Soccer Bites (Cont.)

The pathetic tale of Luis Suarez, the star Uruguayan player who bit an Italian opponent during a World Cup game, continues to unfold.

After a FIFA disciplinary panel decided that Suarez could not play in any additional World Cup games and would be suspended for four months and nine Uruguay matches, the press learned that Suarez — unbelievably — had made a submission to FIFA in which he flatly denied the bite.  Instead, Suarez claimed, he had lost his balance, fallen into the Italian player, and felt his face make contact.  Given the undisputable video evidence, FIFA rejected that claim, and also noted in issuing its suspension decision that Suarez not only had denied any wrongdoing but “at no moment showed regret or remorse of any type.”

So, guess what?  Now Suarez has finally admitted the bite, apologized on Twitter, and promised that his biting days are behind him.  Gee, what convenient timing!  Having first stonewalled, and then seen that his ludicrous denial was only having the effect of enhancing his punishment, Suarez now recognizes the error of his ways.

In a gracious gesture, the Italian player, Giorgio Chiellini, has accepted the apology and said that he hopes FIFA reduces Suarez’s suspension.  Chiellini’s behavior has been a lot classier than Suarez’s grudging admission.  When the inevitable campaign to reduce Suarez’s suspension begins, I hope FIFA responds:  “Hey, Luis.  Bite me!”

Soccer Bites

Frank Lloyd Wright

The Frederick C. Robie House

If Illinois is the Land of Lincoln, then Chicago must be the Town of Frank Lloyd Wright.  His studio was in one of the Chicago suburbs, and homes he designed are found throughout the area.  In Richard’s Hyde Park neighborhood alone, a casual stroll takes you past two homes created by the famous architect:  the Isidore Heller house, built in 1897, and the celebrated Robie House, which opened in 1910.

On Saturday we took a tour of the Robie House, which many consider to be the pinnacle of Wright’s Prairie-Style Design.  As his work progressed, Wright’s home designs took on an increasingly geometric approach, and the Robie House certainly reflects that trend, with long horizontal exterior lines and crisp angles.  The interior rooms also are geometric and open, with large windows that open out onto second-story balconies that circle the front part of the structure.  The inside of the house feels very open and airy.

I don’t know a lot about Wright’s work, but I was struck by his elegant solutions to some basic home design issues.  He wanted to ensure privacy of the Robie family, so he decided to put the principal living areas on the second floor, where the Robies could look out the many windows but passersby on the ground below, blocked by the bulk of the exterior balconies, could not see in.  He also used wooden screens and beautiful decorative windows to partially shield occupants of rooms from view.  Wright also disliked open radiators and wiring, so he placed the heating and lighting elements behind attractive wooden structures.  His attention to detail included designing special light fixtures, built-in drawers and cabinets to decrease the need for bulky furniture, and a unique dining room table.

The Heller house, which we saw only from the outside, presages Wright’s developing style and is viewed as a key transitional point in his career.  It is marked by some beautiful ornamental work on the exterior but also reflects Wright’s love of geometric design.  According to the sign out front, it is for sale.  Imagine owning a Frank Lloyd Wright house!

Before our tour of the Robie house we watched a short video about Wright and the history of the house.  One point that was made was that Wright believed that America should develop and capture its own style, rather than borrowing the turreted, gothic designs of Europe.  His Prairie Style homes, with their characteristic geometric appearance, and his interest in designing not only structures but also windows, furniture, and light fixtures flowed from that deep belief.  The result is beautiful — but it failed to have the lasting impact that Wright hoped for.  In our subdivision you’ll find many Georgian homes but not many that borrow Wright’s lines or theories.  It’s too bad, but we should all still admire his effort, the sweep of his vision, and his interest in America staking out its own approach.

The Isidore Heller house.

The Chicago Skyway Blows

The only bad thing about our short trip to Chicago this weekend was our use of the Chicago Skyway.  Coming or going, it blows.  I thought the inaccurately named Dan Ryan “Expressway” was bad — so bad that if I were Dan Ryan, I’d ask that my name be removed from that sorry, always-under-repair stretch of Chicago roadway — but I would take the Dan Ryan 10 times out of 10 against the Chicago Skyway.

For the uninitiated, the Chicago Skyway and the Dan Ryan Expressway are the two ways to get to Chicago from northern Indiana.  The Dan Ryan is a freeway, the Chicago Skyway is a toll road.  You’d think that would mean that the Skyway would be a better driving experience — better road, faster, and so forth.  That makes sense . . . but it would be wrong.  In fact, the road conditions from Chicago to the I-65 turnoff just east of Gary are miserable.  And, because you have to go through three separate toll stops, it’s clearly slower even than the orange barrel-filled Dan Ryan Expressway — to say nothing of costing almost $8.  What does the money go for?  Beats me!  My shock absorbers would say it’s certainly not used for road repair.

It’s also obviously not used for toll booth employees or upkeep.  Today we were infuriated because only two of six toll booths at the final turnoff were taking cash or credit card.  Three lanes were reserved for E-ZPass — which is irritating in its own right — and one was closed for unknown reasons.  Of course, there were long lines in the two cash/credit lanes, which were made all the worse by the fact that rather than a toll booth employee, we had to pay a machine, and the machine didn’t tell you how much you owed.  It was scrambled, and the screen showed nothing but gibberish, like this:  ###%^**##.  So, what to pay?  Not surprisingly, it took us forever to get past the toll booth.  It was like some satanic trick:  just as we were celebrating escaping the Chicago Skyway once and for all, a final bit of ineptitude trapped us in toll booth hell.  What idiot allowed this to happen?

If Chicago wants to improve its image, the Skyway would be a good place to start.

The President’s Old Neighborhood

Richard’s apartment in Hyde Park is right across the street from President Obama’s old house. The President’s street is blocked off with barricades, and a Secret Service SUV sits at the narrow entrance. You can’t really see anything, but it’s an attraction nevertheless. During our visit to Richard’s apartment yesterday, At least two tour buses and one group on foot stopped by.

The President seems to be helping the local economy in other ways. As the photo above indicates, one enterprising dry cleaner has staked his claim to presidential commerce, and who are we to dispute it? The colonial strip of America is famous for claims that “George Washington slept here” — perhaps the south side of Chicago will some day be known for claims that “Barack Obama banked here.”

A Failing Grade In Sweaty White Guy 101

Today I wore a purple cotton golf shirt on our walk around Hyde Park. That was a mistake. In fact, Richard described it as failing to learn lessons I should have learned in Sweaty White Guy 101 — namely, wear an undershirt.

That’s probably true, but I’m not sure an undershirt would have made a significant difference under the circumstances. Today was one of those soupy, ultra-humid days where the air feels like electrically charged steam and thunderstorms roll through every hour or so. I could wear five t-shirts and I’d still be embarrassingly wilted and sweat-stained after walking only a few blocks.

At least Kish and Richard were able to do some Rorschach free-association analysis on the sweat patterns on my shirt.  And I would yargue that I didn’t completely flunk Sweaty White Guy 101 — I at least brought some extra shirts.

The View From Promontory Point

This morning we walked along Lake Michigan to Promontory Point at Burnham Park. It affords a great view of the very impressive Chicago skyline, even on an overcast, muggy day. Lots of joggers, cyclists, and walkers were out, sharing the striking view.

The QC And The U Of C Stroll

This weekend on our brief visit to Chicago we’re staying at the Quadrangle Club on the University of Chicago campus.

Kish picked the QC because its close to Richard’s new Chicago apartment in Hyde Park — and because it’s got a lot more charm than some of hotel options nearby. It’s in a brick building with wide stone staircases and has a restaurant and bar, meeting rooms, and lodging on the third floor. We knew we’d found a good place and were in for a classy experience when we got to our room and found brass room numbers on a wooden door and a personal card in olde English script in a slot on the front of the door saying “Welcome M/M Webner.”

 

The proximity of the QC to the U of C campus gave us a welcome excuse to stroll the grounds of one of America’s preeminent universities. Most of older academic institutions in the United States are physically gorgeous, and the University of Chicago is no exception. The older part of campus is filled with graceful gothic buildings and wide shade trees, and the grounds are landscaped with colorful and well-tended flower beds. And then you come across a more whimsical structure, like the purple-themed Max Palevsky Residential Commons complex, which looks like it was designed by Willy Wonka. It makes a walking tour of U of C a fun bit of exercise.

Second City

We’re here in Chicago to visit Richard. We’ve got tickets for the 8 o’clock show at Second City. Let the laughter begin!

Modern Art, Or Campus Sign Post

This object on the University of Chicago campus looks like a piece of modern art, with its different textures and markings. Alas, it’s just an incredibly well used sign post, embedded with hundreds of staples that cling to little scraps of paper left by countless signs announcing lectures or dance recitals or rock concerts, leaving an inadvertent design. When you walk past, you can’t help but wonder how old is the oldest shard of paper on the post.

Art is all around us.

The Penny Chronicles

My name is Penny.

The other day I was hungry.  So what else is new?

On the counter I noticed some green and white balls.  They looked like candy.  The Leader likes candy.  Sometimes she will get it, and sometimes she will leave it where Kasey and I can get it.  It’s why we love the Leader.

So I got my paws up on the counter and knocked them down.  Then I had a few quick bites before the Leader could stop me.  Kasey came running, and she ate a bunch of them, too.  But these things weren’t candy.  Instead, they made my mouth feel hotter than the hottest summer day.  I went to water bowl and slurped up as much cool water as I could to try to get the hot feeling out of my mouth.  Then Kasey came running in and drank a lot of water, too.

It turns out that the old boring guy likes these things.  Why would anyone like these things?  They aren’t sweet, and they aren’t meat.  The old boring guy is weird.

First Dinin’ Hall Of The Season

Today Kish and I went to Dinin’ Hall for the first time this summer.  The schedule has been limited to Thursdays and Fridays for the most part, but it’s still a great place to sample what Columbus’ finest food trucks have to offer.

Today we both went with Ayam Bakar from Aromaku.  What a great way to start the Food Truck Summer!  Grilled chicken with Indonesian spices over thin egg noodles, with hot sauce, some lime juice we squeezed on ourselves, and other goodies.  Just stunningly good, and served in the friendly confines of the Dinin’ Hall eating space in Franklinton.

Dinin’ Hall, we’ve missed you!  Aromaku, thanks for making the start of Food Truck Summer so succulent and special!

At The New Albany Farmer’s Market

From today until the end of the summer, the town square area of New Albany will feature a weekly Farmers’ Market, every Thursday from 4-7 p.m.  It’s a nifty event that gives area farmers and entrepreneurs a chance to display their wares while New Albany residents stroll along and decide whether to indulge in a fresh-baked pie or some buffalo meat.

Today the Farmers’ Market featured jams, sweet corn and fresh produce, baked goods, homemade ethnic food, ice cream, and a slew of other goodies.  I went for some honey from Latshaw Apiaries, just down the road in Alexandria, Ohio, and two kinds of cheese from the Kokoborrego Cheese Company in Mt. Gilead, Ohio.

I love having the Farmers’ Market as a local sourcing option.  This afternoon we walked there with the dogs, we got some exercise, I bought my goods, and we supported area businesses — all at the same time.

Protecting Cell Phone Privacy

The Supreme Court issued an important ruling yesterday.  In a 9-0 decision, the Court ruled that police must obtain a warrant before they search the cellphones of people they have arrested.  The ruling won’t directly affect most of us — unless you’re planning on being arrested in the near future, that is — but it represents a significant recognition of the central role of cellphones in our lives and an important bit of line-drawing in the ongoing battle between personal privacy and law enforcement.

In the ruling, Chief Justice John Roberts addressed both the pervasiveness of cellphones in modern America and the sweeping extent of information that people store on them.  From photos and video to address books, emails to calendars, financial information to maps, and other records of where we have been and who we have communicated with, cellphones are a handheld repository of huge amounts of very personal information about our private lives.  The Chief Justice thus reasoned that allowing warrantless searches of cellphones would be akin to the hated “general warrants” executed by the British authorities during colonial times that allowed them to rummage freely through homes in an effort to find some evidence of some kind of otherwise uncharged criminal activity — which is what drove the creation of the warrant clause of the Bill of Rights in the first place.

The Court also rejected arguments that a search of cellphones is needed to protect police officers or prevent the destruction of evidence.  When an arrest is made police can examine the cellphone to ensure that it can’t be used as a weapon and secure it, and if there is concern that evidence on the phone might be destroyed the officer can turn off the phone, or remove the battery, or place it in a foil bag to prevent any exchange of signals.  But before the police can access the cellphone and begin reviewing recent emails, the logs of recent calls, and other information, they must make the probable cause showing required by the Fourth Amendment and convince a judge to issue a warrant.

Two other points about the opinion seem worth emphasizing.  First, it was a unanimous decision.  For all of the fretting about political fracturing and the liberal and conservative wings of the Court, all of the Justices were able to agree on how to resolve a very central issue of how the Constitution works in modern life.  There’s nothing wrong with members of the Supreme Court disagreeing about legal issues — that’s why there are nine of them and the majority wins — but it’s nice to see the different perspectives coalesce around a simple, common approach to protecting individual liberty and privacy rights.

Second, many people have criticized jurists who return to the intent of the Framers of the Constitution and seek the meaning of its provisions in the historical context in which they were adopted, arguing that the Constitution should be a living document with meaning that changes in response to the realities of modern life.  Others contend that such an approach strips America’s core founding document of any objective significance and leaves it to mean whatever five Justices of the Supreme Court say it means.

The Court’s cellphone opinion, with its reference to the history of general warrants, shows how it is possible to draw upon historical context to identify the basic motivating principles underlying the Constitution and then apply those principles to the modern world.  Those observers who poke fun at purportedly hidebound efforts to discern “original intent” likely are happy with the opinion yesterday, but not about how the Court got to that result.

Mascot Liability

In an interesting ruling, the Missouri Supreme Court held yesterday that a spectator at a Kansas City Royals baseball game could get a new trial on a lawsuit against the team for an injury he suffered at a game in 2009.  According to the allegations in the case, the fan was hit in the eye by a wrapped hot dog thrown into the stands by the Royals’ mascot, Sluggerrr.  The lawsuit further alleges that the incident caused the fan to experience a detached retina and required him to undergo two surgeries to try to repair the damage.

In Missouri, as in many other states, the “baseball rule” applies to fans who go to a professional sports event.  Teams are protected from claims for injuries arising from the inherent risks involved in watching the event in person — like the possibility that a foul tip might come your way.  The Missouri Supreme Court said, however, that a hot dog thrown by a mascot is not an inherent risk — and thus the “baseball rule” doesn’t apply.

Some legal observers say the decision might cause sports teams to reassess their use of mascots, like Sluggerrr.  Wouldn’t that be wonderful?  I despise lame, furry, meaningless mascots and deeply regret how they have assumed increasingly prominent roles in virtually every sporting venue.  When I was a kid, the organist would play between innings at a ball game, and you could have a conversation and eat some peanuts; now every spare moment is cause for loud music, stupid contests, and idiotic mascots firing cheap t-shirts into the stands and engaging in other antics.  If the Missouri Supreme Court’s decision about Sluggerrr and his hot dog have brought that appalling era to a close, the judicial system has done a very good thing for society.

Soccer Bites

In Tuesday’s World Cup game between Uruguay and Italy, Uruguay’s star player, Luis Suarez, approached an Italian player from behind and bit him on the shoulder.  The Italian player, not surprisingly, reacted instinctively to the pain of the chomp by swinging his shoulder away and bringing his arm in contact with Suarez’s head.

It being soccer, both players fell to the ground in hopes of getting a penalty.  (Can you imagine how LeBron James would react if a player guarding him bit him on the shoulder?  I don’t think his first instinct would be to fall to the ground.  This is one reason why many Americans find soccer so bizarre.)

There’s no doubt that Suarez was the aggressor, or that he intentionally bit the Italian.  The incident was caught on video; the YouTube clip is below.  Weirdly, this is the third time Suarez has bitten someone in a soccer game.  Other than Mike Tyson, I’ve never before heard of an adult athlete biting another adult athlete during a sporting event.  Suarez has a history of other bad conduct, including making racist comments to an opposing player.

Psychologists consulted by the BBC in response to one of Suarez’s earlier biting incidents say that biting is the product of frustration and primitive, emotional impulses, which is why it is relatively common in children but so rare in adults; tension builds, and the tension is released with a bite.  That’s what psychologists say, but I think adult biting suggests much more deep-seated issues.  A rude gesture, or even a punch, I can understand — but a bite is a more personal and injurious act.  And when you think about how many germs can be found in the human mouth, a bite is far more disgusting and invasive.

They’re talking about whether Suarez should be suspended for the bite, and if so for how long.  That’s a pertinent topic, but I think it’s missing the bigger issue.  After three bites, plus a suspension for racist abuse, this guy clearly needs some serious help.  He’s obviously dangerous to others, and if he can’t control his biting tendencies, how can he be trusted to control whatever other impulses he might be experiencing?