As of tonight, there have been 88 games in the 2026 World Cup. After Colombia and Ghana wrap things up, there are only 16 left. The World Cup champion has to win a quarter of the remaining games.

Carlos Valderrama and Carles Puyol sitting next to each other in suits looks like they cloned the Encino Man and took him to the World Cup.

new metaphor just dropped

Holy shit, Cape Verde-Argentina was the literal Rocky of the World Cup. Played four games, including against Spain and Argentina, never lost a game in regulation, and took Argentina to the brink in maybe the greatest game I’ve ever seen.

Duarte’s first action after scoring a goal against Argentina: blowing an ENORMOUS snot rocket on global television.

I live in Minnesota, so take your guess.

Egypt kicked the ball at the goal and Australia did not and that seems to have made the difference, penalty-wise

Two real things my wife has said to me this evening: So I bought some hot dogs. Long story short… It’s Switzerland? Well, *I* love you.

Could be worse. Could be Shogun jokes about maps.

There's only one Big Ronaldo, and it ain't Cristiano.

It's not their flag. It's OUR flag. And we're not ceding it.

still the definitive statement on "can you cheer for team usa if the usa does bad things" discourse:

Something something metaphor something

Heatstroke! In the Baptism Tent

Everything is better with the Beastie Boys

Happy Minnesota Flag Day to all who celebrate! And no, Virginia, you *can’t* have it back. We won.

The number of times I have wanted to write “this has been talked about extensively you’re just 21” on a student’s paper cannot be calculated in human numerals.

We were promised hoverboards & flying cars. Instead we have AI stealing people’s work & enticing students to cheat on assignments, and spy glasses for creeps.

Liberal Arts professors are Antifa.

Belgium is known for its outstanding beer and waffles. But I call bullshit. If the US beats Belgium, I will drink an icy cold Busch beer in a Waffle House to celebrate. Who's with me? @bookowl.bsky.social?

The thing that gets me with Poch and why he’s the man for the moment is what I see tonight and what I saw when he took over Espanyol and led the great escape. He’s just so fucking relaxed. Like, his whole vibe then and now is just “Why not?” And he shrugs like the impossible is no big deal.

My friend just texted me "no goal is offsides on stolen land" 😭😭😭

I am so high on soccer joy right now and still want Alexi Lalas cast into the sun.

We were clearly the better team. It shouldn’t have been that hard, we shouldn’t have lost Balogun, and Belgium will punish us if we don’t convert the chances we wasted today, but tonight, the right team won.

Balogun can still play against Belgium if Mike Pence has the courage!

See y’all Monday

One of the best things about Tunic is that piecing together an old school Nintendo manual is actually a game mechanic that helps you learn how to do things.

THAT ONE’S NOT COMING BACK FOR OFFSIDES YOU MOTHERFUCKERS

I love that Poch always looks like Russell Crowe trying to run to the corner store for a pack of smokes.

LFG USA

My god. Senegal had Belgium dead to rights. Up 2-0 with ten minutes to go. And then: 86’ 89’ 126’ BEL 3-2 SEN

So I encountered a *totally* anodyne series of AI fuck ups that I think (re)illustrates the problem with trusting AI when you don't know, even when AI "cites" its sources. One of my favorite Nintendo games is Xexyz, a 1989 game from Hudson Soft. Here's the box art, which will be important in a sec.

"You can play but only if you're worse than me" is the exact idea I'm currently trying to disabuse my 6YO of. Like, it's LITERALLY a childhood life lesson that we all get to play and sometimes we lose and that's okay because the point is to play and have fun.

I love, love, LOVE that one of the reasons SSPX is being yeeted is because they're trying to make "never read the comments" doctrine.

Perhaps the most insane detail in this increasingly absurd Litany of the Unwell is that it makes NO MENTION of mostaccioli. Tradition clearly dictates that no St. Louis wedding is valid without mostaccioli at the reception. You'd think a bunch of tradition-obsessed weirdos would know this.

When I was in grad school, I was a TA five times. Three of those times, I TAed for a class I had never taken as an undergraduate, including Intro my very first semester. Part of the point of grad school is getting exposure like this. (Yes, I was a philosophy major who never took Intro in undergrad)

Happy Bobby Bonilla Day! We need the joy it brings more than ever.

SSPX: RIP to everyone excommunicated by the Church for their hubris. But we’re different. And better. Maybe even better than the Church.

I'm not saying this is going to happen and I'm pretty certain it won't, but if Ecuador can beat Mexico at the Azteca, it's the upset of the tournament no matter what else happens. Mexico simply do not lose at the Azteca, maybe the most intimidating stadium in football.

Me being in the room while my wife watches McBee Dynasty:

Bro, there is no religious denomination more welcoming to "low wage foreigners" than Catholicism.

The weirdest thing about the Biden Egg Thing was that my aunt in Colorado was paying $8/dz for normal-ass murder farm eggs that kept getting more expensive while I kept paying $4/dz for PASTURE RAISED EGGS the entire time.

my god

On Damnatio Memoriae and de-Trumpification. (Gift link) Been waiting for this one to go up. Please read and share.

the official publication of the American Jesuits using the word "schismatic" is a sign that things are really popping off

Yes, yes. The yard sign that says "Black Lives Matter" and "No human being is illegal" is a butchering of the core tenets of the Nicene Creed, like "Jesus Chris is consubstantial with the Father" or "we look for the resurrection of the dead." You absolute dingus.

This is maybe the most gonzo sentence in Wikipedia. Like, "uh huh, uh huh, uh huh, wait, what the…" "[Johnny] Cash relapsed into addiction after being administered painkillers for a serious abdominal injury in 1983 caused by an incident in which he was kicked and wounded by an ostrich on his farm."

I’m a soccer coach and the answer to the question “what will you do if there’s a trans kid on your team” is “make sure you have enough orange slices for everyone.”