This day is call’d the feast of Crispian

Image from WikiCommons.

Today is indeed (or at least was, in the old calendar)^[1] the feast of Saints Crispin and Crispinian.  According to legend, they were on this day in A.D. 286 or 287 martyred under Diocletian and his co-emperor, Maximianus near Soissons in modern-day France.  But this day in the English-speaking world shall always “be in our flowing cups freshly remember’d,” for on Crispin Crispinian in 1415, King Henry V defeated the French at Agincourt and ushered in a brief renewal of his crown’s hold upon France.

Finalé, Whoa Oh Oh Oh!

In their most stress-inducing performance yet, the German national team nevertheless managed to squeak through by the skin of their teeth last night to defeat Turkey 3-2 in the semifinal of the Euro2008 Championship.It would seem I’ve taken up some of my father’s habits for the viewing of sporting events, namely, to stay on my feet during the most critical points of the game, often shaking my head at the smallest mistakes, my hands clenching and unclenching, lambasting “my” team for their amateur, so-obviously avoidable mistakes.Two principal factors, however, distinguish my viewing of the game from my father’s, namely, I’m often more vocal than he is in expressing my displeasure, and I voice my concerns in a mixture of two languages (much to the amusement of both the Americans and the Germans surrounding me in the basement of that particular church last night).

Germany Won, Austria Zero

It took twice as long as normal for the bus to get from the train station to my dorm last night, principally due to the streets and traffic circles full of football fans (yes, I will use the British term, simply because that's what it's called here: "Fußball"), their car horns blaring and bicycle bells ringing. (It was quite a sight especially to see the packs of bicycles, decked out to the nines in their red, yellow, and black).

We're going to the WORLD SERIES!!!!!

I must take this time out of my routine here in Germany to do a happy dance, smile like I'm drunk, and proclaim, "THE COLORADO ROCKIES ARE GOING TO THE WORLD SERIES!!!!"

Since I tend not to be at my most eloquent or intelligent when speaking about sports, I will let espn.com's Jayson Stark say it for me:

"Clearly, they had to believe, or they couldn't have done this, right? Couldn't have become the fifth team in the last 70 years to go 21-1 in any stretch of any season. Couldn't have become the first team to do that in the middle of one of these mad charges to, and through, October. Couldn't have become the second team in history (along with just the 1976 Big Red Machine) to sweep its first two postseason series in any given October. Couldn't have become the fifth team of all time to make it from last place one year to the World Series the next. Couldn't have become the sixth team in history to fall nine games under .500 and still climb out of that canyon to make it to the World Series. And, finally, couldn't have become the first team ever to find itself two games out of a playoff spot with two games to play and somehow survive to scramble into the World Series. That didn't really happen. Did it? That wasn't really possible. Was it?"

So to all of my friends in Boston (more likely) or Cleveland (less likely), I will not apologize for hoping that we demolish you next week. We haven't played Cleveland this year, but we did take 2 of 3 from the Red Sox in June, so....after the last month, anything's possible, right?

Ursus Papalis: Papal Bear instead of Papal Bull

While using Google Image Search yesterday to find a nice picture of Pope Benedict XVI for an article on him in the next issue of The Observer, I came across this wonderful item. Even I had to squeal, "How cute!"






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