The 2019 Rugby World Cup is being hosted by Japan right now. There are 20 nations playing and there have already been two major upsets. I thought that American readers of this blog might enjoy seeing highlights of the two games below. There has been little coverage of this tournament in the major US media, which is a bit surprising given that the US is fielding a team and is currently ranked #13 in the world, which is not too shabby. They have played just one game so far, losing badly to England 45-7.

The biggest upset was by the host nation ranked #9 that beat #2 ranked Ireland, a perennial rugby powerhouse, 19-12.

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The door gave a Spanish SWAT team a hell of a fight.

Una buena puerta, pa mi la querria. pic.twitter.com/lpSyE33c11

— Alfredo Perdiguero M. 🇪🇸 (@PerdigueroSIPEp) September 23, 2019

I almost never drink alcohol and used to consider myself a teetotaler, though I never actually used the term because it seemed somewhat Victorian. But I had never thought about how the word originated and this article clued me in.

It dates back to the 1820s and 1830s when alcohol consumption in the United States dramatically increased. Back then, drinking was an all-or-nothing habit, explains Jon Grinspan, curator of political history at the National Museum of American History. The “tee” in “teetotaler” likely refers to temperance activists who were totally opposed to alcohol with “a capital T” (or “tee”). Similar to the way people used the label of capital-R Republicans or W-Whigs, being a T-Totaler was a distinct identity. It was only after Prohibition ended that drinking in moderation became more popular and the label fell out of fashion.

Since I am not totally opposed to alcohol and have on occasion consumed small amounts of wine and beer, it looks like technically I am not a teetotaler.

On social occasions when I ask for a non-alcoholic drink, my hosts often think I must have religious objections to alcohol, which I find amusing. My lack of interest in alcohol is mainly because I do not like the taste. Also, Sri Lanka used to have a lot of heavy drinkers and growing up I have seen too many people drink too much at parties and then say and do things they later regretted, or at least should have regretted. I vowed never to let that happen to me so have never drunk more than a token amount since. On the one occasion in my twenties where I drank a little more than usual at a party, I did not enjoy the sensation that I was slowly losing control of my words and actions and so stopped at once. Fortunately, my group of friends were also not heavy drinkers, so I did not face much peer pressure to do so.

Martin Weitzman was a highly successful economist who had a distinguished academic career at the most prestigious universities and had been widely tipped to win the Nobel prize for economics. Hence his death by suicide on August 27 at the age of 77 took people by surprise.
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Remember that strange claim by Ohio State University, excuse me, The Ohio State University, to trademark the word ‘The’ that I posted about a month ago?

Well, word is out today that their claim was denied.

Ohio State University has lost its fight to trademark the word “The.”

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office turned down the university’s request to trademark “The” when used as part of the school’s name on university merchandise.

OSU submitted the trademark application last month.

The patent office cited the trademark appears to be used for “merely decorative manner” and as an “ornamental feature” that doesn’t appear to function as a trademark that would differentiate the items from others.

Phew! That was a close shave for all lovers of the word ‘the’ who were worried that they might have to pay OSU royalties for using it.

Via Carla Sinclair, I came across this video of police using a ladder to get out a bear cub that had fallen into a dumpster. But I was impressed at the earlier efforts of two other bears to try and rescue the cub themselves, even though they failed.

But this idea of using ladders to rescue cubs is not original. Back in 2012, I linked to a video of a New Mexico couple who used the same ladder idea to get three bear cubs out of a dumpster.

Defending US Open champion Naomi Osaka defeated 15-year old Coco Gauff 6-3, 6-0 in the third round of this year’s US Open. But what people are talking about is what happened after the match ended.

After a warm handshake and a hug, the 21 year-old walked over to the 15 year-old and asked if they could do the on-court interview together. Gauff initially refused as tears welled in her eyes, but Osaka insisted and her beaten opponent agreed. After trading forehands and fist-pumps across the net all evening, they walked over to the same side of the court together.

“I saw that she was kind of tearing up a little,” said Osaka. “Then it reminded me how young she was. I was just thinking, like, it would be nice for her to address the people that came and watched her play. They were cheering for her. Yeah, I mean, for me, it was just something that was, I don’t know, instinctive I guess.”
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For Gauff, the match was a learning experience, but the moment the world number one took her under her wing was one to cherish.

“I think she really showed sportsmanship tonight,” said Gauff. “I mean, I wasn’t expecting it. I’m glad that I was able to experience that moment. I’m glad the crowd was kind of helping me and her. She was crying, she won. I was crying. Everybody was crying.”

You can watch the post game interview with both players.

When we lift each other up, we all succeed.pic.twitter.com/gEvLgiLDhX

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) September 1, 2019

A California tried to use his vanity license plate to get out of paying for parking tickets. He chose the license plate NULL in the belief that when his ticket was entered into the database, it would end up in some computer dustbin and he would not get the bill. It did not quite work out that way.

It’s the story of a security researcher known as Droogie, who presented his experience at the recent DEF CON conference in Las Vegas. Droogie decided his new vanity plate should read “NULL.”
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Droogie’s hope was that the new plate would exploit California’s DMV ticketing system in a similar manner to the classic xkcd “Bobby Tables” cartoon. With any luck, the DMV’s ticket database would see “NULL” and consign any of his tickets to the void. Unfortunately, the exact opposite happened.

First, Droogie got a parking ticket, incurred for an actual parking infraction—so much for being invisible. Then, once a particular database of outstanding tickets had associated the license plate NULL with his address, it sent him every other ticket that lacked a real plate. The total came to $12,049 worth of tickets.
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Although the initial $12,000-worth of fines were removed, the private company that administers the database didn’t fix the issue and new NULL tickets are still showing up.

Lesson: Don’t try to outsmart the DMV.

Within the last two weeks, I have moved from Cleveland, Ohio to Monterey, California and am now pretty much settled in to my new home.

I drove across the country, a distance of 2,700 miles. Although that looks long, the drive was very pleasant and I managed to spend two days with very old friends in Missouri. The trip was not at all tiring, since I limited myself to about 400 miles or six hours of actual driving time each day. I enjoy driving long distances. It beats the hell out of flying.

For the first couple of days of driving, I listened to all nine Beethoven symphonies in sequence, followed by the Leonora, Egmont and Coriolan overtures, something I have wanted to do for some time. But the other five days of driving I drove in silence, without even the radio. I enjoy the silence of driving alone, allowing my thoughts full freedom to wander where they may.

The weather through the entire trip was also pretty much perfect in that it was cool and it only rained for about ten minutes. The traffic was light to moderate with no construction delays. The speed limits west of Nebraska tended to be 75 mph or 80 mph. Once you got to Wyoming, the scenery is spectacular, with Utah being particularly beautiful. I also made a slight detour to see the famous Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California (that was later named after the participants in the infamous 1846 tragedy who are now remembered as the Donner Party) and the view from the top of 7,000 feet was magnificent, with the Donner Lake far below.

Monterey is very pretty. From my living room, I have a beautiful view of the hills surrounding the area. I cannot see the sea, for which I have to drive about three miles. Locals tell me that the sea view areas, apart from being much more expensive, also tend to be foggy, whereas where I live tends to have clearer days. I will definitely not miss the Cleveland winters. As I get older, the risk of having a bad fall on ice and snow becomes much greater.