Cheers, Yanks
I think I'm starting to develop a problem. I notice it most prevalently when I'm working at the hotel and Neil the housekeeping guy comes down to chat at my work area. The thing is, Neil is from Bristol, a small harbor town in England, as he describes it. He comes down to chat with me because I'm the only American he's met that can carry on a conversation like this (parentheses denote American translation):
Neil: "Brad, did you see that the Scousers (Liverpool) got thrashed by the Saints (Southampton) yesterday?"
Brad: "Yeah, it was 2-nil (zero) wasn't, it?"
Neil: "Yeah. I'll tell you what though, I love how Shaun Wright-Phillips (midfielder) has been playing lately. I think he should be playing on the right (right side of midfield, where David Beckham plays) for England.
Brad: "Definitely. He's playing awesome right now. I also really like Stuart Downing (another midfielder). He'll get picked (selected to play in international matches) soon."
... And so on.
But that gets me thinking. I love soccer, which is obviously the world's sport, and the Brits certainly not only love it too but consistently field great sides (teams). So now that I'm home, I'm looking around my apartment. Here's what I observed:
Song currently playing on iTunes as I write this: Clash (British band) "Train in Vain."
Bedroom contents: Manyoo (Manchester United) "Theatre of Dreams" poster next to my bed; 2004 England wall calendar (featuring pretty pictures) on the floor (it's 2005 now!); Scotland clan flag (formerly the national flag) hanging over my bed; Manyoo kit (soccer jersey) hanging in my closet; Celtic kit hanging in my closet.
CD currently in my car stereo: The Essential Collection Volume 1, The Who.
Next concert I'll be attending: U2.
Song playing now that the previous one ended: Duran Duran (British band) "Sunrise."
My favorite movie of last year: "Shaun of the Dead."
Book I'm having a hard time putting down: "Pride of Lions," story about the family of Brian Boru, one of the first kings of Ireland.
Team that I manage on Total Club Manager: Bristol Rovers (English league Division Two).
And I could go on (let me know if you want me to!).
I really think that I am or have become an Anglophile (not a crime, but a love of the UK and stuff from it). I wonder if it has anything to do with my heritage (the "Nicholsons" hail originially from the Isle of Skye and then eventually from the Stirling area of Scotland), or if I'm just a weirdo. I think it's probably the latter, but I just found it very interesting to reflect on how prevalent Anglo is in my life at this point, and how it really makes me anxious to finally visit someday soon.
Anybody care to join me on the next flight to Heathrow (an airport in London)??
Neil: "Brad, did you see that the Scousers (Liverpool) got thrashed by the Saints (Southampton) yesterday?"
Brad: "Yeah, it was 2-nil (zero) wasn't, it?"
Neil: "Yeah. I'll tell you what though, I love how Shaun Wright-Phillips (midfielder) has been playing lately. I think he should be playing on the right (right side of midfield, where David Beckham plays) for England.
Brad: "Definitely. He's playing awesome right now. I also really like Stuart Downing (another midfielder). He'll get picked (selected to play in international matches) soon."
... And so on.
But that gets me thinking. I love soccer, which is obviously the world's sport, and the Brits certainly not only love it too but consistently field great sides (teams). So now that I'm home, I'm looking around my apartment. Here's what I observed:
Song currently playing on iTunes as I write this: Clash (British band) "Train in Vain."
Bedroom contents: Manyoo (Manchester United) "Theatre of Dreams" poster next to my bed; 2004 England wall calendar (featuring pretty pictures) on the floor (it's 2005 now!); Scotland clan flag (formerly the national flag) hanging over my bed; Manyoo kit (soccer jersey) hanging in my closet; Celtic kit hanging in my closet.
CD currently in my car stereo: The Essential Collection Volume 1, The Who.
Next concert I'll be attending: U2.
Song playing now that the previous one ended: Duran Duran (British band) "Sunrise."
My favorite movie of last year: "Shaun of the Dead."
Book I'm having a hard time putting down: "Pride of Lions," story about the family of Brian Boru, one of the first kings of Ireland.
Team that I manage on Total Club Manager: Bristol Rovers (English league Division Two).
And I could go on (let me know if you want me to!).
I really think that I am or have become an Anglophile (not a crime, but a love of the UK and stuff from it). I wonder if it has anything to do with my heritage (the "Nicholsons" hail originially from the Isle of Skye and then eventually from the Stirling area of Scotland), or if I'm just a weirdo. I think it's probably the latter, but I just found it very interesting to reflect on how prevalent Anglo is in my life at this point, and how it really makes me anxious to finally visit someday soon.
Anybody care to join me on the next flight to Heathrow (an airport in London)??
posted by Brad at
6:30 PM
10 Comments:
Bollocks - This is a great English word with many excellent uses. Technically speaking it means testicles but is typically used to describe something that is no good (that's bollocks) or that someone is talking rubbish (he's talking bollocks). Surprisingly it is also used in a positive manner to describe something that is the best, in which case you would describe it as being "the dog's bollocks". Englishmen who live in America take great delight in ordering specialised registration plates for their cars using the letters B.O.L.L.O.X.
Soccer the world's sport? Not hardly anymore ole' chap.
(Unless you define "World by Uk, Ireland, France, Italy, and Brazil")
Beisbol is currently taking over Latin America, "Beisbol been berry berry good to sammy sosa"
Basketball owns Eastern Europe and China
Hockey owns Canada, Russia, and Northern Europe
They are too busy killing each other over in Africa to worry about sports.
Habib can easily tell you the only sport that matters to him is kicking the shit out of India in cricket (easily, the biggest rivalary in any sport, any where, It Is amazing how intense these two countries go at it in cricket.)
Football down under means rugby, none of this European football stuff
And lastly, in two weeks we will witness the grandest of all sporting events, the Super Bowl, which will destroy even World Cup ratings world wide. ( And hell, half the viewers at least won't understand what is even going on)
Time to realize there is more to the world than England, Brad.
Fred,
Ted and I have always tossed around the idea of travelling over there, we'll have to get that idea re-kindled. And if you have been into Irish history at all, I bet you'd love "Lion of Ireland" as well.
I totally agree that I love the work "Bollocks," and I need to start using it more. Your post reminds me of a Carlin sketch in which he discusses how the word "f*ck" is used in so many different contexts within a sentence. A noun, a verb, an adjective, etc. I'm sure that's pretty much their equivalent.
Finally, I would definitely dispute the claim against soccer. First of all, you forgot to list Spain and Portugal, which are two more countries where I guarantee soccer is the most popular sport. There are also major countries such as Greece and Turkey that have great programs and no doubt consider soccer their primary sport as well.
Also, I don't think many eastern European countries would choose basketball as their primary sport over soccer. Maybe some piddly old country like Latvia might, but your larger countries like Romania and such have quality programs with dedicated followings as well.
And just because more people watch the Super Bowl, doesn't make them more interested. I bet that most people that watch the World Cup are watching because they have a vested interest in the teams playing. I would wager that not too many people worldwide are going to give a shit if the Eagles beat the Patriots, but many more would if Germany beat Italy.
That's my two cents.
Britain, let's see. Love Acutally is a good movie. The Beckhams are hot. Neville Chamberlain, moron; Winston Churchill, hero. I'd like to go over and play golf at Sunningdale. Yeah, you're definitely more British than me.
Fred,
Check out www.soccertv.com for all of the games (live and tape-delayed) that are on TV every day. And don't fret, the Champions League matches will be shown on ESPN2 starting in mid-February with a kickoff time of 2:45 Eastern. And those are live! I'll keep ya posted.
I haven't read any of those books, nor heard of the author, but I'll most definitely check them out! I have seen the movie "Love, Actually" and "About a Boy" is on my NetFlix queue. Thanks for the insight!
Yes. High Fidelity book was very very good. Enjoyed more than the movie, and the movie's my favorite movie.
"I think it's obvious that soccer is the world's sport. Hockey, basketball, American football are all great in the U.S. but they take second place or worse in any other country to soccer"
To nit-pik Fred, my point that I made was this is not true, and the countries I listed to list other sports above soccer. Every met a Canadian, or Russian, or Swede, of Finn, or ... that likes soccer more than Hockey? Or an Austrailian that likes soccer over rugby? Or, a Chinese that likes soccer over basketball? Or a Japanese, Korean, or most Latin American countries that would choose soccer over baseball? With some of the world's biggest sports stars not being soccer players, other countries now identify with different sports.
Here's my question to leave you with? Why is America doing better world-wide in soccer? Is it because we are devloping more talent and caring more about it? Or is it other countries are caring less and losing their talented athletes to other sports? My answer is two. We've had soccer leagues in this country before and they've failed. Time will tell if the MLS fails too, which I would wager it might last 10 more years, at most.
I feel like I'm joining this conversation a bit late...and I can't really add anything to the soccer discussion...but oh well.
Two of my favorite guitarists are Mark Knopfler and Eric Clapton (both British).
Three of my favorite writers are J.R.R. Tolkein, C.S. Lewis, and G.K. Chesterton (all British).
And who doesn't like saying "Cheerio!" and "Hip hip hooray!"? Plus, don't forget about the accent guys.
One the other hand, how can I forget what the British did to the Irish?
Mac,
That's a very interesting point to consider. I mean, heck, as I wrote that original blog posting, I was sitting beneath a poster that takes note of the tragedies the British committed against my ancestors as well (Braveheart). It's interesting that even though, especially a number of years ago and still mostly today for the Irish, that although they can be classified as very distinct countries (England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales), yet being over here as an American, I tend to identify things as the greater whole, the United Kingdom. I'm sure the Scotch, the Irish and the Welsh would hate me for it though!
Hahaha, Cherrio. What a wonderful word. I got a great London story involving that word, me, and about 3 liters of White Lightning. Oh man, it was rough. But I think I'll wait for another day to tell that one.
A bike tour does sound really fascinating, its just hard to wrap my mind around the fact that the country is small enough to do it. The guy at work, Neil, says that driving a standard speed (60-70 mph), one can go from the southwest corner to the northeast corner in about 4-5 hours. Pretty weird, huh? But the funny thing is that he felt like it was a really long distance. We were actually discussing traveling to support your team (his was soccer), and he said he was amazed when people would travel all the way across England (4-5 hours) to cheer them on. I trumped that though with my 15 hour jaunt to the GMAC bowl last year!
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