I am not a foodie. My eating origins, from a big, working-class family, were more about quantity than quality … in that mid-20th century American sort of way. So there is always a risk that an astonishing dining experience in Paris — and I’ve been here five weeks now — will be wasted/lost on me. […]

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I’ve been in Paris for almost five weeks now. And not for a single day was I without an Internet hookup. Actually, I spent several hours most of the past 30-some days looking at this computer. Yes, while in Paris. I know that’s ill but it’s the truth. OK, here’s my excuse: I do two […]

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I’m almost done reading a book at the apartment I’m staying at in Paris. It’s by a very prominent journalist who spent nearly his entire working career in newspapers, and I’m just powering through it and nodding my head a lot and thinking, “Yep, that’s how it works.” I was struck by a particular passage. […]

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I’m not a big fan of the horses, American-style. It seems a bit industrial and at-a-remove, even when you have a media credential. The tracks in Southern California are big and a bit impersonal and seem mostly about separating customers from their money. The races at Deauville, however, were intimate and accessible — almost boutique-y […]

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Aside from a few insensate boors, Paris is almost universally admired. Usually loved. The grand monuments of Paris generally are what is remembered by the visitor.  The Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe … the stations of the cross for the first-time Parisian pilgrim. I have found myself appreciating small things, over the […]

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I’m not a serious jogger, never mind a serious runner.  I don’t jog as much as slog. I have a sister-in-law who says she is a “wogger” — an activity that combines walking and jogging. I’m not far from that. But I try to get out there every other day and move around as briskly […]

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This is the rumor bouncing around the internet: Landon Donovan will go to French club Paris St-Germain, based here in the capital of France. The rumor originated from something called 10sport, a French site that a few days ago reported that PSG is in negotiations with Donovan (or, presumably, his agent, Richard Motzkin) to secure […]

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I bet on sports, basically, never. I’ve never placed a bet in Las Vegas. I haven’t spent one minute in/at a sports book. I don’t know a bookie. (Or, at least, I don’t think I know a bookie.) I can’t tell you what the point spread is on any game I’m not covering, and I […]

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OK, here is the sports/journalism connection in this post: A bistro on the place just up the street from here was showing a basketball game on a television, inside. We moved out of the Marais yesterday and over to the 17th arrondisement.

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I just spent quite a bit of time breaking down the suddenly tight World Cup qualifying race in Concacaf, over on my Countdown to South Africa blog. Feel free to go have a look. Much of it depends on who plays whom and where, and one goal could swing this. As the blog entry notes, […]

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