In other news …


These folks just love poodles!

Mother Jones' Norman Ornstein thinks Congress is corrupt. Imagine that!

E.J. Dionne likes Barak Obama

Joan Vennochi, news columnist for the Globe, LOVES Big Papi.

These guys with The Weekly Standard try to talk European while thinking Southern, urging that soccer is nihilistic and should be avoided at all costs. Too bad the rest of the world doesn't mind the absence of high scoring results. Speaking of …

The World Cup has its quarterfinals this weekend, and Americans surprisingly seem interested. It can't hurt for the appeal when media outlets find interesting angles like this. Back to the field, here's Washington Post's blogman on the scene. NPR has a pretty good page too. None of them have anything on The Weasel, who continues to provide key insight into the Event. American Public Radio's Marketplace also warrants a link, although its chief dude is decidedly pro-Brazil. I note that this fan is swaying me in that direction, with the help of this recently converted German. Jeez, what a male pig I am! Heh heh!


USA! USA! USA! … I mean, BRAZIL! BRAZIL BRAZIL!

The Red Sox are uncharacteristically winning games by playing small ball, with last night' Coco Crisp dropped a perfect bunt for a single, proceeded to steal second, advance to third on Alex Gonzalez' ground-out, and scored the go-ahead/winning run on a Kevin Youkilis sac fly. Crisp later went horizontal to save a run on this 8th inning drive off Mike Timlin. As Curt Schilling noted, "The game was an instructional video. Moving runners over. Defensive plays, fundamental baseball. I thought it was incredible. Nobody made a mistake."

NY Daily News' John Harper thinks the Red Sox sweep of the Mets affects the Yankees more than the NL cross towners. The NY Post's Mike Vaccarro thinks that the Red Sox-Mets series and upcoming Mets-Yankees series are likely prelude to what we'll see this post-season.


Wrigley Mania! – so gripping, you need to bring a book

The Chicago Tribune's Rick Morrissey looks to this weekend's Cross-Chi-Town Match-Up with foreboding as a Cubs fan. Great headline – For you, Smith Bros! The Sun-Times' Rick Telander gets goofy and predicts a miracle. Oh, and to wrap-up All Things Chicago, Jay Mariotti still hates Ozzie Guillen. Out of Towner Gwen Knopp also thinks the Wizard of Oz is a bigot, but without the comedy usually imparted by Mariotti. Too bad.

Also of note, Manny appears to have changed his mind about Boston, and declared that he wants to end his career as a member of the Red Sox. While I won't rule out him changing his mind by mid-July, I like the sound of this. Hopefully, John Henry and his posse do, too.

Jon Papelbon picked up his 24th save of the season in 26 tries, tying the Red Sox rookie record set by Dick "The Monster" Radatz in 1962. The always lovable White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen is expected to name Papelbon, along with Schilling, to the A.L. All Star pitching staff.

Jon Lester picked up his third victory in as many outings, Tuesday.

That ought to do it for this weekend. Off to Western Maine, where we hope to attend this festival, hike around here, seek out some of these places which look like this from up high, look for this guy's cousins, and otherwise relax. Should be fairly key.