While I've been playing Rush, I've been watching the World Cup matches.  I think I would enjoy it so much more if I didn't have to hear the constant droning of the vuvuzelas.  If you're not a soccer fan, it's basically a horn that sounds like a swarm of bees.  How dorky do you have to be blowing on that thing for nearly two hours?  It takes away from the ability to drink beer, eat food, talk to your buddies - you know, all the reasons to go to a game (aside from watching the game ldo).  I would turn off the volume, but I need to hear the commentary to figure out when someone scores (because I'm obviously looking at the poker tables most of the time).  Thank God for the US Open that starts today.


An excerpt from an article I read: "they ... found that the vuvuzela emits a noise at 127 decibels. This shockingly is louder than a drum, 122 decibels, and the ref’s whistle, 121.8 decibels. A 10 decibel increase in sound means that a 127 decibel noise is twice as loud as a 117 decibel sound."  What we need are a few soccer hooligans to make an example out of a few of these locals who blow those horns incessantly.  O wait...  maybe white guys beating up black guys wouldn't go over well in the land of Apartheid.  Scratch that.

I'm trying to figure out if there's a sporting tradition that annoys me more than those horns.  The Florida Seminole tomahawk chop and chanting is pretty annoying.  Rednecks mocking native Americans - great tradition.  Those really loud blow-up bats (I think they are called thunder sticks) are pretty dopey.  Can't think of anything else, so it must be the vuvuzelas.  And it's seriously causing me writer's block, so that's all for today.