A Thai Coup Haiku

Say it out loud, it makes sense. Anyway, here it is:
When nothing else works
Democracy with a tank
worked well, was bloodless

Futbol Americana

Rutgers continues it quest for it's first national title since 1869. They are now 2-0, after a goofy yet demoralizing victory over Illinois, winning 33-0. I think at one point, Rutgers had 4 total yards of offense and 14 points, so you can kind of tell what kind of game it was. Just to remind you, Rutgers now has a better record than UT Austin. Speaking of Texas, their coach has some issues with college games being too short now, after recent rule changes. Specifically, he felt a shortened game time is responsible for their loss to Ohio State, and said fans are getting ripped. No they're not, college games are still too long. They stop the clock after every first down, which kills any teams chance of running out the clock. And its such an advantage to larger schools (re: Texas) to have more time, they have the personal to keep on substituting new players in, leaving schools with a smaller number of good players to die in the fourth quarter. I mean seriously, college football has its issues, but shortened game times ain't one of them.

And pro, well, the Patriots had another unconvincing win. Their offense was fine, dillon being more of an asset than I thought he could be, but that defense was looking shaky. Willis Macgahee ran all day on them. So now this weekend we'll get the battle of the unbeaten, for ultimate supremacy in the AFC East, Jets v Pats. By the way, I love the talk about the Jets this last week, a nice yet really sloppy win for them. Fumbles in the end zone, missed field goals and pats, and an opponent that was really falling apart before the game. But I love how no one is expecting anything from the Jets, so any win is met with unabashed praise, like Pettington just finished a performance in a second grade play, and all of us are the parents giving him warm praise and ice cream even though he stood there and cried through most of it.

And finally, this is just a useful site I found to cut down on our pollution and helping the environment, by taking mass transit you consumers. It's called HopStop.com, and gives you a nice little route from address to address using mass transit. You can even minimize walking distance, and pretend you're using a car.

Two Hours of Summer Remain

So I spent the last few days of summer touring the South. Had a brief stop in Richmond, Virginia and visited the confederate white house and the museum of the confederacy, not the most even-handed museum in the world. And I saw Rutgers defeat the University of North Carolina. There's something satisfying to be part of the obnoxious contigency from Jersey a little too into the game, in a sea of baby blue and very pleasant southerners. They all had their nice little children in cute little blue dresses and face paint, and a group of Rutgers fans was about to kicked out for banging on their precious metal signs and smoking cigars.

But in other news, my grandfather died this morning. He was the son of a German immigrant and spent most of his life in New Jersey, except for the war years. He met my grandmother at a local church, and married her the day before he left for the African front. They married in a little army base chapel somewhere in Arizona, with the only witness to the wedding being an organ player in pajamas with curlers in her hair (it wasn't the most elaborately planned ceremony, but I believe there were no arguments over centerpieces). My grandfather spent most of the war in Italy. He gained this love of opera there, because it was the only thing kept running and the only buildings left standing. I guess it was some kind of retreat from everything going around him. He was a postman there, and kept getting in trouble because he would never carry a gun. But as he said, "ah, I was never gonna shoot anybody."

After the war he kept on with the mail gig and became a civilian postman and had five children and a pretty big raspberry garden in a strong Christian family. He was always funny about giving money away, any Christian group that came asking he'd give a monthly donation; at one point he was donating to a native American tribe but couldn't quite remember its name. He was always kind and solid, I never remember him being mad ay anything or expressing a negative feeling in any way. Just always giving. The last year or so his health has been declining, not in any drastic way, just getting old. He went peacefully, at the age of 89, and still without a bitter feeling in his body. I guess the best way to put it is that Richard Mullins song, that when he looks back on the stars, it's like a candle light in central park, and it didn't break his heart to say goodbye.