Alhaji Righteous De Ambitious: 06/01/2012

Saturday, June 30, 2012

World Cup 2010 Blog: “The Prognosticating Panda” plus 1 more

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 01:10 PM PDT

There are too many to count at this point, and their scoreboards are surely dismal, particularly when compared to Paul the ‘Pus. Lin Ping the panda wins the award for best psychic, if only because pandas are awesome.

They say she “chose Spain and Germany” but it certainly appears she heads to Spain and Italy first, no? It was simply too difficult to take the ball off the Italians.

Insert commentary on Andrea Pirlo here.

There’s No Place Like Italy

Posted: 29 Jun 2012 06:33 AM PDT

Fiat-new-500-front

While many Italians were fortunate enough to be off work for the Germany v Italy semifinal yesterday, others were slaving away at their jobs, unable to witness their country earn a spot in the final. Well, some of them, anyway.

Union leaders of metalworkers in Italy have called for a four-hour strike overlapping the Italy-Germany semifinal in the European Championship on Thursday, and Fiat’s crying foul.

The Italian automaker said in a statement that the choice of the timing leaves ”no doubt” that ”watching a football game was more important than going to work” for the union.

These people should receive medals.

Friday, June 29, 2012

World Cup 2010 Blog: “Cesc Reveals The Crazies” plus 2 more

Cesc Reveals The Crazies
Germany v Italy: The Media
The Posters Of Euro 2012

Cesc Reveals The Crazies

Posted: 28 Jun 2012 08:50 AM PDT

135899680JD00154_Portugal_v

His match-winning penalty yesterday was excellent, a true midfielder’s side-footed stroke off the post and in. The type of stuff Andrea Pirlo and Sergio Ramos…well, nevermind.

But his method of extracting the most magic from his chance at glory boils down to something which took Tom Hanks several months on a deserted island to succumb to: talking to a toy made by underpaid children in Southeast Asia.

“We had to make history,” he said.

“I had a funny feeling about the penalties and I was thinking about them this afternoon.

“They told me initially to take the second one but I said ‘no, give me the fifth’ as I had this premonition.

“When I stepped up to take the penalty I said to the ball that we had to make history and it shouldn’t let me down.

“I talked to the ball four years ago [when he scored the winning penalty against Italy] and it didn’t let me down.”

No word on whether or not he thinks the ball spoke back to him.

Germany v Italy: The Media

Posted: 28 Jun 2012 08:10 AM PDT

548200_451014838256262_680896629_n

Bild likes to be a shitstirrer, which is does simply by existing, running print, etc. Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s not funny…

Above is their take on the Italian formation for the ride home. (Also, until this morning, the predicted starting lineup, of course.) The fact that Antonio Cassano and Mario Balotelli are nearest the front of the plane, implying they might’ve been allowed pre-boarding for being small children, is just a happy coincidence.

[101gg]

Oh, and there’s this too – drama is always welcome, and these two dance well.

The Posters Of Euro 2012

Posted: 28 Jun 2012 07:07 AM PDT

Euro-2012-9

These are showing up a bit late in the game(s) – what with two remaining and all – but with a tournament featuring a gargantuan hog, some eye candy must be appreciated. These posters from David Watson, one for each team plus more, are wonderfully simple and wonderfully easy on the eye.

Euro-2012-8