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The observation of one's dog's butt to predict if he has another poop coming.

Helpful in decidng whether to tie-off the dog-dirt bag or not.

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Jay and I were trading "small triumphs" today, and this was his:

I didn't go into Jane's office and blow my stack about the associate director copying her boss on an e-mail to Jane noting that a colleague and I misinterpreted her ambiguous directions on an extremely insignificant assignment this morning.

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I have found that love for Edward Cullen crosses all boundaries of age, race, ethnicity, and political affiliation. In honor of Eclipse coming out this week, I offer to you this story from my friend Kim, who is mother to three-year-old Anya and one-year-old Charlie, who does not feature in this story but is nonetheless quite the cutester.

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While I was out of town this weekend, Matt took the kids to Burger King. Burger King is giving out plastic locket-type rings within which are holographic stickers of Edward Cullen. Anya got one. This led to a rather long and involved discussion between Matt and Anya regarding who Edward is (a vampire), whether he is a good guy or a bad guy (pretty good), and what he likes to eat (animal blood). While relieved that Edward does not eat "people blood," Anya was concerned that he eats animal blood since "the animals need their blood." Matt tried to explain that Edward and his family also need the blood, and after all, we eat animals too. After considering this, Anya announced, "Edward is sparkly and I love him."

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I do love my family.

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I love the physicality of the soccer players at the World Cup. People are so quick to shoot the gay tag at any men who express affection with each other that you almost never see anything but the most tentative contact between American men anymore. The unbridled sense of fun and physicality in soccer is so great, and Jezebel.com has dubbed it "boy-joy." Herewith some great examples of boy-joy:

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Every burden I have carried
Every joy, it's understood
Life with you is half as hard
And twice as good


(lyrics=Sara Groves)

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I'm beside myself with joy over this game. Argentina won 2-0, but Greece played well, had good control of the ball---when they could get the ball, that is. Messi . . . what a player. Palermo might have made the final goal, but not without Messi's incredible footwork getting the ball in place. He moves around those opposing players like, well, like he's a vampire. And you can tell those Argentine players just love Maradona.
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One of the many things I've learned about watching the World Cup this last week is the story of Didier Drogba, the Ivory Coast player who plays professionally for Chelsea.












He's a great player, but here's the amazing story about him: In 2005, he led Ivory Coast in a win that qualified them for the next World Cup. After this game, with the press all around him, he dropped to his knees and begged the warring factions in Ivory Coast's civil war to end their fighting. And as Alex Hayes wrote, "within a week, his bold wish had been granted." Incredibly, the civil war ended then and there.

Writer Alex Hayes went to Ivory Coast to interview him, and Hayes said, "I had been totally unaware of Didier's incredible feat until I began talking to people in Abidjan. At no point had he mentioned, let alone boasted, about his political involvement."


Hayes continues: "On the way to the house where he grew up in the suburbs of Abidjan, he told me that he could cope without money; that he could easily give up all the trappings of wealth and return to a humble life back home. Before my trip, I would have doubted him. But today I am sure he was being truthful. Of course Drogba enjoys his lifestyle, but that does not mean he is detached from the world around him. 'The money came after my education," he said, 'after I became a man.'"

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Every once in a while, when I'm working on the last stages of a book, I consider skipping the final check of the running heads. After all, they've been through the copyeditor, QC'ed by the typesetter, and double-checked by the proofreader. What are the chances that there's something wrong with them now? Eventually I give in, check them one last time, and think, "Ohhh . . . I'm so glad I checked these."

It's human nature to take shortcuts. And it's human nature to get lax when things have been going fine for a while. It's why people taking blood pressure medicine stop taking it once their blood pressure improves, and people with mental illness do the same. Our airports were just as unsafe on September 10, 2001, as they were on September 12. But what do you think would have happened in the FAA had said, "Our airport security is lax, and we're going to shut down for four days to upgrade"? People would have had a fit. And then there's the member of the San Francisco city council who pulled someone he knew from the security line to get into City Hall, escorted him so he could bypass the metal detector, and then was shot dead by that very same person once inside.

Procedures are boring, and regulation seems like overkill. Until they're not.

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9. The Swiss beat the highly favored Spanish team.

10. It was great to see the North Korean team play (against top-rated Brazil). They played really well, losing only 2-1. Looking at them out on that beautiful field, on a whole other continent, they looked like abused kids let out of the closet for the first time. Breathe the freedom while it lasts, guys.

11. Jezebel.com runs a daily "World Cup Abdominals" feature, showing the best ab photos of the day. Today they ran some pics of the "forbidden fruit that is the North Korean abs"---ha!

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5. Soccer players will sing their national anthems with gusto, unlike the silent, half-hearted don't-really-know-the-words-but-I'll-mouth-something players of other sports.


6. Soccer players will pile on top of each other with every goal, like a bunch of kids who just broke a pinata.

7. Some use mostly their feet, some mostly their heads, some prefer the ground, some the air.

8. When a player launches into the air to try to head-butt a ball into the goal at just the right angle, he is, as Jay described Rocky trying to get out of his harness, "part Chubby Checker, part Fred Astaire."

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Here is what I've learned from watching the World Cup this weekend:

1. Unlike baseball and football, there are no fat soccer players.

2. It is pleasant to watch a bunch of young, fit guys play sports.

3. Soccer is good to watch on the first level of fast-forward. It's slow enough to track the play, and you can also see, very clearly, the patterns and strategies being used.

4. Soccer players' feet are magnetic.

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1. Summit announced that "Breaking Dawn" will indeed be released as two movies.

2. I confessed to Jay today that one of my recurring worries is that I will time travel to ancient times and not be able to keep my glasses safe and hidden. He invented the term "anachrospectalithophobia": fear of being stoned to death for wearing glasses before they were invented.

3. South Carolina: craziest state in the nation?

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Here are two fantastic books, both dealing with the issue of evil.

The first is The Sociopath Next Door.









The Sociopath Next Door explains the phenomenon of people who do not have consciences. While most of us think of sociopaths as violent, most are not. They are, however, destructive and manipulative. The book contains fascinating case studies and also some inspiring passages about the blessings and beauty of the conscience.

The Gift of Fear is a now-famous volume by security expert Gavin de Becker>










I learned about de Becker, as many have, from seeing him on Oprah and listening to him tell the stories of his many clients, from everyday people dealing with violence to celebrities being stalked by crazed fans. The book includes many of these stories but much, much more. De Becker's mission is to put us in touch with our instincts, our selves really, which is our best guarantor of safety and well-being.

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