Don't cry for me, Argentina OR Spain

Oy. Just like Lloyd Bridges picked the wrong day to quit sniffing glue in "Airplane!", looks like I picked the wrong day to spend eight hours behind the wheel of a car (don't ask). As a die-hard (and die-often) U.S. soccer fan, of course I missed the team's greatest victory, arguably, since 1950 (or at least since 2002). Hopefully today's 2-0 shocker over the top-ranked team in the world, Spain, is the start of a glorious run into next year's World Cup, which like today's game will be played in South Africa.

At the same time, I missed the tabloido-political story of the year in the unraveling of South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford. Maybe it's just as well. As tempting as it is to sit here in cyberspace and make "Last Tango" jokes all day, I feel very sorry for the man's wife and children. Henry David Thoreau said that "the mass of men lead lives of quiet desparation," but that was before email, texting, Twitter, and what not. In 2009, desperate lives tend to become very loud, very quickly.