Two streaks; season’s reading; body-text fonts, pt. 10: Optima

A little trivia, and then I’ll be quiet about the World Cup until the South Americans’ qualification tournament begins in March.

Two venerable – for me, virtually life-long – streaks were left intact:

(1) The tournament was won by a first-round group winner. Not since 1982 has this not occurred; that year, Italy won the tournament having finished behind Poland in the first round. (Italy did win its three-team quarterfinal group.)

The lesson: A team ought to play well enough from the outset to win its group and not just qualify out of it.

(2) Even more remarkable: The final game of this World Cup featured players employed by Bayern Munich and Inter Milan, as has every World Cup final since, and including, that of 1982. Dayot Upamecano (Bayern) was a starter in this year’s final, and Kingsley Coman (Bayern) and Lautaro Martínez (Inter) came off the bench – Martínez in the 102nd minute.

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I’ve picked some Canadian or quasi-Canadian literature to read or finish reading this winter.

• Margaret Atwood, Surfacing
• Kate Beaton, Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands
• Pierre Berton, The Comfortable Pew
• Rachel Cusk, Outline
• Robertson Davies, Tempest-Tost
• Brian Moore, The Mangan Inheritance
• Alice Munro, Dance of the Happy Shades
• Howard Norman, The Northern Lights (or maybe The Bird Artist)
• Carol Shields, The Stone Diaries
• Bernard Suits, The Grasshopper

And I’d like to get around to watching Mon oncle Antoine.

Good luck to me.

(This is in honor of the solstice, the coming blizzard, and especially Canada’s rare and brief World Cup appearance – most of which I contrived to miss. My Internet died during one game; I was in church during another; and during the third game, I chose to watch Belgium vs. Croatia instead.)

One of the books from my list is the source of this month’s body-text sample, which is set in Hermann Zapf’s Optima. This is surely one of the most elegant typefaces, although it’s not often used for large blocks of literary text. Which is a shame. The Canadian Journal of Philosophy was set in Optima many years ago. My church’s history, Merging Streams, is set in Optima, as is Tom Wolfe’s The Painted Word. This blog currently is typeset with an Optima clone, URW Classico. Another clone is Zapf Humanist 601; a third, with old-style numerals, is Epigrafica; and a fourth, with old-style numerals and small capitals, is Ophian.

Our annual holiday

The semifinals of the Champions League were unremarkable. The winners, PSG and Bayern Munich, played on Sunday, and Bayern deservedly came away with the title.

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Karin took some days off from work, as she does every summer, but this year we didn’t travel much. We went as far as New Buffalo, Michigan – forty-five minutes away. With our friends, Dan, Lizzie, and their children, we strolled through a county park distinguished by its marshy scenery and two boardwalks: one high in the air, the other at marsh level. We saw marsh plants and kayakers and little fishes.

Then we tried out the beach at New Buffalo. It was crowded with revelers from Illinois, so we left. Frankly, I’d rather have gone to a beach in wintry Old Buffalo. We went to Niles for lunch. On our way, in tiny Three Oaks, we were detained by a long parade of flag-waving tractor drivers.

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Karin & I have been counting kcals again. I’ve lost several lbs. Watching my diet has forced me to acknowledge that butternut squash is more filling and nutritious than jasmine rice. Mowing has become a more welcome chore, since it burns kcals and allows me to increase my food quota. I briefly considered buying a reel mower to work out even harder. Then I watched some videos of people using reel mowers and decided it wasn’t for me.

More quarterfinals

Attack, attack, attack was the theme of the first three quarterfinals, beginning with Atalanta’s.

In the second quarterfinal, RB Leipzig, which came into existence just eleven years ago, outplayed and defeated Atlético de Madrid (who’d so impressively ousted title-holders Liverpool). Leipzig sliced through Atlético’s middle for the first goal. The winning goal was fired in after a clever low cross.

Leipzig’s young center-back, Dayot Upamecano, bossed Atlético’s strikers.

The next game was one of the most breakneck-paced contests I’ve seen at this level. Both Baryern and Barça threw caution to the wind. Bayern’s high defensive line was especially shocking.

Indeed, the Catalans had early chances. They didn’t take enough of them. The Bavarians romped to a 4–1 victory in each half, improving upon their 7–2 group stage victory over the Potato Tots.

The experts are predicting that Barça will be renovated through and through.

There was less attacking in Lyon’s surprising victory over Manchester City. The Citizens possessed the ball but lacked ideas. The “signature” moment occurred when Raheem Sterling missed the tying goal just feet from the empty net.

Outcomewise there are various possibilities, but Bayern has the best team this year.

Quarterfinals

In the quarterfinals of the Champions League, a rather poor FC Barcelona team was ousted by Juventus, and Cristiano Ronaldo scored two offside goals to nudge Real Madrid past Bayern Munich. Real’s patsy, Atlético, also made it through, defending fiercely against Leicester.

Of the victors, only the Monacans don’t seem stale. They’ve scored, what, three goals in each of their last four knockout games? (They dispatched Dortmund in their quarterfinal.) They played in the final as recently as 2004, but in 2011–2013 they languished in Ligue 2. An influx of Russian cash restored their loftier standing.

I didn’t watch any of these games.

India

I had to buy a certain cheap-looking DVD for the high school Social Studies Dept. The back cover says:

Discover the enchanting and vibrant land of India and its people. INDIA – ONE COUNTRY, A MILLION WORLDS lets you explore ancient civilizations, phenomenal architecture and brings you up-close to India’s dynamic and diverse culture. Learn of India’s past and present, including Mahatma Ghandi’s struggle for India’s freedom and present day city life including customs and religious ceremonies. Everything from India’s geography and climate to present political formation is all here in INDIA – ONE COUNTRY, A MILLION WORLDS.
Running Time: 24 Minutes.

My Juan Bosch paper, which was due last Sunday, is nearly, but not completely, written. (I have excuses, but surely no one wants to hear them.) The teacher is breathing down my neck just a little. My loved ones are breathing down it quite a lot more. I want to curl up in a dark, small room so that I can watch Law and Order: Special Victims Unit in peace.

I do allow myself to check the soccer scores. Leicester City have won the English Premier League title, shocking the world. Atlético de Madrid have eliminated Bayern Munich from the Champions League. Independiente del Valle have eliminated River Plate from the Copa Libertadores.

Rumor has it, David has arrived from Houston, two weeks before the wedding.

Independiente vs. River; Atlético vs. Barcelona; Atlético vs. Bayern

I don’t know if Independiente del Valle even have 30,000 supporters; but last night the Estadio Atahualpa was full, and its crowd wore blue and black. The game itself lacked luster. Though Independiente hardly were breathtaking, River Plate, the defending champions, were cautious in the altitude.

Independiente’s goals came in the last half-hour.

Two goals to zero is a good home-leg result. In the second leg, River must again be cautious: receiving just one goal obliges them to tally four.

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Atlético de Madrid must surely be the world’s toughest team to play against. Every touch of the ball is, for them, a matter of life or death. And not only are they gritty; not only do they close up shop in front of the goal; they can be rather brilliant, too.

Lately, their astounding player has been the midfielder Saúl Ñíguez. See his outer-footed cross, to Antoine Griezmann, versus Barcelona; see his personal wonder-goal versus Bayern Munich.

See also Fernando Torres’s near miss.

A regrettable law

Wed. afternoon I watched Bayern Munich vs. Juventus. Their prior encounter, in Turin, had ended 2–2. So in Munich all that Bayern needed to do was to keep from getting scored upon.

But Juve quickly went up 2–0. Juan Cuadrado made a golazo, assisted brilliantly by Álvaro Morata. The quality of that goal had me cheering for Juve.

Bayern clawed their way back into the contest. They got the tying goal around minute 90.

Extra time suddenly immanent, Guardiola spoke some encouraging words to his players.

However, to my mind, that wasn’t what made the difference. Once the score was leveled, it always looked pretty grim for Juventus.

The game would unfold according to “John-Paul’s Law,” which says that when a team plays to win in 90 minutes, as it should, and then has the misfortune at the end to let in the tying goal, the other team, which has been playing for a regulation-time draw, will win in extra time; there will be no penalty shootout. This is one of the great unfairnesses of soccer. One notorious instance was the Champions League final of 2013, in which Real Madrid beat Atlético de Madrid. (An exception was the final of 2012, which went to penalties; but that was an odd case, because both teams’ goals came at the end of the regular period.)

Bayern would end up beating Juve 4 to 2. On the whole, what happened was entertaining – but regrettable.

A grand day off

Office-aide job A-OK.

Tutoring job old hat; still A-OK.

Dissertation not A-OK. (Old hat, though.)

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Along with the highschoolers, I have the day off, and so I want to use this empty moment to tell you to watch the first half of A.S. Roma vs. F.C. Bayern Munich, which was played last Tuesday for the UEFA Champions League. It was a fascinating first half. Not the prettiest first half I’d seen, but perhaps the awesomest one (and you know I never exaggerate). Bayern outscored Roma 5−0, and Roma weren’t even playing badly; Bayern were just that good. Their movements on the field were so intricate, so quick, I had trouble tracking them.

It wasn’t my favorite kind of soccer. It wasn’t effortless enough, and it wasn’t politically significant. It was astounding nonetheless.

The game should be available for a while on espn3.com.

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Today, out of love for Martin, I’m going to do some serious cleaning up. I’m going to clean up my bedroom, and I’m going to clean up the books that I’ve left stacked in the dining room. Also, I’ve lost my phone and I need to clean up the house to find it. Mary has the day off, too. Last night, she and I and Martin celebrated by going to the food court in the mall. We got into separate lines; I was counting out my quarters when Mary sneaked up behind me, put a five-dollar bill in my hand, and sneaked away. This melted the heart of the cashier, who tried to flirt with me. … Later, M&M and I went to Barnes & Noble, and though I didn’t have money to buy anything, I was able to look at the fonts.