Just hours after Bill Belichick insisted at a press conference that he is evaluated day-to-day, cornerback Chad Scott was placed on injured reserve, which means he’s lost for the season.

Albert Breer looks at what remains of the cornerback position. He doesn’t want you to panic. He’s right, no need to panic until week six when the two starting cornerbacks are Brandon Meriweather and a phys. ed. teacher.

New England Patriots fans are clearly excited about the 2007 season. 7,975 of us showed up to watch the team practice on Sunday morning July 29 during the pre-season training camp. “Hundreds” of fans were reportedly waiting by Gillette Stadium at 6:30, more than two hours before practice was scheduled to begin.

The Patriots looked so-so, I’d say. Quarterback Tom Brady set the tone when he overthrew an assistant after a quick roll-out left. Rather angry at himself, Brady punted a ball in frustration - poorly. We laughed and cheered. It’s good to see Brady give a damn about practice after all these years and three Super Bowl victories.

Overall, execution wasn’t all that sharp. It wasn’t terrible or sloppy, just not where it should be. It’ll get better, of course, as camp progresses.

Starting quarterback Tom Brady throws a short pass to Wes Welker during a passing drill.

The Patriots have a lot of talented wide receivers at camp this year. Here are most of them, with Troy Brown and Donte Stallworth notable exceptions. Randy Moss is #81, Wes Welker #83, and Jabar Gaffney, who’s surprising a lot of people with a very strong showing so far during camp is #10. Welker and Moss got most of the first team reps during the Sunday morning practice.

Bam Childress may be on his way out because of the heated competition at wide receiver, but he made a darn good play when working with the third stringers, catching a pass from third stringer Matt Gutierrez on a corner route and then tip-toeing along the sideline into the endzone before falling to the ground in an unsightly heap.

I like this picture of cornerback Ellis Hobbs and - I think - wide receiver Kelvin Kight in a drill supervised by a couple of assistants (I guess) who I don’t recognize:

Click here for a panoramic view of a short pass from Tom Brady to Randy Moss.

Here is the first unit of the offensive line as it was configured on Sunday. Matt Light at left tackle, Logan Mankins at left guard, Dan Koppen at center, Steven Neal at right guard and Ryan O’Callaghan at right tackle.

This particular play is a bit unusual, with Light pulling to the right where he takes on Izzo:

Dan Koppen snaps the ball to Tom Brady. Geez, you’d think the rest of the offensive line would go on the count, not the snap. Come on, people wake up!

Tight end Ben Watson (#84) and left tackle Matt Light (#72) eye safety Rodney Harrison (#37) and linebacker Rosevelt Colvin as Tom Brady directs the pass protection from a shotgun position.

Brady scans the field looking for a receiver as the offensive line keeps pass rushers at bay. Light seems to have good position on Colvin at the edge.

The offensive line’s second unit includes seasoned players like guard #74 Billy Yates - here seen bearing down on Izzo - guard #71 Russ Hochstein and right tackle Nick Kaczur (behind Yates). It’s a good unit, good enough to start for a dozen or so NFL teams, I imagine.

Rookie offensive tackle Clint Oldenburg seems to have a long way to go, but was given an opportunity to work with the first unit in an intriguing personnel package.

Here’s a picture of New England’s kickers and punters practicing what they d o the most during games: Hanging around.

Stephen Gostkowski looked pretty shaky during field goal practice later in the day.

The much debated wide receiver and kick returner Wes Welker returns a kick off. I wonder how much the coaching staff gets out of the half-speed no-contact kick off drills. I guess if nothing else they see whether the players are holding their lanes and positions.

Linebacker and special teams hammer Larry Izzo takes snap as quarterback during defensive drills. Hey, if Mike Vrabel can play tight end, why couldn’t Izzo play QB? However, it was just the defensive front-seven players going through fronts and formations. No need for Vrabel to get jealous. Yet.

It is a bit weird how wide receiver Randy Moss has become a fan favorite without playing a single down. The crowd roared approvingly as he approached it after practice to sign autographs. I don’t think he’s a bad guy by any means, but he hasn’t done anything for the Patriots as of yet and his history as a player suggests that he may well decide at some point that the Patriots just aren’t good enough for him. We shall see. I just think that the kind of adulation he received should be reserved for players like Tedy Bruschi and - more than anyone - Troy Brown. And Brady, because he’ll get most of the crap if things go sour.

As tends to be the case when I leave the house, somebody fell to the ground and had to be attended to by emergency personnel. This time it was a young boy who was overcome by the heat. Such is the devotion of Patriots fans.

Speaking of devotion, during scrimmage drills somebody on offense made some kind of error and the entire offensive unit had to run a lap as punishment. The thousands of spectators still at hand cheered the players as they ran by. This apparently confused Brady:

“When we run out in practice and when we run laps [because] we’re getting in trouble, we get cheered for that, so I don’t know if they know why we’re running,” the quarterback said. “I don’t think they’d be cheering us if they did.”

The people around me certainly knew what was going on - cornerback Ellis Hobb’s gleeful little celebration dance was a major tip off - but we cheered anyway, just on general principle, and also sort of jokingly, the way a crowd might cheer a team that picks up its first first down just before the end of the first half. Anyway, it’s early training camp and love is all around. If the offense puts up three consecutive bad drives in Gillette Stadium it won’t be hearing cheers, I can guarantee you that.

Thoughts and observations from other people who watched the practice:

Mike Reiss at Boston.com points out something I didn’t think about, namely the shortage of tight ends because of injuries. That’s probably why Oldenburg and offensive tackle Wesley Britt got snaps as tight ends/H-backs. So much for intriguing personnel packages. Andy Hart mentioned on a Patriots.com podcast that Kaczur also took snaps as tight end and H-back.

Albert Breer at BostonHerald.com mentions, among other things, defensive back Tory James intercepting a badly overthrown deep pass. Breer has it that it was Cassel who threw the ball, but as I remember it was Brady, and that’s also how Reiss reports it.

Paul Perillo on the defensive front-seven personnel packages. He also filed a longer piece at Patriots.com, where he note’s Gostkowski’s poor performance.

Don’t forget that Hart, Perillo and the other merry men of Patriots Football Weekly provide an enormous of amount of training camp coverage on the newspaper’s blog.

New England Patriots record: 18-1

The 2007 NFL regular season begins on Thursday September 6 when New Orleans Saints visit Indianapolis Colts. New England Patriots kick off their season at 1 p.m. on Sunday September 9 against division rivals New York Jets. Here’s a look at the New England Patriots 2007 schedules and those of the team’s opponents.

New York Jets, September 9 and December 16.
Jets travel to New England after what is likely to be a soft spot in the schedule. After a mid-November bye-week the Jets play Pittsburgh at home, Dallas and Miami on the road and finally Cleveland at home before traveling to New England. Patriots, on the other hand, will be coming off games against Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh.
Jets record 2006: 10-6.

San Diego Chargers, September 16
This Sunday night game could be on of the highlights of the season. The Chargers open their season the week before at home against Chicago Bears whose physical defense will hopefully take a toll on the Chargers much like the Chargers took a toll on the Patriots in last year’s AFC Divisional play off game.
Update: Chargers did beat Bears 14-3 in what reportedly was a heck of a bruising game. LaDanian Tomlinson threw a halfback pass for a touchdown and also ran in a score.

Buffalo Bills, September 23 and November 18.
Bills get one heck of a start to their season. Before visiting New England on September 23 they have to play Denver Broncos at home and then Pittsburgh Steelers on the road. Bills will no doubt hope they can get off to a start similar to last year’s when they sacked Patriots quarterback on the first play from scrimmage, recovered the ball and returned it for a touchdown. Of course, being the current era Bills, they lost the game after getting stuffed on a fourth-down play by a back up linebacker. The November 18 rematch will take place in Buffalo the week after New England’s bye and after a fairly tough stretch for Buffalo (Baltimore, at Jets, Cincinnati, at Miami). Considering the air of near-despair in Buffalo after seven playoff-less seasons Patriots should have a good shot at sweeping the Bills.
Buffalo’s record 2006: 7-9
Update: Buffalo Bills lost their season opener 15-14 to Denver Broncos. They lost their second game to Pittsburgh Steelers, 26-3.

Cincinnati Bengals, October 1
Cincinnati Bengals host New England Patriots first Monday Night Football game in 2007. Patriots will be the Bengals last opponent before Cincy’s bye week. Bengals start their season at home against Baltimore, at Cleveland and at Seattle before receiving the Patriots.
Cincinnati’s record 2006: 8-8

Cleveland Browns, October 7
For the second week in row, Patriots will play an AFC North opponent, this time the Cleveland Browns, head coached by former Patriots defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel. The Browns could potentially be stumbling into this game in a winless free fall, although their third-week game at Oakland makes that somewhat unlikely. Interestingly, Browns play Bengals in week 2, two weeks before Patriots play them.
Cleveland’s record 2006: 4-12

Dallas Cowboys, October 14
In the middle of a soft stretch of their schedule, Dallas Cowboys get a change of pace when Patriots roll into town. Dallas will be coming off potential powder-puff games against St. Louis and Buffalo (the latter on Monday Night Football in Buffalo). Cowboys play Miami in week two.
Dallas’s record 2006: 9-7

Miami Dolphins, October 21 and December 23.
Patriots are in a bit of luck against Miami scheduling wise this season, with the road game coming in late October rather than in September and the home game in late December, hopefully in bad conditions and by the time Miami has more or less packed it in (although they always unpack if for the Patriots). Miami, on the other hand, will enjoy a nice and easy stretch leading up to the first game, with outings against Oakland, at Houston, and at Cleveland (keep an eye on how Cleveland is doing against Miami on October 14). Miami will play New York Giants in London the following week, so they’ll have their plate full with distractions. Miami’s lead-up to the second game will be quite a bit different: At Pittsburgh, against Jets, at Buffalo, and against Baltimore.
Miami’s record 2006: 6-10

Washington Redskins, October 28
How’s this for a schedule stretch: Bye, against Detroit, at Green Bay, against Arizona? That’s what the Washington Redskins will sleep through before heading up to Foxboro to take on New England Patriots.
Washington’s record 2006: 6-10

Indianapolis Colts, November 4
Life is not easy for a reigning Super Bowl champion. Colts will play Jacksonville on Monday Night and Carolina Panthers - both games on the road - before hosting New England Patriots it what could possibly be the most pivotal game of the season for both teams.
Indianapolis’s record 2006: 12-4

Bye, November 11
New England Patriots will get some most likely badly needed rest in mid-November before playing Buffalo Bills on the 18.

Philadelphia Eagles, November 25
Eagles play Miami the week before this showdown at Gillette Stadium.
Philadelphia’s record 2006: 10-6

Baltimore Ravens, December 3
Baltimore Ravens are lucky to be playing in a relatively weak division, provided it actually stays relatively weak in 2007, but there is nothing weak about the Ravens end-of-November, early December schedule: at San Diego, against New England on Monday Night and then against Indianapolis on Sunday Night. The patriots should be in good shape and getting sharp by this time. It’ll be a homecoming of sorts for linebacker Adalius Thomas, a brilliant free-agent off-season acquisition by New England from Baltimore.
Baltimore’s record 2006: 13-3

Pittsburgh Steelers, December 9
Patriots complete their series against AFC North with a home game against Pittsburgh Steelers, who’ll be coming off games at Jets and against Miami (Monday Night Football) and Cincinnati (Sunday Night Football).
Pittsburgh’s record 2006: 8-8

New York Giants, December 29
After capping off a three-game home stand with games against division rivals Jets and Miami, Patriots travel to New York (actually a swamp in New Jersey) to take on the Giants in a sadly rare game for bragging rights in Connecticut (and also between New England old timers who started rooting for Giants before the Patriots existed and younger Patriots fans). Giants have a bit of a hop scotch schedule leading up to the regular-season finale: at Chicago, at Philadelphia, against Washington (Sunday Night), and at Buffalo.
Giants record 2006: 8-8

Swedish daily newspaper Sydsvenskan reports that a minor brawl involving a dozen people broke out in a sauna at a community gym in southern Sweden when a group of men in their 30’s asked a group of teenagers to take off their swimming trunks in the sauna, as tradition bids, which led to verbal and allegedly physical confrontations between the groups. Four police patrols (which probably means 6-12 officers) responded to the incident.

Wearing trunks in the sauna? Why not just have everyone wear burkas while we’re at it? (Don’t be concerned, I’d never go to a sauna over here)

In the years following the 2000 population count, the United States Census Bureau estimated a rather steep population decline for Boston, from 589,000 in 2000 to 559,000 in 2005. Then , in October last year, the Census Bureau issued a revised population estimate for Boston after the city’s mayor Thomas M. Menino had complained loudly that the city by no means was losing people. Lo and behold, the revised estimate for Boston’s 2005 population was 596,000 people, vindicating the Mayor. The revision raised a number of questions that I don’t think anybody in media cared to ask: Why had the Bureau’s original estimation been so inaccurate? Would the Bureau revise the population estimates for years 2001 - 2004 as well? How would the findings of the annual American Community Survey for Boston for years 2002 - 2005 be affected (2001 was a trial year for ACS and Boston wasn’t included in it)? Would the Bureau also revise population estimates for Suffolk County, where Boston makes up some 80% of the population?

The Bureau’s original and now discarded estimates probably led to Nielsen dropping Boston from the top five media markets. It has also led to cries for increased state spending to do the job that the federal agency isn’t doing very well.

We have yet to find out how the Bureau could have been so spectacularly wrong - if indeed its original population estimates for Boston were wrong - but we have learned that it has revised population estimates for Boston and Suffolk county. Next month, in August, the Bureau will release the 2006 American Community Survey and we will then find out what impact the population revisions have had on the Survey.

For now, let’s have a look at the original and revised populations estimates for Boston, Suffolk County, and the non-Boston part of the county 2000 - 2006. Remember the sole estimate for Boston’s population in 2006 is 590,763, which should be seen as a continuation of the revised estimates series. The corresponding number for Suffolk county is 687,610, which leaves 96,847 for Suffolk county outside of Boston (Chelsea, Revere, and Winthrop).

* As counted by the 2000 Census

As the table shows, the original and revised estimates diverge sharply starting in 2003. Interestingly, the American Community Survey 2002 reported a household population of 545,000 in Boston, 9,000 fewer than the Census had counted in 2000, seemingly suggesting a downward trend in population size that appeared to be confirmed by the 2003 population estimate and ACS

Here’s a corresponding table for Suffolk county. The county’s population was estimated at 687,610 in 2006.

Finally, here’s a table that shows the original and revised population estimates for Suffolk outside of Boston:

Considering that the Bureau’s current population estimate for Suffolk county and the city of Boston is that both experienced little if any population change 2000 - 2006, the Bureau’s original estimates for Suffolk’s non-Boston populations seem more reasonable than the revised ones, which have the combined populations of Chelsea, Revere, and Winthrop fluctuate wildly, increasing by some fifteen thousand from 2000 to 2002, then falling by about twenty thousand from 2002 - 2005, all while Boston’s population remained more or less unchanged.

Here are the revised population estimates for Chelsea and Revere (I don’t have all of the original estimates):

Unless there are two sergeant detective John Daley in the Boston Police Department (and I suppose there could be a dozen of them) everybody’s favorite blogging cop John Daley has been promoted to Deputy Superintendent by police chief Ed Davis.

Congratulations to Deputy Superintendent Daley!

The Boston Herald’s Jessica Heslam was first to report Howie Carr’s move from 680 WRKO-AM to 96.5 WTKK-FM. I assume Mr. Carr instructed his lawyer, who was Ms. Heslam’s source, to give her the scoop.

Ms. Heslam’s original report appeared on BostonHerald.com’s frontpage shortly after 3pm, I believe, on June 9. She updated the story a few hours later, then posted a follow-up blog post on the site’s Messenger blog after midnight. Her orginal piece currently tops Google for howie + carr + wtkk. The Herald’s handling of the news illustrates the secondary but still useful role of BostonHerald.com’s blogs. It reminds me of something Dan Kennedy wrote a couple of years ago. In response to a question a commenter had posted he explained (and I’m paraphrasing here) that he saved his best ideas for the print version of The Boston Phoenix (where he was a senior and very readable writer) and used somewhat lesser material on his blog (which then was Media Log at bostonphoenix.com, he now blogs at Media Nation, while an Adam Reilly is handling Media Log). Ms. Heslam and BostonHerald.com used a similar approach when reporting Mr. Carr’s bailing on WRKO, only it was the web site rather than the printed paper that got top billing. Had the Herald nominally used the print edition to break the news then, I believe, it would have hit the Herald web site shortly before midnight, anyway. Breaking the news online mid-afternoon is obviously a much better way to make a splash. It should also be noted that Ms. Heslam’s frontpage article will soon disappear behind the Great Wall of Subscription, while her blog post will remain accessible to all.

One thing that may not follow Mr. Carr to WTKK is howiecarr.com, which is registered to WRKO’s owner Entercom Communications. Unless there’s a contract stipulating otherwise, it will remain with Entercom I guess.

Former WRKO morning host Scott Allen Miller weighed in yesterday on the latest developments at WRKO. Mr. Miller was let go by WRKO in January this year to make room for former Massachusetts Speaker of the House (who is also a convicted felon who plead guilty in a federal court to what pretty much was a bullshit charge, in my opinion).

I like Mr. Miller’s lead in:

I have kept my mouth shut about WRKO for a long time. … I am still bound by a non-disparagement clause that limits how much I can criticize Entercom and its management. I have to be careful what I say about WRKO and Entercom for fear of being sued. Please bear that in mind.

So allow me to put it this way: WRKO is done.

He then goes on to explain why that is the case.

As one of the commenters to Mr. Miller’s post points out, what makes Mr. Carr successful isn’t his politics but his ability to entertain his listeners. People who think WRKO can command an audience simply by switching to a more left-leaning talk format are way off base, just as the station can’t hold on to Mr. Carr’s audience simply by hiring some right-wing gabber.

WRKO claims to be undertaking legal action to prevent Mr. Carr from leaving, but that strikes me as a desperate act by station management eager to cover their behinds. Their bosses at Entercom should save the company’s owners money by immediately putting an end to that foolishness.

How did WTKK snag Mr. Carr? Or, put differently, who at WTKK snagged him? Was it really the new program director Grace Blazer who started her job on June 6 after 11 years as a producer and program director at a talk station in Philadelphia? Surely she didn’t pull of such a momentous coup in just four weeks? On the other hand, if she didn’t do it, then surely she must at least have been made aware of her new employer’s desire to hire WRKO’s lone star before she accepted the position? Or perhaps it doesn’t work like that in radio? Perhaps, to paraphrase former New England Patriots head coach Bill Parcells, she’s asked to do the cooking while somebody else is buying the groceries?

So who is this Ms. Blazer?

Here’s the abbreviated story:

Lancaster native Grace Blazer has been named program director of WTKK-FM, a talk-radio station in Boston. Blazer spent the past 11 years at WPHT-AM, a talk-radio station in Philadelphia, serving the first five years as executive producer and the last six years as program director.

Blazer, who is relocating to the Boston area, is a University of Pittsburgh graduate.

The Boston Globe had a piece on her in mid-June. It is charmingly substance free, but the accompanying photo suggests that Mr. Carr will get along swimmingly with his future programming director.

Finally, since out-there speculation is one of the things I like to do on this blog, let me throw this out: How about the owners of the Patriots, the Kraft family, buying WRKO from Entercom? They sit on an enormous amount of wildly popular content and personalities (and also Major League Soccer franchise New England Revolution) and have shown some ability to increase the value of dead-in-the-water assets. Not to mention that the Krafts having Mr. Finneran on their payroll would be pure Massachusetts.

Last month National Football League finally killed off the money losing, unnecessary, and quite possibly hurtful developmental league NFL Europa after 16 years of fruitless attempts to get it to work right. The league reportedly lost $30 million a year, did little (and increasingly less) to develop players and sucked scarce European and Japanese talent from struggling semi-pro national leagues. NFL’s commercial and athletic needs in Europe would be far better served by a few million dollars spent on supporting national leagues, in particular youth football leagues (disclosure: I was an unpaid player in a semi-pro league in the early 1990’s, so I have some bias in favor of the national leagues over NFL’s now massively failed attempt at market skimming).

NFL will focus its international efforts on promoting regular-season games hosted in foreign countries, starting with one game in 2007 and as many as two in 2008. I’m strongly opposed to NFL making it even more difficult and expensive for American fans to watch their teams live than it already is and I’m sad to say that the Kraft family, which owns New England Patriots and is otherwise very fan friendly, is one of the leading proponents of off-shoring regular-season games. Eventually, playoff games will also be sent overseas, culminating, no doubt, with Super Bowl itself being played in a country far, far away. I think NFL is foolish in taking its American base for granted while pandering to overseas foreigners whose first love is and always will be soccer. Just ask Canadian Football League how its cross-border venture worked out. Better yet, ask NFL.

Andrew Mason has a beautiful recap of WLAF/NFLE’s strange history. Orlando Thunder, I remember those guys, their wacky uniforms and their on-side kick-offs. Mr. Mason mentions the helmet cam, but not the helmet-headphones that quarterbacks wore. One team, I can’t remember which, was coached by “Mouse” Davies (sp?) and consequently ran the run-and-shoot offense in spite of the league’s lack of even decent quarterbacking.

Dan Leberfeld looks at NFL player transactions and reaches the reasonable conclusion that “it’s probably best that NFL Europa folded,” although he thinks general managers around the NFL sold the developmental league short. I disagree.

Matt Maiocco at The Press-Democrat looks at the bottom line:

Well, obviously, it’s all about money. It’s always all about money. The league believes it makes more sense financially to scrap the league and devote its energy into marketing the NFL game in Europe.

Anglofritz can brag that he saw the last NFLE regular season game:

Things were already looking dire and half-hearted when I saw the Berlin Thunder versus the Rhein Fire last month in the Olympic Stadium; the already sparse crowd of 200-odd spectators were scrunched to one side of arena (albeit peppered with plenty of hardcore, face-painted fans) and the cheerleaders were distinctly more watchable than the cringe-worthy on-field performance (come on, fellas, you can pass the ball, too). At the time, I should have known I was watching the last game ever…

Angela at Boston Brat thinks “the moral of the story is Europe is not ready for American Football.” She’s right about that and I doubt it ever will be.

Canadian football blog Twelve Men On The Field looks at what impact the demise of NFLE might have on CFL. Apparently not much. [Huge aside: Canadian football was actually how I was introduced to football. One of my all-time favorite football games as a fan came when quarterback Kent Austin led the Saskatchewan Roughriders to a thrilling victory over Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the 1989 Grey Cup. I vividly remember one of the three broadcast announcers yelling "Take that, Tony Champion" after a Saskatchewan receiver made a great catch during the winning drive. Champion was a Ti-Cat receiver who had made a spectacular touchdown grab on the preceding drive. Ah, good memories. I'm very happy that football has made a strong comeback in Canada over the past decade.]

0xCF is a European fan who will actually miss the league. He hopes for a Pan-European football league independent of NFL, but I think the sport would gain more from frequent games between Europe’s national team. Then again, he’s over there and I’m over here.

Bloginger explains why NFL Europa was more like NFL Kleindeutschland in its final days.

Skinny Moose wins the award for best headline announcing the end of NFLE:

“Europe’s final countdown.”

The Boston Herald’s Jessica Heslam is reporting that Boston talk-show host Howie Carr is leaving WRKO to take over WTKK’s morning show. I guess WTKK’s management isn’t overly bothered by Mr. Carr repeatedly having called their station WTKKK for airing Mike Barnicle and Don Imus.

I speculated almost a year ago that Mr. Carr would be pushed out of the increasingly anti-populist and decreasingly entertaining WRKO. True, the process that lead to Mr. Carr’s leaving the station wasn’t at all like the one I described, and he has yet to get canned by the Herald, as I also speculated, but the outcome is nonetheless that Mr. Carr soon won’t be coming down for breakfast at WRKO, as he himself might put it.

Mr. Carr’s move sets up a head-to-head battle between him and Tom Finneran, the host of WRKO’s morning show.

Update: The Radio Equalizer reports some amusing gossip from inside WRKO. It involves broken glass and a choice curse word. Link via Universal Hub.

I’m back from a nearly two-week long vacation in the Pacific Northwest, mostly Washington state. Here are a few impressions, some of which I might elaborate on sometime:

- There’s far more traffic in Washington than I had ever imagined. The Seattle area resembles Route 9 during rush hour.

- People don’t speed much in Washington. They also don’t use the horn much, either, not even in Seattle.

- The northwest corner of Washington, the area outside of Seattle, looks like paradise.

- Eastern Washington looks like South Dakota, only drier. I had no idea.

- Apparently, Mexicans aren’t the only humans who are able to cook food, make beds, and clean rooms.

- A poorly made dike is known as a “Scandinavian shovel-up.” I blame Danes and Norwegians.

- Least unexpected headline in a Seattle newspaper: “Big-time pot growers use Seattle-area homes.”

- We live in a Microsoft world. Eddie Bauer is moving its headquarters into a 28-story office tower in downtown Bellevue east of Seattle. The apparel company will occupy 13 stories, while the other 15 will be taken up by Microsoft. Eddie Bauer sold its former head office in Redmond, Washington, to, yes, Microsoft.

- Seattle’s downtown has a very visible population of junkies, prostitutes, pimps and gang bangers. Of course, Kenmore Square has a highly visible population of beggars.

- La Conner could just be the best representative of Small Town America that I have ever seen.

- The corn boom is over hyped, maybe even wildly so.

- There are several Indian reservations in Washington, and most of them seem to peddle gambling, tobacco, fireworks, and cheap gas. It’s quite amusing to see a dozen or more shacks selling fireworks right next to a gas station. A libertarian Utopia, I imagine.

- Dick’s in Seattle has the best fast-food hamburgers and milkshakes I’ve ever consumed. It also has very good fries.

- Life is slow in Eastern Washington (by which I mean everything east of North Bend). So slow that my inner East Coast douchebag prompted me to demand a refund from a severely under-supervised Dairy Queen restaurant that wasn’t able to produce coffee in 20 freaking minutes.

- Washington is dotted with small Espresso kiosks. They’re everywhere out there and I had never even heard of them two weeks ago.

- Safeco Field is a terrific ball park.

- The Seattle Mariners have an outfield that triple-handedly destroyed the Boston Red Sox and turned David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez into Big Pop-up and Manny Flyball. Painful to watch, I must say.

- The Silver Cloud hotel is right across the street from Safeco Field and should be considered by visiting Sox fans. Tremendous place.

- Olympic National Park is the Washington, D.C., of the West Coast, a place that all Americans ought to visit. Stunning beauty. Amazing.

- Seattle’s so-called walkability doesn’t measure up to Boston’s, in my opinion, but I am a big time homer.

- That said, this was the first time in my almost ten years in America that I returned home thinking that maybe, just maybe, Boston’s advantages over the rest of the world maybe aren’t all that.