OK, the topic line should be enough to get most of the uptight people to
delete this message unread...
The US is in the freakin' quarterfinals of the World
Cup???
Do you foreigners have any idea how much gloating I'm going to do if our team
gets much further?
Damn, it's one thing to do well in our sports, but
sports that 99%+ of our population doesn't even care
about??
> OK, the topic line should be enough to get most of the
Yep, you Yanks are doing good this time, John - it's usually your
Women's soccer team that wins stuff rather than the men, isn't it?
Jon (GZG) (full of national pride for how well England doing too - at
least till we get stuffed by the Brazilians on Friday - even though I
don't LIKE football myself!)
PS: it must be strange for you Yanks to be participating in a "World"
something-or-other that actually INCLUDES the rest of the World, isn't
it.....? <BIG GRIN>
> John
Ground Zero Games schrieb:
> >The US is in the freakin' quarterfinals of the World
That recently was true of German teams, too. They are doing surprisingly well
this time around. Let's see who does the gloating
next Friday ;-)
> Jon (GZG) (full of national pride for how well England
The Brazilians are doing very well - just about the only one of the
favourites to succeed.
Greetings
John, you have just discovered the sport of FOOTBALL. A sport played using a
BALL and your FOOT, played before your country was created, and doesn`t
require bodyarmour (although some of the teams could use it) and a pause every
5 mins for the minimal attention spans of the veiwers.
<VVBG>
BIF (american football is NOT football)
[quoted original message omitted]
From: Ground Zero Games jon@gzg.com
> PS: it must be strange for you Yanks to be participating in a "World"
something-or-other that actually INCLUDES the rest of the World, isn't
it.....? <BIG GRIN>
<BIG GRIN> yep--usually we just find people immigrate, so we don't have
to travel so much.
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On Tue, 18 Jun 2002 08:09:50 +0100, Ground Zero Games <jon@gzg.com>
wrote:
> Damn, it's one thing to do well in our sports, but
Actually, soccer is _the_ most played sport in the US. Canada, too.
There are more kids playing organized soccer than any other sport, including
baseball (requires a lot of equipment), football (requires a lot of equipment
and liability insurance), basketball (although playable outside, most leagues
have to be played indoors in limited facilities), and hockey (requires lots of
equipment _and_ limited indoor facilities).
The problem is that once you get beyond early high school, most kids with any
athletic ability transfer into the "money makers" (baseball, basketball,
football, and in Canada, hockey) full time.
> Yep, you Yanks are doing good this time, John - it's usually your
The sad part about the US getting so far in the World Cup is that it's damn
near impossible to see the games! In Canada, at least the CBC is playing a lot
of games (TSN, the cable sports network, also covers it). Down here, the
majority of games are covered on ESPN and ESPN2 on cable. If you don't have
cable or a satellite dish, all you get to see are the two games a week that
ABC puts on (and those are, I think, time delayed).
> PS: it must be strange for you Yanks to be participating in a "World"
In the Americans' defense, baseball's "World Series" was named after the
sponsoring newspaper, the New York World, that originated it.
> The sad part about the US getting so far in the World Cup is that it's
You need to find the local Spanish language channels. Down in sopping wet
Miami (bloody rainy / hurricane season), one of them is showing all of
the games live, unless there's two on at the same time. As an expat Brit, I'm
staying up late to watch Brazil - England that way..
> Bif Smith <bif@bifsmith.fsnet.co.uk> wrote:
John, you have just discovered the sport of FOOTBALL. A sport played using a
BALL and your FOOT, played before your country was created, and doesn`t
require bodyarmour (although some of the teams could use it) and a pause every
5 mins for the minimal attention spans of the veiwers.
BIF (american football is NOT football)
[quoted original message omitted]
It theoretically has a Canadian team eligible for it anyway. I don't think
Toronto has ever come close to the World Series, except for a mention in a
short story from Space Gamer detailing a Stealth Ogre (the cybertank kind).
We'll see a Japanese team in the Series first :-)
> Allan Goodall wrote:
> be participating in a "World"
From: <laserlight@quixnet.net>
Actually, Toronto has won the World Series twice, in 1992 and 1993. Its just
that no Americans watched it those years ;-)
> On Tuesday, June 18, 2002, at 10:37 PM, Michael Llaneza wrote:
> It theoretically has a Canadian team eligible for it anyway. I don't
Actually, Toronto has won the world series twice: 1992 Toronto Blue Jays (A)
defeat Atlanta Braves (N) 1993 Toronto Blue Jays (A) defeat Philadelphia
Phillies (N)
Michael Llaneza wrote
> It theoretically has a Canadian team eligible for it anyway. I don't
> cybertank kind).
> From: <laserlight@quixnet.net>
That's tennis. We were talking football. Tennis starts NEXT week.....
;-)
A little side anecdote......
At one of the Anime conventions over here a couple of years ago, there was
supposed to be a US special guest coming over - a few days before he was
due, the organisers double checked with him that everything was OK -
including, of course, his passport. His reply was something like: "Huh?
Passport? Why do I need a passport, I thought you spoke English over
there.....?"
To quote possibly the best known American of all, "D'oh!!!"
<GRIN>
Ground Zero Games schrieb:
> To quote possibly the best known American of all,
George Washington? Elvis? Muhammad Ali? George Bush? Marilyn Monroe? Pamela
Anderson? Homer Simpson? Charlie Chaplin? Walt Disney? John F.Kennedy?
<BIGGER GRIN>
Many a true word spoken in jest! I know a lady from the States who is over
here on a teaching exchange and she told us that the majority of our US
cousins don't have a passport - they've never been outside their
country! Of course there are several thousand US citizens who have been all
over the
world, but then they don't need passports - they're in the armed forces!
Have gun will travel?
Mike
Please respond to gzg-l@csua.berkeley.edu
> From: <laserlight@quixnet.net>
That's tennis. We were talking football. Tennis starts NEXT week.....
;-)
A little side anecdote......
At one of the Anime conventions over here a couple of years ago, there was
supposed to be a US special guest coming over - a few days before he was
due, the organisers double checked with him that everything was OK -
including, of course, his passport. His reply was something like: "Huh?
Passport? Why do I need a passport, I thought you spoke English over
there.....?"
To quote possibly the best known American of all, "D'oh!!!"
<GRIN>
Jon (GZG)
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> George Washington ? Elvis ? Muhammad Ali ? George Bush ? Marilyn
On Tue, 18 Jun 2002 11:34:56 -0400, John Sowerby <sowerbyj@fiu.edu>
wrote:
> You need to find the local Spanish language channels. Down in sopping
I only get give channels off the rabbit ears, here. (Well, there are two
religious stations, too, that I don't bother with). None of them are Spanish,
and only ABC carries any games. But what do you expect from an area where
local news didn't even mention the US team getting into the team of 8. They
were too busy showing high school baseball...
I used to watch the games on Toronto's multicultural station. They were
usually in Italian, or Portuguese, but they were also usually games not
covered by the other networks.
> From: Mike Elliott Mike.Elliott@steria.co.uk
Of course, the US has about 2.5 the land area of western Europe, so we don't
need to go to <insert country> to see odd people with peculiar
customs---we can go to <insert state>.
And we don't need a passport to visit Canada, Bermuda, or the People's
Republic of Berkeley.
On Tue, 18 Jun 2002 22:37:21 -0700, Michael Llaneza
<maserati@earthlink.net> wrote:
> It theoretically has a Canadian team eligible for it anyway. I don't
> cybertank kind).
*cough, chortle, cough*
Toronto won the World Series in 1992. And 1993...
> On Thursday, June 20, 2002, at 06:26 AM, <sowerbyj@fiu.edu> wrote:
> George Washington ? Elvis ? Muhammad Ali ? George Bush ? Marilyn
And Anderson is Canadian. I can't believe I just admitted to that ;-)
> John S.
In a message dated Thu, 20 Jun 2002 8:34:15 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
> Mike.Elliott@steria.co.uk writes:
> Many a true word spoken in jest! I know a lady from the States who is
Just to make a point in our defence on this. First, the 2 nations we share
physical borders with don't require passports for US citizens to cross. Quite
a few of us have visited Canada and Mexico that way. Secondly, some years ago
I took a 12 hour air trip, not counting 3 hours in a layover. Except for the
time spent over international waters, I was always inside the US. NYC to
Honolulu via San Fransisco, covering about 6 time zones. Lastly, I just this
weekend took a trip to see my parents. 750 miles round trip. Only went from
NYC to the Shenandoah valley, of ACW fame, in western Virginia. Hardly a
decent line on most US maps. Most Europeans, even a lot of Americans, don't
really grasp the size of this country, or the variety contained inside it.
There is a lot to see and a lot of differing cultures right here inside the
borders. When you add in the rest of NA, not having a passport is really not
an incredible handicap.
That's the reaction I was looking for. I had no intention of ruining a good
gag with anything as mundane as facts.
> Allan Goodall wrote:
> On Tue, 18 Jun 2002 22:37:21 -0700, Michael Llaneza
On Thu, 20 Jun 2002 13:33:21 +0100, "Mike Elliott"
<Mike.Elliott@steria.co.uk> wrote:
> Many a true word spoken in jest! I know a lady from the States who is
A friends visited me in Canada (they spent a day in Niagara Falls) from
Mississippi. A friend of theirs came with them. He felt that Canada was the
only country he had any interest visiting. Even with the similarities between
the nations, I found the culture shock on their faces quite amusing. Most of
the folks I've seen down here in the South have never been outside of the
country.
However, there isn't a lot of difference between Canadians and Americans in
this regard. Most of my Canadian friends have travelled, but I know of a lot
of Canadians that haven't been outside of the country either. Most Canadians
don't have passports readily available (until 9/11 you didn't need one
to go into the US). The Canadians who travel frequently are usually those who
immigrated or who are first or second generation Canadians.
Folks in Europe tend to forget that between Canada, the US, and Mexico there's
a whole continent over here that's much bigger than Europe. There's a lot to
see over here! You could spend an entire vacation in New York without ever
seeing things like the Grand Canyon, the American or Canadian Rockies, the
badlands of Utah or Alberta, the Mayan ruins of Mexico, etc., etc. You can
drive to all of these places, with gas prices that are much cheaper than in
Europe. Meals and accomodation are a lot cheaper over here, too. Meanwhile, it
costs a lot of money to get Europe from North America, particularly if you
bring a family along.
I'm from Scotland. I've visited Scotland once (which is why I got the passport
in the first place). I would love to visit Britain, and "the continent" more.
But it took me the better part of a year to save up for a three week vacation.
I did a 10 day vacation from Toronto to New Orleans without blinking.
Add to this the fact that there are a lot of areas of the world that are not
safe to visit if you're an American (or an "American-sounding" Canadian
for that matter). Then there's the stories (some true, some false) of
anti-American sentiment in safer countries like France and Britain. It's
no wonder that Americans, not feeling welcome, stay at home. There's so much
to see in their own country with a lot less of a hassle, particularly now in
the
post 9/11 world.
For the record, my next dream vacation (hopefully in the next 5 years) is to
Ireland and Scotland. I hope, within the next decade or two, to visit Japan.
In between time, I have the Grand Canyon, New York, the museums and sites in
Washington, and a whole whack of Civil War battlefields to visit; none of
which requires reservations and all of which can be done by simply jumping
into the car.
On Thu, 20 Jun 2002 06:49:18 -0700, Tony Christney
<tchristney@telus.net> wrote:
> George Washington ? Elvis ? Muhammad Ali ? George Bush ? Marilyn
Beat me to it! Although no doubt a good portion of her is from
Dow-Corning...
> From: Ground Zero Games <jon@gzg.com>
> >> >PS: it must be strange for you Yanks to be participating in a
Olympics? But I see things haven't improved much around here. Gotta stop being
so hasty about hopping back into things.
> On Thu, 20 Jun 2002 09:56:32 -0400, JRebori682@aol.com wrote:
> First, the 2 nations we share physical borders with don't require
True, but it makes life easier post 9/11 if you _do_ have a passport.
> Lastly, I just this weekend took a trip to see my parents. 750 miles
Don't forget how quick you could do that trip, too. I used to drive from
Toronto to Milwaukee for GenCon. 12 hour drive (had to dipsy doodle around a
couple of Great Lakes). The total trip was 1100 km, one way. That's like,
what, Barcelona to Munich?
> Most Europeans, even a lot of Americans, don't really grasp the size
Very true. My Mississippi friends didn't believe I could do Toronto to New
Orleans (actually, Southern Mississippi, an hour from N. O.) in two days.
Toronto to Nashville: 13 hours. Nashville to southern MS: 7 hours. Total trip,
about 2000 km.
> I also don't think most Americans travel enough, but I think most
Very true!
In a message dated Thu, 20 Jun 2002 10:35:27 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
> agoodall@att.net writes:
> On Thu, 20 Jun 2002 09:56:32 -0400, JRebori682@aol.com wrote:
> --- Allan Goodall <agoodall@att.net> wrote:
> Add to this the fact that there are a lot of areas
Heh. I enjoyed the UK when I visited it, but I did notice that when I lost my
temper (deliberately) at Brit Railways employees they got noticably more
helpful, and I'm told that it's the US accent that does it. They're all
convinced all Yanks are daft and probably violent.
> --- Mike Elliott <Mike.Elliott@steria.co.uk> wrote:
> Of course there are several thousand US citizens who
Oddly enough, a DA 31[1] will get you through customs in NATO faster than an
EC country's passport. You see, while you're standing in line with every other
native ECer who hopped off the train, I'm the only guy
in the 'non-EC' line and a DA 31 doesn't require any
stamps or inspections and the only other form I need is my US Military
Identification Card.
> --- Bif Smith <bif@bifsmith.fsnet.co.uk> wrote:
Always known about it, just didn't know we were better at it than most of the
planet.
A sport played using a
> BALL and your FOOT, played before your country was
Kicking a half-rotted pig's head between two medieval
villiages doesn't really count.
and doesn`t
> require bodyarmour (although some of the teams could
Bloodsports require body armor. Not my fall y'all aren't crazy enough to play
those.
and a pause
> every 5 mins for the minimal attention spans of the
Hey, if you were getting that kind of weight up to that kind of speeds, you'd
need a break every now and then too.
> and a pause
Say what you will about American football, but we've got one thing that
*other* game doesn't......cheerleaders baby! And those pauses aren't for the
attention span (or lack thereof) of the viewer, it's to sell all of the
wonderfully capitalistic products that we Americans so enjoy (and we know that
the rest of the world has absolutely NO interest in whatsoever;). On a
slightly related note, it occurs to me that this discussion vaguely mirrors a
discussion which might take place between a devotee of GZG games and a devotee
of Games Workshop games.......:)
> Heh. I enjoyed the UK when I visited it, but I did
Speaking as a ex BR employee, if you could figure what a train looks like, you
are doing better than most of the regular travelers <G>. And no, we just
beleave all yanks are daft (where trains are concerned, after all, a regular
train service is 2 a week over there isn`t it? <G>.
On Thu, 20 Jun 2002 09:01:35 -0700 (PDT), John Atkinson
> <johnmatkinson@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Always known about it, just didn't know we were better
*LOL* That's _one_ way to interpret getting into the round of 8...
> Kicking a half-rotted pig's head between two medieval
The Chinese drew up rules of one game, called "tsu chu", circa 2500 BC. They
used leather balls no later than 50 BC. The Romans exported "harpastum" to
ancient Britain. Soccer was banned by Royalty in Britain under various
medieval monarchs, finally given official sanction in 1681. Some form of
soccer was played by settlers of Virginia in 1608. The first recorded set of
written modern soccer rules, though, goes back to Eton college in 1815.
> Bloodsports require body armor. Not my fall y'all
Do shin guards count?
The "blood sport" in soccer has to do with the fans. That's where the real
mayhem begins. Like the Korean guy who set himself on fire... he wanted to be
the 12th "ghost player" for his team. And then there are the soccer fans that
rioted in Moscow when Russia was bounced out of the first round.
> Hey, if you were getting that kind of weight up to
I remember
> On Thu, 20 Jun 2002, Bif Smith wrote:
> PPS-Why do yank tourists always compliment us on our train service?
It`s not
> that good.
To compensatwe for the dutch ones having a laughing fit at the word 'service'
in that line?;)
Cheers,
On Thu, 20 Jun 2002 19:57:39 +0200 (CEST), Derk Groeneveld
<derk@cistron.nl> wrote:
> PPS-Why do yank tourists always compliment us on our train service?
It`s not
> that good.
You have to compare it to Amtrak, where "good service" means the train didn't
derail!
> Atkinson the Engineer wrote:
John - You're a braver man than I. I took two weeks of
leave doing the "Griswald's Tour of Europe" in February.
I tried to play it safe after 9/11 and be low key.
Whenever someone asked me where I was from I replied, "Canada." I figured,
"Who would be pissed at Canadians?!"
> --- Ted Arlauskas <ted@naxera.com> wrote:
> John - You're a braver man than I. I took two weeks
1)You're kidding yourself. Americans are about as obvious as a brass band
accompanied by strippers.
2)I had really short hair and (so I'm told) unconcious body language that
shouts "MILITARY". Canada does not maintain a real huge military presence i
Germany.
3)This was before 9/11
4)I've never been worried about people being pissed at me. Most Europeans I
met were extremely pleasant and friendly, with the exception of those fascist
pigs in some Brit police force who confiscated my leatherman. It seems you
have to meet stricter standards when LEAVING a Brit train station than when
entering a German, French, or Belgian one. And a 2" blade on a leatherman
doesn't pass. The only problems I ever had were in Giessen, and then it was a
matter of "Ooops, made a wrong turn, too many Turks in this neighborhood, I'm
leaving."
> --- Allan Goodall <agoodall@att.net> wrote:
Well, you gotta figure that that means we are no worse than 8th place. Which
means out of over 150 countries in the world (I don't know how many actually
have World Cup teams, but it's safe to say we're better than those that don't)
we're better than all but 7 of them.
And some of those seven are pretty tiny, so whether you're using number of
countries, land area, or population, we're better than most of the world...
> --- Bif Smith <bif@bifsmith.fsnet.co.uk> wrote:
> Speaking as a ex BR employee, if you could figure
Passenger trains are an affectation of the eccentric in the US.
> PPS-Why do yank tourists always compliment us on our
Ummm, I had come from the Continent.
I was used to German train system, where if the train is 1 minute late from
the regular schedule, then you start wondering if there's been a derailment or
something. The train pulls in EARLY, and leave ON TIME.
EVERY time.
As far as I'm concerned, British train system is barely a step up from
walking, and a definite step down from hiring a hansom cab.
> Ummm, I had come from the Continent.
> At 9:56 AM -0400 6/20/02, JRebori682@aol.com wrote:
Tell them it's as long a drive from Atlanta to Miami as it is from Atlanta to
DC. 10 hours. (28 hours non stop driving from Miami to Bangor Maine) Also,
inform them that it is a 56 hour drive from Miami to Seattle if you go non
stop.
I did that with an Irish lass a few weeks ago when she wasn't quite getting
how big the US is. Once we covered drive times and such she was impressed with
the size of the place....
> 4)I've never been worried about people being pissed at
You should have gone to Sweden. Four years ago I was stopped in the security
check point. I handed my key ring before walking through the metal
dector in the airport. I kep a short 1.5" lock-back on my key ring.
Appearently lock-backs aren't legal in Sweden. The younger guy started
to make an issue of it, but the older gaurd just wavied his hand, the younger
guy handed my keys back, and on I went.
On Thu, 20 Jun 2002 13:33:57 -0700 (PDT), John Atkinson
> <johnmatkinson@yahoo.com> wrote:
> And some of those seven are pretty tiny, so whether
The US was hardly contested until Mexico (it came second in its first round
division). The US hasn't had to play against most of the big guns. You can
hardly call being in the Round of 8 meaning the team is one of the 8 best in
the world. For that, you'd have to have a proper round robin tournament.
> From: Ground Zero Games <jon@gzg.com>
Don't panic, Brian, and hang around for a while..... yes, this one is OT, but
then the World Cup is quite big news at them moment both for how the US
AND the UK are doing (incidentally I'm typing this while we're one-nil
up
against Brazil on Friday morning - it won't last.....)
So far the transatlantic rivalry has stayed on the level of jolly banter
and friendly digs, with no-one forgetting why the <GRIN>s are there and
suffering a sense-of-humour bypass!
There has actually been a fair bit of decent game-related and on topic
discussion over the last couple of weeks.
> At 9:56 AM -0400 6/20/02, JRebori682@aol.com wrote:
> Tell them it's as long a drive from Atlanta to Miami as it is from
> I did that with an Irish lass a few weeks ago when she wasn't quite
Well, you know what they say: to you (Americans) 100 years is a long time, to
us (Irish) 100 miles is a long way!
Well since the story ran in the Space Gamer in the 1980's. Toronto had not won
the World series yet.
Oliver Dewey Upshaw III
odupshaw3@cs.com
"Ms. Wolversham, you are authorized to return fire!"
David Weber The Short Victorious War
Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2002 07:00:57 -0700
From: Tony Christney <tchristney@telus.net>
Subject: Re: [OT] Completely off-topic and useless celebrating re: World
Cup
Actually, Toronto has won the World Series twice, in 1992 and 1993. Its just
that no Americans watched it those years ;-)
> On Tuesday, June 18, 2002, at 10:37 PM, Michael Llaneza wrote:
> It theoretically has a Canadian team eligible for it anyway. I don't
Baseball has long been Utterly OT for me for a very long time.
> ODUPSHAW3@cs.com wrote:
> Well since the story ran in the Space Gamer in the 1980's. Toronto
Its
> just