26 November

Watching a soccer world cup game. Professional soccer is amazingly boring. 99% of the game is players dribbling around going nowhere, with every tackle causing excruciating pain and appeals to the ref that look like the overacting in silent movies, when cameras made the big overblown acting of the stage that preceded film look ridiculous. Now the refs carry a can of white spray paint to mark where to place the ball for penalties, and to limit where defenders can stand. Everybody on the field earns more than the town they grew up in, and has a $500 haircut. The game might be improved by removing some of the positions, it’s dominated by defence. And automatic red cards for every fall which video replay shows to be an obvious fake penalty-milker.