Yes, the USA is through to the last eight of the World Cup, despite, our news people are telling us, nobody in the USA giving a damn. But of course that’s the reason. Why did those wretched Irishmen miss all those penalties yesterday? Because the Irelandosphere in its entirety was watching in agony, and the poor fellows knew it. If you’re a Mexican with a chance of scoring, all those millions of Mexicans, brothers and cousins and uncles among them, clustered round their TV sets, howling and gasping like wounded animals, flash through your mind at the critical moment and your legs turn to seaweed. In contrast, when a US player gets a shot at goal, it’s between him and few dozen other Ivy League type blokes, none of whom are that bothered, so in it goes. USA 2 Mexico 0.
Nevertheless, my favourite US drama today is the lady forest ranger who confessed that, in the course of burning a letter from her estranged husband, she had also set fire to the entire state of Colorado. Why did she confess? Easy. This is the ultimate in saying: “Look what you made me do!” Hell hath no fury, and so on. But this does make we want to rethink female equality when it comes to owning or controlling thermonuclear weapons.
