Don't Bend it Like Beckham

The MLS All star game was fun from the point of view of a United fan. The All Stars looked very anemic as they lost 4-0. No one on the team looked impressive. We had good seats in the corner which, it may be a rationalization to say, are preferable to seats at the center line. We were much closer to exciting action and saw two United goal. Of course we were far away from the action the second half especially since the MLS did absolutely nothing worthwhile. But if we were in the center we'd have been far from both centers of activity. Watching the mid-field play is no where near as compelling as what goes on in the box. Here is a view of a Beckham free kick on which he not score. It shows what the view from the seats looked like and how totally inadequate a Blackberry camera is. The guy in front of me had an IPhone which was taking great pictures.

Manchester United vs. MLS All-Stars

I really thought that I was going to missed seeing United on this tour. My original plan was to see them this Saturday vs. Barcelona in D.C. I would then fly to Las Vegas from Baltimore. Unfortunately, the game is in the evening so it made getting a flight impossible. So my second choice was the All-Star game in Newark. When I checked for seats though they were inexplicably sold out. That struck me as very odd as I didn't think soccer had increased in popularity to that degree even if it is Manchester United. A few weeks ago, I got an email with a special 4 game package that included the All Star game so I bit. It turns out the game is being held at the smaller stadium of the local team, the Red Bull, which holds only 25,000, not Giant Stadium which holds 70,000. That explained the ticket disappearance. I have really good seats so I am pleased. This will the 4th time I am seeing them: 2003 in Philly vs. Barcelona, 2004 vs. Bayern Munich at Soldiers Field in Chicago and last year in Philly again vs. the Philly Union, the MLS team.

Still hotter than hell here

It is still miserably hot. It is definitely not weather for yard work, which of course I don't mind. It is even too hot for just sitting on the deck and reading. The heat has messed up my running schedule a bit. I am training for the Philly R&R half again. I was supposed to do 8 on Saturday. My original plan was to get up at 5:30 and run while it was still cool. But even at 6 am it was in the low 80s. So instead I went to the gym and did it on the treadmill. The limit on the machine is one hour which gave me 7 miles. I stopped the machine and restarted to do the extra mile I needed. It wasn't quite as tedious as I assumed it would be because I was listening to a podcast of This American Life. The theme of the show as The Psychopath Test, which looked at what went into creating the test, had two segments related to it and then tested the member of the show's staff to see if they had any tendencies towards psychopathy. I won't give away the ending. I am happy to say that I don't think I have psychopathic tendencies, at least based on the interview with developer of the test describing the characteristics of a psychopath.

Also so hot that I decided that my office needed a thorough cleaning. It was very dusty so I got out my trusty mini-vac and went to work. I also started throwing out lots of stuff related to work: brochures, books, electronic equipment (two full sets of Clickers.) I also bought a new paper shredder to get rid of all of the old sales and personnel stuff I accumulated over 25 years.

Burning Man

Funny story. My old boss will be going to Burning Man Festival in Nevada. She went to see some friends in San Fran awhile ago. One of their friends was someone she hit it off with during the visit. Somehow the topic of the Burning Man Festival came up. None of them had ever attended but they both thought it would be fun.  She made plans to fly back and go with him. He borrowed a small RV from some of his friends, which she said barely sleeps two. So now she has the anxiety of going the festival along with spending a week with someone she doesn;t really know. The schedule looks interesting.

Summer Reading

Since my fall class, I have gotten into the good habit of reading books again. I have developed an interest in pre Civil war 19th century US. It started when I read A Nation of Counterfeiters and Born Losers for class which both spent a considerable amount of time in that period. So I felt I
needed more familiarity with what happened. The first book I read was What Hath God Wrought. There was a lot of coverage on abolitionism and and slavery so I decided I needed to know more on that. I chose to read all 1600 pages of The Road to Secession by William Freehling. He taught for a bit at my college though after I had graduated. There was a lot of detail but he writes very engagingly so it was enjoyable. After making my way through to secession, I realized I didn't know much about the Civil War, beyond what I remember from Ken Burns 20 years ago. I read Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson. This is an excellent book. He teaches at Princeton and is a coauthor on the textbook by Murrin. I was worried that it would just be a list of battles but, while there was some of that, it was much broader. The toughest part of reading books on this period is that the Republicans are the good guys and the Dems are the racist proslavery party. The Irish come off pretty badly too. For all of the talk about being at the bottom of the social hierarchy --"No Irish Need Apply"-- , they were virulently anti-black and were responsible for the draft riots in NY City which killed lots of free blacks.


As I am taking an urban history course in the fall, I thought I should read some urban history. I chose Gotham- A history of NY. This is massive: 1300 pages and I probably won't finish it. It is too heavy to travel with. Again, it is very readable. My guess is the books I am reading for the class will be shorter and more focused.

Finally, I chose a smaller book to read when I travel in two weeks. It was referenced quite a bit in Battle Cry so I thought it would be worth reading if for no other reason than to confirm my opinion of 19th century Southerners as villains.

Woody's Latest

Saw it awhile ago and thought it was very enjoyable

what every dog owner needs

A doggy belly band from www.pawlicity.com