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...