Entries from August 2008
If these comments are hyperbole, they’re in very poor taste. If they’re not, this could be a very sad week. Here’s Ray Nagin, Mayor of New Orleans, whose memory of three years ago is surely still very clear:
“You need to be scared,” Nagin said of the Category 4 hurricane tearing along Cuba’s western coast. “You need to be concerned, and you need to get your butts moving out of New Orleans right now. This is the storm of the century.”
…
“This storm is so powerful and growing more powerful every day,” Nagin said. “I’m not sure we’ve seen anything like this.”
CNN: Mandatory evacuations to begin Sunday morning in New Orleans
Categories: Society
Tagged: Hurricane Gustav, New Orleans, Ray Nagin
I’m going back in two days. I don’t always like New Haven, but it’s beautiful in the fall, and it’s got some other pretty awesome stuff, too.
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — Nine-year-old Jericho Scott is a good baseball player — too good, it turns out.
The right-hander has a fastball that tops out at about 40 mph. He throws so hard that the Youth Baseball League of New Haven told his coach that the boy could not pitch any more. When Jericho took the mound anyway last week, the opposing team forfeited the game, packed its gear and left, his coach said.
[HT: Mom.]
Categories: Sports
Tagged: 40 mph, 9-year-old, Badass, Jericho Scott, New Haven
1. Is “getting it on” really in the Times’s stylebook?
2. Those of us near the top of the medal count don’t think about how awesome it is when just one person from a country wins something. Man, they go crazy. (I hope we would, too.)
3. Shouldn’t every competition have different ways to measure success for the different fan bases? That way, everyone wins. It might sound problematic at first, but think about it–everyone actually comes away thinking they’ve won.
Categories: Society · Sports
Tagged: Celebrations, Condoms, Getting It On, Gold Medal, Medal Count, Olympians, Olympics, Sex, Success
I’ve started posting photos from Peru. Two albums are up now, and others are coming soon.
Categories: Photos · Travel
Tagged: Animals, Peru, Photos, Portraits, Singles
I understand why baseball umpires are sensitive about instant reply–the technology threatens to eliminate their jobs, or, at least, embarrass them by correcting blown calls. (The point is, after all, that the machines will make better calls than the human umpires.) But listen to the commissioner: instant reply is coming. And, for all of Bud Selig’s shortcomings in baseball’s top spot, he has consistently gotten his way. So, rather than fight the new plan at every stage, why don’t umpires get on board, and see to it that instant replay is implemented in a way that maximizes their importance on the field and their dignity? I don’t know–maybe it’s just me, maybe the umps aren’t thinking this way, but I wouldn’t like to be on the losing side of history, especially for a change that, in the baseball world, will be a big one.
Update 8/22/08: A friend objected to my implication that Selig was pushing instant replay on the league, reminding me that the commissioner was opposed to the plan until the owners voted in favor of it. Nevertheless, Selig is now a proponent, and it will therefore happen.
Update 8/28/08: And it’s here.
Categories: Sports
Tagged: Baseball, Bug Selig, Instant Replay, Umpires
As mentioned, the reason for the visit to Nazca was the Nazca Lines, huge drawings in the desert made thousands of years ago by the people of the Nazca civilization. Or by aliens, if you believe Indiana Jones. Here’s how we saw the lines:
And here’s what we saw (among many others, over a dozen in all):
From the air, this was equally impressive:
Categories: Photos · Travel
Tagged: Nazca Lines
At a friend’s urging, I saw American Teen tonight. I hope I don’t fall into the habit of using this space to push books, movies, or anything else, but this is a movie to see. Filmed in Warsaw, Indiana, over a single academic year, the film is a creative, reality TV-style documentary that follows five high school seniors through their final year at home, in school, and with each other. It’s got great characters, half a dozen compelling narratives woven together brilliantly and beautifully, and all the reality of high school in America today, no matter where you experienced it. I’ll leave my plug at that, but I’ll encourage you to do two things: click on the link above and watch the trailer. If those three minutes seem interesting, go see the movie. It won’t disappoint.
Categories: Personal · Society
Tagged: American Teen
Here’s the entirety of an email I got from a friend this afternoon:
i just almost had a heart attack, because i thought i’d flushed my glasses down the toilet, because i was napping there, and then they disappeared. turns out, they were just down the leg of my pants, and they dropped out on the ground when i stood up and shook my leg
Categories: Personal
Or: why I love international sports. Two articles I read today:
Article 1: Some athletes are more than superstars. They carry whole nations on their backs. Their nations have 1.3 billion people and get to host the Olympics. And they are responsible for exposing a whole continent to a sport. Actually, that’s just one (huge) guy.
Article 2: And elsewhere, it’s a victory when your athletes come home at all. See, a lot of the time they don’t, since your country is so poor. (HT: DGP)
Categories: Society · Sports
Tagged: Sierra Leone, Yao Ming
