What Caught My Eye Today

Cuba - Fidel Castro on Monday accused President Bush of "authorizing and ordering" an attempt on his life, although his rambling essay on the subject provided no details. Castro's essay noted that President Gerald Ford signed an order banning official assassinations, and said he didn't believe that Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton ever tried to have him killed. But Castro alleged that Bush has other ideas. Castro rambling incoherently...gee, there's a shocker. As for Bush authorizing an attempt on Castro's life...doesn't seem that far-fetched for this particular president.

China - China has begun paving a path up to Mount Everest to make the trek easier for bearers of the 2008 Olympic torch. China plans the longest Olympic torch relay in history, am 85,000 mile, 130 day route spanning five continents. The paving project came as a surprise to environmentalist groups, which had no immediate comment. Is it possible that, like me, they think this is some sort of joke?

Venezuela - Despite political tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela, trade has never been brisker. Venezuela exported $42 billion of goods to the U.S. last year, including 1 million barrels of oil daily. U.S. exports to Venezuela over the same period were up 41% to $9 billion. We'll take your oil and pay for it, Chavez, but that doesn't mean we like you. So there.

Music (Part 1) - Sales of rap music albums are in steep decline. Sales of rap CDs this year are down 33% from 2006, which saw a 21% decline. Hip-hop artists blame record industry commercialization of the genre while music industry analysts say teens have simply tired of lyrics about street life, 'ho's' and 'bling.' You know the analysts may have hit upon something here. If the product isn't that good, the public may not buy it. It's a world gone mad.

Music (Part 2) - Thanks to its prominent placement in the final episode of The Sopranos Journey's 1981 hit "Don't Stop Believin'" is again riding the charts. Downloads of the song from iTunes had been averaging about 1,000 a week but jumped to 6,531 the day after the episode first aired. Here's my problem with this. A 1,000 downloads a week? People, people, people. The 80s have so much more to offer than freakin' Journey.

Soccer - Landon Donovan scored his 34th career goal, tying Eric Wynalda atop the career list, and Benny Feilhaber connected with a gorgeous volley to rally the United States over Mexico in the final of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, the championship of North and Central America and the Caribbean. It's the first time in 53 meetings, dating to 1934, that the Americans fell behind Mexico, then come back to win. The victory extended the Americans' dominance over their neighbors to the south and gave the United States a berth in the 2009 Confederations Cup in South Africa, an important tuneup ahead of the 2010 World Cup. The United States is 9-2-1 against Mexico since 2000, including 8-0-1 on U.S. soil. So I think I figured out at least one reason for the lack of enthusaism for soccer in the U.S.--American commentators suck. Watch a Mexican telecast and, dude, you will be in for a treat if anyone scores. What an English telecast (from the English Premier League) and you will witness some of the wittiest insults aimed at players and officials alike for 90 glorious minutes.

Yachting - Yup, the America's Cup is still plugging away. Team New Zealand staged a stunning comeback to beat Alinghi on Sunday, levelling the best-of-nine America's Cup series 1-1 and ending a 16-race winning streak for a group of Kiwis on the Swiss team.

Did You Know - I got these vocabulary factoids from my friend, Bruce. Enjoy.

"Stewardesses" is the longest word typed with only the left hand and "lollipop" with your right.

No word in the English language rhymes with "month", "orange", "silver", or "purple".

"Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".

The sentence, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter of the alphabet.

There are only four words in the English language which end in "dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.

There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: "abstemious" and "facetious."

"Typewriter" is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.