Cats V. Dogs

  I am a dog person. I love dogs, their goofy earnestness, their seeming loyalty (based on a regular meal, as it may be), their ability to sit on command, and chase a ball for hours on end without boredom.

I've always had dogs in my life. Currently, I have two dogs.

Guennivere IV (or Gwennie;). Yes, this name gets a lot of mileage in my family. The first 3 Gwens were named after Princess Guennivere in the Court of King Arthur, which my dad read to me when I was a child. When the first Guennivere died, we were so heartbroken we tried to beat death by just naming the next one Guennivere. The pattern repeated. When the 3rd Guennivere died, I think we got a male dog and the sad pattern of denial was defused.

ANYhow. When I told my daughters this story, they insisted our new puppy be named Guennivere. Fortunately, she has lived a long life - beating a cancer scare 4 years ago - and we have forestalled the need to christen a Guennivere V.

Gwen is a Labrador-pit bull mix. She is a beautiful, sweet dog. More neurotic than a barrel full of chihauhas, but a sweetie.

Pedro is our labrador-Rottweiler mix. He's a couple of years younger than Gwen, but also a pound puppy. We picked him up from the shelter when he was about 10 months old. I think he came from an abusive family; he had some definite abandonment and fear of males issues, but has adjusted beautifully. He, too, is a real sweet, loving dog. Whereas Gwennie is hyper-anxious , Pedro is an absolute dork with no personal boundaries. I have been hit in the face with his club of a tail more times than I can remember (the memory problem is probably related to the drubbings I've received.)

The topic of my dogs comes up because I was once a dog and cat man. I was reminded of this when I stumbled across some photos recently. These photos are of a cat I owned when I was in my late teens and early 20s. Jackson was the coolest cat to have ever lived. In fact, he was so cool, I think he was part dog.

Jackson dressing up for a night on the town in his fancy Dan ribbons.

This would of course, lead to a night of hard drinking!

Though he could handle his liquor, Jackson often drank to excess and passed out on the couch.

And that was followed by a prayer session with the Porcelain Gods.

Rest In Peace, Jackson. Wherever you are.

England in the NYT

The World Cup is finally news in America as the New York Times has an article today about the England team's prospects (not good). The article is featured in the Sports section but this is more about the media circus that is the English team rather than about soccer.

US Team Beats Latvia...Ho Hum

I watched the US team's friendly against Latvia last night. If I was looking for a reason to believe this team would get out of the group stage, I am still looking this morning. The US dominated posession, but it wasn't like they were playing Brazil. I didn't even know Latvia was still a nation. They certainly aren't in the WC next month.

What I'm suggesting is that 1-0 result against Latvia (combine that with a 1-0 loss to Morocco) doesn't inspire confidence in the US side.

The US didn't look to have much speed at all up front. That'll be a killer in the group stage. If they're not able to put pressure on opponents' defenses, they are going to spend a lot of time watching shots sail at their goal. Our frontline is beginning to look to me as impotent as England's (excepting the explosive but fragile Michael Owen, of course).

Landon Donovan looked good and had a number of good runs through the middle, both vertically and laterally. Steve Cherundolo had some great runs, bringing the ball up from his right back position. Latvia invited this, though, as their defense seemed to be on some court-ordered detention near their own 18. I kept looking for the electronic ankle monitors!

The Czech Republic, Italy and Ghana are unlikely to give the US midfield the lazy room to roam the Latvians were providing. We're going to need to come up with more craft and creativity and physical ability than I saw against Latvia, if we are to advance past the group stage.

Bird Flu's Worrisome Signals in Indonesia

Disturbing reports from Indonesia on the bird flu. Investigators are trying to determine whether a series of H5N1-related deaths within families may be signs that the virus has evolved for easier human-to-human transmission.

That ability is the starting gun to a likely pandemic. Once the virus (or any other new strain of influenza) adapts to easy human-to-human transmission, it spreads rapidly among the human population, which has no immunity against the new strain.

X-Men: The End

I took the kids to see X-Men: The Last Stand Friday. I was really pumped to see this movie. I grew up on comic books, and the X-Men was my favorite of all. Like many of the comic-reading kids in the 1970s, I was attracted to the theme of persecuted, misunderstood teenagers. Plus, the X-Men (X-kids, really) were unlike any other "heroes" in the comics then. Cyclops. Wolverine. The Beast.

And the first 2 movies delivered the goods. X-2 was the best movie version of a comic book yet made. So, needless to say, I had high expectations. Well, I was disappointed...and that's an understatement. New director Brett Ratner (wasn't he a character in Fast Times at Ridgemont High?) emphasized perfunctory (but assuredly expensive) bangs and bright lights over character and plot.

The result is less than a badly drawn comic book. Characters that the audience have become invested over many years, are treated with little respect. Cyclops is killed off without any explanation or even a chance to fight back. Great characters like Angel and Juggernaut are introduced and then thrown away without any development. Scenes that were obviously intended to be weighty are devoid of emotion and heft. Even the incredibly awesome Ian McKellen is reduced to little more than a Shakespearean trained cardboard cutout. Someone stop Ratner before he directs again.

John Hartl's MSNBC.com review sums up my thoughts exactly. Even more to the point was my 17-year old daughter's review. "That movie sucked."

Pat Robertson's Feats of Strength

Watching TV last night I blundered across Anderson Cooper's show and piece on our good old friend The Right Rev. Pat Robertson purportedly doing 2,000 pound leg presses with a weight sled. See the video. (or go to CBN and get Pat's shake recipe.) But much has been said by critics about his technique. On Cooper's show a champion bodybuilder pointed out the Rev was not only getting help from Jesus, but also using his arms to push his legs, sort of a bench press/leg press/calf raise combo. Other doubters weigh in on Wonkette.

I have to agree with the critics that these are not really leg presses. But on the other hand, the dude is 74 years old. Give him some props for keeping active...even if it means he'll continue to plague us with his rantings on the Middle East, terrorist attacks and predictions of locusts and tsunamis.

I almost forgot, in my post yesterday about Brazil's WC fortunes, to add Bobby McMahon's 10 Reasons Brazil Won't Win the World Cup. Check it out and see what the Scottish Prognosticator has to say.

World Cup. More World Cup

We are getting closer! Closer to the beginning of the greatest tournament in the world of sports. Just sixteen days and then the best national teams in all of soccer will go head to head in Germany for the World Cup.

32 teams. 64 games to determine the World Cup champions. I've got the DVR in the shop getting fitted with a turbo booster and extra memory, and the reinforced buttons on the remote control. I'm going to record every match possible and watch soccer until my eyes bleed.

I'm already on record with the obligatory patriotic statement that I'm cheering for Team USA first and foremost. Should a miracle occur and the team suddenly conflagrates into a side of Rocky-like underdog overachievers (on 2nd thought, I probably shouldn't use Rocky as a metaphor, since he lost to Apollo Creed in the 1st movie; oh well, that's what you get on a free blog) I will cheer them against all-comers.

However, in the more likely event that they fail to make it out of group stage, I will be rooting for everyone's favorite overdog, Brazil. I fell in love with soccer during Brazil's victory over Germany in the 2002 WC. Their creative flair with the ball is like a form of dancing, and not ballroom dancing, Samba! Brazil's biggest challenge is that they are so good, they're ripe for an upset.

Why is Brazil so good? I found an interesting article over at the BBC football page. One of the most interesting points in the article is how creativity is encouraged in the Brazilian system by not forcing players to play specific positions at a young age.

More Arsenal news. My favorite midfielder, Robert Pires, is gone; off to Villareal, where that team appreciates men of a certain age. Arsene Wenger would not bend his policy of only offering 1-year contracts to players over the age of 30, and the 33-year old winger found the Spanish side willing to give him a 2-year lease on the sporting life.

I'm sorry to see lanky Frenchmen go (especially with all the #7 jerseys I own! Looks like I'm going to need to buy some Ljungberg strips). He was an exceptional midfield player for the Gunners - 2002 Footballer of the Year, he owned the EPL scoring record for midfielders until this year, and sealed some incredible victories for the Gunners. But you could see the writing on the wall. He had gone from 1st team player to part-time starter this season. My favorite moment from this season was the out-of-his-socks tackle and strip on Patrick Vieira in the Juventus game that led to a crucial score and helped Arsenal advance past the Italian giants (although they may have been helped by the lack of an Italian referee in that game, eh?!)

You lose some, you win some. This week Arsenal added Czech midfielder Tomas Rosicky from Borussia Dortmund. I've never seen this kid play, but the word is that he will be Arsenal's replacement for the Dutch Master Dennis Bergkamp. No pressure, Tomas!

Franklin Foer (How Soccer Explains the World) writes in Time about his painful choice between Arsenal and Barcelona for the Champions League final. Foer is a Barca fan and rooted for the wrong side, but I can't blame him. Barca is 1 of my favorite 3 teams and it was tough watching them match up against my Gunners.

For the record, here is my list of teams I root for, in order:

1. Arsenal
2. Celtic
3. FC Barcelona
4. Whoever is playing against Chelsea
5. Whoever is playing against Manchester United