Thursday, January 11, 2007

Football. S-O-C-C-E-R, Foot-ball!

So David Beckham is to become a missionary, of sorts, and attempt to convert the adult male population of the USA to the One True Faith of football (or soccer, as they will insist on calling it).

I can’t remember the last time we successfully imported a sport to America. I’m guessing it might be baseball, which we all know is as American as apple pie – though, as you might suspect along with me, apples were surely baked in pies before the Americans did so. Baseball was invented in England. The first recorded description dates from 1744, in an English book reprinted in America in 1762; (incidentally, it does not derive from Rounders – first reference in print 1828); and the game is listed with other sports in the novel Northanger Abbey (1796). [source: The Book of General Ignorance; p.116]

Anyway, all the best, David and Victoria. And good luck finding a decent cup of tea…


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