The White Out Returns

You might be asking yourself, "Self, why have I chosen to read a blog with such a racially provocative and offensive title?". Tell your self to relax. While we all love a good race war, I am speaking, of course, about my beloved Phoenix Coyotes of the NHL. The Coyotes are set to face off against the hated Detroit Red Wings, or the Red Army as I refer to them. The 'ov' lines (Federov, Konstantinov, Koslov, etc) of recent years are not as prevalent now as they were in the 90's but this Detroit team may be just as dangerous.

Phoenix is the 4th seed in the West. Coach of the year shoe-in Dave Tippett has his Coyotes playing with confidence. The Yotes have had success against the winged-wheels this year. They won the season series in an array of different ways. Phoenix defeated Detroit by scoring early and often as well as winning in come-from-behind fashion in what was rated the 3rd best comeback of the year by the NHL Network by coming from three goals back at the "Joe".

The Phoenix message boards are full of opinions. The locals are primed for action. I, myself, have purchased the ESPN Europe NHL package which allows me to watch all playoff games for the next 31 days for about $19. What a price! I would encourage all readers to get in touch with a hacker buddy to obtain a foreign IP address because this price is a fraction of what US citizens pay. I don't get it and I don't have the time to figure it out. I have been just buried in paperwork.

The "White Out" goes down on April 14,2010 at 10:00 pm Eastern time. You can be sure I will be up at 5 am Communist time on the 15th to watch.

Editorial Comment: My ambulance-chasing, conniving, lawyer friend lent me the thoughts about the relationship between the term "white out" and the hilarious racial implications and the play on words that exists between the two. How dare he or she.

Happiness Only Money Can Buy

Happiness only money can buy....what a pompus title. The fact is, anybody in my position would feel the same way, but that's my position. - That's supposed to be funny, not thoughtful. Coming from Paris to one of the nicer areas of a coastal city in a "developing country" and living near the beach makes me appreciate price differences.

After a long, weird trip from Paris to Varna by way of Sofia (7 hrs) in a smoke-filled cab, I've felt a great deal of comfort in this city. I tell my wife, from time to time, that there is a "honeymoon period" that one experiences when moving somewhere new. One moves somewhere because he likes something or some things about a city or has a reason to go there. After awhile, the exciting or appealing things about the city usually mellow a bit and one can make a better estimation. I'll let you know.

For the time being, Varna suits me just fine. It is a laid-back beach town with laid-back beach people. As much as I'd like to view myself as a black tie, wine-sipping, Paris type, at heart I'm really more of a West-Coast guy in American terms. However I'm in the Eastern Hemisphere and I'm an East-Coast guy here, but it means the same thing. I realize I have already made some comparisons but the two cities are actually incomparable. Ancient, world-renowned city with unmistakable identity versus post-communist, democratic republic struggling upward. I'm comparing again, aren't I? Well why don't you get off my back.

Check in soon for a report about how the water pressure here causes inadvertent, internal cleansing and lower birth rates in poor countries........ win-win.

From A to backwards R

Heading to Bulgaria soon. For those of you who don't know, it is a long, technical, boring story. It's basically a case of more developed European countries telling us we can stay longer but it has to be "over there". Bulgaria seems to be the little engine that might. It is part of the EU but not yet part of the Schengen Zone because the money that other European countries sent for infrastructure was used on infrastructure.......and sick vacation homes for government officials. What's the problem!?!

The city that we are going to start out in seems quite pleasant. Varna is a tourist destination for Western Europeans and sits on the West bank of the Black Sea. Tourism is the major industry so I think it is going to be like a European version of Cozumel, Mexico. The visitors might be middle class back-home but in Bulgaria they are rich. I have already made a down-payment to a guy named Laszlo to wait in a bread line for me. What can I say, I live large.

Also, I think I have counted 3 different, active, usable versions of the Latin alphabet letter "B". One of them just represents a gurgling sound. The number eight is pronounced, "awesome", not kidding about that one. For those of you who may be concerned, don't be. Bulgaria is a safe country.....really.

USA vs Canada.....from Paris

I was at a place called, "The Moose", in Paris for the incredible showdown between the Americans and the Canadians in the gold medal Olympic Men's hockey game. What more could a fan, or a patriot, of either team or country ask for? If you missed the game, do yourself a favor and find a way to watch the replay. I think the USA coach, Ron Wilson, said it best. Wilson described the game as 'played the right way'.

The style of play, combined with the teams involved, made for the most watched hockey game on the planet since the 1980 "Miracle" game when the USA defeated the USSR. The game has already been referred to as 'the greatest international game ever played'. It is hard to disagree. Every check had a purpose, there was no back-checking for the sake of not being called out, nothing was done without anticipation of a meaningful result. This made for a unique environment inside "The Moose".

This place was around 70% Canadian, 30% American, with a few Frenchmen mixed in. People were draped in flags. It was quite literally wall-to-wall humanity. Continual U-S-A chants were rebutted with CA-NA-DA chants. Camera shots of Vince Vaughn in a USA hockey jersey blew the roof off the place as much as shots of William Shatner did. A few of the canucks started a, "we-have-health-care" chant. I think this summarizes the intensity of the atmosphere. We were booing and cheering each others' celebrities and public policies.

When UND alumn Zach Parise scored with 24 seconds left to tie the game at 2 goals apiece it was even louder than when UND alumn Jonathan Toews opened the scoring for the Canadians. A bunch of us went outside after regulation ended so we could stretch our legs further than a few inches. I noticed that my voice, which was fine for the first 59:30 of the game, had faded. I also noticed that the other Americans had the same symptom. For all the nationalism it was quite civil. I think North Americans feel a common bond when put together on a different continent.

Why a Strong US Dollar Stinks

I thought I would address the ups and downs of the strength of the US Dollar as the US Dollar has achieved more ups than downs recently. A strong US Dollar is generally thought to be a good thing but it depends on who has livelihood at stake. The primary reason for the increase in the value of the US Dollar is the increased demand for the dollar. Trading, on a huge scale, happens every day throughout the world. Basically, investors (I use this term loosely to describe consumers and firms) would currently rather hold US currency than other currencies because of its relative stability.

The US dollar has, for quite some time, been the defacto world currency reserve. However, recently, the explosive events happening in Europe have offset the dubious attitude surrounding the huge national budget deficits of the US as well as the Chinese takeover of US debt.

The problem lies within exporting. Quite simply, when the dollar is strong it makes exporting more expensive for US companies. Why? Foreign countries have to pay a higher amount in US dollars to import US goods. This means lower demand for US products. What is the flip side? You guessed it; cheaper foreign products for Americans and less demand in the US for more expensive domestic goods. The US is almost never the cheaper producer of goods, which hurts our GDP when the dollar is strong.

The opposite argument has its own, similarly weighted facts and conclusions, but I wanted to get the less-known argument out there. Those of you in agricultural and fossil fuel states might be interested.

Let's Make Duck the New Chicken

When was the last time you had duck? When was the last time you had chicken? Why is chicken so much more prevalent than duck? I'm pretty sure it's because chickens are easy to raise. Chickens are poor fliers while ducks can swim and fly. Duck is far tastier than chicken. It is savory and oily and does not require anything extra to make it taste good. Chicken is somewhat bland and is best when fried or accompanied by a sauce.

I propose we band together to create a new breed of duck which doesn't fly and can't swim. Who is with me?

Power Play

A couple of weeks ago I was walking my dog from the River Seine back to our apartment down a road called, "Rue Royale". Rue Royale starts at the Place de la Concorde at the bank of the Seine, passes some grandiose public buildings and then collects itself into a Haussman-style avenue of designer shops. The road eventually ends at a famous church called, "La Madeleine".

Majerle rarely poops when I walk him. He usually saves that for his walks with my wife (I think it has something to do with comfort). The incident happened around 9:00 am so the street was busy with people going to work and carrying on with their business. It was the type of foot traffic that required some foresight and footwork. Somewhere between a Louis Vitton store and an artisan patisserie Majerle stopped and went into position. If you have a dog you know that there is no way to make this kind of thing look discrete. He looked like a tiny, NFL fullback before the snap.

The dog weighs about 38 pounds but he has developed a voracious appetite since we have moved to Paris. He had been making some deposits on our street that probably led our neighbors to think that a zebra was inhabiting the area. He couldn't have picked a worse spot than Rue Royale. Its a pretty ritzy neighborhood. I was getting some disturbed looks from the people sidestepping us so I finally cut him off mid-shiver but the damage was done. While I felt great shame as I squatted to pick up my dog's crap off the street, I believe Majerle had something quite different on his mind.

This was nothing short of a power play for him. He was making a statement. It's kind of like taking off your shirt to show you ink during your first day in prison. He had reason to be confident. He has strong German heritage (Rottweiler/German Shepherd) which sent a not-so-subtle message. The occupation of Paris by Germans is still fresh in people's minds. You see dogs are territorial by nature. My dog was new in town and was simply claiming that small square as his own. The rest of the walk home I felt like he was walking me.