I applied for a press credential for Golden State at Los Angeles three nights from now. The application form was autocompleted with my publication’s name as Flack the Pac, from the days when there was a Pac to flack. A new field asked for a description of the work the application would do. The example provided was: “I will write game preview”. I filled it with: “Post-game reevaluation of my life decisions”. Which is true, because the WNBA isn’t an environment for reflective writing. The Valkyries use fireworks during their player introductions. People are generally dumber than they were 20 …

A chessplayer asked me if I thought Los Angeles coach Roberts would retire Saturday as the only WNBA coach in history with a spotless WL record. Roberts and the Sparks are 1-0 following their 84-67 win at Golden State Friday. Chessplayers have a strange sense of humor about such things. When the “rapid” time control became a thing in international chess around the turn of the ’90s, my first rating at that time control was 2560, and some friends said I should quit. I said about Roberts: “She’ll think about it, because it’s funny, but she won’t.” What I left …

CalTrain was packed with baseball (A’s visiting the Giants is a bigger occasion than it used to be, since Oakland ate shit again at keeping a sports team) and basketball goers, which makes it tough to disembark. A fellow said to his mate: “When those people go, follow them. That’s our strategy.” “Their strategy should be to follow a big guy like you”, I said. He didn’t get that, if his first idea didn’t clue you in to his savvy. “Why do you have a sign that says ‘Media’?” he said. “I was working the Valkyries game”. “That’s the women’s …

I don’t care if it’s good or not — the fact that it exists means having to put my $16 in, so there’ll be more like it in the future (and if I’m writing it, then it’ll be better). Wait. $16?! Yeah, said the kid. Magazine prices are going way up. Maybe it’s the cost of the paper, some think it’s the inks, I dunno. But graphic novels, they still cost the same. Graphic novels cost too much 10 years ago, I said. The other things are just catching up.