BobHarris.com - World Cup prediction

Books! Actual books!

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-- The Wall Street Journal

"Pulls you in like a good sports story"

-- The New York Times Book Review

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-- New York Newsday

"A surprisingly touching memoir"

-- Entertainment Weekly

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-- Associated Press

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-- Joss Whedon, creator, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

"I haven't seen Jeopardy! since I was a kid, and yet I was charmed and amused by Bob Harris's fascinating and surprisingly suspenseful book. Through sheer force of personality, he takes this brainy TV show and makes it funny and easy to relate to."

-- Ira Glass, creator and host, This American Life

"A surprisingly intimate, entertaining book."

-- Orson Scott Card, 4-time Hugo Award winner, author of Ender's Game

"Funny, enlightening -- and just might help you win a million bucks on Jeopardy!"

-- A. J. Jacobs, author of The Know-It-All

"A masterful job of describing the feel of Jeopardy! in the heat of battle... I knew Bob was a great guy and a fantastic Jeopardy! player. Now I've found that he's also a wonderful writer. I think I'm starting to hate him."

-- Brad Rutter, top money-winner in Jeopardy! history

Books I'm Getting

Who Hates Whom:
Well-Armed Fanatics, Intractable Conflicts,
and Various Things Blowing Up —
A Woefully Incomplete Guide™

“Revelatory... Harris's sly wit and infectious curiosity make understanding world chaos fascinating... witty, horrific, and necessary.”

— Boston Globe

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— New York Observer

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— Ken Jennings, author of Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs

“Fascinating, enlightening, and surprisingly: NOT TOTALLY DEPRESSING. A gimlet-eyed look at the world we endure that’s also suitable for enjoying with a gimlet.”

— John Hodgman, author of The Areas of My Expertise
and correspondent for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

"All three [presidential] candidates should read all three of these [recommended] books, but McCain gets first crack at Bob Harris's "Who Hates Whom“... a lighthearted overview of the insurrections and civil wars in the world today."

— Steven Pinker, author of The Stuff of Thought, in the New York Times Book Review

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World Cup prediction

Tag it now -

Sunday, 11 June 2006

Brazil over Germany in the final, 3-0.

Just got back from Yearly Kos in Vegas, about to commence Germany v. Costa Rica and the rest on the TiVo. Oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy.

Will post much on what I saw an heard at the convention later on. Fascinating weekend. Cranked both my hope (about fellow Americans) and skepticism (about our politicians) up a notch at the same time.

But for now, I gotta go catch up with the rest of the world. Oh boy oh boy oh boy...

PS: Not that you asked or probably care, I'll generally be cheering for whichever country is the underdog in most matches, especially if they're also an economic underdog. This way, when you see Ecuador playing Poland, for example, you have two good reasons to root for Ecuador. (Who just won 2-0 on the TiVo. Hurray!)

So while my much-adored, sport-mad, heretofore soccer-poor Australia will be high on my list, I'll be hollering for Ghana and Ivory Coast and so on even more. (Slightly better soccer, much worse economies.)

Which means that I'll be cheering for Trinidad & Tobago hardest of all, by a considerable margin. Smallest nation ever to reach the World Cup, they have virtually no chance of winning even a single match, and yet the Soca Warriors, simply by their presence in this arena, are a source of national pride.

Besides which, Tobago is spectacular, as I believe I may have mentioned once or twice.

UPDATE! Sweden 0, T & T 0! Whoo-hoo! Sweden could have won 5-0 or worse, given the run of play. But they didn't. Ball after ball went zing! just past the T & T goal or was blocked at the last instant by the keeper, who was magnificent. The whole second half was less like football than watching a drunken knife-throwing act and rooting for the girl to survive.

I know to a lot of you, this is meaningless, but what I would give right now to be munching on a roti at Store Bay right now and just looking at the smiles on everyone's faces.

Seriously, if you're missing the World Cup, you are missing out.