Brendan Gates

Soccer! Or football, if you want to get technical about it. Some call it the beautiful game, and others call it really boring. I’ve decided to become a fan. So what lucky club gets my support?

That’s a tough one. I can’t cheer for Manchester United, since one of my co-workers has claimed them already, and really, that kinda seems like cheering for the Yankees. Another co-worker has Chelsea already too (the two of them like to argue about it during the season). So I’m not going to be a Blue or a Red Devil, but that still leaves a lot of clubs.

Premier League (England): Arsenal and Liverpool. Both are great teams. Liverpool has Fernando Torres, but Arsenal’s majority stakeholder is Missourian Stan Kroenke (though the club is literally racked with debt).

La Liga (Spain): If I put down Man U for being the Yankees, then I can’t very well go with Real Madrid. FC Barcelona is probably my best bet here. Plus, they have a young winger named Lionel Messi that’s scoring goals like crazy.

Bundesliga (Germany): Only one choice here, Bayern Munich. Their stadium may look like somebody stepped on Epcot Center, but it’s still cool.

Serie A (Italy): AC Milan or Juventus are my choices here. I’m leaning towards Juventus because I like the uniforms better. Yes, that’s a totally legit way to make a decision.

I think this is going to take some more research. Suggestions are welcome.

I made a red vines run to my local Chevron the other day, and I found myself waiting in line behind a bearded guy who really enjoyed chatting up the lady clerk. As I stood there, pretending not to hear their conversation about beef jerky flavors, my eyes came to rest on this gem:

That’s right. It’s Jolt Gum, which is apparently the official sponsor of USA Water Polo. The first thing I thought was, the Jolt brand is still around? And the second thing I thought was, USA Water Polo has sponsors? Who knew?

I picked up a pack, of course. I’ll report back after I give it a chew.

I just finished watching the swimming events tonight. Michael Phelps won his eighth gold medal, and was immediately crowned the greatest person to ever live. I exaggerate, of course, but so does NBC so I figured it was okay.

The other big swimming story, at least according to NBC, was Dara Torres. She claimed her third silver tonight, which was an impressive feat considering she was battling swimmers half her age.

I probably sound like I’m not happy with the NBC coverage of the games, but that’s not totally true. Yes, they did show beach volleyball. And badminton. And 439 hours of boxing. All while they could have been showing more swimming. Yes, I would actually watch an empty pool if there isn’t an event going on. But I’m sure they did the best they could, considering how disinterested most Americans are in most Olympic events. I just want as much swimming as I can get, since it won’t be on TV again for a while.

Anyway, I mentioned Dara Torres earlier and there is another reason that I bring her up. A side note to her story is that her coach went into the hospital for a routine surgery, and ended up with an aplastic anemia diagnosis. I perked up immediately when I heard that, since I too have aplastic anemia, and it’s something I hear mentioned on TV about once every never.

My AA is idiopathic, which means that the cause is unknown or at least very obscure. Nobody has been able to pinpoint for me why I have this condition, or where I got it from. Exposure to radiation or certain chemicals is known to sometimes cause AA, so I’ve always joked that my years exposed to pool chemicals as a lifeguard and a swimmer was what secretly did me in. Now that there is a “public” diagnosis of another individual who has likely spent much time exposed to pool chemicals, my “joke” has to at least be upgraded to “conspiracy theory”.

And yes, I do recognize how many millions of people spend time in pools and do not get AA. I also know that the condition is much more common in Asia, a part of the world not necessarily know for an over-saturation of pool chemicals. But it’s all I’ve got, so give me a break.

If you found this blog because you were Googling aplastic anemia info, my AA blog would probably be of more interest to you. Please email me (fight aplastic anemia at NOSPAM gmail dot com – remove the NOSPAM to convert to an address) for more information or to share your story with me.

Dara Torres’ coach is Michael Lohberg. I wish him and his family the best.