When the book club got to its epistolary novel

1. Sports

Be advised that the Minnesota Vikings may go 0-7, and the seven babies named
Tavaris in the last six months will soon go by Tavis and/or Smiley and are doomed to multiple Wedgie recesses and a future in which no bras are ever fumbled with and no babies are ever procreated. Nice Gus Frerotte exegesis, stupid Fox North pregame production eggsuckers.

Be advised that another six White Sox players could break their own respective wrists in petulant post-foul ball lapses of judgment and the Minnesota Twins may still not
resurrect themselves into their mid-00s early exit from the postseason form.

I am confused. Does Dan Uggla's All-Star meltdown bear glad or ill tidings vis a vis postseason possibilities?

2. Politics

is not what it used to be. Which may be good. I am not sure - try not to pay attention.

3. Culture

see supra. also, according to a report summarized in a soft news story I read in what passes as a political/cultural magazine, the secret to the Danish levels of happiness, which exceed all other countries' levels of happiness, is having very low expectations on a consistent basis and being pleasantly surprised when they are not met.

Danes pay the highest taxes of any nation in the world (starting at 42 per cent, rising to 68 per cent), enjoy fewer hours of sunshine than Britain, have a higher divorce rate than most Europeans, live only averagely long and smoke and drink far more than is good for them. So what's going on?

In 2006, researchers from the Institute of Public Health at the University of Southern Denmark examined a range of possible factors, from genes to cycling habits to cuisine. In a charming report, they offered two explanations: the Danes have never got over their rapture at winning the European football championships in 1992 (their happiness rose to new peaks that year, and has stayed on a plateau since), and - the main finding - Danes, unlike the woeful Greeks and Italians, have very low expectations of the immediate future. "Year after year," the researchers write, "they are pleasantly surprised to find that not everything is getting more rotten in the state of Denmark.

So - moment of synthesis - the difference between being a Vikings fan and a Danish national lies in the degree to which pessimistic expectations are realized.