I believe I mentioned here previously that, at The National, we conduct nearly all newsroom business in English. We just can’t always be sure that’s what it is. English. I mean, there’s a reason “Trainspotting” had subtitles in the U.S. When the Scots get going … it’s a major matter of “excuse me?” For the […]

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It is being reported that Pat Haden will succeed Mike Garrett as athletic director at USC, and let see if I can summarize my first impressions of that move. “Inspired … a perfect decision … a great guy … a very very smart man … a classy dude … absolutely the right man for the […]

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We decided, at The National, to do a story on the history of aging players who have signed, near the end of their careers, with Major League Soccer. The focus being on guys who were at least 30 when they got to MLS … 30 being the point when attacking players, in particular, tend to […]

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Drag racing may not have been invented in Southern California, but it certainly was organized and codified there, and has been part of the culture for more than a half century. The Beach Boys wrote, what, five songs about drag racing? Ten? Surfing, drag racing and girls, that’s what SoCal cares about, in the Beach […]

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When I saw this on the wire … it made me smile. As I wrote in this commentary for The National. The idea of Bengie Molina hitting for the cycle … the man who gives new meaning to the expression “base-clogger” … who probably is the slowest man in baseball and a contender for Slowest […]

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I have written before about my li’l insect pals in Abu Dhabi. Including a few days ago. I didn’t think I would be writing about them again so soon. But this was Armageddon. A whole nest of ants vs. moi and a squirt bottle of Windex. Inside the house. In the bedroom, actually. Yeah. (If […]

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Normally, I don’t pay much attention to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Certainly not before LeBron James, and presumably not after. But I’ve been looking at the Cavs for a couple of weeks, before and after The Decision, and … Things are going to be horrible there. The night of The Decision, Cavs owner Dan Gilbert famously […]

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Talking about weather is boring. I probably have written that exact sentence on this blog before. Weather. Boring. Sort of the definition of banality. As a writing device, it indicates “dull guy” … or “nothing to say.” Character walks into a scene and says, “Hot enough for ya?” … We know the speaker is meant […]

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The day after The Decision, that contemporary monument to bad ideas (New Coke, anyone?), I offered to write a commentary/analysis on LeBron James’s decision to commit to Miami and abandon Cleveland. I ended up trashing LeBron and The Decision … in a column I linked to a few days ago.  But before I realized I […]

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That has to be the “sun rises in east” headline of the week, right? Dodger Stadium, Angel Stadium … shouldn’t even be in the same discussion. It wouldn’t occur to me to compare them. And I usually don’t write off of what other people have said, but Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times actually […]

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