Afternoon bike Commute: outrunning the storm.

Fatigue sets in early this morning. The US scores in the 83rd minute and I’ve been up for 84. Of course, the first six minutes was hard to take. I only had a handful of Crunchberries in my gullet and no coffee when Poland stuffed two in the nets. When was the last time I woke up this early to watch sports? I can’t remember. Breakfast at Wimbelton? No. I believe that still starts at a respectable hour, closer to brunch. My favorite part of today’s match was the crowd reaction to Korea’s goal against Portugal some 130 miles away in a different stadium. The crowd made more noise for that action than anything that happened in the US v. Poland game. International sports are SO much more interesting than our own national ones. L.A. Lakers? NBA titles? What a bore.

In local sporting news, Wellstone still looks to out dribble and out score Norman Coleman for the US Senate. Now if only the damn Greens can find the right team to cheer for. A good article in The Nation spells out impending doom for Minnesota and the nation if the Greenies can’t find the right pitch to play the game on.

“Men are gaining real confidence from using cosmetics and toiletries” I love reading some good marketing demographic break downs and the Emap Report on Young Affluent Males 2002 is an honorable benchmark and the new mission statement for afrojet and all it subsidiaries. However, the report does mention that the one-dimensional macho hero is dead, which makes me nonsensically nostalgic for Rambo movies. I mean if Frodo Baggins and ultra-geeky Peter Parker/Spiderman are what’s now “in”, than I’m going to read some Hemingway and rent “Die Hard” this weekend.

For what it’s worth, I’m reading Opera, Sex, and Other Vital Matters. I found an excerpt from one of my favorite parts of the book: the philosophy of punctuation. Robinson breaks down the significance of discipline in writing and chastises people with sloppy punctuation. Something I hold very close to my heart, as I am one, of the worst — punctuators! on the planet.!. I love it when he writes, “Appropriately, the disappearance of the question mark largely reflects the disappearance of questions”. Jigga-huh?