Vuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

SPORTING GOODS

Following up on DarLucky's post of a few days ago, I see that

Tottenham Hotspur banned vuvuzela horns from its soccer stadium, becoming the first English Premier League club to outlaw the plastic instruments heard droning throughout the World Cup in South Africa.

The reason, of course, is that

“We are concerned that the presence of the instruments within the stadium pose unnecessary risks to public safety and could impact on the ability of all supporters to hear any emergency safety announcements,” the London club said yesterday in a statement on its website.

Ah yes. "Public safety." Times sure have changed since 9/11, haven't they? Now all a corporate or public entity has to do is play the security card and the cravens will fall right into line.

Needless to say, at least on this side of the Atlantic, practices in the name of "security" curtailed civil rights unlike anything the republic had ever seen.

And things certainly aren't getting any better.

Vuvuzela Report

SPORTING GOODS

The most common question I've been asked since returning home from South Africa and the World Cup has been, "So how annoying were the vuvuzelas?"

And my answer is: not really, actually. It would be nice if they don't find their way to any other countries, certainly. And yes I agree they are absolutely awful on television. But in person, they aren't nearly as bad as expected. I think it's something with how the microphones pick up the sound.

The stadium is a constant buzz, but it doesn't sound like being surrounded by a swarm of angry bees like you might think. And there were times when certain patterns started to emerge that were kind of fun.

Watching the few short videos we took of the game we attended, I was amazed at how loud and constant the vuvuzelas were, because we didn't remember it being like that. So I blame the microphones, not the little plastic horns themselves.

Plus, they are really kind of fun to blow for just about any reason: great play, a goal, terrible ref decision, bad pass, nothing else happening. So I'll admit it...we bought one after the game we went to, for future "hooting" in the bars and streets of Capetown. And we picked up a couple more to bring home just for good measure. Which is nothing compared to the dozen plus I saw hanging out of some people's carry-on luggage.