It's World Cup final day and, as per usual, England aren't there. When one thinks of the great footballing nations - Brazil, Italy, Federal Republic of Germany - these are teams who regularly get to semi-finals and finals. Now, France has gone one better than us as well on the pitch; after a fourth-place finish and winning it at home, they've got to another World Cup final and might even win it. Fair enough we abstained the first three World Cups because we believed ourselves to be indomitable, but it puts England's World Cup achievements in perspective that a defunct country (Czechoslovakia) has got to more World Cup finals than England (albeit finishing runner-up on both occasions).
One of those great nations was in action last night for the 3rd place (they get bronze medals and all that). Germany vs Portugal in the first half was genial on the cusp of congealing, but in the 2nd half it was goals, goals, goals (and goals). It would be interesting to see what would happen if Cristiano Ronaldo was shot, since as it would be legitimate to go down he might stay on his feet. Brazilian Ronaldo had more class, if less well scuplted. However, 'The Blob' (gobbling up world records as people run screaming in horror) was stopped by Steve 'Zizou' McQueen. It should be great for Zidane to light up the world stage one last time.
On another note, hooray for Federer adding a fourth Wimbledon to his career. The man is such a gentleman and oozes class.
Finally, the BBC have got a new drama-comedy called 'Sorted' about the ins and outs of a Post Office. As I have actually worked in a post sorting office before, it will be interesting to see how closely it sticks to reality. But if they wanted action they should have covered the US postal system, where the term to 'go postal' has entered US language as to go nuts and mow down your colleagues in an orgy of violence. The opening scene of the Naked Gun 33 and 1/3 has the cops trying to get the gangsters and save the baby, but various figures are in the way - "Don't shoot, it's the president," "don't shoot, it's the pope," "don't shoot, it's striking postal workers," as the latter charge with mailbags slung back and sawn off shotguns to the fore (the union will defend them). So the BBC missed a trick, I feel.