I just gave up on the last of the three Foundation prequels, written by the Killer Bs (Brin, Benford, and Bear). The ideas were vaguely interesting, but the characters and plot were so wretchedly thin, serving merely as didactic mouthpieces for a not-especially-sophisticated set of arguments about destiny and chaos and humanity and whatnot. The last straw for me was this passage, after the aged Hari Seldon fears he's had a stroke:

Hari yearned for a return to unconscious oblivion, rather than discover that another portion of his brain had died. He did not want to face the aftermath—another harsh setback on the long slide toward personal extinction.

All the talk about the Laws of Robotics made me realize that this may be a suitable framework for contemplating what King Kaufman calls "The Complicated Calculus of Teams I Root for". For me, the calculus goes like this:

1. Thou shalt always cheer for the Dodgers, whoever is playing the Yankees, the Nets, the US national womens' and men's football teams, Arsenal, whoever is playing the Blues, and the Mighty Ducks (but not the non-Mighty 2006 and later Anaheim Ducks).
   1. Thou shalt always cheer for whoever is playing the Giants, except when the Giants are playing the Yankees
   2. Thou shalt always cheer for whoever is playing the Cardinals, unless the Cardinals are playing the Yankees, or the Giants while the Giants are in contention for the NL West or NL wild card
2. Thou shalt always cheer for the A's, the Red Sox, the Mets, whoever is playing the Cowboys, whoever is playing the Patriots, and whoever is playing Manchester United, except when such a team is playing a team defined in the First Rule.
3. Thou shalt never cheer for or against Tiger Woods or Roger Federer or Herman Maier, except inasmuch as one may cheer for a force of nature, such as a sunset or rainbow.