A confession. When I use condiments … I tend to really use condiments. At the moment, I may be one of the planet’s leading consumers of mustard. Like, a couple of smallish bottles of mustard per week. How did that happen? What’s the deal with me (and some of you?) and condiments?

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Americans of a certain age remember the Selective Service Act — the draft — with fear and loathing. During the 1960s, the Vietnam Era, the draft was talked about relentlessly by males over the age of 16. What to do about it. How to avoid it. Richard Nixon is not remembered fondly as a president, […]

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* And my realization that the league has changed, probably forever. For various technical and ESPN-related issues (their abandonment of the Europe and Middle East markets during the summer), I had not seen an NFL game this season. Maybe a few seconds of video, here and there, but not one game from start to finish. […]

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Fascinating bit of video knocking around the web. A 2 minute, 17 second news report from 1981 on a San Francisco TV station. (And note the anchor’s semi-Farrah Fawcett haircut.) The topic? The delivery of news electronically to subscribers sitting at home.  No paper! Also, no worry for the print edition, the TV people suggest, […]

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The Dodgers and Clayton Kershaw agreed on a seven-year, $215 million contract this week. And I have been thinking about it, doing a bit of pro-and-conning. And where I have finally landed?

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Rory McIlroy is in Abu Dhabi this weekend for European Tour event, the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship, which brought to mind a piece from a few weeks ago. About McIlroy, 24, becoming engaged, on New Year’s Eve, to Caroline Wozniacki, 23, his girlfriend of approaching three years. And my “bah-humbug!” suggestion is that these […]

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Most native English speakers believe they speak un-accented English. It is everyone else who has an accent. Poor things. For all but the least self-aware, however, comes the eventual realization that … we all have accents. The only determination left to make is what fraction of other English speakers will have trouble understanding you. In […]

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Has this percolated back to North America? This Messi versus Ronaldo thing? It is nearly inescapable, here in the Old World. Who is the better player? Who is more valuable? Whom do you prefer? Lionel Messi? Or Cristiano Ronaldo? It’s almost as if two-thirds of the planet organizes itself into two camps. The Messis and […]

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It really is a curious thing, the shootout. In many ways it is an independent event from what went on for the previous two hours, at a soccer game. Same guys participating, same ball, same concept of trying to put the ball in the net and the goalkeeper trying to parry it. But it is […]

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We don’t talk much about the many and profound difficulties in being a professional athlete. It’s like we rarely get past the “you get paid a lot of money to play games” part of this. It’s all gravy, once you have reached the big league. Of course, it is not easy. Lots of down sides. […]

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