Lima Trip, Day 3: The Green City

Today in Lima was all about the cities greenery (with an Art musuem and a craft beer bar thrown in). We woke up with the fog finally gone (though we would find out this is more of a morning thing), and Miraflores gleaming below. The first trip after a coffee was to walk along the Malecon, the long stretch of oceanfront, cliff-top pathway past park after park, statue after statue, and just greenery everywhere. 

This is one of the elements I do remember from our first trip, this walk along the Malecon, but this time we went further than before - it stays mostly flat but for a few areas that dip down, and it is here where there are paths that take you from the Malecon cliff-top to the beach below (way below, we did not do this). Probably nothing in Lima is as notable from a visual perspective as these cliffs that go basically straight down a few hundred feet, with four lanes of road and about twenty further feet of beach between the end of the cliff and hte Pacific. From this angle, the Pacific for certain looks imposing and not too friendly to dip in, unless you are one of the many surfer types that were doing so.

The Malecon stretches for about 6 km or something - of which we walked maybe 2 before turning off as we were now within earshot of our lunch spot, the well reputed, well frequented La Mar Cebicheria, a lunch only spot under a canopy roof tucked into a corner of a road. I'm probably way underselling my description here, as the place is well adorned and is packed, and continually has a line. We had to wait about 20 minutes and bt the time we left aroudn 1:45 it was way more lengthy of a line.

The place is a haven for seafood in every way, with us splitting two ceviches and two tiraditos, my favorite of which being the 'Tiradito de la 90s' (unsure why the name) with cream of aji amarillo. It was excellent, but in reality all their food was excellent. Maido and this are the two repeats of the trip food wise, and I guess it was good to get both repeats out of the way early - but it was still fun to eat at both.

After La Mar we wandered for a bit as we had planned to go the Huaca Pucllana ruins but very late in teh game figured out you need to make an advanced booking. Anyway, from there we went to the the MALI (the fancy initialization of the Lima Art Museum) which is housed on one corner of the giant Parque de Exposicion. The Art Museum was nice and quick, a jaunt through Peruvian pre-history, the Incan period, the Spanish reign and post-Spain, with a large collection of Indigenous art - including a really nice gallery that showed paintings that had all the trappings of Catholic scenes but with their own Gods instead. 

Downstairs was a couple collections of modern art, one with quasi erotic art which apparently seems to just be a thing in Peru. Anyway, it somehow was less clearly erotic than the collection the day prior at the Larco Museum. After the museum we wandered around the well manicured lawns of the Parque de Exposicion, which was just so damn green. From there we went to the Parque John Kennedy / Parque 7 de Junio (they're next to each other), which are much smaller but unsurprisingly so since they are smack dab in the middle of the Miraflores part of the city. 

It is hard to get over how green the city is, and how well manicured each of these parks are. There are always people around tending to the flower beds and parks, watering them, looking after them. I'm sure it is partially a way to keep everyone employed, but it is truly nice to see. 

From there we went bar hopping, which is not something we will ever avoid if given the chance. This is the one day we don't have a michelin star dinner, so we had a bit more time to kill before dinner to explore. 

The street was a little gulley off of Parque 7 de Junio, which had about 10 bars. A few of them were craft beer bars and cervecerias, of which two we went to, and made a commitment to come back. The first was BarBarian, which had a really nice vibe if a bit too commercial. The beer was good, but nothing too heavy/hard/high ABV - clearly a place more meant for people to have a good time even more than drink great beer. 

The second was Clan Cerveceria, which was more my style, with multipel really high ABV beers in small amounts - including two above 10%. We didn't have those now, but just a couple good 7% IPAs in a nice setting. They had an odd "you have to order food" rule, which fries was an acceptable ord4er so it wasn't to meaningful, but was still interesting nonetheless given we hadn't faced this in any of the other bars we went to.

Dinner was supposed to be more low key, algiht as a restaurant Mayta is very much on the rise as another brilliant inclusion to Lima's food scene. But when we got there, in its beautiful, green, airy space in the swanky San Isidro neighborhood, instead of going a la carte, we got a 7-course, very reasonably priced tasting menu. Given that, I'll cover this as well in a separate post (no idea when these posts will actually occur, in all honesty.

After dinner to walk off the unintended feast, we walked through San Isidro from Mayta to Carnaval - a weird walk through an admittedly beautiful, rich, neighborhood, with the weird Pacific mist wafting all over. I really have no idea how to describe the weather - it is very cloudy, very foggy (though only parts of the city - more inland is fine), but there is still an everpresent 0% chance of rain...

Carnaval was a lot more crowded today, and we waited a good 30 minutes before getting seated. Inside they were doing good crowd control (everyone needs a seat - no standing). The other little secret about why the wait was so long despite there not being a sizable line is that no one leaves - and for all the right reasons. The vibe in the place is great, the drinks are all great. We stayed from about 11:45 to 2:15, and while it was 50% capacity by the time we left, there were mutliple tables that were there before us that remained. It was not the planned way to spend the rest of the night, but like we did with Mayta when presented with an unforseen option, we took advantage of it.

Lima Trip, Day 1-2: Re-tracing Steps

Day 1

In 2016, I took my first international trip with my high school friends - save for a cruise in 2014 that touched on some islands that were very much made to cater 100% to the trashy American tourists most of us were. It was a smaller group in 2016, with just three of us heading down to Peru for a week, a way too quick week where we lost a whole day just traveling from Cusco to Machu Picchu, and a trip that we basically had 2.5 days in Lima.

Well, six years later I conned the same two friends, plus two others, to join me in Peru for my birthday. The two newbies are taking the foillowing week off to do the Machu Picchu stuff that we already did, but for the three of us it is a bit of way too quickly earned nostalgia. There won't be too much downtime, so I'll largely be writing these of memories in lazy afternoons, late nights or on my flight back home.

There are many differences from this trip and the first one, from us being 25 year old travelers fit to stay in a youth hostel (Loki), and now old enough to intentially stay in an AirBNB, where not only would we not be mingling with other youth hostel-ers, but not even by chance running into random hotel passers-by. THe other difference is this groups love of food. 

Lima is notably home to two of the Top 10 restaurants in teh world (per San Pelligrino's widely somewhat accepted list), Maido and Central. When we went in 2016, none of us had ever eaten a truly world-class tasting menu meal, but we scored a reservation at Maido and were astonished. I feel like we attempted to go to Central but couldn't get a booking. Since then mutliple of us have eaten at Gaggan (though all separately), we've eaten as a group at Azurmendi and Belcanto last year in Spain & Portugal, and have also risen up our respective job ranks so we can splurge a bit more.

Maido would be on the first night of the trip (my birthday), with Central on the Saturday. But before we could even get to Peru, I first had to deal with two foreign countries. More notably being my first time hitting the soil of Colombia, if only in an airport, and more sadly, having to brave the experience that is JFK Airport for the first time in 3.5 years.

I used to love JFK airport, specifically Terminal 4 which until it became essentially a Delta hub around 2015 or so, was a lovely international terminal that had a large stretch of it, with good restaurants, bars, shops, clubs, all pre-security. It was the international-focused terminal that New York deserved. Delta then took it over, and while the terminal is still nicer than Delta's old T2/3 spots, it is become an overcrowded, security-ridden mess.

My flight from JFK to Bogota (a new airport for me!) takes off at 12:25am. Right around that time there is a flight to Dubai, Tel Aviv, and a London flight at 11pm. So the terminal isn't empty. I guess someone forgot to tell the JFK people, as every restaurant and bar was shut by 10pm (i.e. before I even got there), and ever concession was closed by 11pm. Anyway, my friend and I were in no mood really to imbibe as we both wanted to sleep on the flight.

Avianca did treat us well, with them flying their new A320neo, which had newer economy seats, still tightly bunched up as always, but with a much helpful USB charger (really should be standard in 2022). The flight to Bogota was uneventful. The stay in Bogota was short, but eventful in its absurdity. We ended up at the last gate of the terminal, with a good 8 minute walk to the central head-house where security was set up to allow us back to the departure area for the connection to Lima. Of course the flight to Lima happened to be on the exact same plane we took to Bogota in the first place. I was planning some witty joke in spanish to tell the flight attendants when I boarded, but instead found that a new crew had come in for this flight.

The flight to Lima was even less eventful, same plane but no pillows - but with the tradeoff of having a whole row to myself that allowed me to sleep some more. For essentially a broken red-eye, I was able to get roughyl a good nights sleep, which posited us well for our first day-to-night in Lima.

Day 2

Driving from Lima airport to our AriBNB in Miraflores was interesting. At various times I saw myself comparing what I saw to India - always favorably. The immediate area aroudn the airport had what I assume is their version of slums, but they are brick apartment buildings rather than tin roofed huts like in Mumbai. As we got closer to the city center, other than the everpresent fog that dominated the first day, the city brightened up brilliantly. We drove on the highway near the coast on the way to the airport which finally brought back some memories. You would think I would remember more about this place given we jsut went there six years back.

The Miraflores neighborhood is right in the middle of the city, in between the bohemian Barranco area (which we are planning to spend many a night) and the more urban, commercial area to the immediate north. It is a good place to stay, but for what we had planned on this first day was a bit mis-located. After luckily getting into the AirBNB early, we left around noon for lunch at La Picante, a well made mom-and-pop restaurant that quickly to me became somethign like the Peruvian version of Miller's Thumb.

It was a very fish heavy menu, with a selection of Ceviches, Tiraditos (sliced raw fished drizzled with stuff), Chaufas (fried rice), Calientes (hot entrees) where you pick a style and a type of fish. It was decorated really well, sadly with partitions up as Peru seems to take Covid way more seriously than any other country I've traveled to to date. We split a couple ceviches, both classic peruvian with Tiger's Milk, one 'Picante' with fish, the other more traditional with Langostino. Both were amazing. Then split a couple hot dishes, one being a braised beef short rib (really good, but still somewhat sad that we gave in and did order meat) and a stewed fish.

We then walked around that area from La Picante to the Museo Nacional Arcologico, which of course happened to still be closed due to covid. They had a side exhibit built into an old large house on the history of Peruvian independence, which was still nice and it was free, but we were all seething that none of us figured out it was closed. That museum was a late add to our list anyway as we were really on teh way to the Larco Museum (the Arcologico museum was half-way).

This whole area of Peru is very residential, and reminded me of a much cleaner, prettier, greener version of certain Bangalore neighborhoods or Bandra. I don't know why the India connection lasts so much but it really fits for some reason. All streets had well made houses, all with a random smattering of colors, with lush greenery everywhere. Seemingly every four blocks or so was a little park. It truly is what India should be.

The Larco Museum made up for not seeing the Arcologico museum, as the main exhibit of the Larco was a trip to Ancient Peru through to the Incas (so stopping basically as the Spanish conquered). It was a really nice trip told through pottery, jewerly, sculpture, with each region and time havign its own style that the Larco did well to explain. They also had two other exhibits that were, let's say, different. First was their 'storage' area which is basically four rooms with cabinets everywhere with just 'extra' pieces. It is astonishing in its largesse, just floor to ceiling, wall to wall, sculptures and stuff.

The other is a more interesting exhibit, and what the Larco is probably most (in)famous or, the Erotica Gallery, which explores the ancient Peruvians odd penchant for erotic scultpure, from actual scupltures to erotic carvings on top of normal water jugs. It was presented very tastefully but was still, openly, weird to see this in person.

From the Larco Museum we took an uber to the other end of town, again driving the road near the beach now much more crowded than in morning, to Barranco, to Red Cerveceria, one of the more well reputed craft breweries in Lima. Red Cerveceria served some really cold, really hoppy IPAs, among their more normal offerings (a lager, an ale, a weisse, etc.), in a really nice space. It was fairly empty when we came - but started to fill up with some foreigners and moreso post-work locals by the time we left around 6pm. At this point some returned to the AirBNB, while me and one friend took a walk around Barranco down to Dedalo, an art and craft gallery near the water.

Barranco is a really nice, if more artsy, neighborhood that had about five or six bars that we crossed on our walk, and this wasn't even the most 'bar-y' part of the barrio - that's where we'll be later tonight. But first was Maido, which was incredible and will be covered in excruciating detail in a separate post.

Post Maido we went to Carnaval, which is Lima's most reputed cocktail bar, and while it wasn't as magical and inventive as, say, Cause Effect, it was about 75% as close and made some truly great, if a bit too easy to down, cocktails with a great vibe as well. From there we headed back to Barranco, which was a bit quiet - granted the places that were open were crowded and jolly, but speaking to a few locals they told us that even as the city opens back up post covid, Thursday's are way less crowded than they used to be. It's all a process I guess.

On Kansas Finally Getting It Done

I don't know if I've seen a game change more times in terms of my view on "This game is over" coming up so many times and switching from side to side. In the end we got a classic, but there were three different moments I thought we were far away from it. First was Kansas's quick 7-0 sprint to start the game. It seemed they were playing at a different pace, a different level of precision.

Of course, then UNC went on a 38-15 run to take their 16-point lead, where they were getting an offense rebound on like half their misses, getting tons of free throws, and a suddenly, seemingly undersized Kansas team was missing layup after layup. Not great - and it looked over, and we could turn the 2022 Title Game into another game Bill Self would lose as a favorite.

Then of course there was the 10-minute stretch that ended with the Jayhawks up 56-50 (a 31-10 run), punctuated with a Remy Martin three, and a Jalen Wilson and-one - and it definitely seemed more than over at that point, that Kansas took it over, were running the Tar Heels out of the gym, and would cruise to a safe victory.

Of course, while some of that was true (it was clear North Carolina was a bit worn out by the end, even aside from the injuries), North Carolina valiantly came back behind their rarely-played 8th guy in Puff Johnson and made it a game down to the wire. It was a great end to what was a great tournament, short on buzzer beaters, but full of upsets (St. Peters!), classic finishes, the end of Coach K in the best/worst way possible, and of course a worthy Kansas team finally getting a second title for Bill Self.

It is very ironic that this is the team that finally gets Bill Self his long awaited second title. This wasn't an unknown team, it was Top-5 for much of the year, was a #1 seed in the tournament, and if you said at the start of the season that Kansas won, no one would be shocked - unless we looked back at all the better Kansas teams, both on paper and actual performance up until their untimely loss.

Whether it was the 2010 team that went 32-2 led by Cole Aldrich and Sherron Collins and both Morris twins, that got shocked by Northern Iowa, or the team the following year that also went 32-2 and got shocked by VCU in teh Elite Eight. Whether it was the great back to back teams in 2016 and 2017, losing in the Elite Eight both years, first to Villanova (admittedly, teh eventual champion) and then to Oregon in a stunning upset.

Bill Self's tough exits are only meaningful because how often he gets his teams to a place with a top seed and so many expectations. There are no down Kansas teams, which makes it very likely there will be some loss in the tournament each year. Well, not this year. This team succeeded in especially all the moments the prior incarnations slipped.

From their ability to be composed throughout their 2nd round game (a common Self tripping point - look to the 2010 team) despite never really getting much separation from a game, underseeded, Creighton team. Or them coming through after a rough first half in the Elite Eight (THE Self tripping point) against Miami to blitz them with one of the most dominant half you will ever see in a 47-15 domination.

And of course there was that final - playing about as bad as you can in simple ways. Not finishing at the rim, not boxing out, not playing fast against a team that was hurting to play slow after expending so much against Duke and playing largely a 7-man lineup all year. Well, they reversed all those things in a dominant 10-minute stretch that will define this team because it was so accordant to what they used to do when faced with nothing going their way. This team came together, made the right changes, and pushed, pushed, pushed through a 10-minute sprint to re-take the lead, basically for good.

From Christian Braun, finally hitting layups after missing so many in the first half, to Remy Martin finding his stroke with a series of threes, to Jalen Wilson and Dajuan Harris playing haunting defense. But let's focus on David McCormack, who was fed the ball over and over and failed over and over in that depressing first half, to clinching it with two great clutch bunny hooks to close the game out. He was one of the few players to actually be a key performer on the oft-mentioned 2020 team that was #1 at the time of the shutdown, and he seemed to wear that a lot, first as a weight that dragged him down, but then as a way to attain his personal mountaintop.

For a second, we should talk about North Carolina, who played excellently and just ultimately lost to a better team. They survived what seemed like a lost season to put it together and play well above that 8 seed. They were mentally strong enough to strut into Cameron indoor and dominate Duke in Coach K's last home game. They were good enough to take a 25-point lead against Baylor, and calm enough to survive Baylor's comeback run despite referees basically committing crimes by how much they've swallowed their whistles. They of course were strong enough to play Duke to a draw the whole way. And they shown bright against Kansas, it is just the Jayhawks shone brighter.

The Jayhawks ultimately win a 2nd title in Bill Self's run that he and their program so very much deserve. This program has been among the best for such a long time, despite having few true five-star recruits compared to other programs (granted, it hasn't been barren). They have come close, but also achingly far when they should've been closer. But they finally did it - in historic fashion with the comeback. The Jayhawks made history, capping a historical tournament, from a historic run by a 15 seed, to a historic final moment for Coach K, to history in the title game. It was beautiful, and better yet that Kansas was the final team standing.

The Great NFL Announcer Carousel

I thought about writing this a while back when first Troy Aikman, and then more shockingly Joe Buck, left FOX for ESPN, fresh off the heels of Al Michaels getting wooed away by Amazon. But I waited because I wanted to see where the dust settles - which it now more or less has with Kevin Burkhardt picking up the top FOX gig. Anyway, while this has been a crazy offseason for player movement - some incredible and shocking (Russell Wilson), to skeevy (Deshaun Watson), to cloying (Tom Brady), it arguably has been a crazier one in the announcers booth.

For so long there was relative calm in the way the sport was broadcasted. When NBC took over SNF in 2006, along with ESPN picking up MNF, it was basically status quo for 15 years. There were a few changes - most notably John Madden retiring and getting replaced by Cris Collinsworth starting in 2009, and then Phil Simms getting sidelined for Tony Romo in 2016 - it was status quo. NFC was on FOX, AFC was on CBS, good games were on NBC, average games on ESPN and quasi-shit games on TNF.

Well, that's all long gone - we're entering the wild west of who has what, and also who is announcing those games. And in each of their different ways, each move represents the end of one era and the start of a new one. The end of the networks having the main leverage, and the start of the start-ups splashing money around in ways we didn't think possible. In a weird way, ESPN probably always had the cash to steal/pay for Joe Buck and Troy Aikman - but it took until they got back in the Super Bowl Rotation, finally got their MNF flex-scheduling and seeing Amazon pony up for Al Michaels, to make it happen.

People's opinions of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman may vary (for me, by the end I was fully pro both of them) but what is undeniable is the formula of them plus two great NFC teams and that unendingly workable NFL on FOX music just equaled something special. Those three things held a special meaning, and while we still get Buck and Aikman, having them on ESPN is just different.

Even more is the idea that Thursday Night Football will be just on Amazon Prime (granted, I have Amazon Prime - and by and large its a whole lot more accessible than the NFL Network ever was), but the idea that Al Michaels is there, weirdly with Kirk Herbstreit by his side, is just hard to conceptualize.

Even more than my 'equation' around Buck, is a stronger one with Al Michaels, NBC and a great primetime game at night. Even if historically SNF games weren't nearly as competitive as they should be on paper, it also always felt like a real big game, a big moment. I really wonder if Al Michaels calling games on a streaming service will be nearly as similar. I doubt it given it will take a long time before I can associate Kirk Herbstreit with the NFL - it just doesn't make sense. Especially for Amazon to plop down what I imagine was a lot of money to get Al Michaels only then to randomly just pick a college football guy to do color?

ESPN and Amazon are all new - and credit ESPN for finally doing what they should have 16 long years ago. The various incarnations of the MNF on ESPN after Jon Gruden left were all comically bad - cresting in this past year where as much as I think Fowler, Louis Riddick and Brian Griese were improvements over their more recent predecessors, they were also way worse than the Manningcast. 

What's left though I guess is CBS, which at least is nice given how the power of the NFL seems to have shifted mightily to the AFC over the offseason. But before we close, let's give a quick cheer for Kevin Burkhardt. I remember listening to him on WFAN more than 10 years ago, when he was a part-time overnight guy every now and then. He was also the sideline reporter for the excellent SNY Mets telecast, and finally graduated to FOX work on NFL and yoeman's work as the host of the MLB postgame show. It was a major come-up, but to me he was always the underrated guy on WFAN, a smart, polished, slyly fun voice on a network with many more outsized personalities - few were as consistently cool. 

I'm glad for Burkhardt. The overall landscape of NFL on tv changed, and I personally think it changed for the worse, but if it ends with MNF getting better (even if I'm Team #Manningcast), and Burkhardt getting a big role, in the end I guess I'm ok with it.

Some March Madness Thoughts

= Let's start with Saint Damn Peters, because how else. This tournament has a chance to be more known for other things, particularly if Coach K can end his career with a win (more on that later, of course). But to me barring a Duke win, this becomes 'the year Saint Peter's made the Elite 8'. To me, they're the best Cinderella ever. We've seen a 12 seed reach the final-four, but this was the first team below a 12-seed to even make the Elite 8. And while it ended roughly, what was more impressive than the run was the fact that they didn't seem out of place. They weren't winning because of some barrage of threes or luck, they held firm and outplayed 2-seed Kentucky and 3-seed Purdue. This was, as stated, the Greatest Cinderella moment in tournament history.

= In the end we have four Blue Bloods, granted one of them is an 8th seed. I struggle to think of bluer set of Final Four teams ever. This is royalty - we're either getting UNC win again (as an 8 seed), Jay Wright getting his third title in 6 years (five tournaments), Bill Self getting an overdue second, or of course Duke winning again. There is a great storyline no matter the winner, and that is about all you can ask for. It was a wild tournament at times, with some great stories and great runs - and all with the three 1-seeds losing before the Elite 8 - but in the end you want top teams remaining.

= Kansas is a silent killer, a quiet 1-seed that just even more quietly navigated to the Final 4. They weren't always dominant, but that second half against Miami, outscoring them 47-15, was terrifying if you're everyone else. They have balance, with four or five different dependable scoring options; they play great defense without fouling. They have moxie, don't get pressed and nervous (so different than so many different Self teams). While they are the lone #1 seed, I actually think they are seen as something of an outsider here - similar to Self's only title team when Kansas was the quieter top seed of the All-1-seed Final Four in 2008.

= While I hate everything about the mythologizing of Coach K, and this run just adding to it, I will admit getting a Duke v UNC Final Four game is really great. I was surprised to realize that they've never met in the tournament, though I guess I understand why since for years they would get overseeded and therefore set apart in different regions. It would have been better if UNC was stronger, or at least better than a quasi-Cinderella 8-seed, but even then the prospect of the team that beat Duke in Coach K's last game in Cameron, ending his career to be good is a tantalizing prospect.

= Look, I hate Coach K and Duke as much as anyone that has no real reason to do so, but still it is a bit cool that they've made this run. The man has made 12 Final Fours now, and even if that rate did drop-off in his last twenty years (this is just his fourth since 2004), he's made a good deal recently of winning when he gets there (2010, 2015). This team also has no obvious hateable classic Duke frat white guy - no Grayson Allen', or Plumlee's, or Jon Scheyer. I don't even know who even comes close to that. On the whole, I want them gone well before we even get to Monday's title game, but assuming I get my wish, I do find it a nice outcome that they made a Final Four here.

= College Basketball has an offense problem - this year was more glaring than most. There were just so few well played games offensively, and while there is an annual round of hagiography on how much college teams cares about defense, generally it is just shitty offense. So many games ending with teams scraping through couch cushions to find even 50 points. Every know and then we get a game like Duke v Texas Tech that was well played and exciting offensively, but for whatever reason the scales are tipping way too far into poor offense right now

= In the end, this Final Four is mouthwatering, but I do really hope we break out long standing tendency to never have good, memorable Final 4 games - even in years that we end up having great Title Games. The only great one I can even recall by memory is 2015 with Wisconsin's upset of the to that point unbeaten Kentucky team. Few others even come to mind. But these two seem great - you just have to think Duke and UNC will play a close game. And honestly, in a vacuum you can make the argument that Villanova and Kansas are the two best teams - and get to complete a Pt. 3 of recent matches with a well played 2016 Elite 8 game, and a blowout in 2018 (again - bad Final 4 games). Let's hope we avoid that curse and can get what on paper seems to be two incredible games.

Adios Carlos

Oddly, I wasn't too depressed when I first saw the news late, late, late Friday night that Carlos Correa was signing a 3-year deal (in reality a 1-year deal) with the Twins. Honestly, I was just relieved it was over. It was basically over when heading into the 2021 season the Astros gave him a laughably bad offer (something like 6yr/$120mm) and Correa cut off talks. It was obvious for all but a couple days when Correa wasn't getting the long term he was after and was willing to put up a short deal to re-hit free agency.

No, the writing on the wall was there a long time ago, but even more than all of that, the reason I was good Correa leaving is because we achieved a lot, enough, and it was a legacy fulfilled.

To be honest, you can argue that while he became an all star and a great player, Correa never truly lived up to his ridiculous hype - mostly due to injuries. He was great, he hit a lot of home runs, he grew into a great shorstop, he did all of right, but it was never the MVP player I expected him to be. He will be missed for sure - the Astros now suddenly with a whole to fill, but while Correa the player may not have lived up to my way-too-high expectations, Correa the idea certainly did.

Carlos Correa was drafted #1 overall in 2012, a year after the Astros hit their rock bottom, a 100-loss season that wasn't even outright the result of tanking. That was just years of bad mismanagement under Ed Wade (and owner Drayton McLane). No, tanking was what was to come under Jeff Luhnow (and new owner Jim Crane). The Astros unabashedly tanked in 2012-2013. In the end it worked but there was no guarantee it would. Carlos Correa was the closest thing (that or Altuve, already in MLB by then) we had to hope. His drafting was the moment this all turned around.

The moment it crsytallized is when he was called up in 2015, after three-plus great seasons in the minors. He was a phenom that first season in 2015, a year where the Astros broke through and made the playoffs a year early. Correa was the center of attention, his being drafted being the Astros at their lowest trough, and his call-up and success the start of their greatest stretch.

Correa the symbol became Correa the legend with his performances in the 2017 playoffs, hitting a walkoff hit against the Yankees in Game 1 of the ALCS, hitting two huge home runs in Games 2 and 5 of the World Series. Correa was the leader of the team, despite being just 22 at the time. It set-off an incredible run of success, with the Astros making the ALCS five straight times, and two more World Series - albeit losing both.

It was a brilliant four seasons from 2018-2021, even if Correa never truly became a superstar in production. It was mostly injuries hampering him in 2018, 2019 and then an off season in the shortened 2020 campaign. But when he was on the field, he was magic, the team was magic.

Carlos Correa was the hope, was the symbol, was the first piece. Over time other pieces joined him, from Bregman to Yordan to Kyle Tucker. Enough people got to a great level that the team can probably still do well with Correa gone. I'll miss him, for sure. From the energy of how he played, to those stretches where he got white hot, do his underratedly amazing throwing arm. Carlos Correa was a fabulously fun player to follow, and I'll always have a soft spot for him and truly everything he represented, from the tangible to not. The Astros fortunes turned around when they drafted Correa, and for that alone he was always be a favorite of mine.

Re-Post: Nostalgia Diaries, Pt. 3: 2009 Sweet Sixteen Weekend

 Thought intsead of doing a big March Madness breakdown, I would re-post an old story from a time long, long ago, talking about a time even longer ago.

Most of these random games have some connection to random events in my youth. This game was at the end of my last Model UN (MUN) Conference I would attend in high school. Villanova's blowout win in the Sweet 16 was on the Friday Night of the conference. As a Senior, my role within MUN was different. I wasn't a 'leader' perse, not being an officer in the club, but I was one of the two Seniors to go on the trip, the other being my good buddy who was the club's president. MUN is an institution at my high school, and my year was, in a relative sense, not all that great. Most of my fellow seniors had dropped out of the club overtime (there was a lot of politics and drama - not too surprising for a club that has teenagers pretend to, you know, play politics) and by the end it was basically me and him. If you made a few conferences through Sophomore year, you basically stopped having to try out, and you just made it - specifically when your good friend is the club's president.

My friend and I were the technical leaders of the fun side of the weekend, including running the token game of Mafia (a staple of MUN conferences), and trying halfheartedly to steal a few beers (unsuccessful). Villanova's more dramatic game was the day we returned from the conference, an incredible game that ended with a Scottie Reynolds buzzer-beater to beat conference-rival Pittsburgh. But this game stands out because it was a great time to hate Duke and hate Duke with a bunch of other high schoolers who, for no real reason, hated Duke, during a damn fun MUN conference.

I actually remember very little about the game - as I remember similarly little about the actual MUN Conference. I have to admit I gave a half-assed effort during that Conference, there more for fun and to be a Senior with major Senioritis with an expense-paid (by my parents, mostly) trip to Washington DC with a good friend and lord over the younger kids. There is so little, in reality, separating Seniors from Juniors, from Sophomores, etc., but it was a lot of fun to actually be a Senior, to pretend to have more life experiences, more wisdom, more assertiveness. I remember forcing my way to have the Villanova game on in the TV we all crowded in to play Mafia. I had to put in on mute (compromises) but still forced it on and was giddy as Villanova blew the shit out of Duke.

Why did this game stick with me apart from just happening to be on during what was an underratedly seminal weekend of my high school career was that the buddy who was on the trip with me told me he got rejected by Duke (don't cry too much, he ended up at Brown and is now a promising doctor-to-be). That just added to the drama, as there was some personal connection to the 'Fuck Duke' of it all.

WWP South MUN mafia games were basically just excuses for the older kids (who played 'God') to make up ridiculous stories about each player who 'died', and the rest to basically make fun of each other for hours on end as they debated who killed whom. I took  my role as God/Storyteller very seriously indeed. Not really sure if I suceeded, but it was damn fun to regale this kids with my genius takes, all the while Scottie Reynolds and Alan Cunningham shat on Duke with all their might.

Quickly on the game, which I guess I should talk about a bit. Duke was a #2 seed, with largely the same roster that would win the title the next year. Villanova was a #3 in a year where the Big East ran train on the rest of College Basketball (UNC of course would win the title). Villanova started the game close but pulled away before half before embarassing Duke. It was the fourth straight year of Duke embarassments. During my high school life, they were seeded #1. #6. #2. #2, and lost in the Sweet 16 (to LSU), 1st Round (VCU), 2nd Round (West Virginia) and now Sweet 16 again. Duke's repeated failures were lapped up by pretty much everyone at my high school. This was before any of us were actually in college, of course, but still the hatred for Duke was palpable, and their crushing by Villanova was the perfect cap to 4 years of Duke infamy.

That MUN Conference ended with my buddy giving a quick speech on the bus-ride home (a standard for a Senior on the trip to do). It was a weird end to my MUN career. I had been a fairly good-but-not-great performer. I knew a lot of the club leadership over the years and used that to every advantage I could, but I also was banned for a year (on appeal shortened to 6 months). So was my buddy (who ended up club president anyway).

There is a whole story behind this, where everyone at the Conference during my Freshman year were in one room after hours, and when our club counselor came to check on my room (which we were not in), the loser in the room who was 'asleep' told the counselor we were downstairs (when we were not which he knew). When the counselor came to the room we were all in, the two Seniors told us to hide in the bathroom, exacerbating the problem. The counselor went down, couldn't find us, and eventually lost his shit and drove home (we were in Philly), leaving us the next day with the Assistant Counselor and a guillotine hanging over our heads. Ultimately everyone involved (other than the fucking rat who was 'sleeping' who lied in the first place) got banned for a year, reduced on appeal. That was my entry into the club. Three years later, in March of my senior year, I was one of the elder statesman - Irony is great in a way.

There were a lot of strings connected to that weekend that hold a tenuous connection to my current life. The buddy I was with moved out West after college and while we keep in touch, I haven't seem him too much. But we'll always have that weekend where we got to lord over the underclassmen like the cool seniors that we were most probably not in reality. It was a great weekend, a great capper to my MUN life, one of the few clubs I actually cared about in High School (not enough so to do it in college - probably a mistake in hindsight). The fact that Villanova pounded Duke into submission while I was pounding underclassmen with jokes on how they killed one of their own in Mafia was just a great, joyous coincidence.

Way too early 2022 NFL Season Predictions

 

The 10 Best Memories of the 2nd Covid Year

Last year I posted a whole bunch of Covid-related pieces around the one-year anniversary of Covid becoming 'real' in America - known as the day Rudy Gobert tested positive and the NBA shut down. March 11th 2020. As many will tell you though, more Americans died in the 2nd year of Covid, even if at times we felt things went back to normal. Not at all times - March'21 through March'22 encompassed two tremendously painful, serious, deadly variants. But it also encompassed so many moments that pointed to the world going back to normal.

Those are what I want to highlight - not the terrible moments, but the ones that showed a light. My favorite memories - all positive memories that will stay with me. We aren't done with Covid yet - Asia is having a breakout (though its likely just their turn in line to deal with Omicron), but with the low case fatality rate of Omicron, and a lot of the world deciding, to some degree, to make this endemic, we are entering the end stage. So, in that vein, here are my favorite memories of the 2nd Covid Year.

10.) Trip to India

My trip to India was perfectly timed, coming right as the country was passing its Delta variant peak, and lifting lockdown/curfew in both Mumbai and Bangalore. Things weren't normal (both had informal curfews around midnight) but it was a great trip back. It was also just great to visit family. So much of this pandemic was keeping people apart, extended families (and of course for some folks, close family) separated by the unseeable virus. For me this was true as well, and that first time meeting people directly who had such a different but still harrowing Covid experience was a beautiful moment.

9.) First night out in NYC with a vaccine pass

I'm not going to remember my first night out in NYC post-Covid, as that was during Summer 2020 in that brief low point prior to the variants kicking in. No, what I'll remember was that first time going out and having to show my vaccine card. I of course am so grateful to the brilliance of science that was the vaccine but it was sadly annoying to never really be asked to show said card. Well, that changed when NYC put its vaccine mandate into play (something I'm fully behind), and it was quite fun to show that card. Maybe it's because I've finally aged out of getting asked for an ID for drinks, getting asked for an ID again was kind of fun.

8.) First work trip (no, seriously)

I took my first flight post-Covid in April (well further up the list) but for work I remained (and remain) grounded. That changed for a quick few days back in November, getting to go to Denver for a offsite workshop our client was having. Traveling for work was an every week occurrence in the 15 months ahead of the lockdown, but then become a non-event for 20 months. When it finally ended, I honestly forgot some basic things - I had to hunt having enough work clothes at my disposal. I forgot about the liquid rule. But man was it incredible - even the process of filing my expenses was thrilling, as weird as that sounds. By the time I had my second client workshop in December in Fort Lauderdale and had to deal with a 90-minute flight delay, I was already over it but that first time was incredible.

7.) Trip to Spain & Portugal

The trip itself was great, 13 days through Spain, Portugal and Spain again, with amazing sights, incredible food and great times. I chronicled it in an A to Z after my return. The trip also marked my first time leaving the country and seeing how the rest of the world was dealing with Covid - and much to my surprise it was similar to how we were. Things were closing earlier than normal (mostly in Barcelona) but people were less masked than expected, more relaxed than expected, and it was still an amazing time. It helps that Spain and Portugal were heavily vaccinated in a still pre-Omicron world, but for thirteen days we were able to experience living in a covid world in another place alltogether, a nice reminder how joint this ordeal has been.

6.) Friend's Wedding in Phoenix

I few weddings happened in the intervening 20 months from March 2020 through to December 2021, but they were smaller affairs with a lingering "uh, are we sure we can do this?" in the air. Then in December 2021, my friend has his wedding in Phoenix which was an all out, standard wedding affair, with late nights, a lot of fun, a carefree attitude and ended with nary a hitch. He actually didn't have his wedding delayed at all (unlike my sister who has had to adjust hers like 5-6 times), but it was worth the wait to celebrate without a care in the world.

5.) Trip to Cape Town

I chronicled this trip a bit back. I made a rash of bookings in March and April 2020 when covid first struck and I needed to shift a bunch of work bookings. One of those was for Cape Town at a rock-bottom rate for Feb 2021. Of course, that was comically optimistic but somehow I was able to get a flight this Feb at a smilar cost. In the middle Omicron happened, breaking out first in South Africa, but the timing all worked, and it was an incredible trip. I went to Cape Town in Feb 2020, when Covid was real enough for us to be temperature checked. It was the last fling to some degree before covid changed the world. This was the first fling as we return back to normal hopefully.

4.) Thanksgiving with Family

Thanksgiving is more than a holiday in our extended family, it is The Holiday, and last year it was shuttered. Thanksgiving 2020 was maybe the most depressing holiday that year as it was so start to not be around our extended family. Well, by 2021 we were back in full. It was the first time many of us were meeting in over two years, a very long period in our family. It was a great weekend, specifically our Saturday Night dinner where all of us cousins prepared a multi course pot luck dinner - a new family Thansgiving tradition. It was quite a return for turkey day.

3.) Sports with Fans

I wrote about this at the time, specifically as attendance restrictions were lessened and then removed right as the NBA and NHL playoffs started last May. It was ecstasy in those opening rounds, finally getting fans in force. The best memories were that first playoff game in a sold out Madison Square Garden, or that incredible matchup between the Lightning and Panthers that ended 6-5. The return of fans continued throughout those playoffs with the massive fan rallies in Milwaukee and then the baseball playoffs with a packed Minute Maid Park (oh, what I wouldn't give for that right now if not for the owners unabashed, unending greed) and finally the NFL season. That period from July 2020 through April 2021 when we were basically fan-less was fun for a moment (just getting sports back was great) but we didn't know how important fans were until we got them back.

2.) First time taking a flight

I wrote a piece in my string of writing about the 1-year anniversary last year entitled 'The Year on the Ground', as it had been a year since March 13th, 2020, when I took my last flight back from Toronto to Newark. It was 13 months and 1 day later, April 14th, 2021, when I finally took a flight again on a trip to Arizona. This was the longest stretch without flying since college. It was such an emotional moment, really, for me that first time I heard the engines whirl and the first time I was taking off again. Flying is an incredible thing, other than maybe the internet the most significant invention in making the world a smaller place. The trip was great by itself, but that sense of taking off in one place and waking up five hours later in a desert was just incredible. I told myself then I didn't want my love and awe at the fact we can fly to go away, and it for sure won't.

1.) The first night in Winberie's, post-11pm

Look, don't take this ranking literally (I say as I literally rank these items). I don't want to come across like some sort of alcoholic here. Anyway, Winberies is the local pub/bar in Princeton that my friends and I have gone to probably 70 or so times between 2013 and 2020. Many times closing the place out very close to their listed 2am close. Well, when the place finally reopened in the fall of 2020, they did so closing at 10pm. Finally for Summer 2021 they went back to almost normal, moving last call to 1am. One of my hopes throughout this pandemic was that night when my friends and I could close that place out again with 3-4 IPAs - and man was it amazing. The world isn't back to normal, not at all - but sitting in the booth we had so many times, with the bartenders that we've known for so long, chilling and relaxing on a Friday or Saturday night was just about perfect. Here's to many more.

Re-post: The Covid Year

 I got my second Pfizer shot today.

One year ago today I was about to end my second week of working at home, still a bit unsure how long that would last. 

This whole last 12 months (15, really) have been astronomically historic in so many ways, good and (mostly) bad, but nothing is as incredible as this disease, this little impossible to see protein, infecting 20 million people in the US (at the very least), and having the scientific community find a workable, insanely-effective vaccine, and shoot over 100 million vaccine doses in arms, all within a year.

Covid has crippled the world. It may not always seem that way, with the stock market having mostly recovered and the world economy on decent footing, but it has wiped out the service and hospitality industries. It has shuttered borders in a way that hasn't happened since World War II. It has had a greater societal impact of anything since, again, World War II. It is a period that will absolutely go down in history books - a perfect 101 years after the last world-wide pandemic of this scale. And in a way, I'm happy I lived through it.

In the literal sense, I am happy that I literally lived through it - I'm still alive, and to my knowledge escaped contracting Covid over the past year-plus. I'm doubly happy my immediately family were also able to avoid it, and even in my extended family only a couple I know contracted it and they came through. I know millions of people, families, were nowhere near as lucky. That all goes without saying.

But what I mean is I am truly happy I lived through it. I detailed many reasons in alphabetical order before, and while there were pangs of sadness even in that A to Z, there is some happiness in those pangs. For every trip I couldn't take, there was a weekend at a home I could enjoy, with another Friday meal to cook and curate. For every weekend I couldn't meet friends (probably the biggest loss) there was a weekend I was with my family (including my sister & fiance), and still able to chat with friends over zoom.

More than anything, this past year taught me perspective and patience. The perspective of what really matters, and what could and should provide joy in your life. It taught me to see what life would have been like decades ago, before it was easy to get on a plane and go wherever, where your entertainment options were more or less limited to what was around you.

The largest learning on perspective is more around respect - respect on the immense power of viruses and disease, and the immense ability of the scientific community.

It is still crazy to me that this little microscopic bits of atoms was able to truly cripple the world. From one outbreak in Wuhan, literally a few dozen people getting sick all together at once, was enough to raise alarm bells. It's always amazing when you read stories about the coronavirus how just those first couple dozen people was enough for disease control centers to realize something is afoot.

It's so ridiculous to think those few dozen people would lead to a few hundered million people globally getting infected (probably what would've been a billion if not more had no restrictions been put in place). This 'silent' enemy was able to transit across the global in such quick execution, setting off a global pandemic. There is incredibly weighty power in that fact, that spread.

It's also so weighty how quickly the scientific community was able to find a vaccine. Within a year is unheard of. By March (probably a year ago exactly) the genome of the virus was isolated and shared. By May or so clinical trails had begun. By November, ironically the day after the election, initial trail results were unleashed showing the Pfizer vaccine (and soon after the Moderna one) to be amazingly effective. Nature crippled the world, science will bring it back to life.

I've long thought, and even debated with people, around what life will look back when we return to normal. I still don't know when that is but I do think we'll, some will say sadly, return back to normal as quick as allows. The example people point to is the "Roaring 20's" coming immediately after the Spanish Flue pandemic in 1918-19. A lot of people have pooh-poohed that idea given that people are generally smarter today than they were back then, but also because maybe this lingers.

I disagree to a point. I think people will be 'slow' to getting back to normal (excluding the people that went back to normal in Summer 2020 and never stopped), but once they're vaccinated, and once the risks of getting COVID are basically like getting a cold, it will return full bore. I hope I'm write, I want to be right, but what comforts me is the human is quick to adapt when they want to be.

In the end, we are a social animal, and that is the lasting impact of this past year. Relationships not made or not progressed. Interactions not had. The global isolation, the shuttering of communal society. Zoom and outdoor seating and other things made it not as dark and desolate as 'global isolation' would make it seem, but those were temporary panaceas. We need interaction, and a full year later we are so close to having it.

I'll still never forget getting the email from our client sponsor telling us we can't travel to client site. My view on the virus changed that day and has basically been the same the whole time. The final amazement I'll comment on is how we adapted. How restaurants, and stores, and airlines, quickly moved to make things safer. How our work adapted wholesale to doing everything remotely and not suffering (from an output standpoint, from a mental health....). How the world adapted to living in social distance. I'm ready for all that innovation to be torn down and negated because it isn't needed, but this past year has been one of the more educational of my life. Never again, let's hope, but let's also hope we never forget.