Pithy Title Here

Yesterday's commute home was really just about the antithesis of my old one. In Charlotte, it involved a lot of sitting on I-485 on a 2-mile stretch of North Carolina highway that somehow turns into Los Angeles for 90 minutes every day at 5:00. Thank heavens for NPR. Anyhow, yesterday's commute went as follows: Walk out of office Walk two blocks to Cascade Farmers Market Purchase two pints of strawberries and a pint of raspberries, all picked earlier in the day in Mt. Vernon, WA . (Buy local!) Walk 3-4 more blocks into my apartment. Can't say I was spent. Still, if I was yearning for a taste of my old commute, I got it. Because almost as soon as I got home we jumped in the car to head to Cougar Mountain ... because why go to the gym when you can hike? After a spell of stop-and-go on I-90 through Bellevue , the wilderness awaited. I'm not trying to brag. I am trying to note the virtues of the urban lifestyle, though. The way I see it, life throws enough at you... why gi...

The World Cup presents an interesting sociological study of Americans. Granted, I am no sociologist, so anything after that first sentence deserves your criticism, but think about it. More Americans play soccer than any other sport. It would stand to reason that soccer should be more popular than anything here. But by traditional metrics, it's tough to make anything close to that claim. Our national soccer league barely registers with most people (except here in Seattle, where tens of thousands turn up for Sounders games). But every two years, when either the Euro or World Cup takes place, soccer is front-and-center. When most major U.S. sports Web sites are leading with soccer, we start to see that people are into this stuff. Interestingly, when the USA is playing in the CONCACAF championships - our version of the Euro with vastly lower overall talent - it doesn't get nearly the same attention. So, observation #1: Americans love good soccer, but don't pay mediocre soccer ...