USA!!!!!!!!

it's world cup time and i am already late to the party. every 4 years the world glues its ears and eyes to the drama, the victories and the tragedies. (remember escobar? who was killed after the '94 world cup?)

the us DOES NOT CARE ABOUT SOCCER. call it "football" like everybody else in teh world, and fans here just get confused. little kids play it now, unlike in my day, because it's easier to have more kids running the field without harming the play. i think. who knows. what do i know? 'rents will go see and even coach their kids' teams, but they could give a rat's ass for fifa.

i work with lots of guys and most of them are sports nuts. the ins and outs of football-baseball-basketball, minored with hockey, dominate conversation and EVERYBODY is smarter than theo, doc and bill, ffs.

i also work with lots of south americans who grew up living and breathing soccer. futbal. this is the most exciting time evah for them. i get that.

so the world cup started yesterday morning. all the tvs ran it. south africa vs. mexico. nobody working had a nationality stake, but, ya know, it's the 1st match. ok. cool.

why are you exercised, noodle? because guys i have worked with for 7 months and have never once heard them mention soccer, now cannot unglue their eyes from the tube. for the next month, only the barest minimum of work will get done and that will only be by force. this happens every goddamn time the world cup comes up.

it's bad enough that the brown kids somehow feel like they are still in brazil/peru/ecuador/whatevs/ and so excused from normal duties and can spend most of the day glazed over at the screen, but the americans make me wanna kill them. the long island hockey fanatic, the connecticut football expert and the masshole baseball know-it-all somehow magically transform into soccer knowledge phenoms who cannot be budged from viewing the match-after-match-after-match.

it has happened every place i have ever worked. wtf? bonding must be part of it, but really? who among these guys cares about korea or uruguay? can they find them on a map? pro soccer gets played all over, many months of the year. my ears bleed hearing these guys. and my wallet moans cuz they simply do as little as possible.

today nationalism (jingoism?) got a boost since we tied the brits. quite sure most of the uk was suicidal over it, while most of the us remains blissfully unaware. 'cept for the restaurant poseurs with whom i must deal. grrrrrrrrrrr.

28 more days.