POTD: Poseidon in Götaplatsen

"Proud, worn, ever strong,
gazing over Gothenburg,
Prompting our judgment."

— h/t ChatGPT

From 2024 07 04 Gothenburg

Today's photo-of-the-day was taken in Götaplatsen, a public square and the cultural hub of Gothenburg, Sweden. It is "enclosed by the Gothenburg Concert Hall, the Gothenburg Museum of Art, the Gothenburg City Theatre and the City Library."

In its center is a statue of the sea god Poseidon by Carl Milles. The statue was inaugurated in September, 1931. Opinion on it is divided, some saying Poseidon's face is ugly (a subjective judgment), some saying Milles himself was a Nazi sympathizer (fact). Art is never just art.

POTD: Swedish Meatballs and Lingonberries

"One day in Sweden,
but Gothenburg's tastes remain,
meatballs, berries, joy."
— h/t ChatGPT

From 2024 07 04 Gothenburg

Today's photo-of-the-day was taken in a restaurant in Gothenburg, Sweden, the only city we visited in Sweden. When you have only one day in Sweden, you just have to eat Swedish meatballs, right? And so we did. They were served with lingonberries. Sweden on our tongues.

Should the Coach Get a New Contract?

Source: AP Photo.

The season is coming to an end for the team. The coach's contract is expiring. The coach was gifted good enough game plans, but he couldn't deliver on the reason he was hired, which was to bring a championship to the city. When it came time to decide if the team should extend him a new contract for another season, the team decided to go in a different direction. Most fans thought it was the right decision.

That might sound like I'm talking about the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, Mike McCarthy, but if you guessed I was really talking about the mayor of Richardson, Bob "Coach" Dubey, I can't say you're wrong. The City of Richardson's "Coach" is in the same boat that McCarthy was. Having a long career on the sidelines can result in enough friendships to win you the job in the first place, but that won't save your job if you don't win championships. Too often, Coach Dubey went with his gut, throwing out good game plans on the fly, and ending up with a string of losses. Sooner or later, a coach trading on his longevity needs to be thanked for his service and replaced. Let's look at the results on the field this term to decide if that time is now.

The Gorge (2025)

Rotten Tomatoes

The Gorge (2025): Two sharpshooters in watchtowers face each other across an isolated gorge. Sci-fi, Cold War, post-apocalyptic thriller zombie movie? Also it's a romance, released on Valentine's Day. WTF? Contrived and incoherent. Bad, but not so bad to be unwatchable. C+

AppleTV+

Book Review: Linguaphile: A Life of Language Love

From Linguaphile: A Life of Language Love", by Julie Sedivy:

Amazon

"At that time, Italian was to me a bewitching confusion, boiling and streaming in all directions. Its connection to the actual world was tenuous and constantly shifting. It was only now and then that I caught a word with my mind; words were like fish, solid things making sudden, unexpected appearances, flashes of substance and meaning in the liquidity of language flowing all around me. You had to be quick to snatch them before they were lost in the fast-moving stream."