Sports: World Cup

• Lookalikes: Portugal's Maniche and Slade's Dave Hill. The Rainbow Connection thinks so too. (He also has Lavolpe-DeNiro.)
  
• And how about Portugal's Brazilian coach Scolari and Gene Hackman? (Lots of people agree with that one.)
  
• Sports-appropriate name: Sweden's Marcus Allbäck (both first and last names).
  
• Something that always makes me laugh: when one Spanish commentator says to another, "Si senor." There's just something about their formality that cracks me up.
  
• Also funny: the name of the section on FIFA's official site, VIPs Love Football. And what a collection of VIPs! Film composer Ennio Morricone, US Olympic swimmer Lenny Krayzelburg, Scorpions lead singer Klaus Meine, Tunisian singer-songwriter Lotfi Bouchnak, Czech model Tereza Maxova, Spike Lee, Japanese architect Arata Isozaki, and Mikhail Gorbachev.
  
• Excerpt from "The Simpsons" with a Portugal-Mexico match. Riot ensues.
  
• In World Cup warm-up, Colombia's goalkeeper scores against Poland.
  

Feeble Attempt At Humour

Some comedy gold for my friend Chris. Feel free to try these nuggets out at Picchi Pacchi's Open Mic Night.

• What do you call a Dallas Maverick with a faucet on the side of his head? Erick Damp Ear
  
• Which Dallas Maverick gets people out of the way of a Honda Odyssey? Keith Van Horn
  
• Which Dallas Maverick has the most birds? Aviary Johnson
  
• Which Dallas Maverick has the least witzki? Dirk No-witzki
  
• What did the newspapers call it when the Mavericks' owner lost his Bible? The Cuban Missal Crisis
  
• What do they call IHOP in Germany? Jerry Stackhaus
  

Thank you. I'll be here all week - unlike the Mavs.

TV News: Slip-Ups

As seen on VH1's "Web Junk 2.0", the anchorwoman who miscategorised a blind mountaineer.

Lookalikes: Keanu Reeves

Did anyone else see Keanu Reeves on the cover of Parade magazine ("printed on the highest quality news-tissue") and think, "Hey, has Al Gore had some work done?"

Sports: World Cup

• Best football-appropriate name of the tournament so far: Iran's Yahya Golmohammadi. I'd love to hear what Andres Cantor could do with that name if he scored.
  
• Runner-up: Mexico's O. Bravo. I was disappointed to learn that the "O" stood for Omar, and not Oscar.
  
• Driven away by Tommy Smyth and US commentators who feel compelled to use other sports to explain the game, I've been watching Univision. I haven't a clue what they're saying, apart from "esquina", "falta" and "futbolística!". There's a helpful glossary here.
  
• In ABC's studio this morning, Alexi Lalas reassured us that the US team were watching TV in their hotel and "they know that the World Cup has started".
  
• Mexico's coach, Ricardo Lavolpe, works on his De Niro impression.
  
• Peter Crouch is a gangly freak who makes Dirk Nowitzki look graceful. As the unofficial World Cup song says, "Peter Crouch has/run like a spaz". (Thanks to Mark for the link.)
  
• Ugly footballers with beautiful wives.
  

Games: Flash

A whole bunch of cutesy Flash games. The game play isn't that great, but they're awfully well-designed.

Lyrics Quiz: Mystery Theme

Lyrics quiz from Eric - whatever can the theme be?

1. I watched the world float to the dark side of the moon.
   
2. Woke up this morning, what did I see? A big black cloud hanging over me. I switched on the radio and nearly dropped dead. The news was so bad that I fell out of bed.
   
3. I can't stand to fly, I'm not that naive.
   

With the help of Google, I can add these to the theme:

1. You don’t really love that guy you make it with, now do you? I know you don’t love that guy 'cause I can see right through you.
   
2. Hello? This is your Mother. Are you there? Are you coming home? Hello? Is anybody home?
   
3. I'll tell you right now. Any trick in the book now, baby, all that I can find. Everybody's hustlin' just to have a little scene.
   
4. I can't hold you down if you want to fly. Can't you see I'm all broke up inside?
   Well, just you use your two X Ray eyes.
   

Sports: Football

Oh look! Those bright young things over at Enterpool have launched a World Cup pool. Free to register, free to play. But shurely shome mishtake - they don't have Ireland among the 32 teams!