Finding some deals at the grocery store!

How many Jimothy tattoos do you think have been inked in the last few days? Mere thousands or do you think it’s up to tens of thousands? Imagining Seattle area tattoo shops running round the clock like factories during WWII.

The tiny blink of a moment when I feel a bit of me die as I go back to add extra exclamation points and an emoji to a text or email response.

In retrospect, smart of Spain to wait until extra time so they wouldn’t activate Argentina. Didn’t score too early. I see the vision now.

Well, I'd like to see ol Leo Messi wriggle his way out of THIS jam

Mikel Merino cannot be a World Cup winning goal scorer, I’m sorry.

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Ok, the Muppets are the first aspect of “American culture” they’ve shown off today that I’m actually proud of.

Being forced to watch the final on Fox instead of Telemundo and you people have been living like this for a month?! How?!

Came across some World Cup ‘58 highlights and Pele looks like either a time traveler or an alien. On a completely different level. Imagine what he could have done with a halfway decent ball and a pair of Nike Phantom Elites.

What shade of purple do you think Mikel Arteta is right now with Rice still on the field? I’m guessing Grimace.

Really enjoyed the first episode of the newest Filmspotting spinoff? franchise? Either way, really interesting discussion that strengthens my belief Michael Shannon is one of the few celebrities I really like who I could hold an actual conversation with. It’s in the Filmspotting podcast feed.

Exactly 10 years ago, I finished packing up the rental van and got on I 70 to move from Ohio to California. Trish and the kids flew out the night before. I’d spend the next 5 days driving across the country alone barely staying on the right side of a nervous breakdown.

TCM is airing a John Carpenter curated a movie marathon right now. I guarantee it’s the best thing you’ll find on tv this evening.

I love how her glance at goal is literally “blink and you’ll miss it.”

God I love the World Cup.

England you fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders - the most famous of which is "never get involved in a land war in Asia" - but only slightly less well-known is this: "Never into a knife fight with an Argentinian when a World Cup is on the line.”

Make that the last 4 games

England choosing to defend the box for 30 minutes was a risky choice. Who do they think they are, Cape Verde?

Argentina this whole tournament

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Quick look at England getting ready to come out of the locker room for the 2nd half

Me for the last 3 Argentina games… “Well, I'd like to see ol Leo Messi wriggle his way out of THIS jam! *Messi wriggles his way out of the jam easily*. Ah! Well. Nevertheless” So no prediction today. Feels like England should win, but who knows. Surely Argentina have to get tired eventually. Right?

Zlatan: Where they going Thierry? Henry: Calais. That dirty ass water. We’re not even gonna send them to Marseille.

2-0 L'avance la plus dangereuse

Feels weird to root for France, but I’m listening to Requin Chagrin and smoking a Gauloise to get in the right head space. Thinking Bastille Day thoughts.

My MIL is posting Erling Haaland Facebook memes and articles about his extensive Hermes bag collection in the family group chat. I have never been more serious when I say soccer has made it in America.

Another killing by ICE, this time in Maine. That’s twice in one week. How can America keep asking immigrant workers to work as usual if they are being shot dead on their way to work? Stop killing us.

Kavanaugh stop: Man on his way to work saw ICE roadblock, turned around, they chased & shot him. Witness reports his last words were 'I tried to stop'. What will it take to occupy Susan Collins' office urging her to resign? She supported this.

Me seeing that Mike Flanagan is remaking yet another landmark horror title with his “what if the real monster was inter generational trauma all along?” deal…

Have you made a plan for when it happens? Have you designated someone in a different time zone to call if it happens in the middle of the night? Have you googled “bars open late near me?” Have a bottle of bubbly in the fridge? If you stay ready you don’t have to get ready.

Huh

Talk to your doctor to see if your heart is healthy enough for Argentina soccer games.

Do we think FOX has done any market research on its assumption that all of America is cheering for England? Every World Cup they take it for granted that we’re all living and dying for the three lions when that is very much not the case. It’s the only other country they do this for, it’s odd.

It’s Oscar Bobb time

Me for 30 years: “no, we don’t need our best athletes to play soccer. Lebron would not make the US team. That’s not how it works buddy, but it’s cute you think so.” Erling Haaland (6’4” 204lbs) after he blasts yet another ball into the goal at a thousand miles per hour:

The Sheep Detectives was fun and the solution is a definite improvement on the book’s. I did miss a clue that I’d chalked up to Netflix style cheap/lazy production values but No! it was intentional.

VAR is doing to refs what AI does to anyone who cedes their critical thinking and decisions to a chat bot. It’s making them worse at their jobs. Refs seem hesitant or unable to make calls in real time trusting that VAR will fix it if necessary. Which means we’re spending more time relying on VAR

In the 90s the Eurosport soccer catalog was my holy grail, to see the latest shoes, jerseys etc. I remember at the back of each issue they’d have some Alexi albums for sale next to the “Soccer Players Do It For 90 Minutes” shirts. Seemed deeply uncool to me even back then.

Trish was sitting on the couch with her coffee on her phone and started making sad concerned sounds like when she’s reading some awful news story. I asked her what’s wrong. She said “I still can’t believe they called back that Egypt goal, it was so beautiful.” I think we have a new soccer fan.

To quote Olympia Dukakis in Moonstruck…

Beyond the many obvious reasons we’ve all been watching on Telemundo, they also have Andrés Cantor an all time great. If you can listen to Vin Scully call a World Series game, you don’t pick the other channel. Same for Cantor.

To paraphrase my good buddy Gianni Infantino, Today I feel Colombian 🇨🇴

This was obvious from the beginning. Again, the best case scenario for Platner was that he completely lacks in judgment. That’s better than being a Nazi but not an endorsement for a senator.

Ok, after a long walk I’m less annoyed. 1) while this USMNT has improved, I think they were flattered by favorable game states and 2 own goals. 2) Poch’s refusal to worry about rest defense was inevitably gonna kill us against a decent team. 3) That’s the worst loss since 2010 Ghana at least

Balo was put in an extremely difficult position and I hope he’ll continue to support from US Soccer cause this might just be starting for him. But this is such mature thing to do. Hope he moves past all this soon.

You just know the Reyna family group chat is popping off right now

I predict the USMNT is gonna do a speed run this summer of US men’s hockey’s squandering of excitement and goodwill. Trump and co. will be all over the World Cup games and no one on the team is gonna stand up to the them. It’s gonna feel real gross.