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. 

BS Bears

I sure hope the Bears' D was playing the third game of the preseason like it was bullshit. But that's probably bullshit. On the other hand, I hope the 49ers' D was playing like it wasn't bullshit. But that may not be bullshit.

Orton undeniably put up great numbers, mostly because he had all day to throw to receivers that were wide open. Of course, the facts that the line gave him all day and that the receivers got wide open were encouraging. We'll see what happens in a real game, I suppose.

On the other hand, it's hard to comprehend how the dominant D of '05 and '06 (differing by only two starters, I believe) has become such a joke. I'm having nightmares of Adrian Peterson (V) passing out in the late fourth quarter against the Bears after having run one too many 80-yard dashes down the middle of the field.

The Sporting News

Before the Cubs swept the Brewers I was ready to call the Central for Milwaukee, so you may not want to take my opinions seriously. However, my assessment of the State of the Cubs follows.

Obviously, no major complaints about the starting pitching.

My concerns about the bullpen can be stated in two words: "Bob Howry". If the Cubs were playing anyone but the Cards (or Brewers) on Friday night I honestly would have been rooting for him to blow yet another game, so maybe Lou would start to consider not using him when the game is on the line. I just don't understand the confidence in a mediocre career reliever. He's got a stellar K/BB ratio, but does that really matter when half the balls going into play are making it to at least to warning track. The Cubs have four solid relievers (assuming Wood's healthy) and that should be more than enough, but why do I have this sinking feeling that Howry's going to be trotting out in the seventh inning of Game 1 in the NLDS with the Cubs up 3-2?

I'm more worried about the offense. We've got a right fielder who can't hit and a first baseman who has hit four home runs since May 29th, is slugging .475 for the season despite a hot start, and seems to always be good for a ground ball with men on base. Moving DeRosa to RF, Fontenot to 2B and benching Fukudome seems like the right move to me, but I doubt it will happen.

Remember how the 2000 White Sox put up runs in bunches all year and hit a wall during the ALDS?

Guatemala (Pictures)

Finally, here are some pictures from our trip to Guatemala last month. Like the majority of tourists arriving by air, we headed straight for Antigua after landing in Guatemala City. Antigua, a 16th century colonial city, lies below the inactive Volcan de Agua (above). We were lucky to get that shot: The volcano was obscured by clouds for most of our stay.

Here is a shot of the Santa Catalina arch:


After going for a swim, we walked up a mountain and had some nice views of the city below:


The Museum of Santo Domingo had a moving exhibition about the disappeared during the Argentine Dirty War. This piece shows the artist's disappeared father from our point of view:


The image gradually fades to blankness as one walks around to the back of the sculpture.

After staying a couple of days in Antigua, we headed to Panajachel, on Lake Atitlan.
This is the view from our hotel the first night:


This place was about a 20-minute walk outside of town, and we heard from the locals that the road wasn't safe at night, so we moved down into town for the next two nights. Here's a typical shot of Calle de Santander:





We headed to nature reserve later. See if you can spot the monkey:


A day later we took some boat trips to other towns on the lake,


and saw San Pedro and Santiago, both more impoverished and less touristic than Panajachel.

The cathedral in San Pedro:


In Santiago we visited an effigy of the local saint Maximón. Unfortunately, the camera ran out of batteries at this point, but there's a picture at the link.

The next day we said goodbye to Lake Atitlan and its volcanoes,


and headed stopped back in Antigua for one more night on our way back to Mexico.