Japan Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who sports Elvis-like hair albeit gray, was in my current home state today touring Graceland today with that idiot of a president we have. I don’t even like Koizumi much, but compared to W. he’s terrific. I admire his admiration for Elvis even though he made an ass of himself [...]

I figured I might as well get it out of my system and buy the Dark Olive/Antique Onitsuka Tigers Mexico 66 now. They came today, quicker than expected but not from Zappos, who didn’t have my size. Got ‘em from “Classic Sport Shoes” online (based in North Carolina). They are superb:

Very minimalist in design and [...]

I have no interest in reading the Harry Potter books — fine books though they probably are — but this week has been Harry Potter Movie week with Safa. Again, as with The Pink Panther which we watched last week, I wanted something we both could enjoy. We actually watched over a three-day period the [...]

The player I arbitrarily picked to follow on the Italian World Cup team, Luca Toni (aka Rigatoni) finally scored today — twice — in Italy’s 3-0 crushing of upstart Ukraine. But I think it’s Italy’s goalie, Gianluigi Buffon, who has really scored. For some inexplicable reason AP wire news online featured this photo of his [...]

I thought The Pink Panther would be preferable to watch with Safa than Barbie Rapuntzel or some other girlie kiddie flick she could have chosen. And she’s the one who suggested it, based solely, I think, on the trailer where Steve Martin as Inspector Clouseau is receiving an English prononciation lesson with the sentence “I [...]

I’m inching to the conclusion that to the extent that one can talk about “national character” or “core values” there lies deep in the American version of such things an unruly uncivilized center wrapped up in holier-than-thou piety. How else can one explain rampant bible-thumping alongside a majority who supports the death penalty and a [...]