Hope springs eternal I suppose. The holiday run is set to begin in England and most teams will be playing two and three times a week for the next month. It's a crucial time for the English table. I heard Ryan Giggs of Man United explain it best: this is the time of year when the table breaks into thirds. The Gunner faithful are wondering, after a tentative recovery from the dark hour of the soul at Bolton and Fulham, what the advent will betide our red and white heroes. If Saturday's clash with Portsmouth is testament, we're dealing with more of the same, which is to say, who knows?

The 1st Annual Westing Family Press Short Story Contest is officially underway! If you think you can write well enough to win an I-Pod for your trouble, then send us a short story by March 15th, 2007.

On Friday I put my motorcycle away for the winter at Motoworks , a vintage BMW shop on 19th and Western in Pilsen. They sold me my bike, a silver 1979 R100/7, last year, and Steve, one of the mechanics there, has worked on it since. It's a real looker, but it pulls pretty good too. As I look back on the year in review-not something I usually do-I realize that Westing has changed everything about me. I live in Chicago, a city I'd never been to before the trip. I ride motorcycles, something I'd never done before the trip. And I don't have a job besides writing, because I want to keep living the trip...

Isn't he just another Bruce Arena guy with a slightly shorter list of credentials? That's the question a lot of U.S. Soccer fans have been asking since USSF President Sunil Gulati named Bradley the new interim coach of the national team, following a botched negotiation with Germany's World Cup coach and former world star Juergen Klinsmann. I played two seasons for Bradley at Princeton and have kept track of his career as much as possible since then. I have a lot of respect for him both as a man and a coach, but the questions remain about whether he is the man to turn U.S. Soccer around after a dismal 2006 World Cup...