Tom is Away

watching my recording of Spain/Chile. Also, simultaneously, sending a not-subtle message to Kev/Michelle that I hope I’ll be able to keep an eye on US/Ghana tomorrow.

one of Michael Vick’s co-defendants is shot outside of Michael Vick’s birthday party after a confrontation with Vick. I drop my monocle into my martini glass, in abject horror at the notion that Vick actually still is probably a scumbag who associates with other scumbags, and never did learn any valuable lessons about anything

(even if he didn’t shoot the guy, he’s a felon on probation in this situation, and he’s still allegedly in the midst of image rehab).

maybe I will write a book today.

would like to watch both soccer games today; not sure if I want to spend 3 hours watching soccer though.

spotted in Bethlehem, PA: a bar (at which you only need to be 18 to enter on Fridays) that doubles as a Gunsmith.

overheard at the gym: apparently the Barrington police make $90,000 a year .

I like cops and respect them and understand their value, etc., but that’s pretty insane for a police force that patrols a 1.6 square mile town and is essentially a crew of glorified crossing guards.

Philly cops don’t make close to that much, and they DO something.

I really enjoyed Comcast’s “Let’s go to the barbershop and ask some black guys about basketball” segment. Much better than Donyell Marshall

too hot to do anything.

Sales of A/C units must rise 1000% on days like this.

I was pretty confident the US had blown their chance, and that was only made worse by John Harkes whining all game.

What a finish, though– a fun team to root for.

gotta go and fetch my car. not a good day to walk a couple miles. seeking alternatives.

reading “Although of Course You End up Becoming Yourself” by David Lipsky

driving to Lehigh on Thursday morning for a meeting with a bar manager. Then, probably 15 minutes later, driving back to Philly for a Phillies BPS. Then driving to Center City to do the introduction at a reading for my former teacher.

What I’m saying is, I wonder if this is what it feels like to have an actual job.

Would you like to see young Charlie Manuel getting hit in the face with a baseball? If so, click here.

hopefully these unlabeled peppers I bought for tonight’s dinner are the right ones (and not, for example, extra spicy peppers). Otherwise, I’m going to run into some trouble.

Portland woman chooses to live in an 84 square foot home that she built herself. Appears to have more closet space than me.

Link

I know it’s a byproduct of the North Koreans being unmercifully oppressed, but I do like how their players never complain to the refs and don’t walk around the field whining after every whistle.

This paragraph from an SI.com article on the World Cup adequately explains why I can’t ever talk myself into traveling to Africa, no matter how many awesome things might be there:

It is a place where a headline on the front page of Sunday’s Cape Times newspaper included an article detailing the World Cup’s potential negative impact on the local vulture population — because traditional healers believe that smoking a vulture’s brain can make one clairvoyant, helping one to foresee, among other things, the results of sports matches. It is a place where the latest issue of this nation’s version of GQ magazine has a feature in which the editors test the efficacy of various brands of bulletproof vests. And it is a place where rental homes just 40 minutes outside the city come with manuals as to how to best combat marauding bands of baboons (”Keep doors and refrigerators locked tight; don’t smile at them, as they might construe teeth-baring as a sign of aggression; make use of the provided paintball guns if you must”).

favorite soccer headline of the day: “US team wants to stop falling behind in games.”

First actual newspaper-based review of BMIMJ, and it’s written by Bill Lyon: Link

Awesome.

trying to figure out how the one dog seems to be getting fatter when she’s eating less and exercising significantly more.