if you don't know who the oranje are, you can skip this one.

I forgot all about Euro 2008. Gremlin and I went to the beer garden in Astoria on Saturday, in the hopes of sitting down and drinking something cold before we collapsed from heat exhaustion, only to find that Portugal was playing Turkey and there was no place to sit. There was barely any place to stand, either, which is why we ended up blocking a screen and getting booed by frat boys. (It was my first time getting booed; hopefully it was also the last.)

So, I forgot -- I won't blame the American media for this entirely, but only because ESPN appears to have fired Dave O'Brien, and this means that I might be able to watch a game or two without wanting to cut my ears off. They are even airing a handfull of games live and on basic cable! Which is nevertheless entirely unhelpful to me, because all the games are on the middle of the day. Being a soccer fan in America is really very sad and disheartening.

Anyway, this means that I had to go to Zum Schneider's last night to watch a replay of the Italy vs. Netherlands match. Italy is possibly my least favorite national team -- they are cheaters and divers and they wear their hair much, much too long -- and only begrudgingly will I conceed that their games are consistently fun to watch. The Netherlands is, on the other hand, possibly my favorite European team -- they are not too showy, or too weepy, or too famous, and their names are super fun to pronouce (Giovanni van Bronckhorst, anyone?) -- and even though they never win anything, I support them anyway, because they can do this. It was an excellent game.

And now, I must go -- Spain is trouncing Russia and Tom Lutz is live-blogging it for the Guardian, which means that it is too hilarious to ignore.