Wizards v Real Salt Lake

Last night I attended my first Wizards' game at their temporary home in a minor league baseball park. While not ideal, it was a much better venue for soccer than Arrowhead Stadium. The weather was ideal, the result (1-0) was long overdue for the Wizards who had not won in 8 games, and the soccer was rather attractive. Both teams attacked agressively, if not effectively. The goal came off a Davey Arnuad free kick in the 90th minute and was deflected in off a Real Salt Lake defender's head. It still counts, though.

Davey Arnaud sets up the game winning free kick.

KC's Claudio Lopez, who played for Argentina's World Cup team in both 1998 and 2002, follows RSL's Kyle Beckerman, who has played for the US national team.

The rest of the pictures I took at the game can be found on flickr.

Cocktails

I'm not much a mixed drinks kind of guy. I like wine, I like Scotch, I like cider. My opinion usually is that if I am going to drink alcohol, I want it to be good enough alcohol that it doesn't need added sugar or juice or soda, etc.

The Dining & Wine section of the New York Times has a "Special Drinks Issue" today that looks at cocktails and includes quite a few recipes. Given my lack of interest in cocktails, I have not read any of them. I did, however, read Mark Bittman's column about the cocktail.

Bittman write The Minimalist column for the Times, and the name of his column describes his approach to mixed drinks.

Look at the pattern — you might call it the basic recipe — of these drinks, many of which might be grouped as “sours”: they combine liquor with water (usually in the form of ice), a sour flavoring (usually citrus juice) and a sweetener (simple syrup, or something more expensive and flavorful, like Cointreau). You might add a splash of soda or, if you like, fruit juice, which gets you into beachcomber or cosmo territory.

Master this pattern and you can mix hundreds of cocktails at home without a book or recipe. For me, most cocktails look like this: A stiff pour of alcohol, say a quarter cup, over ice; very little sweetener, a teaspoon or at the most two; a tablespoon or more of lime juice (which I find more refreshing than lemon juice); and, if suitable, a garnish like mint (which I chop), or an orange slice. Not only can the proportions change to your taste, they should.

The parallels with cooking are clear. You can start with good ingredients, or not. You can start with someone else’s recipe (on which there are usually a score or more variations) or make the cocktail your own. The point — and this clearly comes from the perspective of cook, not bartender — is this: Why not make cocktails from scratch, ignoring the names and acknowledging your preferences? Why not treat the margarita like a dish of pasta with tomatoes, assuming a few given ingredients but varying them according to your taste?

That's the kind of approach to a cocktail that I could get behind. Sometimes ingredients that are great on their own, also taste wonderful or even better in combination with other great ingredients. Certainly the same could be true with different alcohols. The mixed-drinks = pasta-with-a-sauce analogy makes a lot sense to me.

Real Animal...

...is here. I picked up (actually I downloaded) Alejandro Escovedo's latest, which was released today. I've listen through 1.5 times. It's good. The Alejandro albums with which I am most familiar are from the late 90's through today, so this one shows a bit of a new side of Alejandro to me. I dig his alt-country stuff from the past decade, but this one goes back to his punk and rock roots.

My first impression is that the things about Alejandro's music that I love are definitely present. Melody might not be his strong suit, but his arrangements (particularly the use of strings) are wonderful. I think I will need to listen a few more times before having anything more insightful to say.

The video below is of Alejandro talking about Real Animal.

Boot Camp

The weekend before last, I took Leo to the Stoll Park dog park. It took him about 30 minutes to find the 8-inch deep mudpit in the wooded area of the park. This was mud that was full of decaying organic matter. He was a disgusting mess.

Yesterday, it took him about 5 minutes to find the same mudpit. Since he loves to include any person he can find in the best game in the entire world (throwing a tennis ball for Leo to fetch) I needed to put him on the leash immediately or every person at the park would have also been covered in mud. I was meeting a friend there so that our dogs could play together. While all the other dogs got to frolic and sniff each other to their hearts content, Leo had to stay within the 20 feet radius of me afforded by his retractable leash.

This picture was taken a few years ago in Washington, but it gives you an idea of what Leo looked like each of the past two weekends!

This morning I took him to the dog park at Shawnee Mission Park so that he could swim in the lake. He did not get muddy, but his behavior was disappointing. After only throwing the ball into the water twice, he decided to swim along the shore, picking up other dogs' tennis balls until he ended up about 20 yards beyond the dog park boundary. He was standing on the shore, surrounded by about 5 tennis balls, wagging his tail, wondering why I didn't climb over the brush (or go for a swim myself) to get to him and continue our game.

He finally came back over to me (only bringing 3 of the tennis balls - fortunately dog parks are full of stray tennis balls. The victims of his theft had plenty of other balls with which to play) I let him swim for a couple more minutes, but the next time he made a move to swim away from me, I decided it was time to go home.

I picked up some training size dog treats this afternoon, so doggie boot camp will begin tonight. Leo does enjoy working on his commands (come, down, heel, stay, go to bed, etc.) He has trouble staying in the "sit" position for more than 4 or 5 seconds because of the arthritis in his knees, but when he is "down" he can "stay" just fine. I hope that a couple of weeks of two-a-days will get him back to more polite behavior when we visit the dog parks.

I know that this is my fault. I ought to have him practice his commands a few times a week to keep them fresh in his mind. After boot camp is over, I'll need to be sure that we don't slack off again.

Random tidbits

I've been in a blogging slump recently. Here are a few things I should have written about more extensively.

1. It turns out that I like bikes. My friends Greg and Peggie are into mountain biking. They have told me on several occasions that they think I also would like mountain biking. While Greg was out of town this past weekend, I borrowed his bike. Because of the recent rain, the mountain biking trails at Shawnee Mission Park were closed, so we rode on paved trails. I liked it. Now I'm checking out craigslist to see if I can find a decent, cheap mountain bike of my own. I wish I had done this while I still lived in Washington. The logging roads near my house would have a perfect place for a beginner to ride.
2. Obama is still great. There is a reason why this politician with center-left policy proposals is attractive to conservatives. Here is what he had to say about Father's Day.
   
3. George Bush loses his third Supreme Court ruling in a row over his detainee policy in Boumediene v. Bush. While I do have some questions about how the Constitution should apply to non-US citizens, most of the criticism of this decision has been of the "now the bad guys are going to eat our children" variety. What the Supreme Court actually decided was the Bush Administration does have to show some just cause for holding the detainees. What those critics of this decision miss is how Guantanamo Bay not only is an example of extreme immorality on behalf of the US, but it also weakens our national security. The traditional conservative George Will wrote today about how the right to petition for a writ of habeas corpus, which the Supreme Court upheld in its decision, is so fundamental to our entire system of government. I frequently disagree with Will, but other than his crack about McCain-Feingold, I wholeheartedly agree with every word in his column.
   

   ...No state power is more fearsome than the power to imprison. Hence the habeas right has been at the heart of the centuries-long struggle to constrain governments, a struggle in which the greatest event was the writing of America's Constitution, which limits Congress's power to revoke habeas corpus to periods of rebellion or invasion. Is it, as McCain suggests, indefensible to conclude that Congress exceeded its authority when, with the Military Commissions Act (2006), it withdrew any federal court jurisdiction over the detainees' habeas claims?

   As the conservative and libertarian Cato Institute argued in its amicus brief in support of the petitioning detainees, habeas, in the context of U.S. constitutional law, "is a separation of powers principle" involving the judicial and executive branches. The latter cannot be the only judge of its own judgment...

4. The McClatchy newspapers, whose reporters have consistently provided the most thorough investigation of the Bush Adminstation's foreign policy since 9/11, is in the midst of a series about Guantanamo Bay.

   An eight-month McClatchy investigation of the detention system created after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has found that the U.S. imprisoned innocent men, subjected them to abuse, stripped them of their legal rights and allowed Islamic militants to turn the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba into a school for jihad.

   It is depressing to read, but explains why the Supreme Court decision in Boumediene v. Bush is actually a step towards improving US national security. It is almost impossible to successfully wage a counter-insurgency operation in Afghanistan against the Taliban and al Qaead while we continue to hold and torture innocent Afghanis. If Bush has to respond to a writ of habeas corpus, then perhaps we would finally begin (after years!!) the process of sorting between the innocent and those who truly are terrorists and would be a continued threat if they were released.
   
   

BBQ, Beer, and the Blues

During the last weekend in May, some friends from Washington came to town for a visit. Peggie and Greg moved to Kansas City just after I did last fall, while Chuck and Sheila live in Olympia. We all played volleyball together for a couple of years.

Me, Chuck, Sheila, Peggie, Greg

Chuck was wise enough to know that a trip to Kansas City just wouldn't be complete with having some BBQ and listening to some blues. Sunday night we decided to do both at BB's Lawnside BBQ. The BBQ was just okay (ever since I started doing my own burnt ends about 6 or 7 years ago, I haven't been happy with any that I've had in a restaurant) but they served Boulevard Beer and the music was fun. I think that Peggie, Greg and I will probably make more trips to BB's Lawnside.

I don't have many pictures of the weekend because I either forgot to bring my camera along, or when I did remember the batteries were dead. The few that I do have can be see here.

Is a Cylon Running for President?

Found at metamerist.

Alejandro

The Pitch (KC's weekly alternative paper) previewed Alejandro's show this afternoon at the Wakarusa festival in Lawrence. He played early enough in the afternoon that I could not make due to work.

When you watch Alejandro Escovedo live, you can be pretty sure you're watching the best band in America that night. His usual lineup often includes violin and cello in addition to a typical five-piece band. Escovedo's musicians move from the desperate, quiet spaces between lovers in the wee hours to dark urban soundscapes, incorporating strings from Lou Reed's Street Hassle and often climaxing the show with the Stooges' "I Wanna Be Your Dog." Escovedo manages to take the musical and lyrical guts of the greatest Mott the Hoople song (or that of any other band that makes rock sound like it just might save your life) and cross them with his own unabashedly intimate and defiant vision. The Boxing Mirror was his first release after the illness that almost took his life a few years back, but his new one, Real Animal (due June 24, co-written with Chuck Prophet), is the album of an artist reborn. (D.A.)

Just a few weeks until I can get my hands on Real Animal. I can't wait. Here's video of Alejandro performing the Stooges' "I Wanna Be Your Dog" that was mention above.


This video, while it's quality is lacking even by YouTube standards, gives you a feel of the softer side of a live Alejandro experience.

10 Most Recently Played in my iTunes

I usually exclude any podcasts that I've listened to in these lists, so this weekend I thought I would list in order the podcasts that I listen to most frequently.

1. Left, Right, and Center
2. World Cafe's Words and Music
   
3. This American Life
   
4. Washington Week (and the Washington Week Webcast Extra)
5. The Brian Leher Show
6. The Leonard Lopate Show
7. The Splendid Table
8. NPR Driveway Moments
9. Fresh Air with Terry Gross
10. On the Media

It's interesting that all of these podcasts are originally either radio or TV shows. I do occasionally listen to some podcasts that originated as podcasts (The Mac Observer's Mac Geek Gab, The New York Times' World View, the US National Soccer Team's official podcast, Paste Magazine's Culture Club, Barack Obama's weekly podcast during his first year and a half or so in the Senate, the podcasts for Lost and Battlestar Galactica) but podcasts are mostly a more convenient way for me to access traditional media.

When I lived in Washington, I listened to podcasts a lot more because of how much time I spent driving to work and at least one or two trips to Olympia each week. Today my commute is 5 minutes and the furthest I drive on a regular basis is to the downtown Costco every couple of weeks. That means that it is almost alway music playing on my truck's ipod.

June Recipe

(Each month, I include a recipe in the monthly newsletter for the kitchen where I work. These recipes need to complement the entrees on our menu that particular month, and are targeted towards our average customer. That means it needs to be simple, require little active prep work, and use only the most basic ingredients. Here is what we published in June.)


Summer is the time for grilled meats, cool drinks, and picnics. What picnic is complete without a potato salad? Try this twist on the summertime tradition by using sweet potatoes in place of the traditional russet or red potatoes. Sweet potatoes are full of fiber, complex carbohydrates, protein, vitamins A (in the form of beta carotene) and C, iron, and calcium. Besides, they are naturally sweet and taste great. This salad will work well with any of our grilled entrees.

Sweet Potato Salad

4 large sweet potatoes, diced into 1/2 inch cubes
3 green onions, cut into 1/4 inch slices
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
3/4 cup cider vinegar
2 teaspoons honey
Salt and pepper
1/4 cup coarsely chopped flat-leaf parsley

Bring water to boil in a large pot. Add sweet potatoes and 1 teaspoon salt and cook until potatoes are tender but still offer considerable resistance when pierced with fork, about 8 minutes. Drain, rinse with cold water, drain again, and set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together olive oil, the mustard, vinegar, and honey. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Add potatoes, green onions, and parsley and toss until potatoes are well coated. Serve at room temperature or chilled.

More Initiative Games

The day after this incident occurred, we received a phone call at the kitchen. The conversation went something like this:

Caller: Do you ever do team building activities?

Me: Well, we just had one yesterday.
Me (what I'm thinking): We just had our first one ever yesterday.

Caller: Wow, great! What do you typically do for those activities?

Me: Yesterday the group who came had their own facilitator. They formed two different teams and had different obstacles to overcome as they assembled each entree. The obstacles were things like only one team member could see the recipe, and they had to communicate the instructions to the rest of their team using charades. Others involved making their entrees blindfolded or with the groups hands tied together.
Me (what I'm thinking): Typically?!? All we did yesterday was set up the stations and let the professional run the show.

Caller: Oh, that's perfect - much better than the ideas I had. Can I bring 5 of my employees to your kitchen next week and have you facilitate the activities?

Me: Let me check our schedule.
Me (what I'm thinking): Did I just rejoin Residence Life?

Next Friday we are hosting this group and I'm facilitating the games. I though I had left organizing group games behind after leaving both my job as an RA and my various youth and family ministry jobs. It's interesting that the part of my former career that I always felt was one of the most superficial things I did (leading group games) is now turning up in my new food career.

Initiative Games

I spent one year in college as an Resident Assistant. The picture that most people have of an RA (living in a single on a long hall in a dorm room, holding social events for residents, building "team spirit," enforcing anti-alcohol rules, resolving roommate disputes, etc.) is not at all what my job involved. I was one of three RA's in an off-campus apartment building in which CMU leased rooms. Our apartments were interspersed among other residents, from other students to senior citizens.

Most of my residents were upperclassmen who wanted to get away from the typical dorm experience. They did not want to attend social events, they had more privacy in their apartments than a resident of a dorm would have, and they chose their roommates.

All of us RA's for the various off-campus apartments were a bit of a breed apart. We had a different approach to the cheerleading, rah-rah style that typified Residence Life. But one of the biggest differences was our attitude towards "team-building" or "initiative" games.

We hated them.

Whether it was RA training, or Freshmen orientation, or just a normal staff meeting, ResLife could not seem to do anything doing some kind relay race or a trust fall or untying a human knot. Now, I understand that those games have some value the first dozen or so times one plays them, but I had more than my share of those before finishing high school. The off-campus apartment RA's never made our residents play a game to help them bond with each other.

So it was amusing to see a group come into the kitchen today and do some of those same team-building games, and enjoy them.

We got a phone call at about 1:00 from the president of TeamSynergy, a consulting company that does team building events for businesses. They had planned to bring the staff of a local church to one of our competitors for a cooking event, but they just found out that the other kitchen did not have enough food (I don't know how you schedule an event and first, don't order the food to be able to hold the event, and second, why they could not walk across their parking lot to buy what they lacked at the grocery store) He was wondering if there was any way they we could host their event 30 minutes later.

"Of course," the owner said. So we did. It was a little bit like our own team-building game to try to prepare for this event with only 30 minutes notice.

The timing was actually good for us, as we had finished most of our major prep work for week and the kitchen was well stocked. Because it was our major prep day, the owner and I had two other employees in the kitchen to help us clean and set-up three stations for the groups to use making their entrees. We used every bit of those 30 minutes to get ready, but it did all come together. The biggest problem with this impromptu event was that I didn't get a chance to have lunch until around 4pm.

So there I was, being reminded of my days as an RA, watching team building games being combined with cooking. In one team, only one person was allowed to read the recipe and she had to use charades to communicate to the rest of the group how to make the entree. In another, the four team member had to tie their arms and hands together before starting to work on their entree. There were blindfolds, that old initiative game standby, involved in another group.

It sure seemed like these ladies had never played these kinds of games before. They fell into all of the usual traps (the quiet member had the right answer but was ignored, impatience led the group to overlook the simple directions, one person on the team would just start out on their own without regard to the rest of the team, etc.) but sure had fun doing it! The day was a good reminder to me that these things have value, even if they seem old and tired to me.

Posnanaski's Greatest Day in Sportwriting

This post is what really convinced me that Posnanski is a great writer, even though he writes about baseball too much. It has everything; a historic event, multiple tangents, pop culture references.

So, this was at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. I mentioned here earlier that the Olympics are like nothing else in sports journalism. You become entirely and inexplicably consumed by the Games, especially at the Summer Olympics where there are always about twenty different things going on at once. It really is hard to explain the absurd enormity being in the middle of it all. From home, I always thought, the Olympics seemed pretty big. But when you are there, diving is like the World Series, water polo is like the Super Bowl, rhythmic gymnastics is like the Masters. Yes, from afar these are still diving, water polo and rhythmic gymnastics … but there, at the heart of it, you are blinded to perspective. You are bumping shoulders with reporters and fans from pretty much every country in the world. You are surrounded by sellout crowds, including many people who may have actually paid a scalper a lot of money to see that day’s beach volleyball match. You are talking only to athletes who have DEDICATED THEIR ENTIRE LIVES to be their for that one moment. You are also pretty much shut off from pennant races and NFL training camps and golf majors and presidential news and anything else that might be distracting. You are living, breathing, drinking, sleeping Olympics. It is everything.*

*I’ve always thought that after three weeks of Olympic immersion, reporters would blindly kill after being shown the Queen of Diamonds.

So, with that background, it was the day of the gold medal baseball game. Tommy Lasorda was manager of that team, you might recall. I wanted to go somewhere else. It wasn’t personal. We had someone going to the game, and I had already written about Lasorda and that team, and anyway — I don’t like baseball at the Olympics. I don’t like tennis at the Olympics. For a while they were trying to add golf — I’m glad they didn’t. I like it when the Olympics are CLEARLY the most important event in your sport.

So, I was looking for something cool to write about — this is a big thing at the Olympics.

You need to read the rest of his post to see what he found to write about.

Sports Night

The Posnanski column and blog postings about the Lester no-hitter reminds me of the pilot episode of Sports Night when Casey calls his son late at night to tell him turn on the TV. Sports Night is the story about a small, struggling cable sports show that faces constant pressure from the network to increase their ratings. In the pilot, a suit (J.J.) from the network gives the anchors (Dan and Casey) and producers (Dana and Natalie) notes on their upcoming broadcast and objects to one of their planned stories.

Dana rather pleasantly asks what J.J.'s concerns are. "Who is Ntozake Nelson?"

Natalie explains that Nelson is a South African distance runner, 15,000 meters. He led protests against the white majority.

J.J. says, "That's swell, but..."

but Natalie won't let him cut her off and says, "He was beaten up and thrown in jail. His legs were broken and the doctor said he'd never walk without a cane. He's 41 years old and guess what he's doing tonight," says Natalie.

"It doesn't matter since I've already changed the channel," says J.J.

The race takes places just before the broadcast. As Dan and Casey are preparing to go on the air, they are told to run into the newsroom.

On the monitors is the long-distance race -- there's one runner far ahead of the pack. Anyone want to guess who's winning? The entire staff is rapt, watching the screens. Lucky Dan showed up, because no one thought to turn on the audio until he screeched for it, while Casey starts saying, "That time can't be right!"

As the race enters the final moments, everyone starts cheering Nelson on. Casey looks around and runs to a phone and calls Charlie (who had to be woken up by Lisa -- I don't see this custody arrangement changing any time soon). Isaac looks over and spies Casey rushing into the meeting room where it's quieter.

"Charlie! It's Dad! Did you finish all your homework?" Wha? (To his credit, Casey makes a "why did I ask that?" gesture.) Casey tells Charlie to turn on the TV ("My channel," says Casey. I liked that). He tells Charlie who the runner is. "I'll call you tomorrow and tell you all about it, but for now you just watch him run. He's not doing much, he's just running faster than any man has ever run before."

He then tells Charlie he's going to be on air soon, and Charlie can stay up to watch the beginning of the show ("if Mom says it's okay") but when he gives Charlie the special signal (aw!), he has to turn off the TV. Casey's voice breaks a little as he says, "I love you too, Charlie."

(Quote is from the Television Without Pity recap)

I think that sports brings out my inner sap. Rewatching that episode, having come to "know" the character of Casey, my eyes start to water while he's on the phone with his son.

Why I'm a Sports Fan

One of the things that impresses me about Posnanski is that he captures what I love about sports, even when he's writing about something as boring as baseball (which he does way too much)

Last week, the Royals were involved in the losing end of a no-hitter. Here's a portion of the column Posnanski wrote following the game.

There are not many places in the world that are quieter than the losing clubhouse after a no-hitter. Everyone speaks in whispers. Televisions are dark. The stereo is mute. Kansas City’s Billy Butler, the 22-year-old kid from Florida who loves nothing more than talking and swinging bats at incoming fastballs, shakes his head.

“He didn’t make any mistakes,” he murmurs.

And to the next question: “He didn’t make any mistakes,” he murmurs again.

He is Jon Lester of the Boston Red Sox, who on a cold and windy Monday night against the Royals became the first left-hander in more than 50 years to throw a no-hitter at Fenway Park. He also became the first pitcher to no-hit the Royals since 1973, when Nolan Ryan was young and threw 100 mph. He also sparked tears of joy through Fenway Park because just 19 months ago, Jon Lester was checked out by doctors because of some sharp back pain, and he was told that he had lymphoma. They told him it was treatable. They could not tell him that he would ever be a Major League pitcher again.

“God willing … we beat it, we got it under control, we’ll start thinking about baseball, back to pitching,” he told reporters then. “Until we do that, we’ve got a long road ahead.”

From there — from a fight for his life — to here, Monday, raw night, packed stadium, harsh wind, everyone’s hearts in their throats. He threw 130 pitches, the last his fastest of the night, maybe the fastest of his life, a 96-mph fastball, high and away and rising. Kansas City’s Alberto Callaspo waved the bat helplessly.

That’s when the loudest sound that 37,000 or so people can make detonated, a World Series-clinching sound, a Secretariat thundering down the stretch sound, a birdie putt to win the Masters sound. Catcher Jason Varitek charged the mound to jump on Lester. Red Sox players rushed in from all directions. Fans all over the park unfolded their cell phones and called someone — anyone — to say they were here. They are still here. Outside the losing clubhouse, a half hour after the last pitch, they’re still talking into cell phones, still hugging and laughing and asking each other, “Can you believe it?”

The following is from his blog about the no-hitter.

One of the best parts about being a sports fan is that moment before the moment when you know something remarkable is about to happen. This feeling comes over you. It’s not something that you can easily explain, but you sense that someone is about to hit a home run, or you feel a game-winning touchdown drive is going to happen, or sense that this rush will lead to a spectacular goal, or you know even before the ball leaves the players’ hands that it will swish through.

I’m not talking here about the logical side of the brain at work — that’s different. Sure, a pitcher gets what appears to be the third out of the inning, a fielder drops the ball, you see the pitcher stomping around, you watch him mope his way to a 3-1 count against Papi or Albert or Thomenator, and yeah, it’s not hard to predict what very well might come next. You are a Cleveland Browns or Kansas City Chiefs fan or Denver Broncos fan or, well, really anyone, and John Elway gets the ball with the game on the line in the final minutes, yeah, that’s not not a hard prediction either.

No, here I’m talking about sensing something that isn’t logical, isn’t easily accessible, something that comes from a deeper place, that reservoir of all your feelings as a sports fan...

...And as I left Fenway Park, I thought again about that feeling I had, that feeling you get sometimes as a sports fan, that feeling that “Hey, I’m going to see something unforgettable.” Truth is, most of the time, the feeling dies inside you because unforgettable things don’t happen very often. Here’s the great thing, though. Sometimes, they do.

Lester's story is one of those inspiring things you come across in the sports world. Cancer survivor surrounded by doubts that he could ever play again who accomplishes something extraordinarily rare. In one simple game, you have the elements of good drama; interesting characters, conflict, internal and external obstacles, joy, and a resolution.

Sports Writing

When I wrote about Battlestar Galactica, I mentioned the idea that I don't care as much about the genre of a TV show as I do about whether or not the shows tells a good story. I feel the same way about writing in general. I'll read pretty much anything that Malcolm Gladwell writes, from articles about ketchup to IQ and race.

Joe Posnanski is a sports columnist for the Kansas City Star. While living in both Pittsburgh and in Washington, I routinely read the Star's sports coverage online as a way to keep up with the Chiefs and the Wizards. I had always enjoyed reading Posnanski's columns (he's won multiple awards from the Associated Press Sports Editors) but I really started to appreciate how good he is when I started reading his blog a couple of months ago. He's so good that occasionally even his posts about baseball are interesting.

When I first wrote this, it ended up being this really, really long post with multiple quotes about showing how Posnanski (and the show Sports Night) capture what I love about sports. I decided that it would be much easier to break it up into multiple posts.

Trailer for New Joss Whedon Show

Dolls