I’m rich!
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| From : | carosmith@terra.es |
| Reply-To : | “carosmith@terra.es” |
| Sent : | Thursday, July 27, 2006 9:34 AM |
| Subject : | MICROSOFT WORD CO-OPERATION CONGRATULATES YOU |
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Sunday, July 30, 2006
          
          
                              
the small print
Breakfast time. I got out my box of Weet-Bix. The box is black, fading to grey at the top. Under the name Weet-Bix is the phrase “Official Breakfast of the All Blacks”. Richie McCaw, Joe Rocokoko and Jerry Collins smile out at me from the front of the box. The top of the box says “Owned by Kiwis, loved by Kiwis”. The bottom of the box says “Made in New Zealand”. So that’s all fair enough.
Next, a cup of Milo. The Milo packet is green, with gold writing. Hmm, that seems a little Australian. But the picture on the front is of a rugby player in a very dark blue jersey (it looks black) scoring a try. He is being tackled by a player in a yellow jersey. On the back of the Milo packet is the phrase: “MILO – proud to be helping little Kiwi Rugby players become big Kiwi Rugby players”. And also on the back is a faded black-and-white image of another rugby player in black. But his chest has something that looks more like a Scottish thistle than the silver fern. And his shorts have an Adidas logo. This all a little suspicious. So I look on the underside of the packet. Made in Australia…
Monday, July 24, 2006
Hot Dog
The rest of the world didn’t just stand still during the World Cup. Well, some of the rest of the world didn’t. On the fourth of July one of the world’s other great sporting legends was in action. Japan’s Takeru Kobayashi won his sixth consecutive title in the annual Independence Day hotdog-eating competition on Coney Island, Brooklyn.
Kobayashi set a new record by devouring 53 and 3/4 hotdogs (including buns) in twelve minutes. You could see the Independence Day hotdog-eating competition as a brilliant deconstruction of the excesses of Western consumption…
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Yo Ho Ho (Pros & Cons of the Pirates sequel)
Keira Knightley and Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
Cons:
the plot
the script (for the most part)
Keira Knightley
Orlando Bloom
Pros:
Johnny Depp
Bill Nighy
Johnny Depp playing a pirate
Another excuse to dress up as Johnny Depp playing a pirate
Monday, July 10, 2006
Tuesday, July 4, 2006
and in that day’s other quarterfinal…
poor old England…
Doomed manager Sven-Goran Eriksson faces a striker crisis. England expects 20-year-old super freak Wayne Rooney to recover from a broken foot and blast them to glory. He will recover, but won’t have played for six weeks by the time he gets a start in the latter, harder stages of the competition. Left up front is bored prima donna Michael Owen returning from injury and a journeyman, Peter Crouch, on the verge of being found out. The stunning call-up of 17-year-old striker Theo Walcott, who has never played a premiership game and who displaces fit and in-form options, is surely mad Swede Sven-Goran’s revenge on the English. – Listener, 10/06/2006, pp. 27-8.
Monday, July 3, 2006
Saturday, July 1, 2006
a tragedy of Shakesperean proportions
Saturday morning (New Zealand time). I met up with some Argentinian friends and we headed to the Sportscafe for the biggest game of the World Cup so far. Argentina vs Germany. We arrived just before 2:00am and joined the 150-or-so people already queuing to get in. The national anthems were under way when we finally got through the doors. The crowd in the Sportscafe was split roughly 60:40 in favour of Argentinian supporters. And the first half of the game followed that ratio – Argentina dominated, with at least 60% of the possession. Argentina scored shortly into the second half. Argentinian chants echoed around the Sportscafe and there were Argentinians jumping and dancing all around me. The German supporters sat there stone-faced.
And then it all went horribly wrong [for Argentina]. They subbed off midfielder Riquelme and striker Crespo and started playing more defensively. Around the same time, Abbondanzieri, Argentina’s first-choice goalkeeper, went off injured. Germany equalised and came alive. At fulltime it was 1-1. Germany kept playing well as the game went into extra time. Nobody scored and it came down to penalties. Argentina had to rely on their second-choice goalkeeper. Lehmann, Germany’s keeper, pulled off two brilliant saves. Germany won. I walked home with a bunch of very depressed Argentinians.
[although it's a pity there won't be an Argentina-Brazil final, it's good that Germany are still in it, seeing as they're hosting the tournament...]
