So. How do you spend your day?

Fascinating. Here are some charts loaded with data about how Americans spend their day. Not much to my surprise, time spent on 'correspondence' and 'sports and recreation' don't even show up on the charts. More to my surprise, neither does 'religious activity.'

well, maybe if you blow the chart up by about 500% you could see something.

Those Catalans and World Cup Fever

My favorite ... uh, inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula.

"Even the Catalan papers revelled in the victory, perhaps won over by the fact the victorious side featured seven Barcelona players."

[from CBS Sports]

You know something exciting is happening if the Catalans go wild over the Spanish team.

some Hispanics are more Hispanic than others.

Southern Comfort

Is it true that southerners are more prone to violence than people from other parts of the country? Don't know, but my gut reaction would by "Hell, yes! You all have a problem with that!!?" I noticed when I lived in NYC for four months that New Yorkers routinely said things to each other clearly NOT expecting a physical confrontation to result, and our southern students just as clearly expected just that.

Maybe this item is evidence:

Pitchers from the South are more likely to hit batters

You might call this one "Sentences to Ponder." It only applies, however, when the batter is white.

I found this info here. Most of the comments seem to take issue with the report. Except for this one:

Southerners are, true to stereotype, nicer and more polite in default situations but much more aggressive when their honor is threatened. Southerners have higher rates of "crimes of passion" but lower rates of regular premeditated crimes. Southerners are also more likely to forgive someone who committed a crime of passion or a crime to uphold his honor.

Come to think of it, the comments are as interesting as the post.

El Santo in Iraq!

OMG. Isn't this the famous Mexican wrestler, now perched atop a humvee in Iraq overseeing the elections?

anyone check his documentation?

Now THIS is gloating

Not to beat a dead horse, but just to show that I am not gloating over the victory of the folks I teach* here is an example, again from NRO, of real gloating.

Hail to the Victors? [Mark Hemingway]

After Michigan's loss to Appalachian State today, I have to say that even Larry Craig looks looks like a big winner in comparison. I know John Miller's a big Michigan fan — my condolences. As soon as you crawl out of the bottle, let me know if you want to make a friendly wager on the Michigan-Oregon game next week. Oregon's my alma mater, and I'm feeling pretty good about our chances right now.

See? I said nothing so tacky as this.

NRO gets something right!

The National Review Online's blog contains this little note today.

Michigan Misery [John J. Miller]

Hey new guy: Thanks for pointing out how my team bombed yesterday. What can be said except, "oh well"? And congrats to Appalachian State for a great performance—nobody should call this team "second tier."

Not that I'm gloating. That would be wrong.

A New Clemen's Contest

That's right folks. You have another chance to win a prize (to be determined). Try to guess which subset of the human race Michael Medved is being most insulting to in this quote taken from a recent column:

There is no rational basis for discomfort at playing with athletes of another race since science and experience show that human racial differences remain insignificant. The much better analogy for discomfort at gay teammates involves the widespread (and generally accepted) idea that women and men shouldn’t share locker rooms. Making gay males unwelcome in the intimate circumstances of an NBA team makes just as much sense as making straight males unwelcome in the showers for a women’s team at the WNBA. Most female athletes would prefer not to shower together with men not because they hate males (though some of them no doubt do), but because they hope to avoid the tension, distraction and complication that prove inevitable when issues of sexual attraction (and even arousal) intrude into the arena of competitive sports.

Tim Hardaway (and most of his former NBA teammates) wouldn’t welcome openly gay players into the locker room any more than they’d welcome profoundly unattractive, morbidly obese women. I specify unattractive females because if a young lady is attractive (or, even better, downright “hot”) most guys, very much including the notorious love machines of the National Basketball Association, would probably welcome her joining their showers. The ill-favored, grossly overweight female is the right counterpart to a gay male because, like the homosexual, she causes discomfort due to the fact that attraction can only operate in one direction. She might well feel drawn to the straight guys with whom she’s grouped, while they feel downright repulsed at the very idea of sex with her.

Just be sure to fill out your entry form in modern Kirghiz so you're entry can be properly judged (to cover expenses we had to offshore this job) and your prize, whatever it is, will soon be on its way.