It Makes a Difference to the Sheep

just lost an extended, insomnia-inspired post of unusual brilliance. Now it well never see the light of day because I am going to bed. Sigh.

may very well be soccer. Every kid, it seems, plays in a local league at some time or another. I am old enough (or lived in the wrong parts of the country as a kid) to have missed the soccer craze as a youth. But now my six-year-old son is on a county rec team. So I guess that makes us soccer parents. To make matters more interesting, the county is desperately short on coaches. Luckily one of our neighbors who played soccer for years stepped into the breach. But he needed an assistant, so there I was, running around a field trying to herd energetic but chaotic six-year-olds in a sport I know little about. Actually quite fun.

And yes, just like George Stephanopolous's description of the Clinton cabinet, they all run after the ball in a giant clump.

From Marginal Revolution:

What five terms in a housing ad correlate with higher prices?

1. Granite

2. State-of-the-Art

3. Corian [read here, I didn't know what it was either...]

4. Maple

5. Gourmet

And what correlates with lower prices?

1. Fantastic

2. Spacious

3. !

4. Charming

5. Great neighborhood

puts me squarely in the middle. While I am not terribly surprised at this, I found that there was seldom if ever a case in which my answer reflected my actual opinion. I am too idiosyncratic, complex, nuanced, or muddleheaded (take your pick) for these kinds of quizzes. Take your own here. (link from INDC Journal).


Living in Centerville 

At least on the silver screen (aside: how many more decades of the screen not being silver need to pass before that particular nickname dies?) (by Christina Larson):

1. Do fight demons. Don't fight only inner demons.
2. Do play well with others. Don't shun human society.
3. Do exhibit self-control. Don't exhibit mental disorders.
4. Do wear trendy clothes. Don't wear fetish clothes.
5. Do embrace girl power. Don't cling to man hatred.
6. Do help hapless men. Don't try to kill your boyfriend.
7. Do toss off witty remarks. Don't look perpetually sullen.

This may help explain why Tomb Raider and Charlie's Angels did better than Catwoman or Elektra. But why do the rules apply only to women?

Beleaguered Harvard President Larry Summers finally figures out a sure-fire way to save his job (courtesy of Scrappleface):

In a last ditch effort to save his job, Harvard University President Larry Summers today compared female professors of math and science to Nazis, in a fashion reminiscent of Colorado Professor Ward Churchill's characterization of 9/11 victims.

"Female math and science professors form a technocratic corps at the very heart of America's global financial empire," Mr. Summers said, paraphrasing Mr. Churchill. "These little Eichmanns drive the mighty engine of profit to which the military dimension of U.S. policy has always been enslaved--and they do so both willingly and knowingly."

The Harvard faculty greeted the statement with a standing ovation, after which the faculty senate voted down a motion demanding Mr. Summers' resignation.

That oughta do it.