Re: [OT] Completely off-topic and useless celebrating re: World Cup

On Thu, 20 Jun 2002 09:01:35 -0700 (PDT), John Atkinson
<johnmatkinson@yahoo.com> wrote:

>Always known about it, just didn't know we were better
>at it than most of the planet.

*LOL* That's _one_ way to interpret getting into the round of 8... 

>Kicking a half-rotted pig's head between two medieval
>villiages doesn't really count.

The Chinese drew up rules of one game, called "tsu chu", circa 2500 BC.
They
used leather balls no later than 50 BC. The Romans exported "harpastum"
to
ancient Britain. Soccer was banned by Royalty in Britain under various
medieval monarchs, finally given official sanction in 1681. Some form of
soccer was played by settlers of Virginia in 1608. The first recorded
set of
written modern soccer rules, though, goes back to Eton college in 1815.

>Bloodsports require body armor.  Not my fall y'all
>aren't crazy enough to play those.

Do shin guards count?

The "blood sport" in soccer has to do with the fans. That's where the
real
mayhem begins. Like the Korean guy who set himself on fire... he wanted
to be
the 12th "ghost player" for his team. And then there are the soccer fans
that
rioted in Moscow when Russia was bounced out of the first round.

>Hey, if you were getting that kind of weight up to
>that kind of speeds, you'd need a break every now and
>then too.

I remember 

Allan Goodall		       agoodall@hyperbear.com
http://www.hyperbear.com

"At long last, the earthy soil of the typical, 
unimaginable mortician was revealed!" 
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