Sunday Junk Pile: Squeegees, Blog Post Theft, and that Voodoo Hex

By: Laurie | February 15th, 2009

Some little tidbits which made me smile this week, but which weren’t quite enough for a whole post:

Squeegees. Yes, squeegees.

Photo by Jamie Sabau/Getty Images

Field maintenance crews, take note. This is how you get a soccer pitch ready for an important World Cup qualifier. With squeegees.

In this photo we have the hardy field maintenance folks in Columbus, getting ready for the US-Mexico game after a torrential downpour.

And the funniest part? It worked.

P.S. Is “squeegee” the best word in the English language or what? Well, okay, “squeegee” and “diphthong.” For best sentence, I’d probably go with, “France player scores a hat trick.” Except that this is a reality-based blog and I don’t think those words have never actually been uttered. At least not recently.

P.P.S. I wrote this post before Saturday, when these words were, in fact, uttered. I’m pretty sure I caused this, and that it relates to my similar talent for causing goals by not watching games. Anybody wanting to purchase my services, have your people contact my people. Thank you.

To Outer Mongolia, and back again

Every once in awhile, other blogs will swipe our stuff and repost it as their own.

I’m not talking here about other legit footy bloggers linking to our stuff with short excerpts. You guys we love. I’m talking about the folks who don’t care at all about footy and just flat-out lift our stuff in its entirety and plop it down on their sites as if they’d written it, hoping for the google search hits that should be ours. These guys we’re not so crazy about.

Usually these post thefts are verbatim. But not always. Here’s a paragraph-by-paragraph comparision of my post, from last week, about the voodoo dolls promotion, and what they reposted (in bolded italics.)

Remember last week when I was talking about the voodoo doll for Mexican fans to use on the US? I now have a photo. Remember terminal hebdomad when I was conversation most the voodoo doll for Mexican fans to ingest on the US? I today hit a photo.

Not precisely sure this is the same one. That one was a Radio Shack promo, this comes from the Mexican sport magazine Record. Not exactly trusty this is the aforementioned one. That digit was a Radio Shack promo, this comes from the Mexican climb entrepot Record.

I’m guessing it’s the same one, though. I’m also guessing that if you checked their shipping invoices, you might find that they came from Radio Shack headquarters. And that Radio Shack made them a really good deal. I’m guessing it’s the aforementioned one, though. I’m also guessing that if you patterned their transport invoices, you strength encounter that they came from Radio Shack headquarters. And that Radio Shack prefabricated them a really good deal.

I’m thinking somebody must’ve hacked into our site and gotten an early read of my last post about the joys of combining alcohol and Google Translate.

Hope it was fun, gents. And you’re done now, right?

Oh, and speaking of those voodoo dolls, if you’re not a US or Mexico fan, you may be wondering how that whole voodoo thing worked out.

Short answer: US 2-0 Mexico.

Longer answer: I didn’t see any odd or unexplained injuries among the US guys. On the other hand, Nery Castillo, (pictured) one of Mexico’s top goalscoring threats, was galloping down the field, alone, when he collapsed while clutching his hamstring. He had to be subbed off in the fifteenth minute.

Coincidence? You be the judge.

P.S. About the photo? Just a little test to see if our female readers are paying attention.

P.P.S. Chris’s comment about the photo: I’ll pay you a substantial amount of money to put a picture up of just his unibrow.