Race Day

Today is the running of the big race--the Indy 500. They say it is the single-day event with the largest attendance in the world. For some reason, the organizers of the event never reveal the actual attendance each year, but estimates of spectators range from 300,000 to 500,000. I've been once (see my blog of May 25th), and it was fun, but I think once is enough. I don't like to be around that many people and sitting out in the sun all day. I'd guess that over half of them have had too much to drink. So watching the race is only part of the fun; you get to watch lots of drunk people stumble around and see some who are passed out under the stands in the shade. I guess they wake up after the race and ask "What happened?" The race isn't televised live, here in Indianapolis, anyway. We like to watch the race in the evening, after it is all over, and you know who the winner is. It's still fun to watch. But you don't get the complete experience of going out to the track with the crowd. Since I'm not a big car racing fan, watching it on TV on tape delay is just fine.

Birthdays Past and Present

Yesterday was my birthday. I'm not going to say which one. I had a great time with my family and friends. We had a Mexican-style barbecue (carne asada)and birthday cake. My daughter Carolina gave me a pair of BB target pistols with plastic BBs. Some of us guys went out in the backyard for some target practice. The pistols were very accurate from about 10-15 feet. We soon discovered that the impact of the BBs was not that great, so we ended up running around (moving targets) the yard shooting each other in the butt. We had a blast.

When I was a kid your birthday was a highlight of the year. My mother would say that the birthday boy or girl was "King/Queen for the Day." I remember getting cool presents like a baseball glove, a bicycle, and a BB gun. My Mom would always say that the Birthday King/Queen could have anything to eat. My favorite was Campbell's Beef Soup and banana cream pie. Of course we'd always have a special birthday cake and ice cream, too. Our family tradition was that just before the Birthday King/Queen blew out the candles, someone would say "Don't spit on the cake!"

When you get a little older, birthdays are still fun, but in a different way. Birthdays on the "milestone" years (30,40,50) can be a little unnerving. It's more about spending time with family and friends, getting silly birthday cards and goofy presents like BB pistols, and not so much about getting lots of presents. I am already looking forward to my birthday next year!

One of my best birthday presents this year was a cool Hawaiian shirt from by best buddy Nick (see my May 11 blog, "Finding Nick"). Nick and I were best friends in high school and then went our separate ways and lost track of each other until last year when we connected via the Internet. Nick remembered that we bought each other matching shirts from the small department store where we worked for our 15th birthdays (Nick's is on May 20, mine on May 26). I have no memory of this, but it's too crazy to make up. So we decided to start a tradition and buy each other "matching" birthday shirts each year. I sent him a Black silk Hawaiian shirt last week and yesterday a similar green print Hawaiian shirt appeared via UPS. So I guess they are matching shirts-- same style, different colors.

The Indy 500

The big race is coming up this weekend. I am not a big car racing fan, but I have lived in Indiana for the past ten years so I have gotten somewhat interested over the years. I follow the Indy 500. Not interested in NASCAR. Two years ago my wife's sister and my brother-in-law Arnold were visiting from Mexico. Arnoldo loves cars and car racing. So I took him to Carb Day (Friday before the big race) and the Indy 500. It was a great experience for the both of us. I think it was a highlight in Arnoldo's life, being able to go back to Mexico and say he had actually seen the Indy 500. We sat on Turn One (the cheap seats), the area they used to call the "Snake Pit," because people went there to do everything except watch the race. We didn't see much of that, except excessive drinking, and people passed out under the stands. We saw a couple of crashes, but nobody got hurt. We had a great time and the next day we went to the Museum inside the Speedway. Arnold was like a little kid looking at all the cars. He knew a lot about the different kinds of cars and engines, too. We spent most of the day there. I would have spent about an hour in the museum if I had been alone. That might be the only Indy 500 I will ever see live. Since I'm not a racing fan, I think once is enough. But I'll bet Arnoldo would like to see another one.

Is Soccer Cool?

Soccer is a very cool game, in my opinion. Not just in my opinion, but in the opinion of people around the world; it is the most popular game in the world, everywhere except the USA that is. With the World Cup coming up next month, everyone around the world will be watching the games and rooting for their countries to win, including Americans who will be cheering on the US team.

But what happens after June? Americans will be back to the NBA, baseball, and getting ready for the NFL season, and soccer will be largely forgotten until the next World Cup in four years. I was listening to the host on an ESPN radio talk show about this very thing this morning. His theory is that in the USA soccer isn't perceived as "cool" and to be a successful sport in the US, a sport needs to be seen as "cool," like professional baseball, basketball, and football. We love "cool" players like Lebron, Payton Manning, and Alex Rodriguez. Quick: Name a "cool" professional U.S. soccer player. The host made the comment that in the US, when you mention soccer, most people think of "soccer moms" driving their daughters to games in mini-vans, eating orange slices, and everyone gets a trophy after the game. I have three daughters who played soccer, when they were young, so I know about this first hand. So, the host says, maybe soccer has an image problem in the US. It just isn't perceived as "cool." Until it is thought of as "cool" with "cool" soccer hero players, it really won't be considered a popular sport here at the professional level. This will take a while.

The iPad

I'm not a power user of technology, but I think I can spot a technology product of dubious value and a limited life expectancy. That's how the iPad strikes me. It seems that Apple produced this new digital tablet because "it could." On one of the late night talk shows recently, the host was joking that people would purchase the iPad just to see what it is. Not a strong product endorsement. My daughter's boyfriend knows a lot about technology. He always has an iPhone in his hand and is constantly checking for text messages from his buddies, e-mail, and searching the Internet to find answers for whatever we happen to be talking about. I asked him about the iPad. With a look of disdain, he said the iPad doesn't do anything more than his iPhone does and he couldn't stick it in his pocket like his iPhone (not that he ever does). I guess Apple has sold a lot of iPads, but something tells me they might not be around long. But I could very well be wrong, especially about technology.

Digital Books? No Thanks.

The demise of printed books has been predicted for many years. With recent advances in technology we have Ebooks, Kindles, PDFs, and so on. I think it will be quite a while until printed books go away because they have become part of our culture. Think of what you can do with a printed book that you can't with a digital book. Many people like to have a book shelf filled with books they have read or intend to read someday. I do. Curling up in bed or in front of a fire with your favorite book is not the same as curling up with a Kindle. It's a different experience. You can dog ear your favorite paperback book and stick it in your back pocket to read later. You can't do that with a Kindle. If you are lucky, you can go to an author signing, buy a book and have the author sign it. I have several signed copies of books that I cherish. Try that with an digital book. Most people would rather read a printed page than a computer screen. I think it will be a while, maybe never, before people stop buying and reading printed books. There will probably always be some die hards, like me, who don't want to give up their library of printed books. Maybe if most people start reading digital books, the prices of printed books will go up. I'll still buy them and put them on my bookshelf.

Hemingway and Spain

I just finished reading Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises. An excellent novel, and I was especially interested because the book was set in Spain and described bullfights and fiestas. I lived in Mexico for five years where I taught Linguistics at a state university. My wife Elvira is from Mexico. I teach Spanish at a state community college. My wife's maternal grandmother, Elvira, was born in Spain and moved to Mexico, where she married Elvira's grandfather. Grandmother Elvira died young of tuberculosis, so Elvira never got to meet her. It is said that Elvira had flaming red hair. We have a black and white photo of her, so we can't really tell about the color of her hair. One of Elvira and my items on our "bucket list" is to travel to Spain, spend some time there travelling around and find some of her distant relatives. Her grandmother's maiden name was Franco, so I hope that we don't find that she was related to the fascist general and dictator of the same name. I also like to go trout fishing, so I would love to go fishing for trout in the mountains of northern Spain as Jake and his friends did in The Sun Also Rises. By the way, Jake sounds a lot like Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway was a big fisherman and aficionado of bullfights.

I think the next Hemingway book I will read is A Farewell to Arms, a semi-autobiographical novel about an American ambulance driver in Italy during World War I.