Let’s get right to it. A recent example from the irreverent/spiky/pissed-off/influential wine blog of my childhood friend Ron Washam: There are too many f***ing wineries. Why do we need so many wineries? Really. All of you who are planning to start a winery some day, or your own label, DON’T! You’re not that good at […]

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I do New York Times Sunday crosswords. Only. If that sounds arrogant, given how difficult those monsters are, I plead guilty. But I also readily concede that I solve one — and “solving” a crossword puzzle means 100 percent accuracy — about once out of 20 puzzles. All it takes is one wrong letter … […]

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I saw the Super Bowl approximately 19 hours later than did the bulk of NFL fans. On tape, of course. (Kickoff was 12:30 a.m. in Europe; I was in a Barcelona hotel, heavily jet lagged. I woke at 5 a.m., after sleeping right through the game.) Probably not much original left to say about the […]

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Is Landon Donovan’s playing career over? It may be, and not necessarily because he prefers it that way. First, the LA Galaxy in December said Donovan had retired — after the club could not come to terms with him. Donovan remained quiet, however, and then came a reported offer from Real Salt Lake. That alleged […]

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Over the previous seven days I posted a preview and six on-the-road reports from a 2,431-mile drive across the continent on Interstate 10, from Ontario to Jacksonville, site of the 2005 Super Bowl. Some thoughts, after retyping on this blog those newspaper submissions from 12 years ago. –We did another drive on Saturday, the day […]

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Day 7 of the series and Leg 6 of the Interstate 10 road trip to the 2005 Super Bowl, 163 miles from Tallahassee, Fla., to Jacksonville — part of the 2,431 miles across Interstate 10 from Ontario, Calif., to Jacksonville. From February 5, 2005 JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — We knew we had arrived when we whizzed […]

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Day 6 of the series and Leg 5 of the Interstate 10 road trip to 2005 Super Bowl, 383 miles from New Orleans to Tallahassee, Fla., part of the 2,431 miles across Interstate 10 from Ontario, Calif., to Jacksonville, Fla. From February 4, 2005 TALLAHASSEE, Florida — We Left Coast natives tend to view Florida […]

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Day 5 of the series and Leg 4 of the road trip to the 2005 Super Bowl, 543 miles from San Antonio to New Orleans — part of the 2,431 miles across Interstate 10 from Ontario, Calif., to Jacksonville. From February 3, 2005 NEW ORLEANS — The party is already here. How come the Super […]

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