It's raining in London. This is news only because of an amazing run of uncharacteristically spectacular weather.
Doesn't affect me. I just watched Brazil beat Australia, 75-71, and I'm waiting on US-France and, later, Russia-Great Britain. I'm here to watch three Wolves - Kevin Love, Alexey Schved and Andrei Kirilenko.
London is a great city, and one of my favorite aspects of this trip is the language. A few translations, with the British version first, followed by the American English translation:
1. Mind the gap/Watch your step
2. Rubbish/Trash
3. Spot of bother/annoyance
4. Thundys/Thunderstorms
5. Brolly/Umbrella
6. Black coffee/Espresso without milk or cream (Brewed coffee is not common here. The best coffee shops serve espresso drinks. A few have ``filtered coffee" listed at the bottom of choices, as an afterthought)
7. Loo/bathroom
8. Lorry/Truck
9. Az-Hume/assume
10. Tube/Subway
11. Good bits/Most attractive portions of the opposite sex
12. Pint/Serving of beer or ale
13. Porridge/oatmeal
In fact, I had porridge just before walking through the rain today, so I'm feeling very Bri'ish.
Also, the English love their adjectives. This is the home of the television series ``Absolutely Fabulous," after all.
You hear a lot of ``Brilliant," ``Fabulous", ``Re-Markable," ``Absolutely."
What's really cool is hearing a 3-year-old speaking like Sir John Gielgud. (Google him, youngsters.) This makes the tots sound very mature even when they're screaming for ice cream.
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Love the White Sox's approach on Francisco Liriano: Beat him up, reduce his trade value, scare off other suitors, then trade for him at a reduced price. Brilliant!
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Hearing that the Wolves were the only team willing to give Brandon Roy two years of guaranteed money. I love the addition of Roy to a team desperate for a quality shooting guard, but that's scary, that no other NBA team would give him a second year. Wolves fans have to hope this wasn't another example of David Kahn overreacting to the chance to be associated with a big NBA name.
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I'll be calling in to 1500espn this morning between basketball games, probably at 11:35 or so. Please follow me on Twitter at @Souhanstrib.