Some of you (bear with me, it’s a conceit whether or not there’s an audience) may have been aware of the story over the past few weeks about Ryan Giggs, Manchester United midfielder extraordinaire, using a super injunction to try and quash press coverage in the UK of his exploits, ah, playing away from home.
In any case, late one night I was reading about this and gave in to prurient interest: I searched to see who the lady in question might be. I saw that it was one Imogen Thomas, opened a new browser tab, typed in “Ryan Giggs Imogen,” realized that I had forgotten the last name, then saw the auto-complete “Imogen Stubbs.” So I followed it and found: Continue reading →
I was starting to run short on “bad things happened” songs until I remembered a shot of Ty Willingham right at the end of the USC – Washington game where, if I didn’t know better, I could have sworn I saw the hint of a glisten in his eyes. Perhaps he was thinking, it’s come to this: I get fired and they can’t even muster the enthusiasm for the traditional post-partum win. Perhaps it was the smog.
In either case, from the Police, the lyrically apropos “Driven to Tears”:
I hadn’t been going to comment one way or the other about the death by car accident of far-right Austrian politician Jorg Hairder, who wrecked his car after a long time in da club. While politics isn’t really enlivened by what he was peddling, he was on his way to see his mother for her 90th birthday and I’m sure she loved him very much. It wasn’t karma, I thought, don’t be cruel.
Then I noticed that Austria only managed a 1 – 1 draw with the Faroe Islands on Saturday, and the Faroe Islands scored first at that. My feelings about getting a draw against the Faroes are well documented, so I can understand why Haider might have been distraught and it all flowed from there.
Whether Austrian politics would have been improved by a loss ten years ago to a team composed of Gypsies, socialists, and illegal African immigrants, remains in the realm of counterfactual speculation.
We were surprised by your letter of complaint alleging excessive gamesmanship at the De Kuip Stadium in Rotterdam this weekend.
While we had noticed that the Icelandic economy is about as sound as going long on Black Tulips in Amsterdam in the mid-17th century, it really hadn’t crossed our minds that repeatedly showing adverts for Price Waterhouse Coopers might remind your players that they might as well have kept their savings in Wrigley spearmint gum.
Pleased to hear that you pre-paid for your airfare home, hopefully it was a pleasant flight.
There’s nothing new that I can add to the general gestalt about Barnsley beating Chelsea in the FA Cup last weekend. On the evidence of the last 20 minutes of the match, which I caught, Barnsley thoroughly deserved the win, and lo there was exultation. Well, except for at the other end of the couch, where my five year old could be found blubbing because I had told her to shut it during the last 90 seconds of the game. Apparently I “love soccer more than [I] love [her].” I wasn’t expecting this degree of emotional mayhem for another 6 years or so. It’s a real change from the last time she burst into tears over a televised sporting event – but then she was only 2 at the time, and there was no reason to expect that the Bush Push touchdown against Notre Dame would cause the “screaming dervish 28 inch vertical leap from the sitting position.” A feat, to be honest, that I don’t expect to be able to reproduce without a cattle prod and a 10 second head start.
The English FA let Steve McClaren go today, for failing to qualify for Euro 2008. I’m glad to see that they also canned that spiv Venables, in a rare case of the tikka-tinged charlatan being held accountable for his non-performance.
I don’t take much pleasure in seeing McClaren go – he was promoted above his capabilities and tried his best, but given that useless shower of players, it’s no surprise that they didn’t qualify. Whoever replaces McClaren needs to swing the axe a bit – and Gerrard would be as good a starting point as any.
Evidently Fabio Capello has indicated that he’s interested; plainly he wants to get back to work because he’d have it all do with that useless showe of playas.
If you happen to be in the US, enjoy your Thanksgiving. If not, you can be thankful that our political and business leaders are too busy stuffing themselves with turkey etc., to cause any problems for the rest of us today. Most of them won’t go back to “work” until Monday, so enjoy the peace and quiet while you can.
Anyway, I was watching the Aston Villa – Liverpool match, and every time they showed Pepe Reina all I could think of was this, sung to the opening of “Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep” by Middle of the Road:
“Where’s your Cayenne gone (where’s your Cayenne gone?)
Where’s your Cayenne gone (where’s your Cayenne gone?)
Where’s your Cayenne gone (where’s your Cayenne gone?)
It’s on fire fire fire!”
Not familiar with the original tune? I thought you’d never ask:
Please take a minute and ponder the fact that this song has been lodged in my subconscious since IT WAS RELEASED. I’m not a well man.
BTW, the only reason I left the “no-embedding” clip in is that it was the only one I could get to work. The person who posted it also put up some fantastic ska videos from the 2 Tone era, so that’s well worth following.
I’m not the biggest Landon Donovan fan. Correspondingly, a friend sent me a YouTube link of his mighty miss in front of an open goal when the US played Canada last week. I looked at the clip and thought, well it could happen to anyone… after all, I frequently trip over nothing in particular while moseying to get a cup of coffee.
Then my friend found another clip, but this time with a bit more context…
Oh for God’s sake. It couldn’t have been more gift-wrapped had the Canadian defenders and DaMarcus Beasley swung by Neiman Marcus on the way to the 18 yard box. Now I understand why my friend was still rolling his eyes several days later. Landon Donovan, for shame.
I think that Thistle71 is bogged down at work, so I will share with you a little of his joy yesterday regarding a couple of pictures he received. I know what you’re thinking: but DC Trojan, surely both of you could get fired for pictures that make you happy! They weren’t those kinds of pictures, alas. Those of you who follow college baseball (i.e., not me) might know that the Oregon State Beavers have been doing reasonably well. This has led to Oregon State fans heading out to show their support, and also show America what an Oregon State education is all about:
Surely, Thistle71 thought, that must have been my imagination – no-one really would have misspelled “believer” when they were going to be on national television…
In fact, he was wrong, and apparently no-one thought to tell the young oman woman (oh the irony!) in question.It’s like a little rivalry gift for the Ducks, really.
Uninformed Scarce Commentary 