by Ethan Johnson
September 10, 2006

I was working on the first of a series of articles, when I lost myself in thoughts about the brute force nature of advertising. Simply put, advertising, especially in the realm of the Fortune 500 company, is intended to decimate your imagination, and therefore increase the likelihood exponentially that you will pay for their product or service.

by Ethan Johnson
June 20, 2006

As Stage 1 winds down, there are lots of games being played concurrently, which means I am switching to a "roundup" format rather than comment on individual matches. Of course, I will return to the single match format for Stage 2, or sooner if a particular match has me gushing with material.

by Ethan Johnson
June 19, 2006

I mentioned at the start of this series that World Cup soccer doesn't quite capture the imagination of the typical US citizen like the rest of the soccer-playing world because we already have war. To amend that statement somewhat, our national self-esteem is not defined on the soccer field. And notice that we insulate ourselves against being measured against the world at large in our sporting events, where we declare "world" champions in events that were restricted to teams located in the USA. Sure, the pool of players is ever-widening, but the stadiums are here.

by Ethan Johnson
June 15, 2006

Apparently, I need to update my eyeglass prescription. I swear that the TV listings only showed Univision showing the World Cup games, with networks like ESPN literally devoting 20 minutes of "roundup" coverage. Perhaps my Tivo guide didn't update with the latest information. But indeed, the US sports media IS covering the World Cup, and even airing games. But it's not all soccer, all the time here in the US, lest anyone get the wrong impression.