And we are living it. Not in the epicenter of “scary hot” but uncomfortably close to it. “Friday will be the worst” was what we had heard for the whole of this preposterously hot week, and leave it to the weather guys to be right about bad news. Heat records have been tumbling this afternoon […]

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I like the Fifa Women’s World Cup. It’s global. It can be exotic. The women attract a more PG-rated crowd than do the men. It provides three weeks or more of running narrative and it fills a bit of a void during the potentially slow soccer summer season. I covered four men’s World Cups, and […]

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One of my least favorite acronyms, one that was a principal actor in professional sports at the turn of the century. Particularly in baseball. I was reminded of this today when it was announced that Major League Baseball has suspended Oakland Athletics pitcher Frankie Montas 80 games for failing a PED (performance-enhancing drugs) test. Let’s […]

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So, that didn’t work out so well. The 2018-19 Lakers, fortified by free-agent signing LeBron James, would aim for a place in the playoffs — and maybe more. But, for sure, the Lakers were back and their games would be destination viewing again. Not so fast. The Lakers started fairly well and were 20-14 on […]

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I suppose this began when I began regularly watching the National Football League, again, for the first time in two decades. Injuries. Injuries everywhere. But now, the ugly injuries are by no means concentrated in the realm of football. They are everywhere. As NBA fans could tell you after Kevin Durant ruptured his Achilles tendon […]

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Two full days in Iceland, as well as one very long evening and one very early morning. Enough to have an opinion on the little island in the upper reaches of the north Atlantic? Of course it is. We all make snap judgments, some snappier than others, given on how long we are around a […]

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Seven of us are sharing a comfortable home near the port and downtown of Reykjavik, capital and biggest city of Iceland. On our first night there, I noticed an interesting, modern church that seemed to be made of large blocks of stone. The whole of it was painted white. And it was about 100 yards […]

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Some tourists travel to Iceland planning a lengthy stay. A week, or more, which probably includes outdoorsy activities. Climbing mountains and such. Hiking up dormant volcanoes. Deep-sea fishing. Or perhaps they want to take a leisurely drive around the edges of the world’s 13th-biggest island, spending nights in tiny hotels or under a tent. Waiting […]

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Always wanted to go to Iceland. And here we are. When flying to Europe from Southern California, on the great circle route, people can sometimes see Iceland from 35,000 feet, looking cool and inviting, and it seems a bit odd that we never went on down and landed and looked around. We finally did. We […]

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Seventy-five years ago today, 150,000 American, British and Canadian troops landed in France to begin the reclamation of Europe and especially France from Nazi Germany. Recalling D-Day, as June 6, 1944 is known in the U.S., has been a very big thing this week, here in France, and I am more than a little surprised. […]

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