Mean Gene

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That's where most folks who were out in Vegas are headed right now. Me, I'm back from the lake, sore from having my junked kicked a half-dozen times at the poker tables. And sore from tubing, especially after one particularly nasty spill.

Hope yinz had fun out there in Sin City. My Bloglines folder had about 800 items in it, and I just don't have the strength to go through it right now. I'm sure I'll be reading about lots of bad behavior that I missed out on.

Isabelle Mercier finished fifth in the $5K event. A valiant effort that should, nay, must be praised to the heavens! And Hellmuth finished second. If the glass isn't half-full, it's perhaps only a quarter empty. Does that make sense? I don't think so. I'm beat.

One last thing--what the fuck was Zinedine Zidane thinking when he went Rowdy Roddy Piper during the biggest sporting event in the world? Zidane is one of the few soccer players I actually admire, because he isn't the sort of guy who dives and pouts and all that crap. And of course he's a fabulous player. But what he did...short of grabbing a coconut and busting it upside Jimmy Snuka's head, what he did today was about the worst thing imaginable. He got himself thrown out when his team needed him for the penalties. And while I can kinda-sorta respect him for, well, the viciousness of the assault, the timing couldn't have been worse. If France had been ahead, or even behind, then maybe the Italian dude said something unforgivable and you put him on the ground. But with the game hanging in the balance...incomprehensible.

Sad that he nearly won the game for France with a snapping header that unfortunately went straight at Buffon. And then it was his head that got him thrown out of the game.

Right before it happened Zidane looked like he got fouled going up for a header and, after the ref yet again let play go on after he'd been whacked, Zindane lay there in what I thought was an obvious attempt to make a point to the ref and get himself a few moments rest. Yet Dave O'Brien and Marcello Balboa made his return to the pitch seem like the second coming of Willis Reed. All this garbage about how he was adding to his legend, remaning on the field...come on! The trainer turned his freeze ray on Zidane's shoulder (it looked like Zidane was more troubled by some spray that got in his eyes than his "injury") and there he was running around like nothing happened. But to the announcers it was like he was Ronnie Lott coming back into the game after having his finger amputated.

Seriously, what I would give to see Chris Chelios and Darius Kasperitis and Troy Polamalu play some soccer. They'd give you a reason to writhe around on the ground, believe you me.

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