Day 20 – High Noon

The line was around the block at Irish House well before 9:00 a.m. and the city  a-buzz with the USA/Canada game scheduled for HIGH NOON. Tickets are $5000 each. While it would be thrilling to be in the stadium, perhaps make history and take a MAJOR risk on foreign soil if the USA wins - that amount of money is the equivalent of a month-long trip to Italy. Simple cost analysis: $2500 a hour (plus the expense of cowbells, flags and Tim Horton donuts) vs. $7 an hour (in a villa in Umbria during truffle and wild boar season). However, any savings to be had were immediately eaten up by the HALF PRICE sale at the team store. The athletes, friends, sponsors and families swarmed upon us like locusts and picked the shelves clean of everything from plastic logo-encrusted plates and  popcorn bowls to complete “you, too, can look like an athlete on the podium” outfits (with a  free racially insensitive bobble-head doll with every purchase). I don’t DARE mention to the Retail Demi-gods that the competitors in the Ancient Greek Games performed their athletic feats, not in Ralph Lauren apparel or Nike warm-up suits, but IN THE NUDE – and I imagine that the spectators somehow managed without  popcorn. More importantly, have you ever seen a classic marble statue with a head  that bobbles?

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