Now that the preliminary rounds are over and we’re down to the Very Good teams, it’s time to choose sides. Serious baseball fans – even those whose teams have already fallen by the wayside – have picked the teams they’ll be rooting for over the rest of the way.
For the rest of you, here’s a quick guide to help you decide. Naturally, it will be biased towards my own preferences. If that’s an issue for you, let me know in the comments.
I don’t know about you, but I really can’t get excited about the baseball playoffs this year – and not just because the Mets are blowing what little chance they have of sneaking in.
There are just too many mediocre teams vying for a spot this year. “Wild Cards” were introduced back in the 90s, after two teams in the same division each won over 100 games. That the sport expanded to fifteen teams per league soon after that season helped, but that year there was a good deal of whining about how the second best team in all of baseball had to go home.
There’s not a singe team this year with a real chance to win more than 100 games, and even winning 95 games seems a stretch for most teams. While the races for divisional crowns are still not completely settled, a LOT of the “wild card” spots have people talking about which teams have won the season series against the other teams. When you have to start bringing tiebreakers into the mix at the lower levels, you have to admit it’s not that interesting….
And as we’ve seen recently, it’s all too likely that one of the lower seeds can get hot at the right time and defeat a much better team that’s having a cold spell and win the pennant. Having a pair of just barely above average teams playing in the World Series is not really what you want.
Even the “awards races” are pretty much locked up, so there’s not much excitement there. “Will Paul Skenes win the Cy Young with a losing record?” is about all there is. Maybe Cal Raleigh will get the AL MVP if he hits 60 home runs, but too many writers are still favoring Aaron Judge.
As to what World Series matchup would be coolest to see? I’m going to root for Mariners vs Brewers. There’d better be a LOT of talk about the Seattle Pilots in the lead-in!
(Yes, this is a blatant “space wasting” post…..)
It’s 1940, and the British are in dire need of funds to keep their war effort going. Fortunately, they’ve just received a report of a “Lost City” somewhere in Africa that’s sitting on a fortune in diamonds. Unfortunately, they don’t have information on it’s exact location. Time to call in a crack team of adventurers to find it before the Nazis do!
The “crack team” consists of The Colonel (Robin Bailey), his butler / assistant Tombs (Graham Stark), and our titular heroine Jane (Kirsten Hughes). Opposing them at every step along the way is a team of Nazis, led by Lola Pagola (Maud Adams), with her “muscle” Carl (Ian Roberts), trained assassin Heinrich (Jasper Carrot), and expert on Africa Dr. Schell (John Rapley).
If this sounds like a mashup of Raiders of the Lost Ark and King Solomon’s Mines, you win. I don’t know what you win, but you win something….
OK, let’s wrap this up. Not much more to talk about, anyway.
Belgium doesn’t really have its own culinary style. They’re too close to France. But they do have some “signature” dishes – not just waffles and frites – that are worth trying out.
Like any major city, Brussels has a lot of small but interesting places worth a visit. I stayed in the central city area and didn’t figure out mass transit, so I didn’t get out to see the Atomium. Perhaps next time.
Anyway, you might want to check out the Museum of Illusions. They’ve got a lot of the usual “these lines are really parallel” illusions, an Ames Room, and a few other “fun house” rooms where the visual cues screw up your orientation and induce vertigo. Continue reading
The oldest looking building on the Grand-Place is not actually the oldest one; it just looks that way. The “King’s House” used to be a special residence for government officials; now it’s the museum of the City of Brussels.
Of course it’s worth a look.
There’s the usual stuff about how the original settlement was at the farthest navigable spot on the Senne River, how the town grew to a city, it’s importance in trade, etc. And how the river turned into little more than an open sewer (that flooded on occasion), so it was decided that the best thing to do would be to cover it over.
OK, now that we’re rested, time to visit some museums.
I don’t think there are any dedicated to chocolate (there IS one for fries, though!).
But there are TWO for beer and brewing!
Let’s do the smaller one first.
Right, here it is, the Big One. Or the Big Two, if you want. A walking tour of Brussels, with tastings of chocolate and beer along the way. Thanks to Trip Advisor, I was tipped off to Hungry Mary’s Beer and Chocolate Tour – and it’s well worth your money.
Nina, our host and guide, started us off with a note that it’s better to do some chocolate first, before everyone is tipsy….
Pure Blather 