After Atalanta

...for top ten, five, eleven lists. Best ofs. Worst ofs. Shining moments. Glorious defeats. Trends and tribulations. Given that I too have, in the past, tried to comment on the happenings of an arbitrary (well there's the science of it all I guess)set of days, I shall not disparage it too much. I will note though, again, the absence of Yani Tseng. SheWired did their top five women's sports events of 2011 and did not include Tseng's amazing year. They did not leave out golf, however. They included Lexi Thompson who became the youngest female to win an LPGA event (professional). OK, sure a record was set with this one win. She won the Dubai Masters on the European Tour as well. So a good year for a 16-year old. I guess if we're looking for events, this qualifies. Tseng's accompishments occurred over the course of a whole year. Maybe she lost out on a technicality? SheWired notes that Thompson's wins have people wondering if we have a new female Tiger Woods o...

I was just thinking about Angela Ruggiero the other day while I was cleaning out my email contacts. (I decided I probably didn't need her email anymore if the one I had was even still valid.) And then I read that she's retiring . Interesting timing. The national team is in Blaine, MN right now. Well the women who hope to become the national team anyway. I would hope Ruggiero retired of her own volition and that she didn't get pushed out. I haven't seen her play in a while but she seems good enough to still make it. I am bummed though. The World Championships happen in April in VT and I was planning on going. I saw her play in the Olympics in 2002 and it would have been nice to see one of the few players who remains from that team.

Three U of Oregon professors conducted a study on their campus which suggested that big, successful football leads to general decline in students' GPAs. I was surprised this story made the New York Times because the study is of just one university. Now I am all about showing the downside to excessive intercollegiate football programs, but I think one study does not really indicate the whole reality. There is a culture created by big-time sports. But there are questions that remain. Is it only football? What about big-time basketball, like at Butler, (I met an alum over Christmas) where enrollment has skyrocketed? One of the study's authors said "I teach these students. And I know that on Thursdays there’s this subtle distraction in the classroom, and the game isn’t even until Saturday." Um, yeah. That happens everywhere. Because in college, the weekend starts on Thursdays. Happened at my undergrad university where football was not as big (though not small). Happ...

Last year I posted "Twas the Night Before Christmas" on Poetry Friday. This year I offer my own version. Happy Holidays! TWAS THE WEEK BEFORE CHRISTMAS Twas the week before Christmas and all through the house everything was stirring especially the   f*&^in’ mouse. New stockings to be sewn to show the GF I care. I put a bird on them for that Portlandia flair. The wrapping of presents was nowhere near done. Multiple trips to the mall-- this is no holiday fun. Parties to attend but more invitations turned down. Have to finish laundry and packing before we leave town. The Solstice Fairy came and she was divine: got some music, cool gear, and a bottle of sparkly wine. Homemade cookies were delivered and some chocolates too. Was up to midnight making truffles; “easy to make”—um, not so true. Planning the holiday dinner for the Boston family. Looking forward to some red wine...

Oh, sorry. Best female athlete of the year--according to the Associated Press . Still--good job. First individual soccer player to earn that honor and she beat out her nearest competitor--Hope Solo--by many many votes. Still I was a little surprised that Yani Tseng didn't get more consideration. She was the fourth-highest vote-getter. (Maya Moore was third.) But I don't know what the criteria is. (The article failed to note that.) And if popularity or the creation of a national stir is on the list of considerations, well then it's more understandable. I guess voters figured that this was Wambach's year--though she will--barring injury--be playing in the Olympics this summer--another potential stage for excitment and "heroics." And I am sure Yani Tseng can win 12 tournaments again, 2 of which were majors (one--the LPGA Championship--which she won by 10 strokes) and 5 of which were LPGA events.  And she did win the United States Sports Academy's female  ...

Earlier this week I mentioned how fandom of women's sports earns one very little social capital. This point was illustrated by a Yahoo contributor article I read a few days later. The author, a female firefighter, talks about how, in order to get by in a male-dominated field, a woman needs to learn how to talk sports and picks teams and be a fan of men's professional sports. And thus she will fit in and be accepted and have something to talk about with all the men folk. Alternately, she could wear a cheese bra.

Last day of fall semester classes and no feeling of relief. Thus this sentiment has been a prevailing one this week: RIDICULOUS Alicia Ostriker   This is ridiculous said the literary old woman nobody gives us any respect the young in one another's arms are talking on their ipods the politicians are lying through their teeth and our husbands are taking a nap this is ridiculous said the tulip all those genetically altered blossoms those stupid long-lived orchids that are practically plastic and those fancy designer grasses getting more than market share this is ridiculous said the dog now they not only have to walk me they have to rush up with their sanitary plastic bags what is it but old-fashioned imperialism

Despite its inability to add another team to the league, US Soccer has granted Women's Professional Soccer another waiver allowing it to remain a Division I league . Division I leagues are required to have eight teams; WPS currently has five. But, in talks with US Soccer, WPS administrators said there was interest out there for the creation of new teams. In a recent post commenting on the grassroots efforts of the Women Talk Sports Network to get another team in fifteen days (the deadline originally set by US Soccer for the WPS to add a sith team) I mentioned something about the many issues associated with being a women's sports fan and being a women's sport owner. So I'll elaborate. Regarding being a female fan of women's sports: it's not so easy. Which doesn't mean it's not a worthy endeavor--just that it's not the same as being a fan of men's sports. There's the problem of where to find sports. Most of us become fans of local college and...

Against Transcendence I Jesus is the reason for the season Proclaims my neighbor's bow-wrapped door, Getting it exactly backward again this year, The winter solstice only weeks away: Opaque slate skies, a daylong dusk in the drybrush Of branches blurring in the woods. Do you worship God or animals? asks a sticker From the back of his pickup truck. Cotton Mather, could he look down From the tomb of heaven, would be pleased By the granite sky, the cold Old Testament comfort Of the faith, and by the faithful, Bedrock, salt-of-the-earth, Hunkered down and ready for the rapture. II Winter nights enlarge the number of their hours Wrote a poet with the name of a wildflower— Of the White Campion, which blooms at night, And the Starry, petals ascending on slender spines— The sky filling the frame with its constellations, The tiny novas flaming like bits of tungsten, And here below, if the air is dry enough and cold, There's that taste of metal that comes with snow. III Bare limbs and br...

So I knew the WPS was not in good shape. I retained an unusual amount of optimism about the league's viability throughout the many collapses of teams, losses of coaches, and that whole weird MagicJack fiasco. (OK I started to lose hope during the MagicJack thing, actually.) So now the league is on the verge of non-existence again . It needs to add a sixth team ASAP or it will lose its Division I league status within US Soccer. (The league is actually supposed to field 8 teams but has gotten waivers in the past.) So it's crunch time. And though the league had planned on adding a team for the 2013 season there is no telling whether that would have actually happened or if another team would have folded in the meantime. I kind of buried the lead of the post but here it is: The Women Talk Sports network--of which I am a (somewhat ambivalent) member--has started a grassroots campaign to save the WPS. But they aren't asking money from us regular Joanns and Joes. (Smart--beca...

Thoughts go out to the Oklahoma State community --especially the women's basketball team--which lost their head and assistant coaches last week. The coaches were on a recruiting trip when their plane crashed. Kurk Budke had turned the team around in recent years. Assistant coach Miranda Serna was a former player of Budke's who had been  his assistant for many years.

Because so many were lost in our crazy storm a couple of weeks ago. And because whenever I hear the word "birches" I repeat the first lines of this poem (the entirety of which I had memorized when I was 14). BIRCHES Robert Frost When I see birches bend to left and right Across the lines of straighter darker trees, I like to think some boy's been swinging them. But swinging doesn't bend them down to stay. Ice-storms do that. Often you must have seen them Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning After a rain. They click upon themselves As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel. Soon the sun's warmth makes them shed crystal shells Shattering and avalanching on the snow-crust-- Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away You'd think the inner dome of heaven had fallen. They are dragged to the withered bracken by the load, And they seem not to break; though once they are bowed So low for long, they never right themselves...

Saturday Night Live . And Jon Stewart I don't think the latest crop of Penn State grads will be getting jobs or internships at the Daily Show or SNL any time soon.

Dr. Pants pointed out that the article I raved about yesterday was posted on ESPNW which receives significantly less traffic than ESPN.com. But Mechelle Voepel's contribution to the discussion of Penn State and the connection of the current situation to the Rene Portland situation  did make it to ESPN. And--as usual--it's very good. Here's a snippet: Unfortunately, many universities -- if they're being honest -- need to look at themselves and say, "Do we do all we can to ensure that everyone's compass is directed toward doing what's right, even if that might initially cause some bad publicity for the university or mean sparring with a powerful coach? Do we look out for the powerless? Is our moral code as strong as it needs to be? Where are our true priorities? Who are we most concerned about protecting?" Those can seem like pie-in-the-sky ideals, and maybe they are. Certainly, they're much easier to commit to in theory than in practice. But ...

from "18 Days Without You" Anne Sexton December 18th Swift boomerang, come get! I am delicate. You've been gone. The losing has hurt me some, yet I must bend for you. See me arch. I'm turned on. My eyes are lawn-colored, my hair brunette. Kiss the package, Mr. Bind! Yes? Would you consider hurling yourself upon me, rigorous but somehow kind? I am laid out like paper on your cabin kitchen shelf. So draw me a breast. I like to be underlined. Look, lout! Say yes! Draw me like a child. I shall need merely two round eyes and a small kiss. A small o. Two earrings would be nice. Then proceed to the shoulder. You may pause at this. Catch me. I'm your disease. Please go slow all along the torso drawing beads and mouths and trees and o's, a little graffiti and a small hello for I grab, I nibble, I lift, I please. Draw me good, draw me warm. Bring me your raw-boned wrist and your strange, Mr. Bind, strange stubborn horn. Darling, bring me this an ...

I know it's 11-11-11 but this is not some kind of Freaky Friday, opposite-world post. I am genuinely appreciative of ESPN running this piece: Luke Cyphers has a column at ESPN.com on how there have been other things within PSU athletics that were not quite right--namely the tenure of former women's basketball coach Rene Portland. Glad people in the media are making the connection. Here is a particularly good snippet: Meanwhile, when we examine the Portland era and the Sandusky scandal through the same lens, what we see tells us a lot about institutionalized hate and systems that equate winning with morality, both of which flourished for decades in State College. The administration's failure to step in and do the right thing, the moral thing, created a void in which dozens of young lives, from Portland's players to Sandusky's alleged victims, were disrupted and forever scarred. Read the rest--it's worth it.

Joe Paterno to retire . At the end of the season.  Scandal= "retirement" Scandal = resignation (hmm...) I may actually watch the game this weekend to see what the atmosphere is like. 

Of course Penn State was going to cover up the abuse perpetuated by one of its coaches. Of course the institution that sheltered openly homophobic and not-so-openly racist basketball coach Rene Portland for years--years--would cover up for a former assistant football coach who was engaging in sexual acts with young boys. It reminds me of the stories we hear about corruption within police departments. The denial, the looking the other way behaviors, and the active cover-ups meant to protect one of their own. (I heard Michael Chiklis was very good on The Shield, maybe he would be interested in a leading role on The AD . I think he could pull off Tim Curley. He would have to spend some time practicing being on a witness stand, though.) I read the headlines a few days ago and thought--well, not so shocking that a man would molest little boys or even that a PSU football coach would do so. Then more got revealed about the seemingly systematic cover-up of the actions of said footba...

I know I am a little late to the game here but 1) I haven't been checking my After Atalanta email (if anyone knows an easy way to forward gmail to another account please enlighten me) and 2) sick...sick sick sick. But I did manage to get a copy of ESPN Magazine's third (third, right?) Body issue. Dr. Pants texted me and informed me that it was a must-see. Dr. Pants is a big Hope Solo fan and Solo did grace one of the covers this year. Me, not so much so I didn't really care much about seeing Solo pseudo nude. But the article about testicles was too much to pass up. (more on that at a later date) So I read it. I am getting a little bored of this whole thing actually. (Well except for the testicles article.) And I wonder if ESPN can sense that the Body Issue just isn't that interesting. That it will never draw the same attention as the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. Because was what was sent to my After Atalanta gmail: The only magazine that can possibly trump ...

ESPNW has an interview with Mary Wittenberg who is the current president of the New York Road Runners. And by virtue of her position as president and CEO, she is in charge of the NYC Marathon--which happens this weekend. She is the first female president of the organization--this seems to be part of the reason ESPNW chose to interview her. Here is one of the questions: espnW: When you're negotiating appearance fees for male athletes with male agents, does it ever strike you as significant that you're a woman running a major men's and women's sporting event? Here is the first line of her response: No. I don't think a lot about gender at all when thinking about negotiating appearance fees or putting together the strategy for our pro field. Oh god, I thought to myself when I read this. Another person who doesn't see gender. Everything is gender neutral. But here is how she finished the question: What I do think about is always ensuring that we have a really...

somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond by E. E. Cummings somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond any experience,your eyes have their silence: in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me, or which i cannot touch because they are too near your slightest look easily will unclose me though i have closed myself as fingers, you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens (touching skilfully,mysteriously)her first rose or if your wish be to close me, i and my life will shut very beautifully ,suddenly, as when the heart of this flower imagines the snow carefully everywhere descending; nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals the power of your intense fragility:whose texture compels me with the color of its countries, rendering death and forever with each breathing (i do not know what it is about you that closes and opens;only something in me understands the voice of your eyes is deeper than all ro...

I frequently try to convince people (my students, my girlfriend, random strangers) that the concept of "things are getting better" or "things are better than they used to be" is problematic. Progress is not one of those straight 45 degree angle lines streaking across a graph. The x and y axes are not so 1) measurable and 2) in sync that we have this perfect progress line. And this not-so-neat-and-easy "progress" can be applied to sport--women's sports specifically. Look at the women playing sports! Isn't it great!? It totally is. But there has been some backlash--some subtle, some not-so-subtle. There's the obvious crusade against Title IX in the US. There's the rampant, yet largely hush-hush and/or hard-to-prove homophobia. And now there's skirts. Skirts where none existed before. Skirts in soccer. (Remember the fashion show in 2009 when the WUSA debuted its Puma kit complete with "wraps"?) Skirts in badminton. Skirt...

I've had over a day to sit on this story because of other obligations. This has meant that the highly acerbic tone laced with expletives that I was going to use yesterday has been slightly tempered by time. I'm still a little irked by ESPNW though. I really haven't seen anything to like about this endeavor yet. Shouldn't we be shooting for more than just mere visibility? Anyway, what got me all hot and bothered (and not in a good way) yesterday was this article about the different paths Hope Solo and Abby Wambach have taken post World Cup. In case you haven't heard, Hope Solo is on Dancing with the Stars this season. She was also on (one of) the cover of ESPN Magazine's The Body Issue a few weeks ago. She is racking up endorsements (worth millions of dollars)--and turning down offers for photo shoots in men's magazines. In other words, she's making the most of this (likely) brief spike in the popularity of women's soccer. (Let's note, for the...

The Women's Sports Foundation held their annual Salute to Women in Sports Awards ceremony last night in NYC. Abby Wambach won best sportswoman in a team sports; Yani Tseng (I guess people are paying attention to her!) won for individual sport. The US Women's Ski Jumping team won the Wilma Rudolph Courage Award for their activist work in getting their sport included in the winter olympics. A theme of the evening was Title IX because the Foundation is gearing up for the 40th anniversary. It was a little disappointing that the :Billie Jean King Contribution Award, which recognizes an individual or organization that demonstrates a lasting commitment and dedication to the growth of sports, fitness and physical activity for women and girls" was given to Visa. Given the current climate of backlash against corporate America--which began right on the streets of NYC, it didn't seem to be the b est choice. I would have liked to see WSF go a little less corporate.  Like...

The NCAA in August, during the Presidential Retreat, started talking about some of the ongoing controveries and the need for reform. Everyone else already is, so they should be too. And they have some ideas, apparently. In September the Resource Allocations Working Group suggested cutting scholarships for FBS (Footbal Bowl Series) teams from 85 to 80. The FCS will have their scholarships reduced from 63 to 60. They are also considering reducing men's (13 --> 12) and women's (15 --> 13) basketball scholarships. Yeah. I'm pretty sure that will take care of it.

...about the Immaculata College women's basketball team? Why yes, yes there was. And apparently there is . It was actually filmed in 2007. But the film, The Mighty Macs , which chronicles the 1971-72 team as it made its ways to the NCAA championships, only recently got a distributor. The movie stars Carla Gugino (Entourage, Sin City ) , David Boreanaz (currently of Bones but formally of Buffy the Vampire Slayer --his best role in my opinion), Ellen Burstyn (Ya Ya Sisterhood, Big Love ) , and Marley Shelton (Uptown Girls. Pleasantville ) .   The movie comes out in limited release (1000 theaters) next week. You can watch the trailer here . It looks good.

Like the poem, but I'm thinking the translation could be better. Nevertheless... Bring me the sunflower Eugenio Montale Bring me the sunflower so I may transplant it in my native soil burnt by the sea-salt, let it display all day to the mirroring blue spaces of the sky the anxiety of its yellow face. Obscure things tend towards clarity, bodies dissolve themselves in a weightless flow of colors: these then into music. To vanish is thus the supreme fate of all fates. Bring me the plant that points to where pale transparencies rise to the heights and life itself evaporates like air; bring me the sunflower crazed with light. translated from the Italian by Margaret Brose

I flipped on the Golf Channel, which was airing the LPGA's HanaBank Championship this past weekend. It was background and it was on less than two minutes when I heard the British male commentator say that it would have been a "wussy" move if Yani Tseng hadn't pulled out her driver for her tee shot because her playing partner had just done so. Really, wussy--in golf? I mean wussy anywhere is problematic. But in golf it seems all the more weird to use such sexually suggestive slang . And in the context of Yani Tseng? The woman is dominating the LPGA . Never heard of the current number one player who has 9 victories this season and has held the number 1 spot for 34 weeks? Well she's not American and she's not white--which means she isn't getting a lot of attention in the American media. But at least she's not a wussy after all. She hit an amazing tee shot at that hole--and she won the whole thing.

Because I've been teaching transitions in my composition classes... A Word About Transitions by Billy Collins Moreover is not a good way to start a poem though many begin somewhere in the middle. Secondly does not belong at the opening of your second stanza. Furthermore is to be avoided no matter how long the poem. Aforementioned is rarely found in poems at all, and for good reason. Most steer clear of notwithstanding , and the same goes for nevertheless, however, as a consequence, in any event , subsequently , and as we have seen in the previous chapters . The appearance of finally in your final stanza will be of no help. All of which suggests (another no-no) that poems don't need to tell us where we are or what is soon to come. For example , the white bowl of lemons on a table by a window can go anywhere all by itself and, in conclusion , so can seven elephants standing in the rain.

Did anyone really believe that Reebok's special Easytone sneakers were going to firm legs, thighs, and butts? Well if you did--congratulations, you may be getting some money . Reebok has settled a class action lawsuit for $25 million. A Federal Trade Commission investigation found that claims of what the sneakers could do were slightly exaggerated--as in they couldn't be proven. I knew though sneakers were trouble from the start. I mean, did anyone else note the irony? In order to get a hot ass, you have to wear ugly shoes. That seems wrong. Also, the commercials were particularly egregious in terms of the sexualization of the female body. But it's kind of too late now. Those rocker shoes are all over the place. Sketchers has their own version. Not sure if Sketchers will be on the hook as well. It's possible they aren't making the same kind of claims about what the shoes can do. They have chosen not to comment on the settlement. Reebok is standing behind its sho...

I am teaching an article this morning on the reluctance to talk about racism and the cultural transmission of racism through the lack of exposure to racial minorities. It reminded me of a poem I read by Countee Cullen when I was in high school. But I couldn't find that one. So I am posting this one instead. To Certain Critics By Countee Cullen Then call me traitor if you must,    Shout treason and default! Say I betray a sacred trust Aching beyond this vault. I’ll bear your censure as your praise,    For never shall the clan Confine my singing to its ways Beyond the ways of man. No racial option narrows grief, Pain is no patriot, And sorrow plaits her dismal leaf    For all as lief as not. With blind sheep groping every hill,    Searching an oriflamme, How shall the shepherd heart then thrill    To only the darker lamb?

That was in the subject line of the email I received from JB (minus the exclamation point--I added that myself). There was a link to an article about how the IAAF is changing the rules on what races women can earn world records in. This is the article I saw initially . Here is what went down: the IAAF decided that women could not set world records in mixed gender races because of issues over being paced by men. They can only set "world bests." (P.S. The rule is retroactive!) This seems to be an issue primarily in road races, especially marathons. And various marathon organizations have come out in opposition to the IAAF's rule , which is scheduled to go into effect in January. But even their collective stance is less than ideal. They suggest having two world records--one for mixed gender races and the other for single sex races. They do argue though that the IAAF's new rule does not, among other things, "respect the history of [the] sport." Right? Road ru...

I promise I will post more this week. On the docket: more on the Atlantic article, including commentary on the concept of amateurism, and the socialism no one wants to talk about the ridiculousness of the new rules governing records (past and future) set by female runners

So I've been thinking and discoursing a lot about this Atlantic article about the "shame" of college sports. And I have a lot more to say--it's forthcoming (I think). Since it seems like the corporatization of college sports isn't going anywhere and given the desire of so many corporations to put their names on everything--including just regular, non-post-season, non-bowl games--my father and I decided that one contest in particular needed such a sponsorship. This weekend's game between Ohio State and Miami: The Scandal Bowl. Sponsored by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. We're open to other sponsors too. Enron? Goldman Sachs? Bank of America?

Intercollegiate sports are played all year round--except for a couple of those "summer" months where there are no official contests--but it's always around September, or probably more accurately, mid-August, that the talk of misdeeds among college athletics comes to the fore. Why? Because it's football season. So we get to hear about the suspensions issued at the end of last season or in the off-season ( a la the Ohio State ) and then whatever findings were made during off-season investigations into various programs (a la Miami ). That is what stays the same--the perpetual/annual misdoings. Here's what seems to be different. And note that I am not a longtime close observer of college football--I'm more of a foul weather observe; like a tornado chaser--but less thrilling, more disgust-inducing. So I might not be the best person the make these observations. But here's what I think I have seen. There is more widespread attention to the athletic programs as...

At Summer's End, Persephone parted the overgrown hedge. There stood the tree she remembered— still on its last limbs and still "self-pruning," as the tree-surgeon called it— still the largest sweet gum in the underworld. From the dogwood, berries dripped, bright as blood. A frog called out for company. The owl that hunted it rowed the deepening dark with muffled wing. Clinging to the front door of the house, a moth tried to disguise itself as wood. How had the gecko guarding the porch light missed a last mouthful of dust? Under its pale otherworldly skin, throbbed a blue semiprecious stone. In ancient gowns the months Persephone had lost to the upper world leaned down from heaven's porches. There on her own porch, in the rocking chair where no one ever rocked, sat the dead weight of September, the chair ever so faintly ashudder. Debora Greger

I was getting ready for my day Tuesday morning and multitasking. I wanted to find out the score of the Caroline Wozniacki and Svetlana Kuznetsova match because I had fallen asleep Monday night in the second set. So I turned on ESPN. And while I was waiting I heard Stuart Scott issue an opinion on the Peyton Manning injury story and whether Manning would play Sunday. But he hedged his bets when he remarked "but what do I know? I'm wearing makeup." Because apparently makeup has some kind of mystical effect in which the wearer lacks sports knowledge. Now, who else wears makeup? Hmmm... Seriously. What a ridiculous statement. [In case you were wondering, Wozniacki won. I had to go look on the internet, because I shut off the television in disgust--and rushed to an appointment. ]

I know everyone is posting about this, but I would be remiss not to at least post a link . The concept that her diagnosis is not going to affect her, though, as some quoted in certain articles seems to suggest, is a little optimistic. Even if she can temper the disease medically, I am sure it will significantly affect her ability to recruit. Because it is uncertain how long she will be able to continue, I would imagine recruits and their families would be hesitant to commit. Of course, when and if she leaves, there will be a long line of excellent prospects waiting for that position.

Women's intercollegiate basketball is not that far away, my friends. And given my current status as a resident of western Massachusetts, I hear about the progress of the UMass-Amherst Minutewomen all the time. And I cringe every time. Because what exactly is a Minutewoman?? Looks like I am not alone in my questioning of the name, its history, and its effects.

August Peonies Lallygagging on bent stems, late this year because of the snow in May, their rag-tag magenta cluster-heads freshen the still heat like a rush of wind in the leaves or the cool brush of deep sea crinolines as the ripple kiss of a breeze opens their bunched petals just enough to let them breathe before they ease back into light repose, poised at the edge of time-lapse attention, like us, who lose momentum in the heavy air rich with the scent of ripening wheat that drifts in from the fields over the slow-moving river as the afternoon nods and lengthens into shade, into thoughtfulness, and the sky deploys an argosy of softly tinted clouds, fresh blooms without stems that sail where we cannot go, all the way to the edge of everything where daylight looks back, once, then disappears. George Amabile

...there must be some sexism in the atmosphere. I think I perhaps knew something about scantily clad young women (note that they are always referred to as girls) on ice skates who come out during NHL games for various reasons. But I don't watch much professional hockey anymore opting to engage in slightly less cognitive dissonance by watching intercollegiate hockey. So I guess I chose not to think about how hockey--like so many other sports these days--is bringing out the babes to arouse the crowd--and shovel some ice chips. This article with accompanying video--which is mandatory viewing because the article so doesn't tell the whole story--is about the tryouts the Penguins held recently for the 2011-12 Ice Crew. Tell me--what do you envision when someone says ice crew in the context of professional hockey. I think mostly men--college age dudes and/or older guys with bellies--shuffling out on the ice in their black sneakers, khakis, and nylon team jackets during the period brea...

...with this poem from Matthew Zapruder's 2010 collection Come All Your Ghosts. 5 Come on all you ghosts. Bring me your lucky numbers that failed you, bring me your boots made of the skin of placid animals who stood for a while in the snow. Bring me your books made of blue sky stitched together with thread made of the memory of how warm even the most terrible among us has felt the skin of his or her beloved in the morning to be. Come on all you ghosts, try to make me forget one summer lost in a reservoir and another I keep in my chest. Come on all you ghosts, try to make me repeat the most terrible thing I said to someone and I will if the mind of that someone could ever be eased. Come on let’s vote for no one in the election of who is next to die. Come on all you ghosts, I know you can hear me, I know you are here, I have heard you cough and sigh when I pretend I do not believe I have to say something important. Probably no one will die of anything I say. Probably no one will live...

While I certainly do not support the concept and execution of the Lingerie Football League, I see why it exists. It plays on a variety of sexual fetishes and, of course, makes these female athletes far less threatening because of the sexualization and because what they are doing doesn't look like "real" football. Again, not a fan. Wish it would go away. Will write letters or engage in other methods of discouragement to get that to happen. What did genuinely surprise (ever so cynical) me is the news that there is now a Lingerie Basketball League. I found out about it on some mom blog . Said mom does not seem too upset, after her initial questioning, that the league exists because, once you get past the uniforms, you can see (there's a video) that they are skilled. Yes. They are skilled. But there are a lot of women who are skilled basketball players. They play at all levels: high school, college, professionally, recreationally, in the pick-up games at my gym. They don...

...Dr. Mary Jo Kane has a piece in The Nation about the yes-we're-still-talking-about-this debate over whether sex sells women's sports. The answer, as I've noted before, using Kane's research, is no. Kane opens with a quote from an article by Wendy Parker. While the quote--about a female soccer player who seems non-plussed by her status as Playboy's third sexiest soccer player--is apt, do we really need to support Wendy Parker in her ongoing recovery from feminism and paradoxical support of women's sports?

There have been many, many article about the potential effects of the Women's World Cup on the WPS. I haven't even bothered to blog about them or to even read all of them. They basically boil down to: 1) the WPS will benefit from the very exciting WWC, 2) cautious optimism about the benefits, 3) Americans still don't like soccer and they certainly aren't interested in watching women play it. There may be other categories or subcategories that I am unaware of. But it seems like attendance at games post-WWC is up. Way up in some venues. Yay! And it also appears that the WPS is not just pleasantly riding this wave of popularity. They are working that wave. I just hung up with someone from the Boston Breakers asking me if I am coming to Harvard stadium for the last two home games. I explained that I cannot because I am busy those days. And I was a little curious as to how they got my cell phone number...But good for them for making personal phone calls. I am sure some poor ...

Is it possible? Are American women's life spans going to dip below those of our mothers' because we don't work out? Apparently it is possible, according to a study out of the University of Washington. Not good news for American women. This study follows a report out of Britain a few years ago which showed a dearth of sporting activity among girls and women. So what's it all about? According to this article , time and money. Because even while we promote Title IX and advocate for equal opportunities for girls, when adulthood hits, exercise is one of the first things to go. Assuming it was ever there at all. But this article says that even adult women who were once quite active, sacrifice exercise when things (i.e. motherhood plus work plus domestic duties plus attempt at salvaging a social life) get busy. And then when mid-life hits, the effects of a less active life really come into play. While I sympathize with the issue of making time for exercise when a woman becomes...

...who has some reservations about how this WWC is going to dramatically change the women's sports landscape in the US. WaPo columnist Petula Dvorak talks to some of my favorite people, Mike Messner and Nancy Hogshead-Makar, about how and why the surge in fan interest in women's soccer post '99 and for women's professional sports generall kind of petered out. The difference, for soccer, is that the WUSA started 2 years after that world cup ended. Too much lag time. The WPS is already in place this time. Hopefully, this will make a difference. But I too have been skeptical about all the rah-rahing. Some of us have been following women's soccer all along, in the so-called down time--you know when the US won the Olympic gold medal. I worry about fair weather fans. But I worry about no fans at all, too. Boston Breakers 2009

I've been lukewarm on ESPNW since its inception for many reasons. Now I have one more: this article about how fat baseball players are . Well, not exactly an article. It is listed as an opinion piece. Still... So in light of MLB's All-Star Game and based on some observations, writer Amanda Rykoff is pointing out how large some baseball players are--as in overweight. An additional motivation, as stated in the opening paragraph is "to laugh and poke fun at some absurdities in the sports world." Let me just own up to the fact that I was observing a young guy in the gym the other day who has clearly bulked up in the last year. He was wearing a UMass Baseball t-shirt. And it made me think "is he too big to play baseball effectively?" Of course he could simply be a fan and not a player. And he isn't fat--just bulky. Still, I thought about how/why larger players can and are prized in baseball. I have theories about the focus on home runs and some masculinity is...

Finally got to watch the Brazil v. US match this morning. I knew the general outcome because the second I got back across the border (from Canada) and had my data plan back, I checked Facebook. I also got the hint that it was a dramatic game, though I refused to check for a score or details. Even knowing the outcome, it was a pretty enthralling game. So here are my thoughts (in case you were wondering): 1. When you watch a recorded soccer match and fast forward through some of it in the interest of time and getting on with your work day, the ball looks like a ping-pong ball, which just makes you appreciate the distance it travels and the abilities of the players to control it. 2. Abby Wambach: still super cute and now with some goals under her cleats. (Because those uniforms don't have belts--thankfully. Though I'm not sure it would make them any worse.) 3. And speaking of Wambach...the Girlfriend noted this morning "that those short-haired girls are making things really i...

I've been accumulating thoughts about the WWC as I watch--just haven't gotten a chance to get it down. So I saw--last week--Equatorial Guinea's first game of the tournament. Kudos to the commentators on ESPN for actually mentioning the allegations that several players for the team are men. I have heard other media outlets (NPR's Only a Game, for example) also talk about it. So that's good. Alas one of the ESPN guys, after noting in the pre-game commentary that two of the three accused players were not playing this tournament, urged us all to put that all aside to think about the soccer. There were other interesting moments in that pre-game; and they seem to involve Brandi Chastain. First, on the shallower and more catty side of things, what's up with the hair? Someone needs to start a blog that deconstructs all of the Chastain's hair-dos this tournament. During this pre-game: several French braids ending in a long ponytail. She looked like a high school soft...