Realm of the Wombat

The newspaper from Bush’s hometown, Crawford, TX, is endorsing John Kerry. I suppose with a name like “Iconoclast” you’re probably not the most conservative publication, but come on folks! One other note: the most important website of the campaign is FactCheck.org. Get the truth behind the dirt!

I was walking through the ice cream section of my grocer’s freezer, and I found that Dreyers now sells America’s Vanilla. I think this actually came out for Independence Day, but this is clearly tantamount to Freedom Fries. Wasn’t there Russian dressing during the cold war? Did we burn Persian rugs during the Gulf War? Am I really unpatriotic if I eat French vanilla ice cream?

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It’s been 3 weeks since the Mormon Mauling, and after that game, I made the following statement:

The only team we will beat this year is Stanford. Not even Navy.

Apparently, Tyrone Willingham heard me. It’s been three weeks, and since then we have three wins. These weren’t fluke wins either. These were solid performances, capped by a 38-3 dismantling of Washington. Now, I’m not ready to say that Notre Dame is a powerhouse, but the offense is coming around to complement an always stingy defense. Next week’s contest against Pur-don’t will be the key. A win against the Boilermakers (ESPN #15) and their top ranked offense (50 ppg) will put the Irish on firm ground heading into the soft part of the schedule (Stanfurd, Navy, BC). And I’ll eat my words.

Summerland is supposed to be a kids book, but if you can tolerate following the fantastical adventures of three 12 year olds, then you’re probably in the target audience. This is a struggle between good and evil where many battles are determined on the baseball diamond, and the ultimate weapon is, of course, a bat. Clearly, Summerland was right up my alley.

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I’m a little late on the commentary here, but it’s awesome to see the Minnesota Twins clinch a playoff spot for the third consecutive year. This is also the third straight year that the White Sox will talk trash about their superiors. From an anonymous player, “That’s fine, let them do their talking and clapping and antics on the basepaths. Minnesota has two World Series banners, but not one came from this group of players. They forget that. I’ll be glad to sit back and watch them go one and done (in the playoffs). Our season ends Oct. 3 or whatever it is. So they’ll get an extra week in before they’re done.” Never mind that the last White Sox championship was in 1917. Mark Buehrle (who lost the game in which the Twins clinched the division) added, “You have Santana and Radke, and you’ve got a chance, but then you look at the rest of their roster and you really can’t see them getting past the first round. Anything can happen, but I don’t see it.” Maybe so, but the Twins now have a 1/8 chance of winning the World Series, and Chicago has a 0/8 chance of becoming champs. Yet another reason why Chicago is known as the second city.

Michigan professor Juan Cole was wondering what it would be like if America was Iraq. His analysis is a worth the five minute read.

I spotted this one from the back seat of Kim’s car as we were driving into Fremont, and luckily I ran into it later on to get a more comprehensive view. This is the natural counterpart to the turf Honda.

Apparently Berkeley cars are scattered along the west coast further than I thought. I saw two over a weekend in Seattle. The first one is this Pokemon Bug. It’s not just a card game anymore.

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This VW bus was just sitting outside my apartment one morning. I’ve never seen it before, so it must have just been visiting the area. Some of the features are skeletons, lines of skulls, matchbox cars, magnetic letters, pictures of Jesus, and an upside-down US flag.

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I’m shocked that I didn’t come up with this movie. I mean, someone’s life hangs in the balance based on how many bars somebody has. It’s a natural.

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From Minnesota, to South Bend, to Jersey, and out to California, Grandpa Joe’s ‘96 Olds has been my ride. It’s moved me with upto 6 people, 11 baseball gloves, 5 bats, a plethora of softballs, bike rack, folding chairs, and grill, all in style. Sure, things went wrong from time to time, but all in all, I could count on the Sled. It’ll be tough not driving it anymore. Cars come and go, but once a Sledrider, always a Sledrider.