Wednesday

This has been a funny week. My evenings have been congested and will continue to be so. Augie game tonight with my pal Roy and another business dinner tormorrow night.

Lots in the news this week. I have enjoyed the Bears' victory and hope they show up against Indy. Mostly, the media circus preceding The Big Game (not wanting to transgress on any trademarks here) is actually something to avoid. I think that the population of Las Vegas swells to some huge number the weekend of the game. Like it does for the NCAA tournament.

1 has selected the Crowne Plaza in Eagan as the central gathering place for the wedding. It is near the airport and the Mall of America. Looks like a nice place from the pictures on the web.

There was a syndicated column in today's local paper about cabbies in the Twin Cities not taking fares from the airport if there were carrying alcohol. Something about Muslims from Somalia being the predominant nationality of cab drivers in the area. And the Muslims have this thing about, or against, alcohol. Selective discrimination of a sort. Like the pro-life pharmacists who refused to fill prescriptions for the morning-after pill. Interesting dynamics in this country.

I have this little problem with my new Ironman watch. The band has about a dozen holes for the clasp to go through, but the perfect fit for me is a spot in the band right between two of the holes. I either go too loose, or a little too tight. Which raises the question, how much of life is spent trying to fit into pre-selected settings? Arguably, I have the same problem with jeans, belts, shoes, shirts, golf grips, glasses, my telephone headset, my bike, etc., etc., etc. I think we've hit another Sienfeld black hole. Think about how we are all shoe-horned into a life that really doesn't quite fit. We're all a little like OJ and the glove.

Grinell College made the front page of the DM Register this week for substantial planned tuition hikes. I didn't read the entire article, but the gist of it was that the schools who are considered their primary competition had higher costs, so Grinnell needed to match the competition. Say what? Doesn't Grinnell have like a gazillion dollar endowment?

Former Iowa Congressman Jim Leach is taking a three semester job teaching at Princeton. Pretty heady stuff to have your professor in international politics be a guy who was on the frontline of US policy-making. Maybe he'll do some similar work closer to home after Princeton.

So I'm off to my evening stuff. Thanks for reading.

Be careful out there.