tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59056332011-06-08T00:22:59.015-06:00Observations on that most peculiar breed.Smarter Retailnoreply@blogger.comBlogger211100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5905633.post-1152247613356613652006-06-13T22:29:00.000-06:002006-07-06T22:47:55.733-06:00

Still A FanWatching the US lose its World Cup opener 3-0 to the Czech Republic I am reminded that it takes a very special kind of fan to back the American soccer team. Unlike most countries, where rooting for your country in the World Cup is practically a birthright and civic duty, Americans have a wide range of sports to choose from, most of which their country dominates or is a regular

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The Place That Was ThenSomeone once said there is no greater love affair than that of a man and the metropolis of his youth. I don't remember who said it, but it doesn't matter. Baudelaire could have said it of Paris; Joyce of Dublin; Hammill of New York; Fuentes of Mexico City; Garica Marquez of Cartagena; Vargas Llosa of Lima; Borges of Buenos Aires; Mahfouz of Cairo; Rushdie of Bombay. The

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And Justice For AllI was in court the other day for a speeding ticket. I haven't had one in a long time after getting a bunch of them in my early 20s, most notably once in Georgia where I had to write a check out to the county judge, by name.I usually drive home very late from the office and there is a stretch of the road that crosses the Rio Grande that is deserted at night so, even though the

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Ah ChihuahuaJay called me the other day excited about a new Mexican place he'd discovered. This is not unusual, Jay is obsessed with Mexican food. I met Jay through his wife, Regina, an Italian girl from Las Vegas who used to work for me. The first few times I ever spent time with them Jay was always talking about Mexican food.At first I thought it was his attempt to get me to like him. I'm from

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Under The BalconyI went to a mariachi concert the other day. Natalia's group was playing at a nursing home for Cinco de Mayo and since she keeps inviting me and I keep saying I want to go, I finally did. It was a great way to spend an hour: the concert was outdoors, the residents of the home in a circle, the six mariachi in the center. The audience was made up of very old people as well as one or

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The Weight of the DeadChinaI met a guy in Beijing a few years ago whose best friend had gone to Japan to make money. Migrants the world over do the job no one else wants to do. He said that in Japan there are a lot of high-rise appartment buildings. And a lot of old people. It follows that there are a lot of old people dying in high-rise buildings, not all of them with elevators.Somebody has to

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The CaptainA less charitable writer might say he was always wearing a hat, one of those white sea captain hats with a black bill and those gold doodads swirling on the brim. But The Captain was pathetic enough without the embellishment; there is no need for such a coup de grace.I met The Captain in Puerto Plata when I was trying to charter a boat to go scuba diving. The Captain advertised his

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An Important Victory in the War of Ideas Saudi Arabia is slowly enacting democratic reform: "Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy, announced Monday it would hold its first elections to vote for municipal councils, seen as the first concrete political reform in the Gulf Arab state...In taking this action, Saudi Arabia has joined a growing trend toward experiments in democracy in other Gulf Arab

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France is reforming its bankruptcy laws to bring them more in line with American laws.

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The Power of Openness II From a story in the NYT on the decline of Christianity in Europe: "The Rev. Enzo Bianchi, a Catholic theologian in Italy, said that in today's heterogeneous and often hedonistic European capitals, 'there are more and more morals and ethics on the market.' 'There's Buddhism, Hinduism, New Age spiritualism, consumerism,' Father Bianchi said. 'With all these competitors,

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Interesting. Who are the custodians of a nation's entrepreneurial spirit when it is living under authoritarianism? Apparently, retaliers: "Iraq's second asset, what McPherson calls 'an entrepreneurial spirit you can still feel,' is a rarity -- a pleasant postwar surprise. It exists partly because of an unpleasant aspect of prewar Iraq -- pandemic corruption. That was a hard school, always in

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The Power of Openness Just as nations that are more open to immigrants and minorities are more likely to prosper than closed societies, so too with baseball teamssays Tom Moroney: "The Red Sox aren't cursed because Babe Ruth went poof. They're cursed because the Yawkeys wouldn't hire black people. They weren't exactly Tom's and Jean's cup of tea, if you know what I mean. Together, the Yawkeys

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Speaking of Emerging Powers... Read this interview with Intel Chairman Andy Grove where he's worried about declining American competitiveness in the high-tech sector: "Grove, 67, singled out China and India as key threats. India's booming software industry, which is increasingly doing work for U.S. companies, could surpass the United States in software and tech-service jobs by 2010, he said.

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Emerging Powers For anyone trying to imagine what a world where the United States is no longer the unrivalled "hyperpower" looks like, Goldman Sachs is predicting that the economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China will overtake the G7. Brad Delong disagrees Brad DeLong disagrees: "I would bet that China is likely to have a real income level equal to half and that India is likely to have a real

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This is embarassing: "Members of an elite Mexican army unit have deserted and formed a drug gang, using their military training to launch a violent battle for control of this border city, Mexico's top anti-drug prosecutor said in an interview with The Associated Press. The war for Nuevo Laredo is unlike other recent drug conflicts - it's a turf war involving most of Mexico's major cartels in

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Managing the Alliance...For the Long Stretch The good news is that Japan has agreed to send money and troops to. Perhaps Turkey announcing it was ready to contribute to the reconstruction effort broke the ice and is allowing other fence-sitters like Japan and Korea to step forward. The bad news is that Japan mya not be contributing as much as it could out of some lingering resentment over Gulf

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Thinking Like A General, Not A Politician Wesley Clark is eschewing the conventional wisdom and giving up on winning the New Hampshire primary or Iowa caucus. Instead, Clark is picking his battles: Clark, the newest presidential candidate, is calculating that it is too late to focus the bulk of his resources in Iowa and in New Hampshire, the two key early testing grounds where his rivals have

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Not With a Bang But With a Whimper Forget about Israeli commandos storming the Muqata to finally make good on Sharon's threat to get rid of Arafat. The Guardian confirms reports that Arafta suffered a mild heart-attack last week and has not been well. Arafat's personal physician travelled from Jordan to treat him, but there is the possibility he will need more serious treatment: If Mr Arafat

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Feeling Geopolitics in the Gut Found this article in the NYT "On This Day" archive where Truman asked the nation to forego meat on Tuesdays and Poultry/Eggs on Thursdays to help feed Europe. This was in 1947, a full two years after the end of the WWII and when the full dimension of the Soviet threat was becoming apparent. Mr. Kranis suggested also that housewives buy the cheaper cuts and grades

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Baseball & The Strength of Democratic Institutions Baseball, as they say, embodies the American character and last night while watching the Red Sox vs. A's game it ocurred to me that the position of the pitcher is unique in team sports. Football has the quarterback who really is like a general leading his team in battle. Sure, teams have backup quarterbacks but these only come into play if the

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Welcome Welcome to my new blog.

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