September 2008

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Football: The Universal Word
(...well, almost)

Labor Day...the end of summer...the start of school...it all can mean only one thing: FOOTBALL! But what do you think of when you hear the word "football"? Tailgating? Cheerleaders? Hooligans? Say, what? That’s right. For most of the world, the word football doesn’t conjure up images of a pigskin or even cheerleader skin (too bad for them, right?). It’s difficult for the average Joe (or Jill) in America to imagine that the most important sporting event in the world (outside the US) occurs every four years and is NOT the Olympics. It’s the World Cup and it involves, obviously, a very different kind of football. That’s an interesting word, too, football. (Click here to read the full article )

More than a Game

While today's salaries may seem outlandish to just about anyone outside the NFL, playing football for money is nothing new. The first documented proof that a player was paid to run around a field, risking life and limb for a few points dates from 1892 - we don't know if he had an agent ;-)

(Click here to see the proof )


It's a pigskin, right? Think again. Did you know that a football is not really made from a pig's skin at all? It's actually made from cow's leather. In the days before vulcanized rubber was available, footballs were really made from a pig's bladder (we assume telling someone to throw them the "pigskin" sounded much nicer to our ancestors' ears than "I'm open! Throw me the pig's bladder!"). Perhaps even more interesting is that nowadays, it takes more than 3,000 cows to supply the NFL with enough leather for a year's supply of footballs. Now that's something even PIGS can moo about!	It’s football Season. Game on! American football is a competitive team sport known for mixing strategy with physical play. Fans find many ways to celebrate their teams. One of the most common is a tailgate party at the stadium complete with food and drinks or donning team colors at a local sports bar. We found some unusual cocktails in our fans' playbooks. Show your football spirit and enjoy a potent taste of this all-American sport: Touchdown Quarterback Sack Fumble First and Ten	(Sign at temple in Bangkok) It is forbidden to enter a woman even a foreigner if dressed as a man. (In a Tokyo bar) Special cocktails for the ladies with nuts. (In a Copenhagen airline ticket office)* We take your bags and send them in all directions. * We are not so sure this last one is all that inaccurate! Hee hee


Shaun, from Space Age Electronics, asks: "Our literature is in various Spanish dialects. Do we need to translate it to reach our Hispanic markets in the United States and in Central and South America effectively?" (Click here to see Pattie response )	Got a loved one flying somewhere? Ever wonder where they are once their flight takes off? Now you can know for sure. FlightView's® awesome flight tracking tool tells you exactly where the plane is and the route that is being flown. Just put in the flight number and voilà! (that's French). A must for all those worrywarts or curiosity hounds.	"Football incorporates the two worst elements of American society: violence punctuated by committee meetings." Don Shula "Most football teams are temperamental. That's 90% temper and 10% mental." Doug Plank "The reason women don't play football is because eleven of them would never wear the same outfit in public." Phyllis Diller "When I went to Catholic high school in Philadelphia, we just had one coach for football and basketball. He took all of us who turned out and had us run through a forest. The ones who ran into the trees were on the football team." George Raveling

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