cryptique

Me too...

Varitek: 0 for 9 with 4 strikeouts. (edit: OK, now it says only three ... the MLB Gameday stats must have had it wrong.) How do you not go home and break stuff after a day like that? The White Sox needed that one.

With all due respect, you're on crack. He was clearly offside -- by at least a couple of feet. Fouls don't really mean much. The French had the more dangerous chances throughout, and kept the ball in the Italian end much more than the Italians were able to press the attack in the French end. Possession is also a pretty misleading statistic -- if you're kicking it around at the back, you'll have more possession. And what does "gave up the only free kick of the game" mean? There's a free kick after every foul. edit: Plus, I noticed that you conveniently omitted that France won 7 corner ki

Props to Italy. One of the things I love about this sport is that a team can win even when it's outplayed -- which the Italians were for the vast majority of the match. The Zidane ejection was a huge blow to the French, who just seemed to deflate afterwards (granted, there wasn't a lot of time left by then). What a totally stupid incident. Zidane's idiocy makes it easier for me to stomach an Italian win.

So what?

Bad example.

Hearts of Oak. If you like it at all, also check out The Tyranny of Distance. I can say without exaggeration that that album is one of my all-time favorites.

The sentiment may be absurd (worrying more about someone's music than his health), but I don't think the idea that art is born of pain is absurd at all. History has shown that often the two are inextricably linked. Sure, it's possible to have great art without great pain and suffering, but pain often seems to push people to their creative peaks. Personally, I would rather see Jeff healthy and sane and writing crap songs than continuing to suffer while putting out great music. I'm not saying that I think his songwriting necessarily will suffer because he feels better -- I doubt it will, and I

That Payday Loans = Costly Cash

That Chelsea is owned by a Russian billionaire, and four teams in MLS are owned and/or run by an asshole right-wing tycoon.

Not sure how it could be old news, as it happened a couple of hours before I posted about it and hadn't been mentioned here yet, but whatever.

So, apparently Ozzie Guillen has added "another Venezuelan piece of shit" to the All-Star roster.

Something y'all should know about the upcoming rush for Waits tickets ... this info was posted on the Ticketmaster page for the Atlanta show, and it appears that similar restrictions are in effect for the other shows (the page for the Louisville and Detroit shows have similar text).

Oh, I love a sports-related argument about unimportant things as much as the next guy -- but all star games, fuck. I just can't be bothered to care. I'm sure the idea was to put the greatest players of the day onto the field at the same time, resulting in a great game, but it never works out that way. On a related note, is there anything more useless than the Pro Bowl? Seriously. But this is a baseball thread, so don't answer that.

I give less than a shit about the All-Star Game. I mean, really, who cares? It's always a boring game, and people expend way too much energy arguing about who should and should not be there. Why does it matter? Why do we even have such a game? I know that it's now ingrained into the pro sports culture and certain parties probably make a lot of money off of these games, but if the all-star games in all the major sports suddenly ceased to exist, it wouldn't affect me in the slightest. I never watch any of them (if I see an inning of the baseball version each year, I'd be surprised, and that

Would wearing both at once be hazardous to your health? Or perhaps the health of others?

It's snack cakes, not pancakes. He knows how to please them. Is he related to No Teeth MacGowan?

That's a tongue twister.

I prefer his comedic stylings to his sartorial ones. I also prefer them to Ann Coulter's. And Hitler's.

I suspect we'll get one. I'm predicting France 2, Italy 1.

Just poking fun. Sorry, I didn't know which to go with.

Definitely. My feelings about Italy and the Italian side are similar to my feelings about New York and the Yankees, if that helps put it into perspective. I love New York, but I will never, ever cheer for the Yankees under any circumstances.

You definitely shouldn't take it that way. I love Italy and all things Italian, and when I finally made it to continental Europe many years ago that was the first place I wanted to go. The only thing I can think of that I don't love about Italy is their style of international soccer (flop & complain). I'm not nearly so enthusiastic about France, but they're playing Italy, so guess who I'll be cheering for?