Quote of the Day
Ah, but a man's reach should exceed in grasp, or what's a heaven for?
Robert Browning
Congratulations to the Japanese Women World Cup Soccer Champions!
I think I last played soccer in eighth grade gym class (I wasn't that bad at it--I scored a couple of goals in one game). But for me, watching soccer is as exciting as watching paint dry or listening to an Obama speech: you know there won't be many points scored. The basic difference between soccer and writing an Obama speech is to win at soccer you sometimes have to use your head. I can probably count on one hand how many games I've watched over the past decade.
I have to admit: I absolutely loathe the gimmick tiebreakers in pro football and soccer. In pro football, you have a first-score-wins concept. Unless you have a lousy field goal kicker, you're simply trying to to get into field goal territory. At the very least, you should make it fair by guaranteeing a return possession after any score. I also don't like the penalty kick concept; it changes the essence of the game to kick on goal uncontested: why not resolve basketball game ties with foul shots if we're going to do that?
Coming from a country which has been hit with unprecedented natural disasters over the past year, nuclear power plant failures, and economic problems, the Japanese women showed their scrappiness and when they scored another equalizing goal late in the game, I was convinced that somehow they would pull it out in the tiebreaker. The American women played a great game, but they just couldn't score the safety goal to put the game away.
Growing Veggies Illegal? Local Bureaucrats Gone Wild
I once had to deal with an overzealous apartment manager in the aftermath of a fire involving four buildings on the other side of the complex. (I had a few unpacked moving boxes which I later put into storage.) I think the complex was being scrutinized in the aftermath. I had a conversation with the manager whom in response to some of things being scrutinized, started rattling off a number of restrictions as just the front of the complex in terms of things like placement of signs, landscaping, even any flowers and their arrangement. Now I understand some basic restrictions, e.g., unkempt properties which depress property values and/or health and fire safety issues. But most people I think have no clue that busybody government bureaucrats or elected officials have enacted a voluminous amount of arcane rules and regulations that most people don't even realize exist. I've been fortunate in only modest exposure to the undue burden e.g., when my now retired maternal uncle had to go through various zoning processes simply to expand his church parking lot.
Julie Bass of Oak Park, MI, a Detroit suburb, in the aftermath of some work done in her front yard, decided to grow a professionally designed vegetable garden (tomatoes, zucchini, and bell peppers). Long story short, a local code enforcement officer cited Bass, which if convicted, could land her in jail for 3 months; there is no prohibition of front lawn vegetable gardens (just like Michelle Obama's on the White House front lawn). In fact, the Bass attorney can cite an exception for vegetable gardens, but the city is arguing that their interpretation of "suitable live plant material" (not explicitly defined in the code) is that vegetable gardens are not "suitable" because no one else in Oak Park is growing a vegetable garden in their front lawn.
No doubt we have a case here of yard segregation: you can have veggies so long as you grow them in the back of the house. Now personally, I don't care for zucchini either, but as Voltaire might be attributed saying, I would defend to the death Bass' right to grow it. If Oak Park is facing fiscal challenges, might I suggest eliminating the positions of code enforement officer?
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Groups
ELO, "It's Over"
