Z/Web

I went to this game last night and my main impression was that it was cold. I thought I dressed warmly but it wasn’t enough, and even non-stop chanting and clapping and jumping up and down didn’t keep me warm (especially toward the end).

But it was still a lot of fun. I can’t believe that 15,000 people would show up for a meaningless pre-season friendly — essentially just a practice match without half of the team’s top players — but that’s the way we roll here in Portland. The Timbers Army was out in force and the atmosphere was terrific.

The game itself wasn’t anything awesome, a bit slow and not a huge number of chances for either team, but I’ve seen worse in league play at times. There were very few fouls and no hard ones, and I think the players didn’t want to get injured. The Timbers dominated possession and chances, but Chivas defended very well and looked dangerous on counters. They scored first on a cross that got redirected in, but Portland came back late in the game to secure the draw and remain unbeaten in preseason play. Our goal was also a redirect and the Chivas keeper blocked it but somehow allowed it trickle over the goalline. It was hard for me to see the goals as both were at the far end of the stadium.

It was still great to see some of the new guys for the first time and the team overall. The 2012 MLS season kicks off in a couple of weeks and I’m starting to get excited!

Author: Jack Ketchum

Certainly not for all tastes, Ketchum’s horror novel is amazing to me in its brilliant simplicity. The plot is so bare as to almost be nonexistent, yet this is still a mesmerizing novel. I read it through in just a few hours.

Apparently the titular character is a creature from his novel Offspring (which I haven’t read and isn’t needed to understand this book). She’s basically a wild animal who lives in the woods, a savage cannibal who is a hunter and a killer. We constast her with a modern man, a seemingly respectable lawyer with a wife and three children. The question is, who is really the more savage?

The lawyer, while out hunting, sees the wild woman and decides she’d make a great pet, so he captures her and chains her up in his basement and tortures her. Yeah, he’s a really nice dude. Worse, he gets his son and wife to join in on the fun.

I really loved how the novel switches frequently to the wild woman’s point of view and we see the lawyer and his clan from her primitive perspective. While she’s a savage, she’s at least honest and genuine, and no different from say, a wild tiger that has no qualms about eating you (but it’s not personal).

This simple story doesn’t have a huge amount of depth (though there’s more than most throw-away novels), but it’s such an outrageous concept and executed in such a thrilling and entertaining manner that it’s defintely worth reading if you like this sort of thing. I’m impressed.