Speed kills

No, this doesn't have anything to do with road accidents.  What I'm referring to is speed in football (soccer in the US).  This World Cup has demonstrably answered the old question: speed or experience?  No game exemplified the dichotomy as clearly as that between perennial rivals Germany and England.  England went with a very experienced team, sidelining the one player (IMO) on the team with any turn of speed, Aaron Lennon.  Germany went with youth and speed, with one notable exception.  The result was depressingly predictable.  Germany's one exception, 32-year-old Miroslav Klose, was nevertheless the fast man on Germany's goal kick which went deep into England territory and where the English defenders were simply outrun.  Klose continues to dominate defenders through his speed as he did against Argentina.

Meanwhile, our weather (sunny and 89F as I write this on July 4th) has been lovely lately.  Just like the good old days.  It's been relatively dry and hot.  The mosquitoes appear to be a thing of the past.  On the debit side, the grass everywhere is looking parched.

We really enjoyed watching Invictus. What a great story: the role of the 1995 Rugby World Cup in the crucial early months of a new (or reborn) nation.  It reminded me what a great game Rugby is.

For our annual fireworks show, we selected Lincoln this year.  For some reason, the fireworks displays of the various towns were on any of three different evenings, the 2nd (e.g. Bedford), the 3rd (e.g. Harvard, where we went last year), and the 4th (e.g. Lincoln and of course Boston).  It's interesting to compare the experiences of these two years, perhaps with a mark for the various aspects (all very subjective of course):

Feature	Weight	Harvard (2009)	Lincoln (2010)
Fireworks Length	3	9 (a good length)	9 (a bit too long)
Fireworks Quality	4	8 (very good)	9 (excellent)
Viewing Distance	2	8 (good)	10 (maybe a bit too close)
Scenery/Atmosphere	4	10 (fantastic)	6 (zilch)
Space	3	10 (spacious)	5 (sardines)
Wait to get in	1	10 (what wait?)	7 (long delay)
Wait to get out	2	7 (wet grass: delays)	7 (so many cars!)
Facilities	1	7 (OK)	6 (what facilities?)
National Anthem	1	7 (don't recall)	9 (lovely)
Weather	3	8 (short shower)	10 (perfect)
Bugs	2	8 (mucho deet)	10 (what bugs?)
Finding the way back to car	1	9 (no worries)	6 (night orienteering)
Vehicular transportation	1	7 (two cars)	10 (brand new Murano)
Overall	28	7.57	7.04

Today the good weather broke somewhat. The temperature was high 97F with a little more humidity (82%). Tomorrow is supposed to be hotter and stickier.