This is like a month-long Superbowl. You will not believe how much passion goes into the fans. Have never paid all that much attention to it. However.....
Am just off the phone with Peter. This stuff is so nationalistic, you could barf. It is NOT like the Olympics.
Yesterday I was in Gamlitz, and went out for a snigarette, and Frau Lübbe was nearly hysterical, because the Germans didn't win their game in the first round. 'Oh, the poor Germans!' And I thought, WHAA????? And said I was GLAD they didn't win. She was shocked. Asked me why. And I said, 'Listen, they've always got a big mouf, they are arrogant, insulting, and I don't like them because they think they are better than everyone else.'
'I would only root for the Austrians.'
'WE DIDN'T make it in to the finals!' (sob, sob....)
And we got into the US team, and she wanted to know if they would beat Slovenia.
'You aren't rooting for the US?'
I shrugged, and said, I have no preference, the best should win, although I do like underdogs....
This fascinated the oldies in the lobby.
'I do not like arrogance.'
Well, the US did get a tie against Slovenia, and of course it was supposedly a bad call by a judge on the field that prevented the 'winning' goal......
So they are still in the game despite that.
What BOTHERS me is the nationalistic aspect.
Have never been 'into' soccer. It's like baseball. I have TRIED and tried to explain baseball to Europeans. Their eyes glaze over, I swear. Or try to have someone exactly explain what the rules of cricket are.... some of you have expereienced that one, but it was in the Hofbräuhaus in Munich, and I didn't really get it....
Whatever.... every four years, the World Cup happens, sort of like a Harry Potter sort of 'happening', and it gets sort of creepy.
(I have a brain fart on the sport he was into.)
But I had an interesting conversation with Peter just now about this. Since his nursing home is near the Slovenian border, there is one nurse from there whom I do not especially like. We got off on the wrong foot. She is one of those long tall blondes with dead brown eyes who turn me completely off immediately.
Bad chemistry between us.
And this is where it gets 'interesting'.....
Peter told me she was over the moon because the Serbians had won over the Germans, although I think it was a tie.
W'hich got us into a discussion about the nationalistic stuff.
And validated a lot of what I have said over the years.
She's Slovenian. She backed the Serbs. The Serbs 'ruled' Yugoslavia for decades. They had all the top positions. The nationals like her people and the Croats, and the Montenegrans and the others never had a say in what direction the nation should go. And there was war, and they separated into separate states, and on the surface, it looks ok....
Well, to quote my bio-Mom, 'LET MR TELL YOU ONE THING!'... This stuff is impossible.
People do not forgive, over generations.
And it is absolutely STUPID to expect that.
Case in point: had a tour group in the ho-tel, and liked the guide from the UK... and she liked me.... And one evening she asked me to meet a 'Lady'. And I thought, 'Kay, will meet someone nice...' The guide gave me a glowing review, and she was 'gracious' and asked me were I was from. When I told her, her eyes blazed with more anger than I have ever seen, and she spat out: 'Ya damned YANKEE!'
I excused myself, and said I was sorry, but it was an accident of birth... and got the hell out.
So 'maybe' you can understand my being uncomfortable with all this stuff. It isn't about the sport, and yeah, in 'Murka it gets into rivalry, and so on. I just do not like the nationalistic crap that comes out of it here...
To end on a 'fun' note: The Venerable confessed he tried to play that game once in Lowell, MA. He tried a head pass, and it hurt so bad, he relegated himself to other postitions. I suppose that he didn't KNOW that only cement blockheads can do that. And Rachel Maddow told Olberman she had got knocked out the first time at ten years old, doing a head-pass. Whereupon he asked, 'Ummm... the FIRST time?' She said she would save the rest so he would keep her on....
That was funny.
Am just off the phone with Peter. This stuff is so nationalistic, you could barf. It is NOT like the Olympics.
Yesterday I was in Gamlitz, and went out for a snigarette, and Frau Lübbe was nearly hysterical, because the Germans didn't win their game in the first round. 'Oh, the poor Germans!' And I thought, WHAA????? And said I was GLAD they didn't win. She was shocked. Asked me why. And I said, 'Listen, they've always got a big mouf, they are arrogant, insulting, and I don't like them because they think they are better than everyone else.'
'I would only root for the Austrians.'
'WE DIDN'T make it in to the finals!' (sob, sob....)
And we got into the US team, and she wanted to know if they would beat Slovenia.
'You aren't rooting for the US?'
I shrugged, and said, I have no preference, the best should win, although I do like underdogs....
This fascinated the oldies in the lobby.
'I do not like arrogance.'
Well, the US did get a tie against Slovenia, and of course it was supposedly a bad call by a judge on the field that prevented the 'winning' goal......
So they are still in the game despite that.
What BOTHERS me is the nationalistic aspect.
Have never been 'into' soccer. It's like baseball. I have TRIED and tried to explain baseball to Europeans. Their eyes glaze over, I swear. Or try to have someone exactly explain what the rules of cricket are.... some of you have expereienced that one, but it was in the Hofbräuhaus in Munich, and I didn't really get it....
Whatever.... every four years, the World Cup happens, sort of like a Harry Potter sort of 'happening', and it gets sort of creepy.
(I have a brain fart on the sport he was into.)
But I had an interesting conversation with Peter just now about this. Since his nursing home is near the Slovenian border, there is one nurse from there whom I do not especially like. We got off on the wrong foot. She is one of those long tall blondes with dead brown eyes who turn me completely off immediately.
Bad chemistry between us.
And this is where it gets 'interesting'.....
Peter told me she was over the moon because the Serbians had won over the Germans, although I think it was a tie.
W'hich got us into a discussion about the nationalistic stuff.
And validated a lot of what I have said over the years.
She's Slovenian. She backed the Serbs. The Serbs 'ruled' Yugoslavia for decades. They had all the top positions. The nationals like her people and the Croats, and the Montenegrans and the others never had a say in what direction the nation should go. And there was war, and they separated into separate states, and on the surface, it looks ok....
Well, to quote my bio-Mom, 'LET MR TELL YOU ONE THING!'... This stuff is impossible.
People do not forgive, over generations.
And it is absolutely STUPID to expect that.
Case in point: had a tour group in the ho-tel, and liked the guide from the UK... and she liked me.... And one evening she asked me to meet a 'Lady'. And I thought, 'Kay, will meet someone nice...' The guide gave me a glowing review, and she was 'gracious' and asked me were I was from. When I told her, her eyes blazed with more anger than I have ever seen, and she spat out: 'Ya damned YANKEE!'
I excused myself, and said I was sorry, but it was an accident of birth... and got the hell out.
So 'maybe' you can understand my being uncomfortable with all this stuff. It isn't about the sport, and yeah, in 'Murka it gets into rivalry, and so on. I just do not like the nationalistic crap that comes out of it here...
To end on a 'fun' note: The Venerable confessed he tried to play that game once in Lowell, MA. He tried a head pass, and it hurt so bad, he relegated himself to other postitions. I suppose that he didn't KNOW that only cement blockheads can do that. And Rachel Maddow told Olberman she had got knocked out the first time at ten years old, doing a head-pass. Whereupon he asked, 'Ummm... the FIRST time?' She said she would save the rest so he would keep her on....
That was funny.
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