BOOM!

Pop quiz:

Here’s a little fast food…, er, I mean quick service quiz for you.  There has been a flurry of construction in our neck of the woods near the location of the anchor chain of Golden Corral.  I suppose build one and they will come, build another and they will still come.  Anyway, as bricks began to rise above ground, it started to look like a food outlet.  Today I took a little drive over there to get a closer look.  What is it?

Clue One:

See that aluminum canopy structure?  Remind you of anything?  Here’s the clincher for anybody who pays attention to the food scene (on the sleazy side)

Clue Two:

Although that arch of gold might make you guess something else, the real answer is revealed by the blank sign on the upper left.  You’re right it is a Sonic!  As I was thinking about this, I seem to remember a newspaper article that they were invading Southern Maryland, as the nearest one is currently up by Annapolis.  Oh joy.  A peek at the menu shows they are heavily into ice cream products, along with burgers and dogs, which I suppose is a nod to their drive through theme.  I got as far as looking at the burger offerings, and I think they are one for one with that other outfit that uses arches.  They do, however, offer a corn dog.  So one more franchise that has been vacant has been checked off…(and now you get the clever clue provided by the blogger in today's title)

Futbol

I have been enjoying watching the World Cup matches, and now I even know they are FIFA World Cup matches!  I am in general not a big fan of that sport, although I have nothing against it (but I will watch the NCAA matches).  I don’t normally follow the various leagues from Europe and so I am not cognizant of the players nor the teams with words like “united” attached to them.  I gather that the teams in the “cup”, are put together from various sources, I think I heard that one national team was composed of players from twenty three teams.

Anyway, one has to marvel at the skill level of these players.  What little soccer I have seen at a local level is (understandably) mostly kick it and go get it.  Watching these elite players (like Brazil’s Neymar) control the ball while running at full speed, putting passes right on the foot of another flying player is indeed impressive. Their "stick handling" is amazing. Taking a ball from mid air and having it drop at their feet softly is great.   If you didn’t see the USA Ghana match (late breaking: or the Mexico Brazil one) you really missed something.

Another big plus for me is that MFO’s brother is a rather accomplished soccer referee.  He has been helping me understand terms like “caps”, “own goal”, “clean sheet” and so forth. 

But after all that, aside from the action on the “pitch” with one “side” competing with the other, what I am really enjoying is the overall grandiose pageantry of the event.  It’s almost like three super bowls a day.  The fans in the stands are just great.  They are dressed in elaborate costumes on the level with Mardi Gras, women have makeup suitable for a formal ball,  some have instruments from their culture and all are having a really, REALLY good time.  It only happens every four years… enjoy it!  

A couple of random observations:

1. I don’t think those neon shoes do much for them.  Kind of give them the Donald Duck look
2. I note the referee has a little can of spray paint or something that allows him to draw a little circle for free kick ball placement or a line where the players are to line up for same.  Prevents that inching forward, ref pushing back, inching forward dance.
3. I know this is trite, and always the cliché, but I have to say it:   Why do they have to fall down and roll around in mortal agony when it looks like they are barely touched?  I know, trying to elicit a yellow card on the opponent, but geez.  Maybe if my legs were worth about twenty million each I would fall down too…

Blogs without words

Images of cheese can stand on their own without some wannabe food writer waxing (get it?) eloquent about the nuances of them  They are so varied in shape, texture, color, that they are nice to look at (let alone eat). So I thought you would enjoy them.  In answer to a few queries, they are a compendium of pictures from of our journeys in France, England, Scotland, Ireland, and even the USA.  Just for fun, I googled “how many cheeses are there?”  One answer that came up was over four hundred in France alone, and over nine hundred in the world.  But the one I liked the best was “not enough”.  I have a long way to go..

DFD