Odds and Ends: If I buy two odds, will you show me your end? Christ, you know how busy I've been? I haven't watched a moment of the U.S. Open. Can you believe that? I usually start blogging tennis majors about a week before the tourney. I've been watching the numbers, and I think Federer is the man to beat. Tough call, eh? Okay, I'll go further. Henman looked so good on clay this year that I wouldn't be surprised if he went to the finals on hard, too. Yes, he has to beat Hot Rog to do so, but a guy like Henny, who has struggled so hard to win Wimby, is destined to win a major (if he ever does) away from the sweet London turf. Henman and Hewitt would be a bang-up final, to boot.

Telemundo is a wonderful window into so many things. It is exactly, precisely what American television would be if the same guys from the 50s were in control now. I particularly love the requisite eye candy (REC) on every show. Naturally the REC is always blonde. The babes on the soaps, the game shows, and the news are blonde, too. But, look at the cosmetics ads that they show during the soaps: All the women are medium-to-dark skinned with dark hair, the standard Hispanic (and Mediterranean, for that matter) genetic look. Conclusion: The men who watch Telemundo like women with the Norteamericano look; the women, meanwhile, want to see glamorous women who look like them.

Did you watch the Olympics? I did. I'll admit it. When I was a kid, I was an Olympics nerd. I had a scrapbook that I made of Olympic news clippings: The Miracle on Ice, Bill Johnson (Johnston?) stunning the Jean-Claude Killy wannabes at Sarajevo, even Scott Hamilton and Brian Boitano made it (though I was always more of a Kurt Browning kind of guy -- and secure enough in my masculinity to admit it). I missed the LA summer games in 1984 (the games come to our back yard and I end up in Japan for the whole time?) and after that I sort of stopped paying attention. I think it was probably the first "dream team" of men's NBA stars that finally killed the Olympics for me. In fact, I'm pretty sure it was, since this year I cheered for anyone who was beating the U.S. orangeball squad. I do so love it to see the ball-hogging, gangsta-posing, overpaid, cock-walking, $500-hairdo shithead princesses of the NBA get thrashed by (yes, indeed) Argen-f*cking-tina. Beautiful.