hooligan

Thomas has caught World Cup fever. Everything revolves around football (or soccer, or futbol) at the moment. He watches the highlights and knows far more than anyone else in the family about what's going on. Conversations tend to involve mostly reflection on past matches (especially England v Slovenia) or speculation about future matches. Today, for example, Thomas was pressing me to declare whether I would be supporting Japan or Denmark, and couldn't believe I didn't care. He insisted that I should support Denmark, which makes me especially glad we didn't let him stay up to watch them lose to Japan 3:1. During the second half of the England-Slovenia match, Thomas went completely to pieces because England weren't scoring.

Yesterday afternoon Thomas engaged the Sainsbury's delivery man in conversation about the World Cup. 'I don't think England are going to win the World Cup', Thomas observed. The man agreed, and said he was a Holland fan. Thomas replied, 'Holland has won the World Cup twice'. (How does he know that? I had no idea, but the man didn't correct Thomas.) Further exchanges were made, in which I mostly stood by and watched Thomas grow up before my eyes. Eventually he wandered off and the guy (who was a really nice guy, obviously enough) told me that he'd been decked out completely for one of the England matches--the red and white wig, face painted and everything--only to be disappointed. 'I was pretty sad,' he offered.

Yes, I thought. But I'll bet you didn't beat your fists on the floor and cry.