The Last Ephor

I get tons of emails about playing soccer with me on Wednesday nights. (OK, that actual number might be closer to zero) Herewith is why I play. Ignore the glitz and glam. The scenes of playing are dead on. This was directed by the ever brilliant Guy Ritchie

So I went to the Big Box 'puter store. I was buying an external hard drive. I knew what I wanted and basically walked in and directly to the item I wanted and went to the desk to pick it up (they had them in the back and you had to bring an empty box to them). Conversation with sales dork as follows: Sales Dork: Will that be all for you today sir? Duffy: Yes, thanks. Sales Dork: Do you need this professionally installed? Duffy: ... Sales Dork: Sir? Duffy: It's an external drive Sales Dork: Right and we can dispatch a tech to make sure everything is installed properly so you don't have to worry Duffy: (thinking: I'll play along) And just how much is that going to cost me? Sales Dork: We're having a special so we can do it for $29.99 Duffy: So, $30 to "install" an external hard drive. Does anyone say yes to that? Sales Dork: (somewhat deflated) Sometimes...(looks around to see manager has departed) sorry, we have to do that with almost everyt...

(An unpopular yet continuing feature) First up, Obama's interview: OBAMA: Well, I think there are a whole host of areas where Republicans in some cases may have a better idea. WALLACE: Such as? OBAMA: Well, on issues of regulation. I think that back in the '60s and '70s a lot of the way we regulated industry was top-down command and control, we're going to tell businesses exactly how to do things. And you know, I think that the Republican Party and people who thought about the markets came up with the notion that, "You know what? If you simply set some guidelines, some rules and incentives, for businesses — let them figure out how they're going to, for example, reduce pollution," and a cap and trade system, for example is a smarter way of doing it, controlling pollution, than dictating every single rule that a company has to abide by, which creates a lot of bureaucracy and red tape and oftentimes is less efficient. I think that on issues of education, I...

It's not nice to pick on the Jets but I just can't help myself.

Why is it then that so many Americans - and foreigners who come here - feel that the place is so, well, safe? I have met incredulous British tourists who have been shocked to the core by the peacefulness of the place A British man I met in Colorado recently told me he used to live in Kent but he moved to the American state of New Jersey and will not go home because it is, as he put it, "a gentler environment for bringing the kids up." This is New Jersey. Home of the Sopranos. Brits arriving in New York, hoping to avoid being slaughtered on day one of their shopping mission to Manhattan are, by day two, beginning to wonder what all the fuss was about. By day three they have had had the scales lifted from their eyes. I have met incredulous British tourists who have been shocked to the core by the peacefulness of the place, the lack of the violent undercurrent so ubiquitous in British cities, even British market towns. "It seems so nice here," they quaver. Well, it is...

"I have a question that I hope you can shed some light on. I am female, married for 10 years and am puzzled by my spouse's behavior. It seems that he is always trying to one-up me. It is disturbing to me that he takes my ideas and opinions and claims them as his own. If someone asks me a question when we are in a group discussion he will jump in and answer it in a way that I have expressed earlier as my own opinion, only he will make it look like his. It is extreme to the point of whatever I get involved in or volunteer for he gets deeply involved in and tries to make people think he is the one with the idea or passion, even to the point of his asking about getting employed where I am employed. He will go to the people whom I am intimately involved with and trash my name. It even happens with church relationships. At first I thought maybe I was overreacting, but several times I have changed people groups and tried to have my own interests and volunteer opportunities but this h...