"Aye, There's the rub!"

In the Copa America, Bob Bradley's youngsters(Well, Kasey Keller and his 101 selections, notwithstanding) got taken to the woodshed tonight- care of Argentina, 4-1. With Stars like Tevez, Riquelme and Messi playing for Argentina, in the sub-tropical heat of Maricaibo, this was going to be a long night at the office for coach Bradley.Bringing this underaged group to the Copa America was the soccer equivilant of going into a gunfight armed with a butter knife. It does not get any easier for the U.S, in what can be described as a tough group, the U.S must face Paraguay and Colombia in it's remaining first round games. The U.S last played in a Copa America in 1995, where it made it to the Semi-Finals. Since the U.S did not bring a first choice squad-and Mexico DID bring their top players, don't look for the US Men's team to be getting any more invites to this tournament for a long time. All of that said, I do think that the Copa will be a good learning experience for these youngsters, as Coach Bradley looks at trying to develop some players with the 2010 World Cup in South Africa 3 years away. Sometimes a coach has to look at the proverbial bigger picture.

As a side note, Senor Duro sent me a very nice apology for his "Gringo" remarks in the Univison.com web site. You can see it in the comments section from the previous entry. It was a very gracious note, and I thought that showed a lot of class on his part.

I am a big soccer fan. Ok, I like most sports, except golf and NASCAR. As a soccer fan, I have a variety of sources that I tune into on the internet for news or on TV, to watch games.

I started watching soccer on the Spanish Language network, Univision over 20 years ago when I was stationed in San Antonio, Texas. At that time, if you wanted to see soccer of any kind, particularly a lot of World Cup matches,this is just what a soccer fan had to do-even though at that time my Spanish vocabulary was REALLY limited. At any rate, even though there are more choices for the English-speaking soccer fan, like Gol TV, ESPN, and Fox Soccer Channel, I still tune into Univision from time to time and I go onto their web site to try to dust off my Spanish and get some soccer news at the same time.

A commentary in Univsion's sport's section  by Joaquin Duro was titled "Otra Vez los Gringos"(The Gringos once again) discussing Mexico's 2-1 loss to the United States Men's Soccer Team in the Gold Cup Final. That title really got my attention. I could not believe my eyes that a legitimate web site would allow a fairly racist, perjorative statement like that. I fired off an e-mail to Univision:

Sir:

I will have to say this in English, because what I saw on the web site really irritated me. Please see the following link so you can see why I'm Irritated:

http://blog.univision.com/blog?blog.id=joaquinduro

Can you imagine a writer at Sports Illustrated or a web site like NBC.Com headlining an article saying "Spics beat Yanks again" or "Wetbacks prevail over stars and stripes again"? Every Latino activist would be screaming bloody racism.

In view of that, why should any American citizen be happy that an American run network, albeit a Spanish Language one, would allow one of it's columnists to resort to such name-calling, just because most Americans(at least for now) don't speak the language of Cervantes? I found Jaoquin's article heading hateful, to say the least.

I think people in Univision forget that there are a few of us "Gringos" who are soccer fans who get our Futbol fix with your network. If you don't want us Norteamericanos watching, I will go elsewhere.

PS- I do plan on forwarding this to other English Language Media outlets so that they can find out about just how racist Univsion is.

To my suprise, I had a message this afternoon on my voicemail from the legal department at Unvision-it must have been sent about 5 hours after I submitted that e-mail. I contacted the legal department when I woke up, and the gentleman with whom I spoke apologized profusely, saying that such language WAS NOT welcome on the Univision web site. When I clicked onto the same story a little later, I found that the headline had been changed to "Otra Vez Perdio Mexico".(Mexico loses again). I have to say that I was impressed with how quickly Univision handled this situation-if nothing for the principle that if the English-Speaking press in the US has to be held to standards in terms of hateful words about people of Latino-Origin, then the same standard has to be applied to the Spanish speaking mediums that operate in the U.S.A. I have to say, with apologies to the writer Carlos Fuentes, this 'Old Gringo' felt Vindicated.

We had a get together on Sunday night for a combination of "Happy Birthday Ian and Bon Voyage Ian". Ian leaves for the Ukraine tomorrow with a group from Church for three weeks. I don't mind saying that I am a little envious. I have always wanted to go visit some countries that used to be part of the Soviet Union. It's funny how the world changes. Back when I was Ian's age, there  were VERY few Americans who had a chance to travel on the other side of the "Iron Curtain". It's funny how in a little over 25 years, Minneapolis has a ton of Russian Emigres and American kids can visit and go to school in Russia and the former Soviet Union.

On a totally unrelated note, the U.S Men's National Team beat Mexico 2-1 in Chicago for the Gold Cup title. What is so great about beating Mexico in soccer-and most of the last 7 years the US has dominated the series- is that the average Mexican would give his left nut for "El Tri"-the Mexican National Team to win the World Cup in Soccer. The average American could give a rip. Even when the U.S plays Mexico at home, like they did today, it might as well be played in the Azteca Stadium in Mexico city, because the LARGE majority of fans in Soldiers Field were wearing green, red and white. For many, many years in Soccer, Mexico was the only country that was any good in the sport in North and Central America. They were the big fish in a small, shallow pond.  For Mexicans, a proud people, who have always felt like second class citizens to the US.(maybe losing  a huge chunk of their country to the U.S during the War with Mexico, having the American flag fly over Mexico City, when General Winfield Scott routed the Mexican Army there, and having to come to the US to do the dirty grunt work that the average gringo does not want to do, can give you some complexes, to be sure) Soccer, for the average Mexican, was the ONE arena that they could say they were better than the Gringos....now, after coming out on the short end of the score against an American team-again...the Mexican soccer fan has to come to grips that we have their number in their favorite sport.

I just got done reading some commentary in the Univision(Spanish Language) coverage of the final, and the amount of whining and moaning is enough to put a smile on my face for the rest of the week.

I can empathize with Mexican Soccer fans. There is nothing so humbling as getting beat in your national game. American Basketball fans have been having to deal with our best NBA players coming home with Bronze medals from the last Olympics and last World Basketball Championships.

I actually hold Mexican soccer in fairly high regard-El Tri and Argentina clearly played the best game in last years World Cup. Their players have great skill....they just can't beat the U.S, which just drives the players and Mexican fans 'muy loco'.

My son Ian turns 20 today. As warm and as humid as it was in Minneapolis today, it was nothing like the 90+ degree heat in San Antonio, where Ian was born at Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lakland Air Force Base. It's hard to believe that 9 pound baby has now become a man, who has done a lot in his young life to make both me and his mother very proud.

The thing that you notice when your kids become adults is that you can remember very well what you were like and what you were doing at that age. Ian is now between his Sophomore and Junior years of college.

I remember the car ride with my father coming back to Minnesota when he picked me up at Wartburg College. On the ride back to the Twin Cities, my dad did not mince any words: " Steve, the Real Estate business is not doing very well. Whether you go to France at all in September, and how well you are going to live once you get there is going to depend on what you make this summer." As my thoughts turned to just HOW I was going to make that kind of money, my dad brought a little more reality to this reality check: "Don't think you are going to be able to make enough money working 40 hours a week-you are going to need to work and save a lot more to be able to pull this off."

I ended up working at two restaurants, a pizza place called "My Pie Pizza" and a "Perkins" accross Highway 55 from the Channel 11 studios in Golden Valley. I would average 60-70 hours a week in those two restaurants for the rest of the summer into early September. My typical day during that summer of 1981 was this:

0900-Wake up

0930 Peddle my bike to work and start working as a prep cook(usually making pizza sauce or cutting mozerella) Start washing dishes at around 1115.

2PM Leave work and ride my bike home, where I would nap untill about 5pm.

6Pm Leave my dad's house and ride my bike to Perkins, work as a busboy-dishwasher untill  bar rush was over, about 0200-0230 and go home.

That was a typical day.

In the end, I saved up enough money to get to study in Montpellier, France. I had a great year, and I don't mind telling you that I really appreciated it so much more because I paid for it myself.(That and selling some stock that my grandfather had left me when he died) That summer gave me a great appreciation for hard work and the value of a dollar and saving money-talk about the gift that keeps giving!

My son Ian turns 20 on June 12th. He is about to celebrate two decades of life. As the parent of a soon-to-be 20 year old and a 16 year old daughter, I am humbled of growing maturity of this young man and young woman. As Ian and Rachel reach the cusp of adulthood, I was brought back to earth quickly by a news item from Kansas this week.

An 18 year old young woman named Kelsey Smith was abducted from the parking lot at a Target store in Overland Park, Kansas. After a 48 -72 hour period of her being missing, her body was found at a park in Missourri. I cannot begin to tell you, dear reader, about the funk this senseless murder put me in. Here was a young woman, just graduated from high school, about to go to the same university as her older sister, the daughter of a cop-who undoubtedly coached his daughter on street smarts and how to not be a victim.

This story really hammered home the point that eventhough your kids maybe pretty independent, you cannot be there for them at all times to protect them. That's a very sobering feeling, as a father. This story has made me flash back to the abduction and murder of 18 year old Dru Sjodin, a young woman from Pequot Lakes, Minnesota who was abducted outside of a mall in Fargo, North Dakota a couple of years ago. These two stories remind me of a hard truth that I plan on telling Rachel:"Run, drop to the ground, no matter WHAT the guy threatens you with, do NOT get into the car with an abductor. The minute you get in the car, the chances of having a good outcome go way, way down.

I have the luxury of seeing my oldest child turn 20 and to hug my daughter the next time I see her. The parents of Kelsey Smith, will never have that chance. Spare a thought and a prayer for her family during an agonizing time. I can only just imagine how harrowing it is to keep seeing the newsclip footage of the Target surveillance video showing their vibrant daughter walking out of Target without a care in the world. At least the same video system also helped narrow down the search for her alleged killer. Hopefully justice will be served-but it still won't bring Kelsey back, will it?

Every year during the high school graduation season, you hear about some petty action on the part of high school or school district administrators. Here is my winner for the class of 2007:

GALESBURG, Illinois (AP) -- Five students denied diplomas after cheers erupted when their names were called at a high school graduation emerged empty-handed Tuesday from a meeting with school administrators

The students and their families met briefly with Galesburg High School officials at an administration building, but they were again denied the diplomas because no one apologized to school officials for the cheers at the May 27 ceremony.

The students in the central Illinois town about 150 miles southwest of Chicago will still graduate and receive their transcripts, even if they don't receive the keepsake diplomas.

School officials withheld the diplomas because they said the cheering violated a school policy aimed at restoring graduation decorum. Officials told the five female students and their parents Friday that they would hand over diplomas if they received apologies -- even anonymously.

Now let's look at this closer. The kids did what they were supposed to do to graduate. The kids themselves did NOTHING wrong-it was their friends and families who cheered. Now I admit, after having been to 11 graduations at Cooper, the growing number of times when families cheer out loud and carry on has gotten a bit irritating, but I mean-to deny the kids their diplomas? You can argue that all the family members had to do was apologize to the school, and their kid would get their diploma. I'm sorry, I just think these school adminstrators have gotten to be too full of themsleves. The only thing in recent memory that was as stupid as this decison was that Florida high school a few years ago who would not let an honor student walk at her graduation because some parking lot monitor saw a steak knife in the back of her car in the school parking lot after this young woman-a scholarship winner, no less, had helped a relative with a move.

I guess in the end, education and common sense must be mutually exclusive.

When I made the decision to leave UHC back in September to take my job doing phone triage through the Childrens Hospitals and Clinics phone triage department, I don't think anybody thought that a dog would be the first casualty of that move.

A little over two years ago, we adopted a Papillion named Yogi. It's a small breed of dog, and like many small breeds, this Papillon barked...a lot. It was a minor irritant for us-although our neighbors Shawn and Roseanne would have liked to have had it  throttled. We live accross the street from a high school with a lot of pedestrian traffic, as well as people walking their dogs. This means that Yogi's AWACS/RADAR hearing system gets jogged a whole lot, which triggers a lot of barking. When you are trying to sleep during the day, that presents a real problem. We had tried a variety of ways to get Yogi to stop barking: shock collar? Failed miserably. He would scream while getting jolted and still keep barking. My wife had found out about a dog trainer who would have charged almost 500 bucks to train him not to bark. I guess that if I had a pure breed that I wanted to have make some puppies, I could almost rationalize that kind of money. With my daughter's horse expenses and a looming trip to Europe, I could not fork over that kind of dough.

The thing that made me feel guilty is that Yogi really is a nice dog-as long as you don't have younger kids. He's house trained, highly sociable, a ready partner when you are trying to sleep or nap-or just sitting on the sofa watching TV. For me, the barking was really wreaking havoc with my sleep-as well as Becky and Rachel. I found a Papillion Rescue on the web and contacted them. Today, a volunteer came by and picked up Yogi. I know Rachel felt really ambivilant about the situation, as well. She came home from school early so that she could say goodbye. I think with the right home, Yogi will be a great dog.

I am very curious to see how Buddha the Bulldog handles Yogi's departure and absence, because those two really did like to wrestle and tussle around.  We are now down to two dogs and two cats. It's been a long time since our animal numbers have been that low in the Adams Ark, but with how busy we are and where we are with our lives, I guess that is a natural progression. I hope that the decreased barking in the house will take everybody's stress level down-the fact that people should be getting less interupted sleep will be a good start.