Friday Four

1. I really enjoyed seeing Clint Dempsey score the fifth-fastest goal in World Cup history (30 seconds into the match) en route to the U.S. Men's National Team defeating Ghana 2-1 during round robin play Monday.

Our best hope of advancing past the first round hinged on a victory, given that Germany and Portugal are also in our group -- and despite the African nation's having sent us home from the last two tournaments.

2. I like the movie, but I'm not so sure The Big Lebowski merits enough academic study to justify a volume titled, The Year's Work in Lebowski Studies. (HT: Snedcat)

3. Pumpkin, who will turn three this weekend, surprised me a little by throwing an "actually" at me for the first time. She was playing with baby dolls and I mistook a powder dispenser for a bottle. "Actually, that's baby powder," she corrected me.

4. What's it like to be bitten by a black widow spider? I'd take the following, from an account of the work of an early researcher, as a good executive summary:

One of the questions [Allan] Blair had in mind when he began his experiment was whether people acquire immunity over successive bites. He never answered this question because, as he frankly admitted, he was afraid of having another experience like his first.

But if you're harder to convince, you can find more detail at the above link.

-- CAV