I miss my baseball

England is gripped by cricket fever. Apparently, there's this match-up with Australia called 'the Ashes' that's supposed to be a huge deal.

Gene has been watching cricket, determined to become the first American to crack the code. I told him that it's hopeless, that unless you are English or at one point colonized by the English, the elusive appeal of leather on willow will always escape you. And so it is that at the end of half an hour's viewing, he still haven't figured out which country is pitching and which country batting "because they're both wearing white".

One point of interest: Instead of singing "God Save the Queen" at this game, "Jerusalem" by William Blake will be sung instead. Contrary to popular belief in the U.S., "God Save the Queen" is not really regarded as the English anthem, and as the Scots and the Welsh have taken to singing their own national anthems, so the English too are struggling to find a song that expresses their national identity apart from the other countries in the union better than the rather generic "God Save the Queen". In my opinion, if this sticks, they will be replacing a lumbering and distastefully jingoistic ditty with something sublime.