And then went to Croke Park to see Gaelic football. It was awesome, Croke Park Stadium is enormous, and was packed to near capacity (65k+ seats filled) to watch The Big Game ™, Dublin vs. Meath. I won’t give you the play by play, I’ll leave that to the experts.

I will, however, give you color commentary. This game is too brutal for these players to not wear pads. It is a strange mix of football, basketball, and soccer, where you can pick the ball up and dribble it, or kick it in the air to yourself, and you must do so to avoid some sort of travelling violation. You can kick or punch the ball to a teammate. The goal is a soccer-size goal, with a goalie, and has uprights above the goal. Kicking into the goal, below the bar, gets you 3 points, whereas kicking above the goal, through the uprights, gets you 1 point. There is a lot of stoppage of play, because people just get slammed from all sides at all points in the game. When a goal was scored by a Dublin player 50,000 people got up and shouted. That was pretty sporty (patent pending, Lord Zod).

Now for the off-color commentary. Everyone receiving this e-mail is over 18, so I’ll spare the *s. I heard a fan, who looked like someone’s grandfather, call one of the players a cock. In the first 5 minutes of play. That reminds me of a funny story about Eddie Abraham, at Comet Billiards, at a Joss Tour stop. If you don’t know what I mean, ask me when I see you again.

A player gets mauled by the opponent, lays on the ground, blood coming from his face, and a fan from the same section says, “You’re not hitting the sack, so why are you just laying there?”

I love these people. I can just imagine what the commentary would be like if they were drinking.

Well, that’s all the news that’s fit to print. I’m going to grab some dinner, and will contemplate another pub crawl. Tomorrow is a Bank Holiday, which, according to everyone I’ve asked, just means a day off. No celebration, no special events, just a day off. I have theater tickets for tomorrow night, then will take the bus out of Dublin Tuesday morning.

I wish you were all here. The next round is on me. Cheers