Alinghi

I got home in time to catch a few minutes of the America's Cup race this evening... it doesn't look good for our heroes - Alinghi is down 2-1. Of course, I have no idea how many legs there are to the race... maybe it's like snooker where they have a best of 31 or something, so the danger is not quite as dark as I may fear.

I think I may have tuned in at a bad time. I've watched it before and found it pretty interesting... of course, that was with English (rather than Italian) commentary. But while I was watching today, I didn't even know they were racing. They guys in the boat were just sitting there. They weren't even sitting hanging over the side. They were just watching the water.

It made me wonder... how would you feel if you were in this world championship kind of thing, had been working for a year to qualify, and, because of whatever wind conditions or the layout of the course or something, you ended up mostly just sitting on the side of the boat trying to figure out if you were ahead or the other guys were? I mean, I'm a team-spirit kind of guy - I really am. But I can't help thinking I'd feel a little disappointed. It's like sitting on the bench while your team wins the Stanley Cup. Sure, you still get to carry around the trophy and probably have a nice bonus coming, but you would feel a little out of place being, say, the only one not sweating at all.

In any case, Hop Suisse! Bring it home again, Alinghi boys. You show them: there's nothing that a whole lot of money can't do.