Note: this is a work of fiction. A longer disclaimer can be found at the end of the piece. The Soap Boxers was stunned to learn that the governor of Minnesota has suggested a radical cost savings plan – having the US Senate shrink its membership to just fifty members – one from each state. [...]

For those of you who are not sports fans, hang with me through the next couple of weeks. I’ll be hitting you with a heavy dose of WBC, but will return to a more regular mix of posts once the WBC is complete. I promise a non-sports post either Wednesday or Thursday (possibly both days, [...]

Evolution of a fan, Part 1 Follow the crowd This is the first installment in a three part series. Catch the other installments on the next two Mondays. I’m the youngest of eight children. None of my siblings have any interest in sports. I really didn’t become a sports fan until I was in third [...]

Note: In case you missed it, I slipped in a second post – a WBC update – late in the day yesterday. When you’re finished reading today’s post, go ahead and read that one as well. I am a firm believer in the importance of a fantasy team’s name. If you take the easy way [...]

I was going to wait until midweek to do this update, but I’m too excited about the WBC to wait. Pool A Game 2:Korea clobbered Taipei 9-0. The starting pitcher for Taipei was knocked out after 1/3 of an inning. He allowed two hits (including a grand slam by Jin Young Lee), walked three batters, [...]

There are so many ways to waste time on the internet, but I’ll focus on just a few. SnopesOK, this can actually be pretty useful. Snopes is a leader in the industry of myth debunking. Snopes currently lists 43 different myth topics, ranging from Disney to politics. There’s even a category devoted to debunking dozens [...]

World baseball classic The WBC got underway on Thursday, as Japan beat China 4-0. Japan starting pitcher Yu Darvish set the pace early, allowing no runs and walking just one batter. The five relievers each allowed exactly one hit and did not walk anyone. Third baseman Shuichi Murata provided offense with a two run homer. [...]

A few months ago, our natural gas detector’s alarm went off. A guy from the utility company was quickly out to the house to take a look. Within about a minute, he had deemed it to be a false alarm. At that point, however, he did not simply leave. He poked around the utility closet [...]

Luge My favorite sport is baseball, America’s Pastime. My second favorite sport is luge, which is definitely not America’s pastime. It is a sport that is only on TV during Olympic years, and even then gets less coverage than figure skating. I’m not really sure how I became a fan of luge. I don’t live [...]

I wake up every morning to the Billy Joel song We Didn’t Start the Fire. I’m not a particularly big fan of Billy Joel (although I also like “Piano Man”), but this one particular song is one of my all time favorites. My daughter (18 months old) also likes it a lot. Not only is [...]