyrgyzstan is fascinating and, of course, disturbing.

Even though the season is over, I'm thrilled to have stumbled onto a well-done curling blog (hat tip: The Sports Economist). Now if I could just find more curling on TV....

Harley at Royals Baseball is taking a hiatus, so I'm spending time at another KC Royals blog—The Daily Lancer (link via—yes, again—The Sports Economist). It's tough being a Royals fan these days, of course. Happily, though, the Royals today ended a serious losing streak.

I'm quiet, I know.

2005-03-25T19:31:00.000-05:00

I have nothing to say
and I am saying it
and that is poetry
as I needed it.

John Cage

2005-02-08T07:06:00.000-05:00

Happy Mardi Gras!

If, like me, you're not actually in New Orleans today, you may be bumming. I bet you'll feel better after you check out some of these Mardi Gras webcams, though.

Survival Report

2005-01-30T13:38:00.000-05:00

I bet you wondered if I'd survived the blizzard of '05. Well, I did. And I actually survived it in style. I'd planned to spend the weekend in New York with an old friend, but—as I watched more and more of the Weather Channel—I began to have doubts that I'd make it. Actually, I was scared. My friend was more confident: He said if he could travel 1500 miles to get there, well, then I could manage 100 miles. He was right, darn it.

I made it to Penn Station right on time (thanks, Amtrak) on Saturday morning, and it hadn't started snowing in Manhattan. The streets were fairly empty, apparently because all the sensible people heeded the blizzard warnings and were in their homes, nursing hot beverages. The taxi drivers were still out, though, and I've actually never had an easier time getting a cab. In a few minutes, I was at the hotel, and—in another 10 minutes—my friend was there from LaGuardia.

We quickly went up to the room, looked out, and it was already snowing. And not just the light snow that you'd expect at the start of a snow shower. It was S*N*O*W*I*N*G. We'd just made it.

For the next 20-plus hours, it snowed and snowed and snowed. (We got about nine inches near the hotel.) And until Tuesday morning, when I headed back to Philly, we got to live in a postcard-perfect winter wonderland. Snowy streets. Theaters filled with cold patrons and their coats, gloves, and scarves. Stores full of patrons tired of their hotel rooms. Oh, and there was room service. I've come to realize that nothing makes a blizzard more palatable than room service. Highly recommended.

Among the highlights of my New York weekend:

We caught Election Day, an off-off-Broadway musical that (sorta) sends up our current blue-state/red-state divide. Ian Kahn, whom you may remember from an episode of Sex and the City, starred (the musical closed today) as the president. His and many of the other performances were quite good, although—as this review rightly indicates—the musical has some real, um, problems. I actually nodded off near the end of the first act, and I find that's pretty hard to do when there are people singing and dancing just a few feet away. It was so bad that I became fixated on marginal issues, including just how poor the costuming was. Why is the president wearing such a bad suit? Hey, that TV anchor guy would never wear a purple tie. The Wyoming governor's boots are a tragedy. You get the idea. Just how small was that costume budget, anyway?

Much better was the American debut of Irish playwright Aidan Matthews's Communion, which we saw on its closing night. Communion revolves around Jordan, an Irish medical student who has gone home to die. He's cared for by his bipolar brother, his devoted mother, and a strange neighbor who enters Jordan's room (which is the only set) via the fire escape. A priest visits regularly, giving, at the close of the second act, one of the most interesting, beautiful masses I've ever heard. I'd go to church more often if I could hear pieces like that. Anyway, I loved the play, with its lessons about learning to live with those you love, and I wish I could see it again.

Something else I'd definitely see again is Hurlyburly, which just opened to positive reviews. (We saw it a few days before its actual "opening.") You may be familiar with the story, either from its first production 20 years ago or the 1998 movie, but it's enough to say here that it follows a group of 1980s-era drugged-out, self-absorbed men who work on the fringes of the L.A. film industry. Ethan Hawke, Josh Hamilton, and Parker Posey are wonderful in their roles. (Wallace Shawn, who always seems to play a caricature of himself, was, um, not so wonderful.) The play is (too) long, but I got caught up in the good acting and the frenetic activity that swirls around Hawke's character as he tries to make sense of life and, just maybe, make a true, human connection or two.

The next time a blizzard is headed my way, I'm telling you, it's room service for me.

Things you apparently need to know.

2005-01-19T06:57:00.000-05:00

Only two of my four-and-one-half regular readers are sports fans, and those two aren't even tennis fans. So I hope they'll all forgive me for yet another post about tennis. I'll get back to blogging about flags and my dry cleaning—so far, those are two separate subjects—soon enough.

But I absolutely know that many sports fans around the world are thinking about tennis when the referral logs for the Garden are filled with queries like:

Even knowing this, I was puzzled this week to find that about a bazillion (ok, two dozen) Googlers landed at the Garden with a single question on their mind: Is Camille Pin pregnant?

Pin, you may recall, was the unfortunate first-round Australian Open victim of Serena Williams. I was working in the apartment when the match was televised here in the States, and I didn't pay much attention at all to Pin herself. According to Tennis-X.com, though, she was striking:

Was Serena's round-one opponent Camille Pin pregnant, or is it just time to get in shape? Pipe-cleaner arms and a gut, not a good look...

Wow, I'm sorry I didn't pay better attention.

So, in case you came here out of curiosity, I have no idea if Pin is or if she isn't. Your Google search landed you here simply because I've both previously mentioned Pin and used the word "pregnant" (but never in relation to one another!). I also don't have any snazzy pictures of Lleyton Hewitt, or any other tennis player, for you. I do like the word "shirtless," though. Worst of all, I don't have any idea whether your favorite player is gay.

Bummer, I know.

P.S.: I'm still glad you stopped by.

My Australian Open Picks—A First Look Back

2005-01-18T21:43:00.000-05:00

Just like last year, the Australian Open organizers plowed through the first round in two efficient days of tennis. A handful of second-round matches have been completed, too! I wish someone at the U.S. Open would take a lesson....

How'd I do with my first-round picks? I'm pretty darn proud of myself. Of the 64 first-round men's matches, I correctly picked the winner in 46 (71.2%). That's just one shy of my record (set at the 2003 U.S. Open). So I guess I should just shut up about how hard it is to pick the Australian Open since it's practically in the off-season. Ok. Consider me shut up. (As always, I didn't pick every first-round women's match. There just isn't enough time in my life.)

How are my projected quarterfinalists doing? Not bad so far. Unsurprisingly, all eight of my women's projected quarterfinalists survived the first round—as did seven of my men's quarterfinalists. The lone exception is, of course, #5 Carlos Moya, who was upset by Spanish qualifier Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in four sets. There's no way I could've ever predicted that. Garcia-Lopez came into the tournament as the 106th-ranked player in the world, and he's only played in one previous Grand Slam. (He went 1-1 in the 2004 French Open.) I'd barely even heard of Garcia-Lopez before the upset (I picked him to win a round at the 2004 French), and I guess that's not all that surprising either. In the new ATP media guide, Garcia-Lopez didn't even merit a page of his own; he's in the back with "other prominent players" like Mariusz Fyrstenberg, Petr Pala, and Stanislas Wawrinka. Very big names, you know?

It's obviously too early to be all that happy with my quarterfinal picks. It's more than possible that half of them will be gone by the third round. After all, I did put players like Feliciano Lopez, Guillermo Cañas, and Patty Schnyder in the quarters. I'm sure some or all of them will manage to disappoint me.

The loss of Moya, though, leaves a pretty significant hole in my draw. Not only did I have him in the quarters, but I saw him as a likely semifinalist, too. I'll be bold, I guess, and put Thomas Johansson (#30) into the quarterfinal spot left vacant by Moya. As for the vacant semifinal spot, well, I guess I'll do what I should've done at the outset: I'll go with the higest seed in the quarter: Marat Safin. What? You say there are no second chances in tennis prognostication? Get real. And get your own blog.

How did I do with the projected upsets? On the women's side, I picked three upsets, and I was right about two of those: Petra Mandula did handle #30 Flavia Pennetta, and and Ana Ivanovic did "upset" #32 Iveta Benesova (who, I'm sure, will recede into oblivion like a good—er, bad—32nd seed should). I'll take two out of three anytime. Unfortunately, that success will have to be tempered by the fact that I failed to predict two other upsets—#24 Mary Pierce's thrashing by Stephanie Cohen-Aloro and Martina Sucha's win over veteran Ai Sugiyama.

On the men's side, I also went two-for-three. (Unfortunately, no one has to buy me an ice cream.) Both #19 Vince Spadea and #21 Nicolas Kiefer went down in five-set matches (to Radek Stepanek and Olivier Rochus, respectively). Obviously, I didn't manage to pick the upset of Moya, but I'm absolutely pleased with the picks I made.

How'd my qualifiers and wild cards do? On my projected draw, I put six qualifiers into the second round, and five of those (Takao Suzuki, Marcos Baghdatis, Tomas Zib, Janko Tipsarevic, and Jean-René Lisnard) came through for me. I should've been even bolder, though, because six of my missed first-round picks came at the hands of qualifiers, wild cards, and lucky losers. I'm not really kicking myself about any of these—except, perhaps, for not picking French phenom Gael Monfils to upset American Robby Ginepri. In my defense, though, I had that match as a tasty first-round match-up.

I'll stop now before my ego gets too big. (Too late.) Anyway, there's more than enough time for my picks to make me look foolish.

Expect low-scoring and lightly starched blogging today....

2005-01-17T01:06:00.000-05:00

I intend to spend this holiday with a bucket in one hand and a brush in the other. The grime has taken over my apartment, I tell you, and today I'm going to fight back a little. Actually, it may be time to bring in some professionals. I'll know better after today, I hope.

Anyway, expect light blogging from me today. Here are a few quick links to get you going:

In Vermont, a boys' high school basketball game recently ended in a score of 5-2. No points at all were scored in the second half. "I've never had a player hit a game-winner in the second quarter before," said the winning coach. Obviously, there's no shot clock in Vermont high school basketball.

There's new proof that people in love truly are struck dumb by emotion (link via Marginal Revolution). Believe me, I've been there.

Youngpup wittily charts the half-life of an idea.

New York lawyers working in a small Delaware town "were forced to 'ship clothes for two months'" because no dry-cleaning facilities were offered by their hotel (link via Waddling Thunder). Wouldn't it have just been easier to phone up one of the local dry cleaners? I bet one of the 22 corporate attorneys on the legal team could have even negotiated delivery service....

Gosh, I hope it's true that Coca-Cola is going to launch a coffee-flavored cola this year (link via Population Statistic). If so, Pepsi just might respond by bringing back its short-lived Pepsi Kona. As I've mentioned before, even though it's been years since I had one, I still find myself craving the nectar of the gods that was Pepsi Kona.

Ms. Frizzle decided that Major League Baseball's steroids scandal created a teachable moment for her seventh-grade science students.

My Australian Open Men's Picks

2005-01-16T17:54:00.000-05:00

As I begin to write this, the action in Melbourne begins in only two hours. Talk about cutting things close. Before the other Slams, I usually take a good part of my Sunday looking at the men's draw. With the Australian, though, the time difference means I have an early deadline. So let's get right to it. As always, I'm starting at the top of the draw. Here are my projected quarterfinalists:

Roger Federer (seeded #1) - How could I possibly have picked anyone else? Federer is dominating the men's game right now. It's almost inconceivable that anyone else could take the title, isn't it? Pencil him in now for the final.

Feliciano Lopez (#24) - This section of the draw is a real puzzle. All of the seeds in the section, save Lopez, are either sick or injured. Ordinarily, I would've gone for #8 Andre Agassi or #11 Joachim Johansson, but Agassi has a torn tendon, and Johansson's hamstring is so bad that it was widely expected he'd pull out. The remaining seed is #29 Taylor Dent, but he dropped out of last week's event in Sydney with the flu. It's impossible to make a good prediction without knowing just how these players are feeling today. Agassi, I know, apparently played fairly well on Friday in an exhibition against Tim Henman, but can he hold up over several matches? I just don't know. In the end, I just decided to punt and go with Lopez, who had a pretty good 2004. My confidence in this prediction is low, however.

Marat Safin (#4) - Speaking of puzzles, what am I to think of Safin? Will the Safin who's the two-time runner-up show up, or will it be the Safin who stunk up the Hopman Cup recently? I'm guessing—and, yes, it's a guess—that Safin will have his mind right for the Slam. If so, he's the man to beat in this section. Keep an eye out, though, for Olivier Rochus, who has been tearing up the circuit in 2005.

Carlos Moya (#5) - In my mind, this section comes down to a third-round match between Moya and Thomas Johansson, who stunned us all by winning the Australian in 2002. I've gone with Moya, even though he lost in the first round of the Sydney warm-up, because he's generally the more consistent of the two.

Guillermo Coria (#6) - Is it Coria or #9 David Nalbandian? Coria. No, Nalbandian. Coria? Nalbandian? No, Coria. That's what I sounded like when I was thinking about this section of the draw. Nalbandian has the easier draw: Coria has to get by Tomas Berdych in the first round and, probably, Juan Carlos Ferrero in the third. Still, I think his chances of doing all that are good, and he's 3-0 against fellow countryman Nalbandian.

Lleyton Hewitt (#3) - It's so good to have Hewitt back at the top. He won at Sydney last week, and he has a real here shot of overtaking Andy Roddick as the world's No. 2. My favorite tennis writer, Jon Wertheim, seems to think that #15 Mikhail Youzhny will be the quarterfinalist. I'm not even sure the young Russian will make it to the third round. The quarterfinalist is Hewitt. Really.

Guillermo Cañas (#12) - Remember, you heard it here first. Cañas can play on hard courts, and he has a 4-1 edge over Tim Henman—his main competition for the quarters.

Andy Roddick (#2) - Sweet Jesus, this is a sweet draw for the American. I'd be shocked if he didn't reach the quarters and beyond.

As for the rest of the tournament:

Semifinals: Federer vs. Moya; Hewitt vs. Roddick.

Final: Federer vs. Roddick.

Championg: Federer. (Who else?)

And the miscellaneous picks?

First-round upsets: I like the chances of:

Justin Gimelstob against #10 Gaston Gaudio;

Radek Stepanek against #19 Vince Spadea; and

Olivier Rochus against #21 Nicolas Kiefer.

(Will you buy me an ice cream if I go three-for-three with these picks?)

Other tasty first-round matches:

Federer vs. Fabrice Santoro;

#22 Ivan Ljubicic vs. Luis Horna;

the hamstrung Joachim Johansson vs. Sjeng Schalken, who's coming off a bout with mono;

Robby Ginepri vs. French teen phenom (and wild card) Gael Monfils;

Xavier Malisse vs. #16 Tommy Haas;

Robin Soderling vs. #20 Dominik Hrbaty;

Coria vs. Berdych;

#25 J.I. Chela vs. Wayne Arthurs;

Florian Mayer vs. James Blake;

Arnaud Clement vs. Hewitt;

#14 Seb Grosjean vs. Michael Llodra; and

Jonas Bjorkman vs. Greg Rusedski, in a battle of the geriatrics.

Qualifiers and wild cards likely to advance: I don't have any wild cards, including Monfils, surviving the first round. Several qualifiers will hang around for a bit, though:

Takao Suzuki should handle Jan-Michael Gambill;

Marcos Baghdatis, everyone's favorite player from Cyprus, should defeat fellow qualifier Federico Luzzi;

Tomas Zib should easily defeat wild card Yeu-Tzuoo Wang;

Oliver Patience should upset Rainer Schuettler;

Janko Tipsarevic should beat qualifier Daniele Bracciali; and

Jean-René Lisnard should handle qualifier Oliver Marach.

I don't have any qualifiers making it very far into the tournament, but I'm keeping an eye on Zib and Tipsarevic.

Whew. It took me about an hour to write this, and the first matches start in only about an hour. If my picks do startlingly bad, can we blame the early deadline?

My Australian Open Picks—The Women

2005-01-16T02:12:00.000-05:00

The first Grand Slam of the year—the Australian Open—begins Monday in Melbourne. As I say every year, this is a difficult tournament to pick. The rest of the Slams occur within a few months of each other, and fans get an ongoing sense of whose game is in top form. The Australian Open, though, is suddenly upon the tennis fan: It's been four months since the U.S. Open ended, and it's another four months before the players are on the red clay at Roland Garros. Who's in top form? Who knows? The players don't even seem to know. That's why the Australian Open sometimes throws us some quirky results. Be forewarned.

Anyway, here's how I see the women's quarterfinals (as always, these are in the order you'd see them from the top of the draw to the bottom):

Lindsay Davenport (seeded #1) - Why is Davenport the No. 1 player in the world? She didn't win a Slam last year, and she didn't even make it out of the round robin at the Tour Final. She was even thinking in 2004 about retirement. The answer, I think, is just that Davenport is consistent. She's always in the mix, even when she's (almost inevitably) struggling with some injury. This time around, Davenport is coming off a bout with bronchitis. She says she's better. If she's right, she could go a long way in Melbourne. With so many of the top names (Henin-Hardenne, Clijsters, Capriati) out, and so many others (the Williamses, among others) iffy, this may well be Davenport's last best chance to win another Slam.

Venus Williams (#8) - This is no easy section of the draw. Williams will need to get by Eleni Daniilidou in the first round, #27 Anna Smashnova in the third round, and then she'll probably face Australian phenom Alicia Molik (#10). (I think there could be a great third-round match between Molik and fellow Aussie Nicole Pratt, by the way.) I like Williams's chances to be the quarterfinalist, but I wouldn't be all that shocked if she made an early exit.

Anastasia Myskina (#3) - Myskina somehow lost to a Chinese qualifier at a tune-up event, and that surely doesn't bode well. But I just can't say that I like the chances of anyone else, including Nathalie Dechy (#19) and Francesca Schiavone (#14), in this section of the draw.

Patty Schnyder (#12) - Elena Dementieva (#6) is the top seed in this section. As much as I dislike her serve (which she's allegedly been working on), and her lack of mental toughness, she would probably be the smart choice if she were healthy. The latest reports say she's still suffering from the Australian summer heat, though. That opens things up for Schnyder and #20 Tatiana Golovin. I expect a crackerjack match between those two in the third round: The winner, who'll probably be Schnyder, will be the quarterfinalist.

Svetlana Kuzenetsova (#5) - No one in this section is likely to keep the U.S. Open champ out of the quarters. (I am looking forward to a third-round match between #17 Fabiola Zuluaga, who announced her arrival at last year's Australian Open, and #9 Vera Zvonareva. I'll take Zvonareva in that one, but I don't think she has the game to take down Kuznetsova, too.)

Maria Sharapova (#4) - As you'll see, I'm predicting that Sharapova will be in the mix late into the second week. The expected quarterfinal match with Kuznetsova (Wimbledon champion vs. U.S. Open champion) might even be the match of the tourney.

Serena Williams (#7) - This section of the draw is so weak that even an unfocused Williams ought to emerge. After the butt-kicking that 2004 gave Serena, though, I doubt very seriously that she'll be unfocused in Melbourne. Watch out, ladies.

Amélie Mauresmo (#2) - Mauresmo's toughest match before the quarters might be her opening match against Samantha Stosur, who just made it to the finals of the event in Sydney. (Ok, Stosur was the beneficiary of two separate withdrawals there.) The other seeds in this section—#16 Ai Sugiyama, #21 Amy Frazier, and #32 Iveta Benesova (who the hell is Iveta Benesova?)—don't inspire much confidence.

What does the rest of the tournament look like?

Semifinals: Davenport vs. Myskina; Sharapova vs. S. Williams.

Final: Davenport vs. Sharapova.

Champion: Davenport.

Interested in some miscellaneous picks?

First-round upsets: I'm going to take Nicole Pratt over #23 Jelena Jankovic; Petra Mandula over #30 Flavia Pennetta; and Ana Ivanovic over #32 Benesova.

Other tasty first-round matches:

Davenport vs. Conchita Martinez (it's a shame that these two veterans drew each other in the first round).

Daniilidou vs. V. Williams.

Stephanie Foretz vs. qualifier Michaella Krajicek, the sister of former Wimbledon champ Richard Krajicek.

Kuznetsova vs. American qualifier Jessica Kirkland; and

Stosur vs. Mauresmo.

I'll post my men's picks later in the day (but before the opening matches start in Melbourne).

Fight the Gray!

2005-01-14T20:05:00.000-05:00

I'm still fighting the January blues a little bit. It's just been so unendingly gray here. A little bit of sunshine would go a long way right about now. The weather forecasters aren't offering any, though, so I decided to find some needed color in some of my favorite photoblogs. Here are my gray-Friday photoblog picks:

"Candyhand (Montreal)," Matthew Hollett, Non*Glossy: Do I like the colors or the candy? It's probably both. I have such a sweet tooth, you know?

"Drums," Justin Ouellette, Chromogenic.net: Dean Martin would've loved the wallpaper.

"Polyfoon Stokje," Herman Horsten, Herman's Wereldkeuken Photoblog: Hey, I have that Mano Negra album.

"Working Sunset," Rannie Turingan, Photojunkie: I'd give quite a bit for a sunset like this right now.

"Yellow Revealing Green," Sam Javanrough, Daily Dose of Imagery: This abandoned wall seems to be coming to life.

I'm blogging through the January blues.

2005-01-13T06:59:00.000-05:00

Someone asked a very pertinent question yesterday during an online session with a Washington Post managing editor responsible for the comics page: How many letters do I have to write to get 'Beetle Bailey' cancelled?

What a good question. Unfortunately, the editor answered by indicating that Beetle Bailey is popular. How can that be? And why exactly is there so much dreck on newspapers' comics pages anymore? Garfield? Dreck. Cathy? Dreck. Family Circus? Dreck. Peanuts reruns? Dreck. Heathcliff? Dreck. Sally Forth? Dreck. I could go on and on and on. There are so many fun, quirky strips available now: I'm thinking of strips like Bizarro, Pearls before Swine, Non Sequitur, The Quigmans, etc. Yet whenever I pick up a newspaper, it's the same boring stuff—comics that haven't included any new ideas in years. Oof.

I'm curious if there are any blogs devoted to newspaper comic strips. A quick search didn't reveal any, yet it seems like a topic that would be fun to write about and that would be interesting to a large number of readers. I did find sites like Don Markstein's Toonopedia, but no blogs where you can find reviews, up-to-the-minute news, and the like. Maybe I should start one.

Anyone know of any sites I should know about?

(Hat tip: Poynter Online.)

Vexillologists, take note: Zanzibar is flying a new flag today. It's pretty darn attractive.

As I've suggested a time or two before, I'm fascinated by flags. I'm a little bit embarrassed about that, and I figure it pretty much confirms my status a nerd. I haven't yet joined the North American Vexillological Association (NAVA) or attended one of its annual conferences, though. I wonder what kind of people join NAVA and whether a flag convention would actually be any fun. Hmmm....

If you're at all interested in Cuba, you should definitely check out Darren Barefoot's wonderful photos from his recent trip. Highly recommended.

Today's Topics: Seersucker Suits, Poop, and New Jersey

2005-01-12T06:32:00.000-05:00

What are you going to do if your buddy calls up and says Dr. Hunter S. Thompson is in town and wants to meet you? Well, duh. If you're author Poppy Z. Brite, and the city is New Orleans, you're obviously going to end up tagging along as Thompson shops for a seersucker suit. (He actually bought two. Matlock would be so proud.) And, oh, by the way, your buddy is historian Douglas Brinkley.

Brite has the best life.

(Random aside: HST's Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72 is one of my all-time favorite books.)

Sign spotted by Lip Schtick at the Oklahoma-UConn basketball Monday night: Huskies eat their poop. That story is even more fun to relay because the 25th-ranked Sooners upset the 12th-ranked Huskies, 77-65. Go OU!

British Columbian Darren Barefoot gets a little nervous when he receives phone calls from "strange parts of the United States," including Delaware(?) and Nebraska(!). His call display recently said he had a call from what he says is:

the scariest state of all: New Jersey. New Jersey, the home of mafia goons and garbage dumps, if you’re to believe popular culture. And, as a Canadian on the other side of the continent, what else do I have to go on?Happily, this particular phone call had a happy end. I'm thinking, though, that Barefoot's next New Jersey call may be from the goons at New Jersey Travel & Tourism. They'll make him repent, even if they have to resort to some Atlantic City gambling and a week at the shore.

Too funny.

Regime Change

2005-01-11T07:22:00.000-05:00

If you want to lose weight, don't fret so much about which particular diet is the best one, say nutrition experts (link via Marginal Revolution). Instead, you should focus on which diet regime you'll be able to follow.

Last year, as you may recall, I vowed to drop 20 pounds. And I did. Just like those darn "nutrition experts" suggest, I found a regime that worked in my life and then stuck with it. I now have a larger breakfast than I once did—a bowl of cereal, a cup of yogurt, and a piece of fruit—and that gets me going. Lunch is a salad, a small entree (often chicken), some cottage cheese, and crackers. (You wouldn't believe how important those crackers are to me. Dry wheat crackers suddenly became the food of the gods.) At dinner, I have a tastier, yet-nothing-crazy entree, a salad (and actual non-lowfat salad dressing), and some vegetables. And every day, I allow myself some kind of sweet treat: It's nothing major, usually just 100-150 calories, but I found that a daily reward of some kind was absolutely essential for me. Since losing the weight I wanted, I've increased—oh, so slightly—the portions I allow myself for dinner, and I'm more tolerant of an occasional splurge. I don't feel deprived, and I've held a steady weight for many months.

I haven't really said much about New Year's resolutons here this year. Last year, I ended up trying to slim myself down. This year, I think I'll work on slimming my budget down. I wonder what the "nutrition experts" have to say about that....

Gosh, I went on and on about myself there, didn't I?

Satan's Laundromat Visits Philadelphia

2005-01-10T07:06:00.000-05:00

I haven't put the Garden spotlight on any of my favorite photoblogs in a long time. Here's a good excuse to change that, though. Mike Epstein, of Satan's Laudromat—which, as you probably know, usually features urban decay in New York—has been in Philly. We have some striking urban decay of our own.... For starters, see here and here.

I'm particularly taken with this set of photographs, entitled "South Street Philadelphia," because this is the neighborhood where, of all things, my doctor's office is located. And the daily train commuter in me really appreciates this folio. I find the top photograph especially appealing because of the way it showcases the beauty and the ugliness of the Philly skyline.

Highly recommended.

The Garden tries to be a welcoming place.

2005-01-10T06:52:00.000-05:00

1.) One of the first blogs I ever read, Ignatz, is back after a long hiatus. Attorney Sam Heldman is the proprietor of Ignatz, and he used to write, entertainingly, about law and politics—topics I don't touch here. Heldman promises now to write less about the stuff that makes him grumpy and more about fun things. So far, the fun things have mostly been musical. Whatever Heldman writes about, though, it will probably be worth your attention and mine....

2.) None of my four-and-one-half regular readers is an attorney, so this will probably end up just being a reminder for myself . . . but my buddy and fellow Oklahoma attorney Jim Calloway has a new blog focusing on law practice management. I don't have a law practice, and I don't manage much in my life very well, but I've learned a lot from Calloway over the past few years. I'll be reading.

I used to be a sports sociologist, you know?

2005-01-09T11:21:00.000-05:00

At Slate, Daniel Engber explains how the Dallas Mavericks, using his theory, attempted to harness the power of the home-court crowd to disrupt opponents' free-throw shooting (link via The Sports Economist). The Mavericks gave up after three games, but Engber thinks he's on to something. I wouldn't be at all surprised if he was....

I've been reading an article—Matissa N. Hollister's "Does Firm Size Matter Anymore?"—in the new American Sociological Review. Really! I'm not kidding. I do try to keep up. But that's not my point. I put down the ASR, about halfway through the article and started to surf the web. In just a few minutes, I'm at Pub Sociology and the first post on the page is about the very same ASR article I'd just put down. Wow.

Now I suppose that's not the most spectacular coincidence in the world. I have a graduate degree in sociology, and I'm a blogger, so it's not all that shocking that I might read a sociologist's blog where the new article I was just reading was being discussed. But this example does show how you can find intelligent discussion about just about anything anymore on the web. Fifteen years ago, I would've had a hard time finding anyone in my own graduate department who'd read a new article I wanted to talk about. Today, I accidentally stumble onto it in Blogistan.

And just in case you were wondering: Yes, firm size apparently still does matter, if not as much as it once did. (You're more likely to make more money in a big firm than you would at a small firm—even when you're doing the very same kind of work.)

In a similar vein, don't be at all surprised if the guy who owns your favorite coffee shop turns out to be a famous sociologist's nephew.

Everyone keeps asking me who I think owns that baseball, the one used by the Red Sox to make the last out in the 2004 World Series. Now, I don't blog about legal-type things, so you'll have to find me in the real world (and, say, buy me a gin and tonic) to get my views on that. But as this post by UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh indicates, the question isn't as easy as it might seem. When he began, Volokh was sure the ball was owned by the Red Sox ("[o]f course the team owns it"); then, after he'd gotten some feedback, he entertained the possibility that the ball was owned by the Cards or by Major League Baseball itself; then, after still more feedback, he was finally more open to the idea that a player might actually own the ball.

And, as always, since it's sports-related, Off Wing Opinion is the place to go.

Irresistible Impulse

2005-01-08T13:33:00.000-05:00

After a trip to the pet store, author Poppy Z. Brite couldn't help but sample the Gummi BearBQ Chewy Vitamin Dog Treats—beef, bacon, and chicken. She ended up using lots of toothpaste.

Ewww.

Saturday Morning Caffeine (and a sweet spot on the side)

2005-01-08T00:11:00.000-05:00

Starbucks unveils its new chocolate drink, Chantico, today. Here's an early review. Don't have too many cups this first weekend, though: Chantico is definitely not a low-calorie food.

As this news indicates, the Starbucks menu board just keeps getting more and more complicated all the time. This cool page may help you sort it all out (link via Kottke).

Grant McCracken of This Blog Sits . . . has been metablogging, trying to describe the blogger's "sweet spot." Here's a taste:

A friend at Cambridge did his thesis on the epic poem and he was particularly interested in the notion of the 'sustain.' Could the poet sustain themes in large and small over the vast architecture of a poem? And this is an issue for blogging. Some people are entirely without themes and pretty completely episodic. Others are the captives of a few mighty themes and their slavish repetition. All of us hope for a sweet spot: a body of smart and various themes that organize without compressing discourse, that give us analytic range without costing us focus, that give the blog an exoskeleton without specifying what it must look like day to day.I'm afraid I'm one of those bloggers who are too episodic. Where can I get some themes, anyway?

Anyway, McCracken's entire post on the purposes of blogging is worth reading.

Waddling Thunder has posted several interesting things at Crescat Sententia lately. In one post, WT agrees with a theory that would-be lawyers end up in law school rather than business school because they're more risk-averse than would-be entrepreneurs. Even having thought about it a couple of days, I don't have anything to say on that subject. I'm pretty darn risk-averse, sure, but I never—not even once—viewed myself as choosing between law school and B-school. In my circle, people were choosing between law school and graduate programs in social work, the humanities, or the social sciences. When you think about it, there are actually many, many different types of people in a law school class....

In another post, WT mentions a review of a New York restaurant where "dinner for two can easily exceed $1,000." He asks whether that crosses "the line between obscenity and luxury." I have to say yes, primarily because of the sum involved. Most Americans, even many (most?) at the upper end of the economic continuum, would view $500/meal as unthinkable. Somehow or other, it matters, too, that we're talking about goods that are (literally) consumed in an experience that would be transient for me. Would I feel differently if I were a better gourmand, better able to conjure up the memory of a delicious meal?

Interesting fact: In Iran, homosexuality is forbidden, but transsexualism is tolerated (link via Althouse). Discuss?

Today's Quote

2005-01-07T07:19:00.000-05:00

"As I've become less attractive to men, so I've found myself more with women. It's what happens. Ask any woman my age [67]. More women come on to you than men. And women are fantastic. Around 40, women blossom. Women are a work-in-progress. Men burn out." —— the recently departed Susan Sontag, in a 2000 interview with The Guardian (link via Andrew Sullivan).

Any comments on that? I'm pushing 40, and I'm wondering whether I'm about to "burn out" (hey, maybe it already happened!).

The Garden

Answering Machine

Fallow

Is this blog dead? Maybe not!

What's my place in humor?

Friday Spies: The "I've Been Bad" Edition?

Phillies 2, Padres 0.

Friday Spies: The Navel-Gazing Edition

This post culminates in romantic loneliness.

Topics for a New Week?

Magazine Triage

Friday Spies: The "Living and Dying in 3/4 Time" Edition

It's puzzling, I know.

If I could be . . .

Heaven really is a place on Earth.

Warning: Earwax is mentioned in this post.

Friday Spies: The "We Are Really Reaching This Week" Edition

Smooch.

Bisexuals, bicycles, and an exterminator, too

Still 10 to Go

A Small Holiday Crop

Sorry, Redcoats.

It's Independence Day!

Warning: This is not a nut-free post.

Saturday Spies?

Seven Wee Observations

Ok, I've done one good thing today.

Drama (and other stuff, too)

Catching Up

Mets 4, Phillies 3

Five More Easy Pieces

Five Easy Pieces

The Music Meme

My Wimbledon Men's Picks

My Wimbledon Picks—The Women's Draw

This is a jelly-free post.

Friday Spies

I think I'm too tired to blog. Let's talk on Friday.

I'm suddenly a media critic.

I don't think this could get any *more* eclectic....

I won't wear a bolo to your wedding, I swear.

Friday Spies

The hostage crisis continues.

I'm blogging through a bad day....

Tennis and—yeah—some other stuff, too...

D'backs 10, Phillies 8

Today's Collection

Friday Spies

This post mentions at least three forces.

Three (Very) Quick Thoughts

What New Orleans restaurant am I?

The Men's Quarterfinalists

The Women's Quarterfinalists

Since I'm awake, I blog in the wee hours.

Redecorating is hard work.

A Saturday Seven

Hot Damn!

Friday Spies

My French Open Picks—A First Look Back

Hugs and kisses? No.

Useless personal information, marital satisfaction, and—yes—turgidity...

French Open Picks—The Men's Draw

My French Open Picks—The Women's Draw

Ten Things I've Never Done

Friday Spies: The "Would You Rather" Edition

I'm reflecting. (There's a puzzling metaphor for you.)

I foresee another clumsy dismount.

I was there.

Four Completely Unrelated Thoughts

Three Short Items

A Motley Monday Collection

My World View . . . Apparently

I've been away, and there's a lot to catch up on.

Cheesesteaks are great, but...

Now where were we?

Fourteen Seconds of Fame

For news on urology, keep reading.

I am L-A-Z-Y.

I miss China Beach.

At mid-week, life just doesn't make that much sense.

I don't think this could get any more eclectic....