This week at Cog #38
The Tartan Army, a crime-fighting otter in Florida, the Ebola crisis and campus safety
I know enough about soccer to be dangerous. I get the lingo (pitch, boots, kit, strike), understand the rules and know the positions. I can even rattle off a few famous male footballers without consulting Google: Ronaldo, Messi, Harry Kane, Christian Pulisic, Mbappé, Haaaland. But real soccer – neé football fans – have passionate thoughts on strategy, formation and the efficacy of a manager. Perhaps by the end of the Men’s World Cup, I’ll have gained some ground in those areas … but for now, I am very happy to hop on the World Cup bandwagon as an amateur spectator.
I started watching an HBO documentary about the U.S. Men’s team this week (spoiler alert: the USMNT will not win the championship, but it seems like they have a good shot of making into the knockout stage, if not the round of 16). I also spent time this week with Jason Waddleton, the proprietor of Boston’s only Scottish bar, The Haven. He grew up in a town near Aberdeen, in northeast Scotland, and opened The Haven about 17 years ago. Now he’s preparing for the arrival of thousands of Scots, aka The Tartan Army.
FIFA’s gotten a lot of well-deserved heat for outrageously expensive ticket prices and all the rest, but I’m trying to set that aside (just for the moment) to focus on how fun this five-week-long tournament will be. I got to drink a beer while reporting out my story – job perk – but Waddleton also reminded me how much of this World Cup is about cultural exchange, and how much we need it. From him, I learned about Robert Burns, rumbledethump, Tennent’s and how to properly pour a Belhaven. I can’t wait to see what specialities other countries have to share. — CA
This weeks stories
Mass. should convene a Blue Ribbon Commission to develop a new model for campus safety
After a campus shooting, there are always questions, write Jane Wiseman and Jack McDevitt. Were there enough cameras? Could the shooter have been flagged for intervention? “As important as the answers to these questions are for any one incident, we need to develop a systematic approach to preventing future campus violence in the first place.”
What the Ebola crisis tells us about Trump’s ‘America First’ approach to global health
“I’ve watched USAID help hold the line against epidemics,” writes Monik Bhatta. “Gutting it was premature — and DRC’s Ebola crisis is the proof.”
Scotland play two of their three opening round World Cup matches in Boston. That means, for the next week or so, there’ll be kilts as far as the eye can see in Boston. Cloe Axelson got a preview of the Tartan Army at The Haven in Jamaica Plain.
What a crime-fighting otter taught me about search and rescue
For 30 years, Asha Dore avoided returning to Florida, where she grew up leading boat tours with her park ranger father. Her memories felt overshadowed by enormous loss. Then she heard about “Splash,” a crime-fighting otter.
Bonus content
The best beach books have 5 things in common
I’m not a snob about books, writes Laura McTaggart. But I do have standards, and even my beach reads must meet them. In fact, I have even higher standards for my beach reads, because everything about a summer reading experience should be idyllic.
Freddy, the traveling German soccer fan
A friend alerted me to a German fellow called “Freddy” who’s traveling through the American South for the World Cup (heading to Houston for Germany’s opening round games). Along the way, he’s taking advantage of some uniquely American offerings, including Waffle House, Walmart, tubing down the Chattahoochee River and the miracle that is an American fountain soda machine. It’s slightly unclear if Freddy is a real person (or actually German) but it is so fun. Follow him on X.
This podcast, from Texas Monthly — based on Aaron Parsley’s Pulitzer Prize-winning story about the July 4 floods in Central Texas last year — is amazing.