More soccer

I’m actually blogging from a soccer match — girls under-14 state champions from Idaho and New Mexico. The NM team defeated Alaska and Hawaii Monday and Tuesday. A win or draw takes our homies to the quarterfinals.

It’s 103 degrees.

UPDATE: Parents at these tournaments are worse than drunks at English league matches.

POSTGAME UPDATE:

The New Mexican girls went down 0-3 early in the second half, and then — as if to prove me wrong — staged a dramatic comeback to tie the game, which ultimately ended in a draw 3-3. The New Mexico team advances to Friday’s quarterfinal game, winning first place in its bracket. Great coaching from my friend Mike!

But the parents, give me a break. Not only did they see every contact as a foul by the Idaho team, but they started up with some crazy stuff.

For example, a group of dads grumbling because time-out is called in each half for both teams to have a water break. WTF, it’s over 100 degrees and these assholes are sitting in the shade but they don’t want their daughters who are running around in the sun to get a gulp of water. No timeouts in soccer they declaim. (The timeouts are called in every game, every age when the temperature reaches a certain point. These are children.)

And then, once the game was tied, some of these same dads were upset because the team then played more defensively, willing to preserve the draw — AND ADVANCE AS THE FIRST PLACE TEAM. When I grumbled that a draw was good enough, one answered, “This is competitive soccer. We play to win.” To which I replied, “This is tournament soccer, you play the first round to advance with no players hurt or exhausted.”

I’d forgotten how awful the parents can be.

It was a great and enjoyable game and I don’t want the above to detract from that. It’s just me; a rant is my way.

FYI there are 192 teams from the 13 western states competing in this tournament, ages U-12 to U-19. California counts as two states; it has north and south divisions.

Best line of the day

“Why do we have to recruit and train our allies, the Afghan Army, to fight? That is like someone coming to you with a plan to recruit and train Brazilian boys to play soccer.”

Tom Friedman

If Friedman were as progressive as he think he is, he would have said “recruit and train Brazilian children to play soccer.”

Hoppy

HoppyandTopper.jpgHopalong Cassidy premiered on NBC-TV on this date in 1949. According to John Dunning’s On the Air:

One medium fed on the other, and by 1950 [William] Boyd was at the center of a national phenomenon. For two years he was as big a media hero as the nation had seen. In personal appearances he was mobbed: 85,000 people came through a Brooklyn department store during his appearance there. His endorsement for any product meant instant sales in the millions. It meant overnight shortages, frantic shopping sprees, and millions of dollars for Boyd. There were Hopalong Cassidy bicycles, rollerskates (complete with spurs), Hoppy pajamas, Hopalong beds. The demand for Hoppy shirts and pants was so great that a shortage of black dye resulted. His investment in Hopalong Cassidy paid off to an estimated $70 million.

Why a man of 52 years appealed to so many children remains a mystery. Possibly some of it had to do with the novelty of television: just as Amos ‘n’ Andy had capitalized on the newness of radio a generation earlier, a TV sensation was bound to occur. And the hero had a no-nonsense demeanor: he was steely-eyed and quick on the draw, and he meted out justice without the endless warbling and sugar-coated romance that came with the others. As for Boyd, he became Cassidy in a real sense. His personal habits changed; he gave up drinking and carousing and lived with his fifth wife until his death in 1972.

Hopalong Cassidy was my first hero. None has been as good since.

June 23rd

Today is the birthday

… of Justice Clarence Thomas. He’s 62.

… of American Idol’s Randy Jackson. He’s 54.

… of Oscar-winner Frances McDormand. She’s 53. Miss McDormand has had three Oscar nominations for best supporting actress in addition to her winning best actress performance in Fargo.

… of K.T. Tunstall. Kate is 35.

… of LaDainian Tomlinson. He’s 31 and done.

Choreographer Bob Fosse was born on this date in 1927.

According to many sources, Killer Angels author Michael Shaara was born on this date in 1929. According to his biography at son Jeff Shaara’s web site, the father was born in 1928. The Killer Angels, which won the Pulitzer Prize and is regarded by many as the best Civil War novel, “was rejected by the first fifteen publishers who saw the manuscript.”

Alfred Charles Kinsey was born on this date in 1894. And so was Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, who, at age 42, gave up his throne for the woman he loved. After just 10 months as king, Edward VIII defied the British establishment to marry Mrs. Bessie Wallis Warfield Simpson, a twice-divorced American. One wonders what Henry VIII would have thought of the fuss. (The House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was renamed the House of Windsor in 1917.)

America’s first woman president

“What the Wilsons did was just desperately terrible. It was really the grandest deception in the world. It’s really a very shocking story.”

From The Anosognosic’s Dilemma: Something’s Wrong but You’ll Never Know What It Is (Part 3), an analysis of President Wilson’s stroke. Fascinating that the man could be incapacitated and remain in office. The study includes this:

The subsequent role played by the president’s doctors, his family and political friends was complex.  But it is clear that they were involved in a coverup.  Since the president was actually impaired — at least physically — what do you tell the Washington news corps?  Or do you deny it to yourself and others?  A determined group of gatekeepers intervened: Ike Hoover, Dr. Grayson and Edith Bolling Wilson, Wilson’s second wife, who became the de facto president of the United States.

Redux post of the day

First posted here five years ago today.

The American Film Institute announced its Top 100 movie quotes of all time. Here’s the top 10.

  1. “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn,” “Gone With the Wind,” 1939.
  2. “I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse,” “The Godfather,” 1972.
  3. “You don’t understand! I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I could’ve been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am,” “On the Waterfront,” 1954.
  4. “Toto, I’ve got a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore,” “The Wizard of Oz,” 1939.
  5. “Here’s looking at you, kid,” “Casablanca,” 1942.
  6. “Go ahead, make my day,” “Sudden Impact,” 1983.
  7. “All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up,” “Sunset Blvd.,” 1950.
  8. “May the Force be with you,” “Star Wars,” 1977.
  9. “Fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy night,” “All About Eve,” 1950.
  10. “You talking to me?” “Taxi Driver,” 1976.

June 22nd

Today is the birthday

… of Ralph Waite. Papa Walton is 82.

… of Kris Kristofferson, 74. “Me and Bobby McGee”, “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down”, and “Help Me Make It Through the Night” Good stuff, thanks, Kris.

… of Meryl Streep. The 16-time Oscar nominee is 61. She has been nominated 13 times for leading actress, winning for Sophie’s Choice, and three times for supporting actress, winning for Kramer vs. Kramer. Ms. Streep has been married for 32 years and has four children.

… of Lindsay Wagner. The Bionic Woman is 61.

… of Graham Greene. He’s 58. Greene was nominated for the best supporting actor Oscar for Dances with Wolves.

… of Cyndi Lauper. A girl of 57, just wanting to have fun.

… of Tracy Pollan. Mrs. Michael J. Fox is 50. They’ve been married since 1988.

… of Dan Brown. The author of The Da Vinci Code is 46. His novels have sold an estimated 80 million copies.

City mice

The Census Bureau released its estimates of city populations for July 1, 2009 today.

Albuquerque is the 34th largest city in the U.S. with an estimated 528,497 residents.

(These estimates are for the city only. They do not include the surrounding metropolitan area, which of course is more meaningful. I don’t live in the city, for example.)

The top ten, in order:

New York 8.4 million
Los Angeles 3.8 million
Chicago 2.9 million
Houston 2.3 million
Phoenix 1.6 million
Philadelphia 1.5 million
San Antonio 1.4 million
San Diego 1.3 million
Dallas 1.3 million
San Jose .96 million

Around the area, El Paso ranks 22nd nationally, Denver 24th, Las Vegas 28th, Tucson 32nd, Mesa 39th and Colorado Springs 46th. Salt Lake City ranks 127th (or smaller than Chandler, Glendale, Scottsdale or Gilbert, Arizona).

Albuquerque is the only place in New Mexico with 100,000 people within its city limits.

Population Estimates

UPDATE:

These are a few of the metropolitan area estimates for July 1, 2009:

Albuquerque 857,903
Boulder 303,482
Colorado Springs 626,227
Denver-Aurora-Broomfield 2,552,195
El Paso 751,296
Las Cruces 206,419
Las Vegas-Paradise 1,902,834
Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale 4,364,094
Salt Lake City 1,130,293
Santa Fe 147,532
Tucson 1,020,200

Soccer

Two of my four children played soccer as kids — I even helped coach one season and remember lining fields at least one dewy early morning. Five of my grandchildren play on one or more teams a year currently. I’ve watched my best friend Donna’s son play for more than ten years — high school, club, Olympic Development Team, state cup champions — we went to San Francisco one year, Honolulu another. He still plays and coaches. I’ve seen the national junior college champions play, a woman’s NCAA championship match, and semi-pro teams. I’ve attended an MLS game. A few years ago I saw the American women defeat the Mexican national women’s team.

I’ve even had a referee threaten to have me ejected from the fields.

So I don’t need anyone to preach to me what a great game association football is. Or that the World Cup is awesome. Indeed, the World Cup is one of the great athletic events — and the next four days with four live games each day are among the most dramatic in the sports world. (Several teams, the U.S. most likely among them, need to win or go home.)

But international soccer is seriously flawed in a way that turns off much of the American audience and I am tired of the soccer scolds and their quadrennial “if only Americans were more sophisticated.”

Bullshit.

I read something today that helped me figure this out:

There are many stupid things about soccer, but the lack of scoring remains the stupidest.

A 1-0 deficit, and your side is playing with the burden of 11 elephants on their backs.
A 2-0 deficit and you are now just out there getting some exercise.
A 3-0 defeat and the newspapers back home will call you an “embarassment.”

This level of scoring just doesn’t make sense.

It is so hard to score in soccer, it would be like basketball played on 30 foot rims.

Soccer eliminates the most fundamentally exciting thing about sports: the comeback.

I think he’s right. To illustrate, if the U.S. had come back from a 2-0 deficit to defeat Slovenia the other day — due to an inexplicable foul call, the go-ahead goal was disallowed, and the match ended in a 2-2 draw — it would have been the FIRST TIME IN 80 YEARS of World Cup play that a team came from behind 2-0 at half to win. It’s never happened.

And I think the comeback is the great attraction in sports, particularly when the viewing audience has no particular attachment to the teams. Why else are quarterbacks remembered for great fourth quarter drives, relief pitchers for stopping 9th inning rallies, walk-off home runs, the Red Sox coming from 0-3 in games to defeat the Yankees, the Lakers coming from behind to defeat the Celtics Thursday night?

The skills exhibited in soccer are often magnificent. The stakes are among the most important in sports. But the games are not memorable for most of us.

New iPhone and iPod Touch software

The new iOS 4 for iPhone and iPod Touch is available via iTunes.

This is not the new iPhone, which comes out Thursday. This is the new operating system for iPhone 3G and 3Gs and iPod Touch second and third generation.

The update has many new features depending on your device. It is free. It is also a rather large file and the process will take several minutes.

The iOS update requires iTunes 9.2, which was released last week. It too is free.

Oil in the Gulf, two months later

62 days have passed since the initial explosion of BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico, and the crude oil and natural gas continue to gush from the seafloor. Re-revised estimates now place the flow rate at up to 60,000 barrels a day – a figure just shy of a worst-case estimate of 100,000 barrels a day made by BP in an internal document recently released by a congressional panel. Louisiana’s state treasurer has estimated environmental and economic damages from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill could range from $40 billion to $100 billion. Collected here are recent photographs from the Gulf of Mexico, and of those affected by the continued flow of oil and gas into the ocean. (37 photos total)

The Big Picture – Boston.com

Best and most insightful line of the day

“As Dunning read through the article, a thought washed over him, an epiphany.  If Wheeler was too stupid to be a bank robber, perhaps he was also too stupid to know that he was too stupid to be a bank robber — that is, his stupidity protected him from an awareness of his own stupidity.”

From Errol Morris in a simply fascinating essay, The Anosognosic’s Dilemma: Something’s Wrong but You’ll Never Know What It Is (Part 1).

“[I]f you’re incompetent, you can’t know you’re incompetent.”

June 21st

Jane Russell

Jane Russell is 89 today. She was 36D when she made The Outlaw for Howard Hughes. He discovered her at his dentist, where she was a receptionist.

Meredith Baxter and Michael Gross, the wife and husband on the TV sitcom Family Ties, are both 63 today. Alex, their son on the show, was played by Michael J. Fox, who was 49 on June 9th.

Novelist Ian McEwan is 62.

Kathy Mattea is 51.

Juliette Lewis is 37 today. She was 18 when she played the daughter in Cape Fear, and received a best supporting actress Oscar nomination.

Prince William is 28.

It doesn’t really matter but existentialist philosopher and writer Jean-Paul Sartre was born on this date in 1905.

Sartre became a teacher. At a time when the European teaching style was lecturing from a distance, he drank with his students at local bars, played cards and ping-pong with them, and joined them for picnics on the beach. In his spare time he began to write a novel called Nausea (1938). The book was his first major success, and it made him famous. People called him the French Kafka. He went on to write Being and Nothingness (1943), about the meaning of freedom. He wrote, “Hell is other people.” And, “If you are lonely when you’re alone, you are in bad company.”

The Writer’s Almanac (2008)

New Hampshire

. . . ratified the U.S. Constitution on this date in 1788, the ninth state to do so. Nine was the number necessary to put the Constitution into effect. It ought to be a national holiday.

Live Free or Die

Solstice II

In the northern hemisphere, summer began at 5:28 AM MDT (11:28 UTC).

It’s the longest day of the year for locations north of the equator. The further north, the more daylight. That means 14 hours and 31 minutes of daylight in Albuquerque, 14 hours and 59 minutes in Denver, Colorado, 15 hours and 44 minutes in Billings, Montana, and 21 hours 50 minutes in Fairbanks, Alaska.

[Sunrise today in Fairbanks was at 2:57 AM. Sunset tonight will be at 12:47 AM Tuesday. Of course, with twilight, it is light all night.]

What this means astronomically speaking is that at 06:46 Universal Time today (June 21) the northern hemisphere of the earth was tilted 23.4° toward the sun; the southern hemisphere was tilted 23.4° away.

This is best explained with an orange and a flashlight.

Sunrise Solstice at Stonehenge (2008). Click for larger version and to learn more.

Solstice

A good summary about the solstice from National Geographic begins with this:

The summer solstice is a result of the Earth’s north-south axis being tilted 23.5 degrees relative to the sun. The tilt causes different amounts of sunlight to reach different regions of the planet.

Today the North Pole is tipped closer to the sun than on any other day of 2010. The opposite holds true for the Southern Hemisphere, for which today is the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year.