Are You Ready for Some Fútbol?

Allowing Brazil that second penalty kick was nonsense. I do think the U.S. red card was a close call, but probably correct.

The U.S. defense – playing a woman short – is most impressive.

Always good to see fit women kicking balls.

@Benedick HRH KFC: Men playing in bikinis would also be entertaining.

A brilliant goal for Brazil (even if they were offside).

Amazing save by Brazil’s goalkeeper, but Marta should have gotten a second yellow card.

Robbed! I love Hope Solo’s biceps. They’re Shelley O level of awesomeness.

And she has a great name.

@SanFranLefty: A cross between Han Solo and A New Hope.

Why was that not a penalty in the box on Brazil?

Fuck Yeah!

Incredible equalizer. Amazing pass PKs anyone?

Solo rules

Big fun in Dresden. U.S. to the semifinals, after playing one down for so long

USA! USA!

Sorry I missed this yesterday. I was flying back from Scallop Heaven, aka Nova Scotia.

@Dodgerblue: Broiled or fried?

@FlyingChainSaw: Pan-seared was my favorite. A couple of times, I had them pan-seared, wrapped with bacon. I figured that if there is a Jewish God, I’m doomed anyway. And did I mention lobster — it’s ridiculously cheap by L.A. standards.

@Dodgerblue: Do they keep the coral? Why do Americans throw it away? I’ve never understood.

@Benedick HRH KFC: They do not. I’ve never had it or seen it served here.

@Dodgerblue: I like them every way – so I officially hate you for not inviting me. Never could get excited about lobster. Like eating a stick of butter.

@FlyingChainSaw: I’ll send you a photo of O’Neill’s Seafood, on the docks in Digby, Nova Scotia on the Bay of Fundy. You need to get up there.

@Dodgerblue: Working with the NRC and Justice up there later this month.

@FlyingChainSaw: Excellent. Working in Halifax? Rent a car and haul up to Digby on the northwest shore, crank up Stan Rodgers’ “Barret’s Privateers” full blast, go to O’Neill’s and get the scallop dinner. You won’t regret it.

@Dodgerblue: Did you see Viking settlements? Any sign of the Danish navy?

The coral is like a pinky orange tongue lying alongside the meat of the scallop. It’s delicate and tender and every bit as good as the meat. Highly prized by les Franch.

@Benedick HRH KFC: The only sign of Vikings was a fair number of red-haired beauties. In parts of Cape Breton Gaelic is spoken (brought over by Scots crofters whose livelihoods were destroyed by the British), in other parts French (Acadians who came back after the Brits tossed them out), and in every part the seafood is superb, and lots of it for your Canadian dollar. But here’s something I don’t understand: the criminal prosecutors are referred to as “the Crown.” I thought that HRH’s writ didn’t run in Canada any more? Manchu, can you help me out here?

@Dodgerblue:

I think it is a question of sovereignty. Canada is still a Commonwealth nation which, at least on some level, makes the Queen head of state.

Exercising criminal jurisdiction is the province of the sovereign, so in Canada it’s the crown, while in most states in the country to the south it is the People (the theoretical source of U.S. sovereignty).

Besides, saying you are prosecuting on behalf of the Queen or the People is good for the intimidation factor.

@Dodgerblue: … Scots crofters whose livelihoods were destroyed by the British. Darling, don’t ever say anything like that in, say, Auchterarder. A giant hairy Celt will pound on you. the highlands were fenced, and the clans destroyed, and the people left to starve by the ENGLISH. Also known as sassenachs, though this technically means lowlanders.

I might just jam the hubby in the car and take off for Cape Breton. So long as he doesn’t have to look at churches and he can get Judge Judy on TV he’s cool. We stayed in the El Tovar Lodge, right on the southern rim of the Grand Canyon, and while I went out to walk the Perimeter Trail (be still my heart!) he watched You Know What in the room. But the promise of great seafood might just appeal to him.

@Walking Still: That’s what it is.

@Dodgerblue: Scotland always had her own laws governed by the Procurator Fiscal. Own currency and own ways of butchering cows, too.

@Benedick HRH KFC: My apologies. For a small nation, England sure did a lot of damage.

@Dodgerblue: Indeed. I’m glad you had a good time with your family.

@Benedick HRH KFC: Hubby is a man after my own heart. We were on the south rim, and there was no railing! No fucking railing between us and the Great Fucking Abyss. Vertigo is no joke, especially when there’s no railing.

@Dodgerblue:
We’re still subjects of the /explitive deleted/ queen.

@Walking Still:
Exactly.

@Dodgerblue: They are the scum of the earth. They just say please and thank you.

@JNOV: No railing is the POINT. You could DIE at any minute. I brought back a rock for the garden. Gold and cream.

@ManchuCandidate: Motherfucking?

@Benedick HRH KFC: For my next trip, Scotland or New Zealand? Assuming I can get spousal buy-in.

@Dodgerblue: Iceland.

@Benedick HRH KFC: My wife will want to know: do they have locally-brewed beer?

@Benedick HRH KFC: Did I tell you yet* how, after I turned in my first essay for a Celtic Poetry class during my semester in Aberdeen, my lecturer sat me down for a stern, er, lecture because I had used the terms Celtic and Gaelic interchangably? It was enough to make me sort out all the confusing terms connected with the Sceptred Isle and its environs at my earliest convenience.

*Probably yes. Many times. Sorry!

@Dodgerblue: I like your wife. Smart woman.

@Benedick HRH KFC: Uh huh. That’s exactly what my sympathetic nervous system said when it shut down. I had one moment of, “Oh! This is marvelous!” before my body said, “Oh! FUCK THIS!” Don’t even get me started on Moro Rock. And it has a railing.

@JNOV: Hello, hello. I’m in a place called Vertigo.

@Walking Still: Here in New Mexico it’s State v. Walking Still.”

@Benedick HRH KFC: Son of RML wants to paint a Scottish flag on the new fence we just built. It’s from Mrs RML’s side. Our crossbar for the gate will feature the chiseled inscription “Beware of Dog” in Latin, I am informed.

BTW, FB says it’s our late friend’s birthday today. Pour a little out for him tonight.

@Dodgerblue: New Zealand, without a doubt. ChainSaw and I are your go-to folks for travel tips. And check out the replay of this game on ESPN3 – truly amazing effort by the US women. And I think that Hope Solo may be a strong contender with Shelley Oh! for the role of your imaginary girlfriend.
@redmanlaw: Yeah, I saw that too. I’ll send him a toast in a few minutes.

@SanFranLefty: Heard Solo on sports talk radio today.

@SanFranLefty: How tall is she? Does she like dark beer?

@Dodgerblue: They have locally brewed heaven. You want to see the world as it was on the first day of creation? Go to Iceland. It is heaven. The beaches are black. You can walk up the mountains. You can trek across glaciers. And the light is so clear and bright you must wear sunglasses. Plus, lamb soup is the national dish and the cod you will eat is the way it used to be: thick and juicy and sweet. And the ocean is everywhere. And the residue of one of the western worlds great literatures and everywhere you look there are waterfalls and Oðin appearing in splendor. Don’t believe me? Penguin has put out a one volume version of some of the sagas. Check it out. The sagas are the equal of Homer. They are the foundation of what turned into the novel. Plus they are all kinds of thrilling.

Or try the Faroes. Oh my God. The Orkneys. Just as there was a Mediterranean world there was a northern Viking/Scots/Irish world and it’s totally neglected.

Anyhooo. As for the beer… ? I daresay.

@flippin eck: Darling, we’re all friends here. Stories get better with retelling. I know mine do.

My gay cousin went to Aberdeen. Pity he turned out to be a total corporate tool with delusions of hipness.

Celtic is race: Gaelic is language. Right? Secret memory here: my grandparents lived in a place that once was a staging post on the road from Leven – Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned in a keep on an island in Loch Leven – to Edinburgh. I spent my summers there as a displaced dorky Londoner. But I remember an evening when I was in the back garden with my grandmother and she started to sing Sir Patrick Spens, a song from the 14th cent. Years later I sang it with my teacher in its setting by Britten.

@redmanlaw: I so thought of you and your wife. Have you seen Of Gods and Men? I have not been blessed with faith. But this movie tore down my world. I’ve never seen a movie about faith and reason so well done. It’s brilliantly acted, directed, written… I posted this elsewhere today but this movie has some of the most astonishing scenes …

If you haven’t seen it Netflix. It’s magnificent.

I love you guys, I daresay.

@dodger: I can second the Orkneys nomination. Skara Brae, Maes Howe (cairn with Viking raider graffiti), and Ring of Brodgar. One of my favorite trips ever. I like Scotland from Inverness north. Edinburgh I hated. For reasons I can’t explain–deep instant aversion.

@Mistress Cynica: Here’s the issue. My favorite vacation would be mostly outdoors in cool weather during the day and hanging out in pubs at night. A hiking tour of Ireland that my wife and I did a few years ago was near-perfect in those respects. I won’t discuss here Irish food. My wife’s favorite vacation would be visiting two museums per day in warm weather. So, compromises are necessary, and in negotiating a deal, the presence or absence of good beer is important.

@Dodgerblue: Hm.

@Dodgerblue: San Francisco?

@Benedick HRH KFC: There’s a gay tour of Italian kulcha coming up in Nov – Manscaping the Renaissance.

@Dodgerblue: Don’t know about dark beer, but her official stats say she’s 5’9″ tall, and she’s the one in the upper right hand picture here.