If you think about it, not much pertaining to the 2018 Russia World Cup has been of a global nature, so far. In qualifying competition, European nations played nations from the European confederation. Asian nations played other Asian nations. And so on. The 2018 World Cup has been a regional event, to date. That changed […]

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  The wind blows sometimes, here in the south of France. In the summer, that can pose problems with slamming doors, because we like to keep the windows open throughout the season, when it can be a bit warm. And gusty. Thus, we prop open the doors with compact and heavy things lying about. An […]

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From the eastern side of the Atlantic, LiAngelo seemed like the “other” Ball. We had big brother Lonzo Ball, one-year standout at UCLA, now with the Los Angeles Lakers. We had LaMelo, the little brother, the quick one who makes tons of threes, who would be a junior in high school if not for his […]

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In American sports, I will not abide the criticism of two (and only two) men — Vin Scully and, especially, John Wooden. (Here is my obit on him, from 2010.) Wooden coached UCLA’s basketball program to 10 NCAA championships, in the 1960s and 1970s, and he did it with consummate class and sportsmanship, nearly forgotten […]

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“Not getting” as in “not partaking” but also as in “failing to understand” what podcasts really do for news organizations. Podcasts, you may have noticed, are a hot thing. Seems like just about everyone has one now, which could be an example of “other sites are doing it; we better, too”. The herd mentality being […]

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OK, everyone who predicted the 2017 Los Angeles Rams would win six of their first eight games, with Jared Goff in the upper third of the league in passing yards (2,030, ninth) and quarterback rating (97.9, ninth) … please stand up. All of you standing … thanks to owning up to your outrageous lies. We […]

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I have become … oh, not obsessed but definitely interested … in the notion of saying hello to strangers. As the French do. On our most recent trip to California, I tried out the French method, in English, to people I encountered while walking. “Good morning!” It met with some success, suggesting that suburban Americans […]

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Most of us who have lost most of our hair … we’re pretty much the last to know. Or the last to accept it. “I’ve got plenty of hair over here. I can just stretch it across …” No, really, you cannot. And when you reach the point where you are desperately trying to make […]

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(Above: A statue to a bullfighter, in Seville.) Passing references have been made on this site to our tour of the Iberian Peninsula. Normally, more of that would have appeared here, as we went along, but the Dodgers were in a seven-game World Series — which vied for attention on this blog — originally intended […]

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Did the usual thing. Asleep around midnight Central European time, “called” to wake up around 4 a.m., and this time around I saw the final innings of Game 7 of the 2017 World Series. Won, sigh, by the Houston Astros. It was the bottom of the eighth when I checked in from a hotel room […]

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