Citizens, I’m not often super patriotic, but this week I’m being openly German. In case anybody missed it, the most bizarre, unbelievable match of football ever happened on Tuesday, and while it wasn’t played in Europe, a certain European team completely destroyed Brazilian football.
Yes, it’s Germany’s 7-1 hammering of Brazil. Germans: Breaking little boys’ hearts since 2014. Let’s see if they can sail through the final on this wave of enthusiasm.
In much more sobering news, things are still happening in Ukraine. The city of Slavyansk has been taken back by government troops, but this is far from over.
In the UK, claims have surfaced about a cover-up of child abuse within the government. No. Just no!
Ikea (that Ikea) is facing claims of having financed the Romanian secret police during the communist era. Which is bad.
Italy is reporting record numbers of boat migrants arriving on their coasts. Last weekend alone, more than 2600 people were rescued. Italy is in discussions with the EU about how to deal with the influx. Meanwhile, Amnesty International has criticized the EU’s migrant policy.
The good people of Switzerland are looking for a new national anthem because the old one is kinda meh.
A new book looks at Chernobyl, 28 years later.
And finally, some of the world’s earliest erotic graffiti have been discovered in Greece. Turns out people have always enjoyed penis drawings.
Until next week!
6 replies on “News in Europe: A Good Day to Be German”
Dick doodles! It’s really very comforting to know that the more the world changes, the more it stays the same.
I thought it was 5 – 1! Now I almost regret not watching the Cup.
I don’t think anyone was really sure how many goals there were – we thought most of them were replays of earlier ones, but the counter kept going up. ;) Bizarre doesn’t begin to describe it. There were at lot of boring matches too, though.
Twitter was a fun palce to be during that match.
I wouldn’t like to be betting against Germany in the final, either.
Thank you for the link to the Greek graffiti! I love the grammer nerds all over the comments *nods wisely*
I suspect the speaker may be referring to the imperfect past tense, which exists alongside the preterite in Greek and many other European languages. It doesn´t, however, exist in English.
The imperfect can be translated in English as past continuous – “Nikasitimos was here mounting Timiona” (which still sounds like it refers to a single act in English) ; or with “used to” as “Nikasitimos used to mount Timiona here.” “Used to” still doesn´t quite convey the exact meaning, though, which would be best helped in English with a time reference – “”Nikasitimos mounted Timiona all summer long here”
Nobody told me being patriotic would shred your nerves to bits during football matches. Tuesday was fun, but I’m dreading the final.
ALL SUMMER LONG! Those guys knew how to have fun.
Who said grammar wasn’t interesting?! :)
I know the feeling… nearly had several heart attacks during this year’s Six Nations….