An entertaining draw

– but a goalless one – between Peru and Ecuador. The Peruvians are a hairsbreadth from elimination. I’m sorry about that. They play hard but can’t score goals.

Peru: sixteen games played, six goals scored. 😢

Ecuador: sixteen games played, thirteen goals scored, five goals conceded. Three of the five were conceded during the first three games. These are amazing statistics. I wonder if any defense in CONMEBOL’s history has been so stingy (that is, since this qualification format was adopted in the mid-1990s). I’ll find out. Not tonight; after all the games have been played.

Average (i.e., mean) scoreline involving Ecuador: Ecuador, 0.8125 goals; opponent, 0.3125 goals.

Average (i.e., mode) scoreline: 0–0.

No wonder it has seemed so dreary. I should be grateful. This is historic.

Together with Venezuela’s defeat to Uruguay, this draw ensured Ecuador’s passage to the World Cup. Brazil also qualified. Uruguay and Paraguay each need one more point from two games (or else that Venezuela not obtain six). Colombia’s position also is strong. The Bolivians trail Venezuela by a point; either Bolivia or Venezuela will claim the play-in spot.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Protests this weekend. Stay safe! Better yet, stay home! Some protests are effective. My hunch is, these won’t be. They’ll just embolden the government to crack down further. This is a powder keg, and all it needs is for some cop or protestor to kill or get killed.

Don’t like how things are going? Vote.

May’s poem

… is from the first scene of John Marston’s play, The Dutch Courtezan (c. 1604).

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

The darke is my delight,

So ’tis the nightingale’s.

My musicke’s in the night,

So is the nightingale’s.

My body is but little,

So is the nightingale’s.

I love to sleep next prickle 🌵

So doth the nightingale.

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

Quoted in Anthony Powell, Temporary Kings (the eleventh novel of A Dance to the Music of Time).

When the play is staged, these lines are sung with recorder music for 2 min. 30 sec. (give or take a minute). Don’t listen; the tune’ll take root in your head.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

The new pope, Leo XIV, is a Chicago South Sider and a naturalized citizen of Peru who lived in the north of that country – in Chiclayo. These places are mere stone’s throws from South Bend and Guayaquil. So, Leo and I couldn’t be much closer to each other, provenance-wise. (I actually know people who used to live in Chicagoland and in Chiclayo; but they’re disqualified: they’re Lutherans.)

I’ve read that Leo named himself after the previous leonine pope. Uh, huh. We all know which Leo he really had in mind. Yes. The GOAT. (Who, it turns out, was named for Lionel Richie.)

Ecuador 4, Bolivia 0

With an eye on their upcoming home match against Paraguay, the Bolivians rested almost all of their starters. They brought a team of youngsters to Ecuador.

One of them committed an atrocious handball in the penalty box.

Not a good strategy in the Era of VAR.

Red card.

Penalty kick converted – barely – by Enner Valencia … who, two minutes later, assisted Gonzalo Plata.

Game over.

This was a cakewalk for us. I’ve never seen a game handed over quite so blatantly.

“Not a real game,” said the Peruvians who narrated my broadcast. I agree.

I had prayed for an anxiety-free contest. Boy, wasn’t it ever. It was dull.

After the fourth goal, and with half an hour remaining, we brought on a handful of subs who ran around like headless chickens, trying to score. They didn’t.

It could have been five, six, seven goals.

We’ve played eleven games; scored only ten goals (four of them last night); stayed comfortably within the qualification zone. Failed to inspire. I’ve yet to enjoy any of our matches. Our defenders are superb. Our attackers are bottomless wells of disappointment. The coaches tried too hard to defend early in the cycle, and we never got into a goalscoring groove.

We’ll play in Colombia on Tuesday. That might be our hardest remaining contest.

Copa América

Biden and Trump are debating, but I’m watching Bolivia vs. Uruguay.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Uruguay and Argentina are the cream of this tournament and should reach the final. I’d say that apart from them, only the Colombians have much of a chance (but I’d be speculating, since I missed their opening game).

By “much of a chance,” I mean about three percent.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Among the also-rans, several teams have had matches spoiled by red cards: Ecuador, Peru, and the USA.

I’m a modest person … I don’t like to gloat … but Ecuador’s red card was the least stupid of the three.

A Panamanian also was red-carded; but his punishment came late in the game, and it was for a proper, honest-to-goodness patada.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Happy birthday to my dear friend, Grace, the Salvationist.

Today also is the fifth anniversary of my dissertation defense. (I just pulled that volume off the shelf. For a double-spaced work, the typesetting really is aquittable.)

It must also be the fifth anniversary of my last meeting with Dick Miller and Nick Sturgeon. 🥺

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

R.I.P. Kinky Friedman, the Jewish Texan who wrote hilarious murder mysteries, set in Manhattan, in which he cast himself and his friends as detectives. (This description barely scratches Friedman’s surface.) I learned about him during the first lecture of my first college U.S. history class. I have no idea why he was mentioned, beyond the obvious fact that he was too important to omit.

A Pole’s woes; the “clásico del Pacífico”; plans for Samuel

More Euros. The Germans look decent … the Spanish look very good but depended on an Italian “own” goal for their second victory … the English look putrid … the Dutch and French played a tedious, scoreless draw … the French have yet to score (they did provoke an Austrian “own” goal; the Euros’ official tally, so far, is five).

Poland’s excellent but perennially luckless goalkeeper, Wojciech Szczesny, committed a penalty-kick foul with his face. He only received a yellow card.

(I first saw him in the opening match of the 2012 Euros; he committed a delicate penalty-kick foul then, too, and was ejected.)

The Copa América has begun. Argentina defeated Canada. Chileans and Peruvians kicked each other all through their scoreless draw; quite a few were incapacitated (their rivalry is known as the Pacific Classic).

Frodo et al. have ventured into Moria.

Samuel watches Scooby-Doo.

He was waitlisted by and then accepted into our preferred preschool. A relief; but I grieve that this summer will be his last before he heads out into the world.

Ecuador 1, Chile 0; Brazil 0, Argentina 1; Peru 1, Venezuela 1

The highlight videos might make you think we’re kinda good. That impression would be false. We’re very good at defending; apart from that, we’re putrid.

The coach has to go. Has to, has to.

Even so, I’m happy that we won and climbed to fifth place. (We were joint-fourth, briefly, but Venezuela reclaimed a point in Lima and moved ahead of us again.)

Brazil lost at home, to Argentina, and sunk to sixth. At least we aren’t Brazil. …

Ten months (ten!) until the next qualifiers. In that time, we could get a lot better. Or worse. Every team’s form could change.

Exotica

Bless Spotify, it helps me to find relics I never would have sought out on my own. It leads me from one style of old music to another style of old music.

These last weeks, I’ve been subjecting the household to heavy doses of mid-century exotica.

Yesterday’s find was Yma Sumac’s “Chuncho.” It caught my attention when I was several hours into Ritual of the Savage Album Radio.

This music is best listened to very, very late at night.

Much cover art in this genre is, shall we say, insensitive, in the manner of the Peter Pan song “What Makes the Red Man Red?”; but the music is without words. How un-PC is it to listen?

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

“Where are you going for your holiday?” asked one of my grad school professors one summer.

“I’m going home, to Ecuador,” I said.

“That’s right,” she said. “I heard that you were from somewhere, er, exotic.”

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

The review of this book stirs up other memories. Sixteen years ago, I took the author’s seminar on the topic (ancient epistemology). I read some of these chapters, along with related primary and secondary sources.

The sessions were grueling for this Greekless first-year student. Much time was spent staring at Greek words on the board and sometimes listening to, sometimes tuning out discussions of how to translate these words. (The classicists surely benefited more than did the philosophers who were taking the course to satisfy their distribution requirement.)

The procedure was necessary for covering the topic, and it was salutory for me to see it covered in this way. But I wish the professor had begun with a bald statement of her distinctive (“well-known”) interpretive approach and its problems, roughly what the review’s first paragraphs provide.

Graduate study is hard. There are ways to make it easier.

Or maybe the professor did give a bald statement of her approach, and I just don’t remember it or it went over my head. That’s certainly possible.

I remember our director of graduate studies – an epistemologist – telling me that the course would be easy because “it’s all just epistemology.” Yes, it’s all just epistemology, but that’s little comfort when it’s so complicated to maintain that ancient and 21st-century writers are trying to answer the same questions.

We are sued

It’s time to discuss the lawsuit that Chile has brought against Ecuador and our starting right-back, Byron Castillo. This suit jeopardizes our participation in the World Cup.

Castillo is accused of having lied about his nationality. Ecuador is accused of having fielded him ineligibly in eight World Cup qualification games.

What if Castillo and Ecuador are judged to be at fault?

Ecuador would forfeit all the points earned in those eight games, or else would be disqualified outright. And perhaps banned in the future. Which would be the worst outcome of all.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Who would benefit, then?

Here are two possibilities.

(1) The most obvious one is this. The Chileans, having been awarded the five points that they failed to earn in two games against Ecuador, would ascend to fourth place and qualify for the World Cup. Ecuador, points-poor, would have its qualification rescinded.

The precedent for this outcome was set during the qualification cycle of the 2018 World Cup. Chile and Peru were awarded points deducted from the Bolivians, who had fielded an ineligible player.

(Peru, not Chile, ultimately qualified.)

(2) Other nations with more clout than Chile also covet Ecuador’s place. One possible scenario involves Ecuador being disqualified outright and Italy qualifying for the World Cup.

But isn’t Italy in a different confederation?

Yes.

Wasn’t Italy eliminated by North Macedonia, even before the last European playoff round?

Yes.

Then why Italy?

Because the Italians are the world’s best-ranked eliminated team. By this criterion, they’re the most deserving eliminated team. More deserving than North Macedonia, the team that beat them.

If this reasoning sounds ad hoc to you, well, it is. But I’m not surprised that this option is being discussed.

It wouldn’t be the first time FIFA’s (highly dubious) rankings played such an important role.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

All right, so much for the possible consequences. What merit have the charges?

They have been described elsewhere. Their gist is this. Castillo is alleged to have been born in Colombia, not Ecuador. There is an Ecuadorian birth certificate for Byron Castillo Segura; but, also, there is a prior Colombian birth certificate for Byron Castillo Segura.

I have seen this accounted for. The explanation is not described in the linked article, though perhaps it is alluded to in the title (“Could Ecuador Really Be Thrown Out of the World Cup Over ‘Ghost’ Castillo’s Identity Scandal?”). Castillo’s brother was born in Colombia and died young. A few years later, Castillo was born in Ecuador and given the same first name, but not the same middle name, as his brother.

Ecuadorian officials have long been uncertain about Castillo’s earliest documents. They investigated the matter for several years. Finally, in 2021, they cleared him to play for Ecuador.

What’s beyond dispute is that Castillo has lived in Ecuador, as an Ecuadorian, since he was very young; that he has had up-to-date citizenship documents for some years; and that the government recognizes him as a citizen.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

This is the fourth time the Chileans have sought a judicial ruling that would usher them into a World Cup.

In the cycle of 1971–1974, this tactic worked, but in those of 1987–1990 and 2015–2018, it backfired spectacularly.

“Chile: Entering through the Window?” – a YouTube video that expains this history. (Spanish only, I’m afraid.)

From what I’ve seen, the world isn’t favorably impressed with Chile.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

What really bothers me is this. Suppose, for the sake of argument, that Castillo was born in Colombia, that his documents weren’t in order, and that Ecuador is complicit in covering this up. Not good. Procedure ought to be respected, and the truth ought not to be kept hidden. But … here are all these rich European countries, fielding players born in their former colonies, excelling in and even winning tournaments with these players, and no one brings a legal challenge; no one says, it’s grossly unjust that England, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, etc. continue to gain advantage from their history of colonialism. But when a family moves from one poor country to another, and the second country takes in that family as a matter of compassion, conscientiousness, or neighborliness, as it habitually has done and continues to do … then, to preserve their advantage, richer countries pounce, saying, Aha! your paperwork is not in order, as if what a government deemed acceptable for the day-to-day purposes of citizenship weren’t good enough for this citizen to represent his country in the World Cup.

Paraguay 3, Ecuador 1

Not our best outing.

Fortunately, the Chileans failed to defeat Brazil (they came up five goals short), and Uruguay defeated Peru (somewhat controversially). These results guaranteed our qualification for this year’s World Cup, with a game to spare.

Uruguay qualified, too.

The really shocking result was in Europe: North Macedonia eliminated Italy, the continental champions.

As of this writing, we are the qualified nation with the second-least World Cup experience. This will be our fourth World Cup. For Qatar, the host nation, it will be the first.

Thirteen of thirty-two places remain unclaimed.

A snowy day; the groundhog; the new boy; the first boy; Peru 1, Ecuador 1

It was warm enough yesterday for me to push Samuel around the block. Today, though, it’s “the snowy and the blowy” – times ten thousand.

Karin went to her job. Her office stayed open until 1:00, and then she was sent home. Her car got stuck in our driveway; I had to push it back into the street. Then I used the “snow blaster” to clear away most of the snow. And now the driveway is all covered again.

Along our street, people have been shoveling all day, and I feel like a slacker because I’ve only gone out twice to clear away snow.

I doubt the groundhog will make any sort of appearance.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

I’ll tell you who will appear, Lord willing: our new son. Or he might wait a couple of weeks. Last night, Karin & I took Samuel to my parents’ house so we could shop and he could practice receiving care from those abuelos (as he will when Karin & I go to the hospital). His conduct, reportedly, was very good; already he knows to clean up his act for certain audiences. Then this morning, as usual, he wrestled with and mugged me, and when I innocently stood up to give myself a rest, he tried to pull off one of my shoes.

I pray every day that both of our sons will be good and pious people. For now, Samuel seems not to have been spared the normal regimen of hard learning.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Last night’s World Cup qualifier was productive but unsatisfying. Ecuador scored in the third minute and controlled everything until the middle of the second half. Then we failed to deal with a loose ball in the penalty area, and the Peruvians scored.

That’s two games in a row in which we’ve given up a goal in this manner.

So, we haven’t qualified for the World Cup – at least, not with mathematical certainty. But it’s extremely likely that we’ll qualify.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Now the pedantic bit. (Feel free to stop reading. Or look at this article, which delineates most of the relevant facts and possibilities. Because Colombia recently lost, “Option 5,” near the bottom, is the pertinent one.)

Each team must play two more games, on March 24 and 29.

Only three rivals – Chile, Peru, and Uruguay – can overtake Ecuador; and if not more than one does, we’ll qualify.

Ecuador will finish with at least 25 points.

Chile can’t earn more than 25 points.

If Peru earns more than 25 points, Uruguay can’t do so.

If Uruguay earns more than 25 points, Peru can’t do so.

What if these teams match but don’t surpass Ecuador’s point total? Ecuador’s goal differential – the first tiebreaker – currently surpasses Chile’s, Peru’s, and Uruguay’s by eleven goals or more. Ecuador also leads all three rivals by a significant number of goals scored; this is the second tiebreaker. What is more, Ecuador outperformed Uruguay and Chile – though not Peru – in head-to-head encounters, which constitute the third tiebreaker.

Finally, Ecuador would guarantee qualification by avoiding defeat in at least one game. And neither Paraguay nor Argentina would benefit by defeating us. So, that works in our favor, too.

Ecuador 1, Brazil 1

Samuel is a well-read and affectionate little boy. Should he maintain his current interests, however, he is likely to become a wrestler for the WWE. Eighty percent of his waking hours are spent gleefully kicking, scratching, eye-gouging, headbutting, and bodyslamming his father. I don’t exaggerate; if he weren’t pint-sized, it would be unbearable.

Also, he doesn’t allow me to read. The last three weeks, I made it my priority to read one book. (I was out of renewals and needed to return it to the library.) It was an easy and entertaining book. I only got through half of it. I’ll blog about it should I ever finish the last two hundred pages.

Tonight Samuel is mugging me while I type. This afternoon he mugged me all during Ecuador’s World Cup qualifier against Brazil. Brazil scored in the first ten minutes; a little later, our goalie, Alexander Domínguez, was red-carded; a little after that, a Brazilian was red-carded. Then another Brazilian, the goalie Alisson, was red-carded, but his red card was rescinded by the VAR. In the second half, we were awarded a penalty kick; it was rescinded by the VAR. Then we scored the tying goal from a corner kick. Then we were awarded another penalty kick and Alisson was red-carded a second time, but again the foul and red card were rescinded by the VAR.

I thought the Brazilians managed the game quite well, though they didn’t create many scoring chances. For Ecuador, it was good to earn the draw after such an awful start.

We have three more matches to play. If we win Tuesday night’s match, away to Peru, our qualification will be guaranteed. Many other scenarios also would allow us to qualify.

It is still very cold and snowy, and Karin has built a shelter in our back yard for stray cats, using plastic bins and straw.

The homework machine; “Peruvians live in Peru”; classic toons

I found, on YouTube, a record that I used to listen to when I was a child in Esmeraldas: Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine.

Side 1:

Side 2:

Along with the Hardy Boys novels, this record introduced me to U.S. teenhood. From it I picked up 1950s–1960s lingo (This must be how teenagers talk, I thought) and some regrettable attitudes about doing homework.

The story is told as a musical. When I was a child, I didn’t relish this. Now I think the songs are pretty funny:

Girls are a pain

You know what I mean

They like going shopping

And they like keeping clean

And now I realize that the characters are pre-teens, not teenagers.

The best song is by a girl whose computer-generated report on Peru has been sabotaged; and who, therefore, must “wing it,” Sally Brown-style, in front of the class:

Peruvians live in Peru

Just like you’d expect them to do

Just like Romans live in Rome

And the Finns make Finland their home

Peruvians live in Peru

Just like you’d expect them to do

I like it that her classmates start singing along with this drivel. Then the song morphs into a mariachi or whatever. Wrong country … but this does reflect the student’s predicament.

Samuel was fascinated by all of this – the songs, the disembodied dialog (he hasn’t heard many podcasts or radio dramas), and, especially, the computer noises.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

An even better find: five hours of classic Looney Tunes, gorgeously remastered.

It’s a pleasure to watch old favorites like “A Corny Concerto” (the second cartoon in the video) looking this good.

Samuel liked this pretty well, too.

How to disqualify your textbook from the Christian college market

Ecuador, one goal; Peru, the last-placed team, two goals. The manner of the defeat left little to be hopeful about.

Due to other results, we’re still in third place. But we were similarly lofty at the beginning of the previous World Cup cycle. I’d say, we’re about to go into another tailspin.

It takes just one really poor game, and we’re in big trouble.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

No libertarian myself, I enjoy reading philosophy by libertarians and classical liberals (and by other fans of liberty-as-noninterference). These writers can be refreshingly plain-spoken. Jason Brennan is like this. So is Michael Huemer. (I assigned a chapter by Huemer when I lectured at Bethel a couple of months ago.) So, I was excited to read Brennan’s endorsement of Huemer’s new self-published book.

The best intro textbook ever, Brennan raves.

So, I gave the textbook a look.

It may be a good book. It may be a good textbook for a secular college. But it could never be used in a conservative Christian college. It has too many swear words, and the acknowledgments page includes this line:

I’d also like to thank … God, if He exists, for creating the universe; and Satan for not maliciously inserting many more errors into the text.

I’ll say this for Huemer: his writing is not obsequious; it doesn’t pander to anyone.

Except, maybe, to the agnostics and the Satanists.

The perils of routine

Samuel constantly asks to be read to. Is this such a good thing? He seems rather desperate. If I’m not reading to him, he brings a book and slaps it down hard on my lap or face or computer; if I refuse him, he cries; if I begin to comply, he hyperventilates until I’ve picked him up and set him on my knee.

I wonder what I’m doing wrong with the child. He has good objectives, but his methods are terrible.

Today we read the original Madeline four times. We also read three of the sequels, and several books unrelated to Madeline. It must have been over three hundred pages – just of Madeline.

This can’t be good for him, can it?

His diet also needs more variety.

Repetition suited him well enough during his first year and a half outside of the womb. Lately, though, it seems to be making him bored and obsessive.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

World Cup qualifying has resumed in South America. Ecuador will play in Brazil tomorrow night, and at home, against Peru, on Tuesday.

Three soccer finals

On Sunday, the final matches were held for three major tournaments.

The Women’s World Cup final

I watched much of this – but not all of it (there were competing obligations of church and lunch).

The gringas appeared to be as dominant as they ever have been in history.

The Dutch weren’t bad, exactly, but their plan was too timid: they defended near their own goal and tried to counterattack with just one or two players. Their goose was cooked when they committed a ridiculous penalty foul which gave the USA the lead.

On the gringas’ second goal, the Dutch backpedaled down the middle of the field until the opposing ball carrier was close enough to shoot.

Here are scenes of the gringas partying in their locker room.

The Copa América final

This was a good, old-fashioned Southern Cone-style brawl. Don’t let Brazil’s glamorous reputation fool you. This team is basically another Uruguay – very tough on defense, organized without the ball, slick in attack at the most devastating moments.

The referee called two controversial penalties – one for each side, which I thought good – and had the guts to eject the diaper boy Gabriel Jesus.

Let me forestall misunderstanding: I like Gabriel Jesus, despite his rather sordid tastes (according to Wikipedia, he “reportedly chose to wear number 33” for his club team, Manchester City, “in tribute to the age at which Jesus Christ is believed to have been crucified,” and he and fellow diaper boy Neymar “got matching tattoos … depicting a boy overlooking a favela”). On the field, everything Gabriel Jesus does is productive – which distinguishes him from Neymar.

If Neymar had been playing, I doubt Brazil would’ve been able to control the game so well without the ball. Neymar would’ve insisted on dribbling everywhere.

Instead, he watched from the stands. (The next day, he would miss a training session for his club team, Paris Saint-Germain, triggering much speculation in the press.) He’d been left off Brazil’s roster because of an ankle injury. He’d also been accused of rape.

His replacement, Everton, won the tourney’s Golden Ball award and, in the final match, scored a goal and drew a penalty foul.

Of the Peruvians, we can say that they played well but were unable to break down the Brazilian defense.

The Gold Cup final

I only saw the highlights of this final, which appears to have been a closer contest than I expected.

Some of my friends here in South Bend are diehard USA fans. I wonder: did any of them make the trip to Soldier Field in Chicago?

If so, what was it like in that cauldron, 75% of which was occupied by fans of Mexico?

Panama vs. Ecuador; a “world power”; Rams vs. Chiefs

We achieved another victory in a “friendly” match. These were the highlights.

After playing an indifferent first half, we took the lead. Our Panamanian hosts scored a tying goal in the 85th minute, but Énner Valencia scored our winning goal in the 88th, dribbling past several defenders as he’d done against Peru.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Yesterday, it was announced that Ecuador had scheduled a match against a “world power.”

(This is an example of how our national team’s Facebook page has perfected the art of click-baiting. “World power” lends itself to more than one interpretation.)

Of the responses on Facebook, this was my favorite:

Potencia mundial estos tarrineros HP más juega el aucas q EEUU.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Also worth noting: the Chiefs and the Rams – each of which, before this weekend, had a regular-season record of nine wins and one loss – staged an all-time NFL classic last night.

These were the highlights.

This is some analysis.

A clockwork dove

Ecuador played against Peru, in Lima. It was just a “friendly” match. But Ecuador and Peru are rivals, and Ecuador had been playing dismally for many months, and the Peruvians were agrandados. (There’d been some nonsense in the press about “la paloma mecánica,” i.e., the Clockwork Dove).

The Ecuadorians committed their usual number of defensive errors. Fortunately, the line judges were sharp, and they made several close, correct offsides calls that kept Peru off the scoreboard. Then, in the second half, Énner Valencia shredded the Peruvian defense, helping Ecuador to convert two goals.

These were the highlights.

It was Ecuador’s first victory in two years against South American opposition.

Xmas’s eve’s eve’s eve

One third of my vacation is spent. I didn’t write as much as I should’ve done. I can’t even claim to have rested well.

My cold persists. Its decline, while slow, is at least steady. (Karin’s cold yo-yos up and down.)

Ziva has been discreetly vomiting – we think she’s trying to work a furball out of herself. Tonight, Jasper did a tremendous vomit. He scarfed down his quarter-cup of supper (he isn’t used to dieting yet). What goes down (like that) must come up. Karin took pity and gave Jasper a little more food.

Thanks to my “Secret Santa,” I’ve received the first four volumes from my wishlist. Just eight more volumes to go.

Festivities begin tomorrow with a full night and morning of partying at Karin’s dad’s house. Then, we’ll spend Christmas’s Eve at my Uncle John’s & Aunt Lorena’s house. As always, I look forward to the mini-wieners and other snacks to be served there.

The Peruvians got an early Xmas present. Paolo Guerrero’s ban was reduced to six months. He will play in the World Cup. To the authorities, he offered up the old “coca leaf, not cocaine” defense.

Snow

… has begun falling upon South Bend. A good few inches have stacked up. Trucks plow and salt the roads. When I go out walking, I wear two tattered, hooded sweatshirts – I’ve outgrown my winter coat.

It feels as if winter has been here all along.

Xmas gifts have been arriving through the post. I thank whoever sends them (my siblings and I are using the “Secret Santa” method). I, too, have been ordering gifts for my designated beneficiary.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

I congratulated Edoarda & Stephen for staying at home the last few wintry days. Stephen, who’s just had his wisdom teeth removed, alternates between viewing the TV, sleeping, and throwing up. Edoarda watches over him.

Karin & I visited E&S last night. We viewed the episode of The Office in which Steve Carell spanks his jackass of a nephew. That justice of that scene was most pleasing.

At my own office, the year is slowly, strenuously concluding. Yesterday, one tutee asked me to proofread seven pages – hardly an unusual request. But the next tutee brought in 14 pages, and then a third brought in 28 pages, single-spaced. Her expectations were too high. Each tutoring session should require 30 minutes or less. (And, besides, we tutors aren’t supposed to proofread – we’re obliged only to explain “patterns of error.”)

I suppose there are moments in every job when the worker questions the wisdom of his industry. I was far beyond that stage. I only wanted the suffering to end, and it did, several hours later.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Paolo Guerrero’s ban for taking cocaine has been extended until November of next year. Peru will miss him in the World Cup.

Meanwhile, the ban upon Emelec’s stadium has been rescinded (alas). What’s more, Ecuadorian TV companies have been forbidden from broadcasting the domestic finals – I’m not sure why – and the referees are threatening to strike for past-due wages.

I list all the World Cup teams

Last night, I watched Peru defeat New Zealand, 2–0, to qualify for the World Cup. Earlier yesterday, Australia defeated Honduras, and the previous day, Denmark defeated the Republic of Ireland. And so the qualification cycle has ended.

Before I went to sleep, I recited all of the qualified teams to Karin:

Egypt
Morocco
Nigeria
Senegal
Tunisia

Australia
Iran
Japan
Saudi Arabia
South Korea

Belgium
Croatia
Denmark
England
France
Germany
Iceland
Poland
Portugal
Russia
Serbia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland

Costa Rica
Mexico
Panama

Argentina
Brazil
Colombia
Peru
Uruguay

Iceland (not Ireland) and Panama are first-time participants. Peru last reached this stage when I was less than a year old.

I have vivid World Cup memories of all the other teams.