I didn't see it, but during game 6 of the 1986 World Series I was walking home from the movies with a friend. Listening to everyone in Manhattan gasp simultaneously at every hit and every out, and then lean out the windows and cheer when we won, was pretty cool.
I saw the game when Randy Moss established himself by destroying the Green Bay Packers. They had their two top guys on him, and he humiliated them several times. It was a reminder that when the Bell Curve thins out on the high side, that there can be one individual all by himself at the end of the curve. (Michael Jordan was another example).
That wasn't a great game, but I think that Moss is the greatest receiver ever. Even though he's sort of a shit.
Against the Portland Trailblazers, Jordan put away one game by making 6 out of 7 threes (or thereabouts). And threes were not normally part of his game at all. He couldn't believe it himself.
I think it was six in the first half.
Moss is wicked talented, but the best ever? Hmmm.
I did see it, but thanks to the incomparable glory of games four through seven of the 2004 ALCS, Bill and Mookie's Excrescent Adventure no longer qualifies as my candidate for "most memorable".
Runners up: a 39-year-old Jimmy Connors winning the 1991 US Open quarterfinal; and Paul Wylie's flawless figure-skating performance in the 1992 Olympics. And they gave him the silver, the cretins!
Hey, Bridgeplate, you realize we're not all actually gay, right?
Thanks to NBC's "plausibly live" coverage of the 1996 Olympics, I don't even know if Michael Johnson's 200 qualifies for me (I was on the west coast, and things were still being delayed for our "benefit.")
Anyway, didn't Boitano win the gold in '92 because he did the quad?
Boitano won the gold in '88.
This doesn't make my top 10, but Candeloro's (?) godfather routine was pretty memorable.
Boitano won the gold in '88.
Ok, then I don't think I saw Wylie in '92.
I think '88 was Brian vs. Brian, with the other Brian being Brian Orson (spelling?) of Canada, who silvered.
And who can forget the nordic skiiing prowess of Gunde Svahn? Gunde Svan 4EVA.
Ok, then I don't think I saw Wylie in '92.
I get it, you did catch teh gay once, but you got better.
So, on the one hand, conversant with Jethro Tull. On the other, conversant with figure skating.
Wylie got the silver in 1992, with a flawless performance.
Boitano did not have a quad, but he did win in 1988.
Brian Orser I think is the Canadian that took the silver.
And while we're adding figure skating, Sarah Hughes's comeback in 2002.
Kerri Strug's one footed vault landing in 1996.
Notre Dame-Air Force, 2000, where ND won, in overtime, by blocking an AFA field goal attempt.
I get it, you did catch teh gay once, but you got better.
I know there aren't a lot of soccer fans around here, but Manchester United's win over Bayern Munich in the 1999 Champions League final is near the top of the memorable list for me, not least because I happened to be in Barcelona at the time (though I didn't have tickets). If United hadn't won, there would have been riots.
Never seen a memorable sports moment.
That I remember. This is subjective, after all.
(We're not allowed to include the Fischer-Spassky match, are we?; not that I can recall details of the games, rather than ancillary matters.)
Oh, and I assume the most remembered events of the Munich Olympics also don't count.
But I'm happy y'all are happy.
But Aaron Haspel is ragging you, which is why I'm posting this. (You can ignore him, if you like; he didn't exactly make a post welcoming of further discussion.)
As far as I know, Moss's stats are better than anyone's at this stage, and he's not even trying.
The Tonya Harding Olympics was one of the most watched sports events of all time -- early reality TV. (#6 one-off event according to answers.com)
Tonya was the most athletic female skater up to that point. She went weird because she knew she was losing events because she didn't have the fairy-princess look down. Whoever won the gold that year had an uncalled error which wasn't counted against her. She really had the bigeyed orphan look down, though. They locked her in a closet with crusts of bread when she wasn't skating.
Yeah, along with everything else, I'm a Tonya fan.
Oksana Baiul's gold-medal performance that night was completely mesmerizing—very worthy of a top-ten list, though for whatever reason it doesn't quite feel right to grant figure-skating consideration for this one.
I'm so ashamed of this thread.
What about Theisman's broken leg? Anyone for "awesome!" Tyson's 91 second knockout of Spinks? Singletary flying over the line of scrimmage in the Tampa game? Throw me a bone, people.
John, I think I'm going to regret this, but figure skating is also a sport of gracefulness.
Kordell Stewart's Hail Mary against Michigan in 1996? But I went to the Univ. of Colorado so I may be biased. Becoming a Violet (shout out LB and WD!) was a disappointment.
Wow. There were a lot of them. Jordan's 63 point game. Jordan hitting The Shot. Sampras winning a match, sobbing, after his coach was rushed to the hospital (died?) from cancer. Laettner beating Kentucky. Lewis winning a gold medal in his last Olympics in the long jump after DQ'ing his first two tries. FloJo destroying the '84 Olympics.
But the greatest thing I ever saw was Ben Johnson winning the '88 100 meter dash in world record time. And here's why it is even better than Michael Johnson's feat: he turned his head to see Lewis and raised his arms before he crossed the finish line. He hated Carl Lewis so much (it was etched on his face) that he gave up a better record to see the moment of his nemesis's defeat. I've never seen anything that pure, even if it was triumphant hate.
Watch your knees, guys.
I think that what Baiul did without penalty was steady herself against the wall, or perhaps brush just it.
Regardless of anything, I think that that was the weirdest sports event ever. Tonya also broke a shoelace at a key moment. It was like it was scripted by an unfunny black humorist.
Ben Johnson winning the '88 100 meter dash in world record time
I think you and I have discussed this before, but aren't you bothered by the fact that Johnson's time was thrown out because he was on steroids? (And that maybe even his hate was 'roid fueled?) (Of course, we didn't know this at the time we were watching the race....)
Hey, a whole bunch of people are saying that Federer is the greatest of all time. People like Boris Becker and John MacEnroe. I don't care, but shouldn't you guys be talking about it?
Tonya also broke a shoelace at a key moment.
Now that was a sweet moment.
I haven't watched a men's tennis match in about ten years.
Don't like guys with slender legs, eh? Rugby, maybe?
John, here's a word I just learned: you sir, are a kochleffl.
A long wooden spoon. Someone who stirs things up. A busybody. Troublemaker.
"The only way to control a kochleffl is by getting out of town as fast as possible or by taking up a collection to get her out of town."
http://members.tripod.com/talk_jewish/id19.htm
I have a paypal account for those wanting to bribe me to shut up.
That looks more like a phrase, oggedeleh.
Being in London, in a crowded pub, all eyes glued to the set, as England beat Argentina in the 2002 World Cup. The place EXPLODED. It was amazing. The most intense group moment I've ever had.
More personally, watching Boris Becker win Wimbledon in 1985. I was watching on TV and sort of crawled close to the set to follow him. He was exciting to watch because he dived for every single damn point, and because he'd come out of nowhere, and was only 17, and was so powerful he was like a force of nature. I can still picture his watch glinting in the sun as he raised his arm for the serve.
You know, maybe y'all will like this guy:
Or who knows, maybe you all hate him already and are insulted that I think you might like him.
Well, SB already took mine ('04 ALCS), though I might be more specific and say that the single greatest moment for me was Dave Roberts stealing second in the bottom of the ninth of Game 4, when everyone and his brother knew he was going. And he made it by a few inches, which is the kind of play that would normally have gone against the Sox, either through Umpirical incompetence or just plain bad luck. After that play, I knew they had a chance, even though winning that game only pulled them to within 3-1. Also, Ortiz winning the next night's game in the bottom of the 14th was up there for memorability (along with Wakefield tossing knuckleballs to a seemingly stonehanded Jason Varitek with a man on third the inning before).
As for non-Red Sox moments, I'd say Luis Gonzalez' game-winning single in Game 7 of the '01 Series was memorable if for no other reason than that it was so great to see the Yankees finally suffer a Soxian defeat.
Outside of baseball, the memory of Trajan Langdon turning the ball over twice in the final seconds of the '99 NCAA championship game against UConn sticks in my mind mainly because I would've won my pool if Duke had won like they were effing supposed to.
Throw me a bone, people.
If you're looking for injuries: I watched (on tv) the Michael Johnson - Donovan Bailey 150m flop when Johnson got hurt. I also was in Sacramento in 2000 when both Johnson and Maurice Greene got hurt in the 200. More inspiring would be the Kirk Gibson home run in 1988.
I want to say I saw the game where Byron Leftwich played on a broken leg, but I might have just seen highlights.
I was just looking for something a little...manlier...than figure skating. (This all reminds me of the time Fontana got mad at me for making fun of male cheerleaders.)
I almost forgot:
I'm not sure if this was televised live, but it was certainly memorable, not to mention manly: in the 1996 Olympic Marathon trials, Bob Kempanien actually threw up on the road as he ran to victory. It gave new meaning to the phrases: "showed what he was made of", "intestinal fortitude", "gutsy performance", and "leaving it all on the track" (well, road, to be precise).
But did you seriously think, the way these comments go, that someone would not have brought up figure skating?
Oh, and Darvin Ham breaking a backboard during the NCAA tournament (Texas Tech-North Carolina in 1996, I think). I don't know why the NBA wouldn't put him in the dunk contest.
I didn't see figure skating coming at all. Should I have?
Ham was in the '97 dunk contest.
I must have missed the '97 contest. Or maybe I'm thinking of someone wondering why he wasn't invited to compete again.
I'm surprised by the amount of knowledge of figure skating in the thread, but not that a sport like figure skating would be mentioned here, not least because it sets up your comment 10.
It also reminds me of when I took a German class and we had this weird dynamic where many of us tried to come up with unusual or unexpected things to say. At one point we had an exercise where we were supposed to set a dialogue in a German-speaking locale and every group, predictably trying to be unpredictable, chose a place that was not in Germany: Austria, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Pennsylvania, some weird German-founded commune in South America.
Here, incidentally, is this morning's Iranian sports story.
The thing I don't like about golf are the hooligans it attracts. That, and the rioting and drinking.
#1, hands down, fucking Francisco Cabrera's pinch hit single to beat the Pirates in game 7 of the '92 NLCS. Aaaaaarrrrrrgggggh.
If listening on the radio counts, Mark Smith hitting a three-run pinch hit home run in the bottom of the 10th to seal a no-hitter for Cordova and Rincon. I tried to go to that game but it sold out. The day they retired Jackie Robinson's 42 at Three Rivers (I think the NAACP convention was in town).
Jim Harbaugh's Hail Mary hitting the ground to send the Steelers to the Super Bowl in '96.
Non-Pittsburgh, the Phillies-Blue Jays World Series: Mitch Williams losing it and trying to switch to a slide-step at the very end, and Dave Hollins failing to handle a bouncer up the third-base line that was I think the decisive hit in that crazy game (I think) four.
In person, Zane Smith one-hitting the Mets in '90--the hit was the leadoff batter in the first inning--and Barry Bonds singling over a drawn-in outfield for the 1-0 win in the bottom of the ninth.
I was at the sixth World Series games in 91. Puckett makes a great catch robbing the Braves of a homer in the third inning and then goes on to win the game with a homer in the 11th.
I saw that baby live. Whew. Too bad Puckett turned sour after baseball.
For TV - 76 Olympics, Shun Fujimito nailing his ring dismount with a broken kneecap getting a personal best of 9.7. Japan beats Russia for the team Gold.
Arg. I promise no more figure skating.
Oksana may or may not have brushed the boards, but she also threw an extra double jump last minute into her long program, which I think is what carried her past Kerrigan. Tonya did break a shoelace, but they did let her get a new shoelace and restart her program, and she wasn't anywhere near medal contention.
Matt, I remember that. I was listening to it on the radio. Arggggg indeed.
Okay. Last World Cup. I don't remember the teams. (I want to say South Korea/Japan) Game starts pretty typically; 8 seconds later one of the teams has scored. Fastest first goal ever in the World Cup. If you blinked you would have missed it.
I was at Three Rivers Stadium in 1987 to see Mike Schmidt's 500th home run. It brought the Phillies from behind to take the lead in the 9th inning, and so it cost the Pirates the game, and since I'm 12 I'm asking my dad why he got up and gave Mike F&*#ing Schmidt a standing ovation for beating the Bucs!
The most impressive athletic feat I've watched on live TV was probably last year's Alpe d'Huez time trial when Lance Armstrong started passing everyone that was anywhere near him in the overall standings.
The best performance in a game that I watched on TV recently was Ben Sheets striking out 18 against Atlanta last year. He's finally rounding into that kind of form this year, going 8-4-2-2-1-10 for the W last night.
Cala: that was Korea Republic-Turkey in the third place game in 2002. I even woke up early to watch it and missed that!
Jean Van de Velde's epic meltdown on the 18th of the '99 British open. I saw this on TV, and it was spectacular.
"Someone" would bring up figure skating. So I'm "someone" now?
You are someone; in fact, you're a someone. Nor could it be known in advance that it would be you who brought up figure skating. What's the problem?
Anyway, seeing as how it's no longer a holiday, I recommend that the sports talk cease.
Cool things I've seen in person:
Jason Giambi hitting a grand slam in the fourteenth inning after the Twins had scored three in the top of the fourteenth and the slow rain that had been hitting us all night was about to become a downpour. If you freeze frame that clip on sports center, you can find me.
Clemens' 300th win.
The end of a stage (third to last of last year I think, whichever one happened on Bastille Day) at the Tour de France. Actually, seeing this was pretty boring and probably a waste of a day, but I like noting that I did it.
One of the many times that Reggie Miller murdered the Knicks (Game 4 of the 1998 Eastern Conference Semis) where a three was needed to force overtime, if the Knicks had just defended the perimeter only and given up everything inside they would have won, and Reggie still hit the three.
I appreciate the Violets shout-out, but I think I saw more Violets games when I was living in St. Louis (3 or 4) then I have while living in New York (zero).
Cala,
8 seconds later one of the teams has scored. Fastest first goal ever in the World Cup. If you blinked you would have missed it.
Oh yeah. And then there were 89 minutes and 52 seconds of, ummm, nothing, right?
I don't remember the score offhand. But I've never understood the complaint that soccer is boring.
Sure, goals don't happen all that often, but it's not as if the only interesting times to watch are the goals. But the people who complain that it's boring will gladly sit through a pitcher's duel and rave about a 1-0 baseball score. They'll watch NASCAR which is only exciting really when someone crashes.
They'll watch golf.
b-wo, the correlation between sports talk and holidays is....?
Being a young curmudgeon, B-wo is opposed to both of them?
Cala, I know it's gauche to actually read the posts to which the comment threads are pendant, but if you do it just this once, you will be enlightened.
I plead innocent to the charge of watching golf and NASCAR. 1-0 pitcher's duels are exciting in part because they're exceptional. And usually the team that wins in fact is the one that played better. It seems that often I hear a soccer game summarized as "Team X played better but lost."
Soccer and hockey are games of forgetfulness--generally thirty seconds after a play it is as if it had never been. (Maybe soccer plays have a longer half-life.)
I will concede that in baseball, thirty seconds after a play they're just about getting ready for the next pitch.
What I don't get is all the baseball talk; I thought the discussion was restricted to "sport."
I don't think you can plead innocent.
Ah, but b-wo, holidays are for sports talk does not imply sports talk are not for non-holidays.
Yes it does, for the exception proves the rule.
But does not a rising tide lift all boats?
expressio unius exclusio alterius. Ogged explains it all.
SB: no, for not all boats are in the water.
The entire '86 NLCS. Except for one game where I had a final and kept track of it just by the sounds on the campus. By the time we got to the world series I was almost too emotionally exhausted to appreciate it.
1973 was huge for this stuff. Banner Day at Shea in '73, simply because I stepped out on the major league field. Staying up late to listen to radio of the Pirate-Mets series and being worried every time Richie Zisk came up. And of course, the Rose Harrelson fight. I still remember Pedro Borbon.
Willis Reed coming out onto the floor for warm ups.
The first playoff between the Giants and the Eagles. Lawrence Taylor, Wilbert Montgomery and I think Rob Carpenter of all people. And Giants-49ers on the way to the first Giant Superbowl.
Herb Brooks, Mark Pavelich and the Rangers against the Flyers in I think the '83 playoffs.
Reggie Miller kicking the Knicks' ass in that playoff game.
For me, the two that most stand out are:
1) Michael Johnson's victory in the 200. Part of it was, as Ogged says, the build-up, but I also think there is just something so astounding about someone being that much better than everyone else in a sport that has so few variables.
2) Allen Iverson scoring 48 on the Lakers in Game 1 of the 2001 Finals. This was great for a lot of reasons, but not least for the fact that after he scored the clinching basket he stepped _over_ his defender (the punk-ass, Tyrone Lue) and glared at him.
Also, I'm no Jordan hater, but the flu game always struck me as bogus, a more or less manufactured event. I mean, Sir Charles never played a game without a hangover, and you never saw him pretending to almost faint after hitting a three-pointer.
I can't find Llewellyn's list of canons and counter-canons online, and am too lack of sleep addled to figure out, off the top of my head, what the counter-canon for expressio unius is. Something about how the statute should be read as silent about those things which it doesn't mention, perhaps?
ben,
Yes. And some boats are under water.
But, Cala, you ask a good question which deserves a good answer.
Television.
Pesonally I don't watch NASCAR or golf but I can see why someone would watch them. They make good TV.
Soccer makes bad TV for the following reasons:
1. It is too spread out so a "long shot" shows ants rambling around a field.
2. You never know where the action will be so there can never be a close up.
3. Commercials. Where do you put them?
Baseball brings the action consistently back to the stationary pitcher and batter. Baseball takes predictable breaks between innings. I agree with Matt that the breaks between pitches so that the pitcher and batter can perform their silly little rituals every Single TIME get absurd, but they could be speeded up if baseball wanted them speeded up.
How could you speed up soccer?
The only time you should pay attention to someone named "Llewellyn" is when he has goat horns coming out of his forehead.
How could you speed up soccer?
Two balls on the field.
Calvin Trillin briefly discusses taureaux-football, which is exactly like ordinary soccer except that it is played in a bullring with a bull in it.
ben,
Oh yeah. How about burning balls? I bet that would speed things right up.
Or a shot clock. A one minute shot clock. And how hard would it be to put a barricade around the field so no ball goes out of bounds?
Or they could do that shootout thing at that start instead of the end and then forget the rest of the game.
Or if the goalies could use the Force.
Watching Iverson play is like watching a crappier version of Isiah Thomas play; still some great stuff, but not great enough to overcome the tarnishing of the original.
I don't think the issue is speed so much as it is how well a sport can be broken up into commercial-friendly pieces. Which is hardly the fault of the sport.
But TV's figured out how to do it with NASCAR -- you just cut away, and chances are no one will crash, and if they do, you just replay it, because chances are while you're replaying it no one will crash again. If you need to break it up in the meantime, you put cameras in the cars, and in the pits. I imagine that it's more that there's no real technical difficulty in filming soccer, but just not enough expected revenue to put in an effort.
It is kind of sad, though, at collegiate footballs games, in the middle of an intense contest, when... oops! Guy with the bright orange sticks TV signal sticks comes out for a TV timeout.
If they allow the Force for goalies then they need a trampoline near the goal and once a game a player can grab the ball and bounce into the goal holding the ball for a score.
Cala,
I don't think the issue is speed so much as it is how well a sport can be broken up into commercial-friendly pieces. Which is hardly the fault of the sport.
What? Of course it is the fault of the sport.
Modern football and baseball have little resemblance to how they started out. Soccer must adapt or die.
How many players on a team, ten or so? You'd need twenty cameras devoted to close ups of each player.
No, soccer needs to reduce the number of players or reduce the number of people who can handle the ball. Yeah, make it so the same guy gets the ball first. The rest of the guys can, ummm, block or something. They'd need pads, though. That could be good, though. The pads and helmets could hide the players ethnicity. Elongate the ball so it is more easily thrown and you've got something.
It occurs to me that not only is hockey unrepresented, but I saw a couple of significant things at hockey games:
1. I saw Mario Lemieux break the record for shorthanded goals in one NHL season (13!) in 1989.
2. I saw the UW Badgers come back from 3-0 down against 2-time defending national champion Minnesota to get a tie.
3. I saw the same UW Badgers come back from 3-0 down against #1 ranked North Dakota and win 4-3 in overtime on a goal by a non-white (!) freshman (!!) from Hollywood, CA (!!!) who made the winning shot from mid-air (!!!!) to complete a hat trick (!!!!!).
Tripp, and those nets for the goals? They get in the way of the cameras. So maybe they should put it up on a pole and short of stretch out the goal in a 'U' shape, if the players still need a goal to kick a ball in.
Get rid of the offside rule. Let each team have one or more players in fron of the opponent's goal at any times.
"Adapt or die"?
Soccer is fine except where people call it "soccer". It's not huritng in Europe, is it?
How improve soccer? Allow handling the ball, but forbid advancing it with your feet; then, make the pitch smaller, and maybe change the surface to hardwood. Instead of "goals," you might consider "baskets," probably about ten feet high. Some details would need to be worked out, but that's a good start.
Seriously, did anyone watch Olympic team handball? Awesome!
89: Of course, it's just fine in Europe and pretty much everywhere else. Which is why the idea of demanding soccer adapt for TV is absurd and futile.
Most memorable that I've seen live: Greg Luzinski (with the White Sox) stealing second.
On TV: John Valentin making an unassisted triple play. Men on 1st and 2nd, runners in motion. The batter popped up to short, and then he stepped on second and tagged the runner from first.
Luzinski stole a base? Who was catching, the oldest living confederate widow?
Basketball would be vastly improved with nine fewer players, on ice, in flamboyant costumes, before a panel of judges.
Rick Cerrone was catching. On the next play or so Luzinski ran home in a play at the plate. The ump called safe, and Cerrone turned around and must have said something really choice because he was tossed immediately. So all Comiskey started singing. The Billy Martin came out to argue and he got tossed. More singing. Later in the game LaRussa got tossed, and we all sang for that too!
Figure skating would be vastly improved with forty-two more players per team (there would be teams), on a five-sided playing field, and shepherd's crooks.
nine fewer players, on ice, in flamboyant costumes, before a panel of judges
To be played once a year, on a float traveling through San Francisco, in late June.
John,
I'm not sure I undestand. Where exactly is this "Europe" you are talking about and how does it matter?
And pad, are you a Madison alumni? My oldest sprog that I know about starts there next Fall. It is no U of Illinois, of course, but I hear it is pretty good.
Mo,
When Jim Bouton wrote "Ball Four" the magic word for getting tossed from a baseball game was "c*cksucker." I wonder if it still is?
It seems to me having a word like that saves a lot of time.
I saw Barry Bonds' 73rd homer in 2001. Well, I saw the ball float in the sky for a second. I took my surfboard into the bay on the last day of the season hoping to get the ball.
American soccer will never die, unless it is born first. Not likely.
Agreed, Tonya Harding had thick legs.
To be played once a year, on a float traveling through San Francisco, in late June
Don't be silly. The ice would melt, reducing the athlete in question to fits of graceless hopping.
Agreed, Tonya Harding had thick legs.
Strong, too. She could really squeeze. Still can, AFAIK.
What was that "sport" that had the gigantic ball that mobs would move around on a field, usually over their heads?
graceless hopping.
Reminds me of Grace Hopper, who's moth, being the first computer "bug," could have won me a Million bucks if I was on that Millionaire show when they asked that question.
Which reminds me of my all time great sports idea - dog races with little chimp jockeys. Apostropher would point out that I've mentioned this before, but he is out this week. Think about it. It would be great! Chimp falls off - you're disqualified.
You know what is a good game. Tag. I played this game with one of my kids at some random fourth of July celebration yesterday. Good clean paranoid fun.
Emphasize that your blob needs to communicate amongst all of its members!You call that "clean"?
Why do blockquote tags besquankle the line spacing?
Why, I cannot say. Hit enter a couple of times after the end of your closing blockquote tag.
You have an ornery comment thingy.
Soccer makes bad TV for the following reasons:
1. It is too spread out so a "long shot" shows ants rambling around a field.
2. You never know where the action will be so there can never be a close up.
3. Commercials. Where do you put them?
1 and 2. This is more a result of bad camerwork or not having enough cameras. Coverage of the field on European or American Spanish-language channels is usually much better, but the fact that you can't see everyone at once is certainly still a problem.
3. From what I've seen of western European television, they generally show all programming with fewer commercial breaks. When they broadcast American shows made for breaks every 10-15 minutes, they just skip some of the breaks; the places where the commercials would be end up being fade-outs/ins. But in between shows the commercial breaks last a long, long time. So soccer seems to fit with existing television practices quite well.
European . . . fewer commercial breaks.
This is starting to sound Socialist.
The most exciting part of soccer is the action around the goals, and the camera catches that well enough, thanks to the offsides rule. And a lot of the goals are scored in set pieces, corner kicks/penalties, the theatricality of which is framed pretty well by TV, I think.
What's missing for you is probably a sense of personality and history. Interesting commentators with clashing views and illustrious careers of their own are half the fun. Soccer is much more fun to watch in a place where these exist. I even get bored watching on American TV. I prefer to watch on Telemundo.
If I'm watching here I prefer Telemundo. I got interested in the first place watching on the BBC.
I just like the GOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLL dude.
This is starting to sound Socialist.
On the contrary, soccer is more ruthlessly capitalist than almost any American sport. Some teams with long histories have even been known to disappear for lack of funds.
I love that dude. I think I've mentioned him here before.
Though when I was in my teens I could get an Italian channel on my TV, and watched matches on that. I did it so often that I got to this zen place where I was convinced I could truly understand Italian.
I had an amusing with language immersion experience watching soccer on Telemundo. I have no Spanish beyond what they used to teach you on Sesame Street, but after a while, I just knew that "ahora" meant "now". They sure say it a lot.
Grammar? I hardly know her.
I totally know that Zen place, ac. I'm always so disappointed when the effect wears off.
I'm sure I was completely inventing my own narrative of what was happening, but it was so convincing.
Oh—did your "fluency" (shmuency?) endure beyond any single instance of listening to Italian speech? That's more than I can claim. My shmuency in Japanese, for example, never lingers much longer than the weirdo soap opera I'm watching. To take a hypothetical example. Maybe I'd be more shmuent if they didn't interrupt the programming with English-language gyoza commercials.
I could read Swedish shmuently after watching the second season of Twin Peaks with Swedish subtitles, sitting in my RA's dorm room next to party girl.
Oh, I think my schmuency endures. It's an extension of my Spanish schmuency, which gets regular infusions from reading the ads on the subway.
I love listening to Dutch, because Dutch vowels are so close to those of American English. It sounds like native English speakers reading an exploded Scrabble factory.
Dutch has that throaty "g" sound. Frightens me. I believe I've also been convinced that I understand Swedish. Interestingly, not Danish--that sounds very weird to me. But Swedish, that's a language I can fake appreciation of.
I recall that "talk to" can be rendered (in some combination of number, mood and voice) "prata om"--easy to remember because of similarity to "prate". There was another word, possibly for "advise", whose cognate in English is similarly negative in connotation.
Throaty G is dead, but his schmuency endures.
My favorite Swedish word is "ingenting", which is pretty close to "anything", but more dramatic somehow.
Why Swedish subtitles, Ben? Just for fun?
The second season hadn't been released on DVD yet (perhaps not on VHS either, or perhaps it was just that the cost of the VHS set would have been prohibitive), so the RA downloaded the episodes, and those were the episodes he got. They had been recorded from a Swedish TV broadcast.
The original version of Insomnia is in both Swedish and Norweigian, and the characters sometimes note the language differences, but I wasn't shmuent enough in either language to be able to tell the difference.
(And Norway is bilingual too, I hear.)
In some ways I regret not having burned a copy of Twin Peaks Season 2 while I had access to it, but I'm not really sure I would have watched it again. The version I found on my school's network was unsubtitled, which was a plus.
"Flumming" is another good Swedish word. It's "Swedish Jive" for what hippies do. Swedish hippies, anyway.
Do Swedish Catholics eat Swedish Fish on Fridays?
134- As I was watching Insomnia I formed the impression that Norwegian words were English words with a "k" at the end. And nothing has shaken this conviction since.
I'm really glad now that I posted 48. The interest was almost unbearable.
I've been having this experience more and more here in recent months.
I responded with a quiet smile. Do you really think it was respectful of the reporter to call the young women 'fit'?