FIFA has destroyed my chances of a PhD

The moment they announced 'Group B' I knew I was screwed. My supervisor, who is from Trinidad, has been banging on for weeks about how great it is that Trinidad & Tobago have finally qualified for the World Cup Finals. Nobody seriously expects them to get past the groups, but the fact that it's England that's going to knock them out does not bode well, especially as it will be about the same time as my qualifying exams.

I love the World Cup though. I couldn't give a toss about the football, but for four weeks every few years it becomes socially acceptable to be an obnoxious, jingoistic bigot. As Burt Reynolds would say, even Fastrousers will come back into fashion eventually.

American people don't really play sports that other countries do (except for Canada I suppose, if you can call that a country), so they don't really have this wonderful outlet for mindless xenophobia. That's probably why they're so keen on starting wars.