Last weekend we made our annual pilgrimage to the Ballpark in Arlington. My husband is from Cleveland (aka The Mistake By The Lake) and is a Cleveland Indians fan, so he always buys tickets for an Indians/Rangers game each season.

It was quite a pleasant evening, esp. for July in Texas. There was a nice breeze and it wasn't very hot, and we had good seats. I have always liked the ballpark as it has a retro look but is easy to navigate, and you don't have to walk half a mile to reach a bathroom. It even has a Starbucks.

Unfortunately you can't bring in your own drinks/coolers any more, due to the greedy new owner, so we eat an early dinner before departing.

Before the game, there was a longish ceremony in honor of Sammy Sosa's batting 600 home runs. I really hadn't realized how few players had managed to do this.

The game itself was pretty good, except for one thing: Cleveland lost. My poor husband was crushed (well, sort of; I don't think he lost sleep).

The first Cleveland pitcher didn't have his A game. Not only did the Rangers get five runs off him in the first inning, he managed to bean Sammy Sosa in the head with a fastball the first time Sosa was at bat. This earned the Cleveland pitcher a loud and lingering chorus of boos.

Although the Web has way too many stupid little quizzes around, I finally broke down and took one after months of avoidance. This one was "what kind of Democrat are you?". Which was probably a mistake, since I am one of those irritating anti-partisan types.

My Liberal Identity:

You are a New Left Hipster, also known as a MoveOn.org liberal, a Netroots activist, or a Daily Show fanatic. You believe that if we really want to defend American values, conservatives must be exposed, mocked, and assailed for every fanatical, puritanical, warmongering, Constitution-shredding ideal for which they stand.

Take the quiz at www.FightConservatives.com

Shinichi Chiba announces retirement, sort of

I just spotted this at the Viva Chiba Yahoo newsgroup, courtesy of Henshin! Online publisher August Ragone (who is a mega-nice young man). I'm kind of bummed out, esp. since other posters think he's ill.

"During an interview on NHK's SATURDAY STUDIO PARK this past week, Shinichi Chiba (68) announced that after his departure from the cast of the current NHK Taiga Drama FURINKAZAN for "personal reasons," he's hanging up his acting hat. At one point in the interview, he shed tears, saying that after 50 years in show business, that he'd rather quit while he is still in top form. He stated that this retirement will a semi-retirement, and take a year off before embarking on new projects, which will be announced at a later date."

7-11, ATMs and market research

Reading about 7-11 in today's newspapers reminded me of a funny story told by a market research coordinator who has run some focus groups for my department.

In the last couple of years, my company has hosted some market research in the form of focus groups. Since I was technically the client, I got to listen in on the discussions. This isn't always a good thing; one smarty-pants dismissed my copy as "meaningless rhetoric" during a focus group about corporate branding, and I was sore about it for days.

Anyway, back before you could find an ATM every ten feet, there was a lot of research being done by grocery stores who wanted to install an ATM but weren't sure if they were worth the investment. Since 7-11s are open 24 hours, their owners, Southland Corporation, were particularly keen to try out the ATM concept. But at first they decided some market research was in order, so they called in the focus groups.

The first focus group participants were from Oak Cliff, home of one the first 7-11 stores. It's part of Dallas with some very upmarket areas and some equally scary ones, so the focus group was made up of an interesting mix of people.

One of the first questions asked by the group coordinator concerned the 24-hour availability of cash. Did anybody really need to get hold of $200-300 at 3:00 a.m. in the morning? Some of the focus group members looked at the coordinator as if she were crazy.

Then one sighed and said, "Well, hell, yeah - bail money."

I saw the Kwik-e-Mart!

Even though Big D (Dallas) is a soggy, slug-riddled shithole at the moment, the witty folks at 7-11 decided that a tie-in with the upcoming Simpsons movie was worth the effort. I passed this faked-up Kwik-e-Mart on the way home:

I didn't stop as the place was on the wrong side of the road, but it was funnier than I thought it would be. I need to go back with the camera and pose next to the guy on the side of the wall (the one who has just visited the ATM - afraid you can't see him in this photo).