Shrieks and Alleys

It's true that I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about myself, but that's not to say that I don't occasionally wander into other fascinating territories, such as what I do. Sadly, today is not such an excursion.

Back in 1985, before many of us were born, the world was quite a bit different in some crucial areas than it is now. For one, it was possible back then for an individual to create a Formula 1 team and compete against the big names, the well-known car manufacturers. Instead of the Ferrari, Toyota, Honda, Renault, Mercedes, BMW, and the like, successful teams carried the names of individuals such as Prost and Tyrell, people whose participation stemmed from love of motorsport and not just corporate profits.

Among them was a guy named Giancarlo Minardi, who is mostly famous for inspiring my dog's name.

His little team was where many drivers got their start, but he couldn't afford to go against McLaren and the others and the team was sold a few years ago to Red Bull Racing. Those Red Bull people have money out the gazoo, and have both a Red Bull Racing Team and the old Minardi team, now named Scuderia Toro Rosso.

And this morning, at Monza, a Toro Rosso driven by Sebastian Vettel won their first race, and was the youngest person ever to win a Formula 1 race, following up on yesterday's record breaking youngest person to win pole.

So, that was good.

UCLA football, not so much, this weekend.

The other thing I'm tracking, the upcoming presidential election, isn't giving me much joy, either, but between the three I was able to spend part of the weekend thinking about how things effect me nearly as much as I did thinking about myself.