Debate

Well, I guess a relatively uneventful debate is good for the guy who's solidly leading in the polls. Obama looked alright overall. I think he should have brought Iraq up first and foremost in the budget cutting question, and missed an easy point on the Ahmadinejad question: How would putting preconditions on a meeting remove the purported legitimizing effect of meeting with Ahmadinejad? I'm assuming "preconditions" here means something like allowing in inspectors, or suspending nuclear activities and not repudiating statements about Israel*. McCain did manage to make himself look pretty ridiculous with his repeated bleating of "How can we sit across a table...", and condescending with his "Senator Obama doesn't understand..." remarks.

*I suppose calling McCain on the mistranslations of Ahmadinejad's comments would have backfired.

As of this moment...

The Cubs have six players with at least 20 HRs on the year, and none with at least 30. I have to believe this is a unique occurrence in the history of MLB.

Umm...

That's right. Los Hermanos Coen will be filming in the building where my office is. And my colleague tells me there was a casting call out last month. I need to start paying more attention to my surroundings.

Sour Lou

I really don't understand why Piniella didn't try to win this one. Even though the Cubs' scrubs have been giving the Mets all they can handle, I think there's a great case for doing everything possible to avoid seeing Santana twice in a five game series, even if both starts are likely to be on short rest.

Maybe he's planning on throwing all three games this weekend. But since we're talking about the man who had DeRo lay down two sacrifice bunts this year ahead of the likes of Fukudome and McGehee, it's probably just another poor tactical decision.

There Ought to Be a Rule...

I'm not going to lay any blame for yesterday's debacle on the officiating. Lord knows the Bears deserved to lose that game after blowing at least a dozen chances to ice it. Zero sacks in sixty-plus pass attempts pretty much says it all. But I do have some general advice for officials:

When in doubt about a fumble, DON'T BLOW THE PLAY DEAD. The Bears have been screwed twice already this season when clear fumbles on opponents' kickoff returns were ruled down. If there's any doubt about whether a fumble occurred, let the play go on until a ruling can be made on who has recovered. Rule that the play wasn't a fumble after the fact if you wish. Then the play may be challenged and if you were wrong and it was a fumble (as with those kickoff returns, or with the Hochuli play), the ball may given to the proper team. This is so obvious, that I can't believe it isn't already policy in NFL.

John Montgomery McBurns: Still Lying

A McCain/Palin spot (I think it's called "Original Mavericks", but I couldn't find it on YouTube) I saw during my vain attempt to catch a piece of the Cubs' division-clinching victory this weekend claims that Palin stopped the bridge to nowhere. It's kind of hard to believe they're still reiterating this crap after its thorough debunking weeks ago. One can only hope (if not expect) that this backfires with anyone who's been paying a modicum of attention.

RIP DFW

I won't say that David Foster Wallace's suicide shocked me. I didn't really know much about the Philo, Illinois native's life until after the fact, but the timing was very strange for me. I hadn't read any of his work until about a month ago, when I picked up a copy of Consider The Lobster on the cheap. I have since polished off three of his books in quick succession, and quickly became something like enamored. 

A friend had recommended A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again and lent me Brief Interviews with Hideous Men some time ago. I never got around to these until after reading Lobster in a matter of days. I bought Lobster knowing that "Up Simba", the essay on McCain's 2000 run, was apropos of current happenings and had been spoken of well in various corners of the blogosphere. "Simba" turned out to be one of the weaker essays in the collection. Some of the questions raised, such as whether McCain is really "a different kind of politician" seem kind of quaint in light of the current campaign, and some of the assertions, i.e. "if... you don't bother to vote, you are in fact voting for the entrenched Establishments", are kind of absurd. However, the highlights are very high. "Big Red Son" managed to paint a horrifying picture of the porn industry without being at all moralistic, and he manages to write a riveting review of an English usage dictionary in "Authority and America Usage". (Yes, the fact that I'm kind of a language nerd may detract from my testimony here.)

Maybe more surprising is that the eponymous essay in A Supposedly Fun Thing, which is about DFW's journey on a week-long Carribean cruise, is also quite interesting, while describing what seems to be a mostly stultifying experience. The collection also has a nice analysis of David Lynch's oeuvre, in the guise of a review of Lost Highway.

Brief Interviews clicked less with me, and I suspect this may be true of his fiction style in general. Nonetheless, it's clear that the man possessed a great talent, and as soon as I have a few weeks to spare, I may give Infinite Jest a try.

Lesson Learned

Okay, I don't really want to turn this into purely a sports blog; I promise I'll post about something meaningful eventually. But I have to say that was encouraging.

I admit I watched the Bears' third preseason game. I can't remember the last time I watched preseason anything (if ever), but living alone in Northfield and jonesing for some football will do strange things to a man. It affected my assessment of the Bears' prospects a tad too much. Why would guys whose starting jobs are safe not sandbag and risk injury? I retract my statement that a five-win season wouldn't surprise me

Now, I accept all the caveats. Gimpy Manning missed a half-dozen throws that healthy Manning would have nailed. Clark and Saturday were out. In the broader view, the defense still looks overly injury-prone and the safety position in particular is a huge concern (yeah, it would be great to have Chris Harris rather than whomever we got with that fifth-rounder). But this was still a convincing win against a quality opponent on the road. 

Also, it was nice to see the D stepping up big twice after getting completely boned by the officiating crew.