BobbyWhioux

So has anyone been following the story of the Belgian girl who got picked out in crowd shots during games and got a L'oreal contract out of it? Yeah, well, never mind. Facebook Strikes Again

Also, given that dragons are "fire made flesh" as they're described in the series, and this is the song of ice AND fire, it stands to reason there's an "ice made flesh" to balance things out and said creature will eventually assert itself. That has to be The Others. I have to believe the others are Winter Personsified. Winter with a capital W. The Winter the Stark family motto is talking (and warning you) about all this time (and nobody listened because they were too busy killing the Starks off). So yes, the Winds Of Winter has to turn into or at least culminate with The Others administering NWO Beatdowns to all of Westeros without discrimination or quarter. And honestly, Westeros is so full of assholes I'll probably be cheering the heel beatdown as totally justified.

That's not all that's chopped off in ADWD, wink wink nudge nudge.

Not that I'm implying that you should spend the next six months rereading the books, but I think A Feast for Crows is the book you'd enjoy rereading the most. Once you realize who the new characters are, and stop being pissed off that they are in the book and your favorite characters aren't, it is really good. My job allows me to sit here with earbuds and listen to podcasts, music, and books on tape. I listened to the entire series, which is really well done by the way, and Feast for Crows was my favorite after listening to it. I hated it when I read it, but I really think it was based much more on the fact that it was so focused on people I didn't care about at the time. After Storm of Swords I wanted more than anything to know what happened to Tyrion, and I didn't get it. I got a book full of Cersei, who was the last person I wanted to get more of at the time. Now, I understand that Cersei is the character who you hate for what she did to Ned, Sansa, and Tyrion, and getting into her mind seems like it would be the worst way to spend a thousand pages. Once you realize she is a crazy person who can't help herself but to feel like the world is fighting against her, it gets really interesting. The thing that makes it a chore the first time through is that you don't realize she is a crazy person when the book starts. Until A Feast for Crows you can very easily think that she is a smart manipulator, because there are enough smart people around her that her ineptitude doesn't really shine through. Then all of a sudden Tywin is dead, Tyrion is on the run, Varys has disappeared, and Littlefinger is in the Eyrie, and she has all of the power, and slowly but surely you realize that this person who you hated but respected her G wasn't a G at all. She is insane and everything she does isn't just bad for the realm, but bad for everyone. It is bad for her, bad for Tommen, bad for Jaime, and especially bad for anyone who has hitched their wagon to the Lannister cause. She just turns everything that Robert, Tywin, Tyrion, and the rest of the small council built into a pile of steaming shit in no time at all, and the whole time she is cackling to herself like she is smarter than everyone. It is almost too subtle the first time through, but when you go back through it knowing where it ends up it reads a lot better. She's a quality heel promo, too. She's also slowly turning into everything she despised about Robert, which is tremendous fun to see on re-read.

So I guess historical significance demands that I preserve this one on the DVR for a while.

This World Cup does illustrate the paradox we often see with March Madness; it's most compelling at the beginning when there's games all day long every day, and it gets less exciting closer to the final. And boy has the knockout stage loved the "heel goes over clean after underdog face hopespot" finish, which just gets mean after a while.

It must be the Equal and Opposite Reaction to Neymar's stutter-step leadup also being legal. I guess as long as you're willing to look like the biggest tool ever when it backfires (which technically it did in this case; that's one of the three CR guys who put it in), it's kosher

And cue the cringeworthy "Krul The Conqueror" newspaper headline, somewhere.

Well, saved enough to make the difference anyway. Oh man I so want it to be stupidly trendy for managers to copycat the "change goalies for the PK shootout" gambit for the next couple years now.

I remember thinking -- and obviously my analysis and impression is far from expert -- back in 2010 in the game they were eliminated, that their attacks looked like Messi alone/Messi trying to make something happen by himself, and/or that the rest of the team was kinda waiting for him to get the offense started rather than starting it/help start it themselves, even though they're good players capable of providing the spark themselves. Without having consideration for tactics/roles (obviously SOMEBODY has to be The Playmaker) and whether my thought is actually valid I always tend to think of this whenever people get on Argentina for not being as awesome as they're expected/hoped to be. And conversely that early goal had me thinking "okay, they're not doing that this time. Team Play, rather than relying on trying to get away with Messi +10" Also their expectations are really really high too, like "Anything less than Championship = Failure" sorta stuff.

Good fucking riddance, June.

Robben apologizes for diving About an hour or two after game time. Dude's a natural heel.

Mexico in the round of 16 = Oakland A's in the LDS And given the local demographics and fan base overlap, that's just perversely funny.

So, since he's been a long-time avatar on this very board and is playing in this game... how exactly do you pronounce Dirk Kuyt's name?

That might be the best goal of the tournament so far. And that's no soft field of competition.

I almost want Uruguay to win now because they're all-in on the rudo style

Tell me more about this idyllic alternate universe

I'm pretty sure we've done this on previous iterations of the board because I'm sure my What If has been "what if Wayne isn't traded to the Kings?" but I can't seem to find that post here. So, re-submitting: What if Wayne Gretzky is never traded to the Kings? [More in the sense of the NHL as a whole, less the on-ice fortunes of the Oilers and Kings specifically]

The contrast between coaches Kovac and Herrera could not have been greater EDIT: speaking in terms of sideline disposition/personality. Not necessarily actual tactics/coaching

Coach Hererra gonna have a Jim Harbaughesqe meltdown on the sideline if Croatia go ahead

Croatia v Mexico looks like a grudge match. What you want in a mutual elimination game, really. They're desperate and nasty, getting in each others' faces and yelling at each other after tackles. Fun!

Cameroon get the equalizer. Yes you read that right.

As a wrestling message board we have to be happy for a guy named MEMPHIS getting a goal, right?

Memphis Depay from Arjen Robben, 2-0 NED