A Very Special (Ginger) Flashback

 Hello everyone. It's been a rather interesting week in Bony Scribe land, I nearly died Tuesday when I decided to overindulge in liquor and wound up being hospitalized briefly. I mentioned on my Facebook page never again. I need to return to the days where I was a teetotaler. Which wasn't that long ago (2013) to be honest. I don't think I've ever been so ashamed of myself. What really stinks is that the one I really love is a bartender...water is cheaper anyway.

Enough of the bad news. Today was a special day for the one person that I give credit for my affinity towards redheads, Ginger Spice (Geri Horner) turned 54 today, so in her honor, I would flashback to one of the charts that featured the Spice Girls. Conveniently enough, this weekend twenty-nine years ago features one such countdown. So, without further ado, here were the Top 40 songs based on data from Radio & Records Magazine for August 8, 1997.

40. Whatever by En Vogue
39. Stomp by God's Property 
38. How Come, How Long by Babyface
37. Don't Leave Me by Blackstreet
36. Rhythm Of Love by DJ Company.

Pause here to fill in some of the blanks since my last entry, which I dimwittedly deleted. As of today, Mitch McConnell (allegedly because in the age of fake news and alternative facts, we don't know what is actually real anymore) left the rehab facility he was in in Kentucky. When and if he returns to Washington is yet to be determined, but good grief, what a rigamarole...

35. Gotham City by R. Kelly
34. The Impression That I Get by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
33. Honey by Mariah Carey
32. How Do I Live by LeAnn Rimes
31. I Wanna Be There by Blessid Union Of Souls.

You know, between having to watch the local Fox station, the incessant number of ambulance chaser ads (looking at YOU, Morgan & Morgan), that Uncle Tom Byron Donalds taking thirty-leven takes to nail his jump shot in his latest political ad (by the way, he is STILL the only candidate, GOP or Democrat, to air commercials on the local Fox station; I wonder why??), and the constant spam ads I get from TEEMU or TEH-MU or Tamiflu or whatever the hell they're called this week, I've been giving my middle fingers quite the workout lately...

30. Building A Mystery by Sarah McLachlan (before the sad pet stuff)
29. When I Die by No Mercy
28. I Don't Want To Wait by Paula Cole (career killer)
27. Say You'll Be There by The Spice Girls (pause here for another Geri GIF):

26. If You Could Only See by Tonic
25. Invisible Man by 98 Degrees (I feel like one sometimes, really)
24. To The Moon And Back by Savage Garden
23. MMMBop by Hanson (redacted because it was worse than Macarena or Wannabe)
22. Coco Jamboo by Mr. President

uh, nice "hair," dude. Now are you going to end the needless war with Iran or are you still going to be wishy-washy with this whole deal as usual?

21. Crash Into Me by Dave Matthews Band
20. The Difference by The Wallflowers
19. One Headlight by The Wallflowers
18. More Than This by 10,000 Maniacs
17. Hard To Say I'm Sorry by Az Yet
16. Push by Matchbox 20.

One good thing about this week is that the Tampa area (especially points north of the bay where I'm at) got plentiful rain that really put a dent in the drought condition that we have in Florida. And yet, we're still behind. There are other areas of the nation that need rain even worse than we do right about now...

15. Foolish Games by Jewel
14. I'll Be Missing You by Puff Daddy & Faith Evans f/112
13. A Change Would Do You Good by Sheryl Crow (which contains one of my all-time favorite song lyrics)
12. Return Of The Mack by Mark Morrison
11. The Freshmen by The Verve Pipe.

One thing I have to say about this particular timeframe this countdown was in. It was a point in my life where I was more depressed than usual. I had wrecked my car in October of 1996, and was stuck using the bus system around Hampton Roads, which was not very reliable to say the least. Almost similar to the depression I've been in the better part of the last three months. At least I have family and friends here to fall back on, unlike back then...

10. Men In Black by Will Smith
  9. Where's The Love by Hanson (believe it or not, this may have been worse than MMMBop)
  8. All For You by Sister Hazel
  7. Sunny Came Home by Shawn Colvin
  6. 2 Become 1 by The Spice Girls.

And now, one last Geri GIF for your viewing pleasure:

5. Do You Know (What It Takes) by Robyn
4. Quit Playing Games (With My Heart) by The Backstreet Boys
3. Bitch by Meredith Brooks
2. How Bizarre by OMC
1. Semi-Charmed Life by Third Eye Blind.

So, this concludes my flashback for the time being. I really need to get on the ball and over my depressive state going forward. There's a lot of topics that I have left on the shelf for one reason or another that I think my depression has caused a direct factor in. But I would really like to delve into topics such as the so-called "War on Woke," but I think there are other topics that need to be talked about, such as the war on Big Data, the war on rampant conservatism, the war on big law, and the war on misinformation.

Mis(s)Information, get it?

I swear Tawny Laryngitis could be the resting b**** face of the conservative movement. And don't get me wrong, there's misinformation and propaganda on both sides of the political spectrum. You know that fake news is running roughshod when BBC News has to air a show called "BBC Verify." Speaking of misinformation, the FCC just overturned the cap on TV station ownership, much like they did for radio stations thirty years ago. I'm sure it was good in theory but look what it created; a wave of anti-liberal talk radio (think Rush), and ultimately, ultra-nationalism (remember the days after 9/11?). Why did Clinton sign that into law? I sometimes with he had a do-over on that, among other things. But I digress.

Enjoy the weekend, everyone!

BonyScribe

Flashback: July 11, 2003

 Good morning, everyone. It would have been good evening, but severe storms wreaked havoc across the Tampa Bay area. Close to where I live, the storms weren't too bad, but apparently it caused a number on a transformer nearby, because we lost power for over five hours while several other areas had their power restored much, much quicker. This is where I would probably make some snide remark about how WREC, the local electric co-operative here, needs to get their act together accompanied by a video from "Rick & Morty." If you are a keen observer of that program, or my social media pages (yeah, like THAT'S possible), you know which clip I'm referring to. But since the fine, hard-working folks that work for WREC, or any other electric company for that matter, have a thankless job cleaning up what these storms leave behind and getting our power back on, I should give them a break. They deserve one today; that sounds like an old commercial slogan.

Speaking of breaks, I think now's a good time as any to remove my break from posting Top 40 flashbacks, as it has been two months since my last one. Today we're going back to July 11, 2003; 7/11, oh thank heaven (that could be another commercial slogan). So, without further ado, here were the Top 40 songs in America loosely based off ClearChannel Mediabase24/7 as published in Radio & Records Magazine.

40. Why Don't You And I? by Santana f/Alex Band. As I recall this track had two particular lead singers, the aforementioned Alex Band and for some reason, Chad Kroeger of Nickelback. Why Carlos Santana did this I don't know and don't really care.

39. Crazy by Dream f/Loon. Remember when Dream tried to get in on the act of teen-oriented vocal groups (Backstreet Boys, *NSync, etc.) for a hot second at the turn of the millennium? I remember their other two hits, "He Loves Me Not" and "This Is Me." Don't recall this one though.

38. I'm Glad by Jennifer Lopez. The good news is that J-Lo had gotten out of that phase of totally rerecording songs to fit musical tastes at the time (think "I'm Real) and calling them remixes. The bad news? Gigli was just around the corner. 

same, Ben Affleck, same.

37. Hell Yeah by Ginuwine. Either he was trying to pay tribute to Stone Cold Steve Austin, or he was celebrating he had someone ride his pony. But definitely one of the two.

36. Never Leave You (Uh-Ooh Uh-Oooh) by Lumidee

35. I Can Only Imagine by Mercy Me. Crossed out because this was a blatant attempt by the moral minority to cram religion down our throats, being the MercyMe is a contemporary Christian group. Of course, now you have groups like "He Gets Us" trying to do the same thing. As noted social media personality (and attractive redhead) Montemader says, to have freedom of religion, you must have freedom from religion. Plus, my belief system is slightly different from evangelical Christianity, but the same concept.

34. Right Thurr by Chingy. A couple of things came to my realization as I was writing this. The worst birthday experience I ever had was for my 40th in 2014 at a place called Capone's Dinner and Show off 192 in Kissimmee, Florida. Isn't it ironic the woman I had been crushing on for years works at a bar of the same name? Go see her by the way at 10463 County Line Road in Spring Hill, FL, and tell her Bony Scribe sent you.

33. Stuck by Stacie Orrico. Another thing I've come to the realization of is that I can be quite annoying. Yeah, I know, it's not the best quality to have, but I feel it's the best (if not only) way to get my name out there. I just hope I'm not as annoying as Morgan & Morgan, or those ads for Hard Rock Casino, or apps that you can download and play on your phone.

32. In Love Witchu by Da Brat. Yes, I still am by the way.

31. Ladies by Sarai

30. If You're Not The One by Daniel Beddingfield. Yes, that's the brother of Natasha Beddingfield, singer of "Unwritten" which came out a few years later. His first hit was the better of his two in my opinion, "Gotta Get Through This."

29. Calling All Angels by Train. They were just in concert in Tampa last night, undoubtedly trying to dodge lightning bolts and rain showers as well at the Ford 1-800-ASK-GARY MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheater.

28. Sing For The Moment by Eminem. Speaking of annoying apps I had mentioned a couple of songs ago, there's one app which is an arrow removal game that for months (if not a year now) that had been called "Arrows Out." Well now in the past few weeks, they've all of a sudden called themselves, "Point Out," which really makes no sense if you think about it.

27. Girls And Boys by Good Charlotte. I mean the phrase point out implies that you're choosing something out of a lineup of group of items, not necessarily removing arrows to solve a puzzle.

26. Shake Ya Tailfeather by Nelly f/Diddy & Murphy Lee. This song sounded very similar to Florida State University's famous war chant, but I digress. 

25. Can't Let You Go by Fabolous f/Lil' Mo. As I was about to mention there's another arrow removal game that was called "Arrows Go" but is now called "Amaze Go" which makes absolutely zero sense at all. So, what happened? Did yet another arrow removal game put in a copyright claim and now the original name of your app can't be used? Or did you suddenly think that you're the Gulf of MEXICO or Department of DEFENSE and you just wanted to randomly change your name a la the Trump Administration? Jeez.

24. The Remedy (I Won't Worry) by Jason Mraz. Speaking of the Trump administration, they may be partially responsible for a sudden outbreak of explosive diarrhea that has plagued several states, including Florida. 

23. I Want You by Thalia f/Fat Joe. Of course, we're talking about cyclosporiasis, which is the parasite which is the cause of this explosive diarrhea. According to AOL (yes, they still exist), the CDC stopped monitoring said parasite under the guise of "GoVeRnMeNt EfFiCiEnCy." Damn you, Squealon, damn you to hell. 

22. No Letting Go by Wayne Wonder. Those of you who are ardent followers of "South Park" will know that explosive diarrhea occurs in a few of their episodes, including episode 6 of the first season where OH MY GOD, THEY KILLED KENNY comes down with a case of such before his (un)timely demise.

21. Swing Swing by All-American Rejects. This administration is already a clown show, but never in a million years that South Park would play a role in what's going on. What's next, Cartman as CDC head?

The second half of this flashback I'm just going to go ahead and breeze through.

20. When I'm Gone by Three Doors Down
19. Fighter by Christina Aguilera
18. Feel Good Time by P!nk f/William Orbit
17. Rock Wit U (Awwww Baby) by Ashanti
16. Addicted by Simple Plan (I wonder who that song could be for)
15. Magic Stick by Lil' Kim f/50 Cent
14. Intuition by Jewel
13. Don't Wanna Try by Frankie J
12. Drift Away by Uncle Cracker f/Dobie Gray
11. Are You Happy Now? by Michelle Branch (well...ARE YOU?!)

10. 21 Questions by 50 Cent
  9. Ignition by R. Kelly
  8. Rock Your Body by Justin Timberlake (the song that helped Janet Jackson's career)
  7. Get Busy by Sean Paul
  6. I Know What You Want by Busta Rhymes & Mariah Carey
  5. Crazy In Love by Beyonce f/Jay-Z
  4. Unwell by Matchbox 20
  3. Where Is The Love by Black Eyed Peas f/Justin Timberlake
  2. Bring Me To Life by Evanescence

and the number one song on this date 23 years ago was

  1. Miss Independent by Kelly Clarkson.

There, my first flashback blog in two months, hopefully not as annoying as any other blog post I write. Hopefully I get back on the ball writing more irreverent and irrelevant in the weeks to come Two blog posts in a week is a good start.

Until next time

Bonyscribe

What To Dislike About The Remaining Teams In The World Cup

 Good afternoon. With the quarterfinals of the World Cup beginning later today, I thought I'd give a rundown on what to dislike about each of the remaining eight teams in the tournament. 

France: it's FRIGGIN FRANCE! That and they find a way almost every year to have a stupid strike of some sort. Mbappe is good though.

Morocco: my only beef is that they're somehow namedropped on almost every Pitbull song, I guess because he had a concert that drew throngs there.

Norway: they were listed by "Dear Leader" as a nation we should take immigrants in from (IDK why, they're one of the happiest nations on earth). Their main star Erling Haaland plays for one of the more insufferable clubs in England. Speaking of which...

England: my ancestral homeland, and their fans act very entitled. "IT'S COMING HOME!!" Let's see how they screw this up, like they've pretty much screwed everything else up in World History.

Argentina: they won the last Cup. Not only that, but their president is also a right-wing douchenozzle with bad hair. Plus, they've had an easy run so far despite rallying from two goals down against Egypt which they may have had some help with, wink wink.

Switzerland: Yodelay-hee-hoooo. They gotta have more cowbell though, oh wait, that's their ski team. Nevermind.

Belgium: They beat us, even if it was for our own good...or did we tank that game? Either way, MetaMucilini had no business sticking his nose in FIFA's business and should have kept his big trap shut regarding Folarin Balogun's red card against Bosnia. I swear he ruins EVERYTHING! Bonus points to Belgium for mocking Trump's double jerk-off dance, but they still beat us. And finally...

Spain: They frigging win everything in sport over the past two decades. However, this past week at the NATO summit in Turkey, our not so dear leader bad mouthed them, calling them "bad people" in a trade dispute. Probably over something petty. 

Hmmm. You know what? I think I've found who to root for these final matches. To see the miserable look on Trump's face as he's giving the World Cup trophy to a nation he doesn't like. VAMOS ESPANA!!

Bonyscribe

Christmas In July? Why Not Festivus In June?

 Good morning, everyone. You know, we are now exactly six months away from Christmas, and about the same amount of time away from Festivus. With that being said, here are some airings of grievances that I have halfway through 2026, and I have plenty of them. 

I'll start off with something disturbing in my estimation that I see whenever I'm playing one of those room escape games online, it's an advertisement for TENA, which I guess is a men's health product used to help prevent unwanted urinary leakage. The issue I have is that for the ad, they have some 60-something year old dude (probably AI; I'll have a rant about THAT later) in nothing but his tidy whities talking about said product with a rather suggestive shot of a small fountain at the end. Dude, I DON'T NEED TO SEE THAT SH*T, and quite frankly, neither do most men. I know it's Pride Month and all, but the visual for that ad is too much for my liking. Now if it was THIS person doing the sales pitch...

Let's move on to what I've been seeing on television. Most notably FOX 13 in Tampa since that's the only local station my sisters watch. Primary elections are coming up, and one the few political ads I see is for Kevin Steele, who is NOT getting my vote. He checks all the marks for the prototypical gullible FOX viewer, Republican, Trump endorsed, DeSantis supporter. Yuck. And it's OF COURSE it's on Fox. Gosh almighty I hate that network. My gripe is where are the ads for David Jolly (who's running for FL governor) or Charlie Crist (mayor of St. Petersburg)? Does the Florida Democratic Party even aware that television media still exists? Do they even have a budget for TV ads after having their asses handed to them in the last forty-leven election cycles (our last Democratic governor was Buddy McKay, who finished the term of the late Lawton Chiles in 1999)? Or does Fox 13 have their ad rates so high that the Dems a) figure it isn't worth the cost or b) they can't, but you can bet dollars to donuts that Fox will put an ad for Morgan & Morgan or any other ambulance-chasing grifter in the Tampa area.

Speaking of Morgan & Morgan, the grand poobah of ambulance chasers has revealed the name of his "new" political party; the Common Ground Party. Uhhh...okay. Way to use your imagination there, John. From the home office in Rennert, North Carolina, top five rejected names for John Morgan's political party.

1. 5. The Ambulance Chaser Party.
2. 4. The "I want to steal your baseball team and move it to Orlando" Party.
3. 3. The Bourbon Drinking Coalition.
4. 2. The Exotic Dancer Caucus (and their PAC, Porno for Paralegals)

...and the number one rejected name for John Morgan's political party...

1. 1. Grifters R Us.
2. 
   
   
   
   

sorry, Dave.

While I'm covering late night hosts and their gimmicks, another popular one is Jimmy Kimmel's Unnecessary Censorship routine, where his producers will randomly insert a bleep over an otherwise innocuous word. Well, seems like social media lately from Facebook to TikTok have been practicing it to a fault, where even the name of a movie was censored. In a CBS Sports post on Facebook late Thursday night during the Turkey-USA World Cup match, the words "Fight Club" was blurred out. Why? I know that rule no. 1 of Fight Club is that you don't talk about Fight Club, but that was ridiculous. What's next? An announcement that I'll have a d*te at O**** G****** (which never happened by the way...thanks for nothing Samantha)? That I'm planning on taking a tr*p to ***th Car*****? You get the idea. Censorship is running amok and I don't like it.

Another gripe I kinda have is the decision of Florida to lift the ban on fireworks for the Fourth of July. Now from what I understand, there are currently burn bans in the greater Tampa Bay region, which means that personal fireworks are indeed technically prohibited. Now how much do you want to bet that some of the counties in greater Tampa Bay (like Hernando) will conveniently lift the burn ban in time for the fourth, because FREEDOM!!! and TRUMP!!! and 250!!! and STUFF!!!! That's the mentality of the copious amount of MAGA lunkheads that live here. If you've ever had the misfortune of hearing any advertisement on the radio for Pyro Junkie in the Tampa Bay area, you know what I'm talking about.

In a related note, known N*zi sympathizer Kanye West had not one but TWO sold out shows not at Benchmark International Arena, but Raymond James Stadium. Why? Because Tampa, I guess. What's really interesting in that whole thing is the concerts were pushed to be cancelled, but the person pushing for them was the least favorable person imaginable; Senator Rick Scott. This is like that scene from "Ace Ventura 2" where Jim Carrey has spears on each thigh and is shouting to heaven above.

That's right, the present-day incarnation of Voldemort tried to get Ye cancelled...but failed.

It didn't help Scott's cause that the Tampa Sports Authority had its hands tied, if they cancelled the shows, then Kanye's promoter would have litigated, and God knows the Tampa Sports Authority loses money because they are pushing for further renovations to Raymond James Stadium, ahead of the proposed ballpark that the Rays have been trying to get built across the street at Hillsborough Community College. Remember when Trump in his first debacle of an administration shoved the leader of Montenegro out of the way for a photo op at a NATO meeting? It's kind of like that. 

That said, the TSA is playing with fire because from what I understand the Raleigh-Durham area would love an MLB team and the Rays' triple-A affiliate is the Durham Bulls, and who knows, if the Rays bolt for the Research Triangle, I may soon follow...

Speaking of Trump, he's the subject of my next grievance. Dude insists that the colossal mess that is the Reflecting Pool on the Washington Mall was created by far-left activists with a cutting knife. So dear leader decides on a whim that he wants to paint the reflecting pool American flag blue with the 250th birthday happening this upcoming week, oversaw by some dude that looks like a TEMU Bond villain from central casting, then has his motorcade DRIVE over the sealant once it's applied to the drained pool, and is now blaming ANTIFA for vandalizing the pool once he realized he done screwed up. A better explanation (which is rather long) can be found on Facebook here. Yeah, I don't think "antifa" really vandalized the pool, much like that date I never had...

I swear he takes zero accountability for things when they don't go his way, and when they don't, he'll bitch and moan until the objects of his rage capitulates. Oh, and we're still at war with a nation we've supposed to have defeated (allegedly) several times over the past month. 

Same, Conan. Same.

My final rant will be what I alluded to earlier in this post, and that's the wonton use of AI that has infiltrated social media. Now I know that AI can be used for good, like if you need to know an answer to a question and you don't feel the need to google it, but some of AI I've seen has been used to created deep-fakes, cheesy advertisements, and bad comedy. One dear follower of mine on the site Muskrat has all but destroyed uses AI to enhance that person's photos; I know what you look like and that's not it. You already know about that TENA ad I mentioned in the beginning, there's other ads for various games on your phone that uses AI, including an arrow removal game that's called "Arrows Out," though recently they've started calling themselves "Point Out," which is an entirely different rant I could go on, but this entry is already long in the tooth as it is.

A final word before I go. I know that June is also Men's Mental Health Month, and my mental health hasn't really been all that great as of late. It took me three whole days just to type this blog post, and I haven't done any flashbacks since May 10. The fact that I had a bit of a breakup may have something to do with it, but was it really a breakup when the rocket never lifted off the launch pad, so to speak? In any event, I'll see my therapist on Thursday and tell her about it.

I really liked that woman, too...oh well. 

Enjoy America 250 y'all. For now I'm off the celebrate my sister's birthday.

Bonyscribe

2026 World Cup Preview, I Guess

 Hello everyone, except for Charlie Miranda, James Dolan, and of course, the woman I was talking to. Charlie doesn't want a new park for the Rays, Dolan for being a terrible owner even though the team he owns (in spite of him) are in the NBA Finals, and the last one I kinda alluded to in my last entry. Speaking of which, I haven't found a proper GIF to simulate what happened, but I did find this picture on Google:

And by the way, she is now blocked on EVERY platform she is on except one so I could tag her in a post that pretty much sums up what she did, and she promptly blocked me back. So, either she still feels for me, or she's crazy. Toxic? Definitely (who conveniently forgets that her children are going to be home from school the day we were supposed to have lunch?). She may have driven by my house this week because there was a random soda can that had landed from a vehicle I presume in the front yard of where I live, but since it was a Sprite can, I doubt it was her. Heck, I've never ever seen her drink soda period. Anyway, cleaned that mess up when I took out the recycling bin this morning.

By the way, do not go to Capone's. There are plenty of other pool halls to go to around here.

Well now that that's out of the way, I guess I should write about the soccer tournament that will be taking place over the next month. I can't say I'm excited for this edition, like 2022 and 2018 before then. One, Fox is carrying it, so we're going to get all sorts of right-wing propaganda being that this is the 250th birthday of our Nation, and unfortunately our president is a self-aggrandizing petulant toddler who is in love with Fox. Both tournament selections as then well as the one this year was surrounded in controversy with allegations of bribery, and I think this one was as well. By the way, you ever notice how the FIFA head (Giavanni Infantino) somewhat resembles Lex Luthor?

It was actually Infantino's predecessor, Sepp (overactive) Blatter, who was behind the corruption of the 2018 and 2022 selections, which ultimately got him impeached and removed. Hmmm, makes me think of what may happen in 2027...but I digress. 

This year's tournament has a record 48 entries, which if you ask me is too many; it was fine at 32. Among those are Curacao, which is a Dutch-controlled island with about 150,000 in population. Haiti, which has been irrelevant other than governmental overthrows (one of which my ship took part in the fall of 1994) and tragedies, and honestly, I don't think they've recovered from that earthquake 16 years ago. Uzbekistan, which took advantage of an expanded field, and whose claim to fame is the birthplace to Milana Vayntrub, best known as Lily from the AT&T commercials back in the day. 

There are the other usual suspects, the defending champions Argentina, France, England, Brazil, Netherlands, Germany. But no Italy. Also in the field, Iran which is a curious dichotomy considering the US is currently at war (or are we?) with them. And of course, the hosts, Mexico, Canada, and the United States. Happy Birthday America, here's a sports tournament created (allegedly) by your colonial parent for your birthday, that and a lame UFC fight that may or not take place.

Usually, the way the tournament works is that the teams are divided into groups of four and the top two from each group advance to the knockout stage. It was rather simple when there were 32 teams, but since there is now 48, it's now complicated, much like any romantic endeavor I'm in. You would expect that the top two from each group would advance to the knockout stage, but then you would have to give the top eight group winners (via goals scored, goal difference, FIFA rating, etc.) a first round bye and have the other four group winners play the four lowest rated second place teams, leaving the remaining second place teams compete for a spot in the round of 16. But FIFA didn't do that. Instead, the eight highest ranked third place teams advance to a round of 32, then go from there.

Anyway, here how the groups shape up:

A) Mexico, South Africa, South Korea, Czechia
B) Canada, Bosnia, Qatar, Switzerland
C) Brazil, Morocco, Haiti, Scotland
D) USA, Paraguay, Australia, Turkey
E) Germany, Curacao, Cote d'Ivoire, Ecuador
F) Netherlands, Japan, Sweden, Tunisia
G) Belgium, Egypt, Iran, New Zealand
H) Spain, Cape Verde, Saudi Arabia, Uruguay
I) France, Senegal, Iraq, Norway
J) Argentina, Algeria, Austria, Jordan
K) Portugal, DR Congo, Uzbekistan, Colombia
L) England, Croatia, Ghana, Panama

Let's take a look at what has transpired the past 48 hours before the opening kick in Mexico City shall we?

• Swiss footballer Embolo's visa was put under review and he was only able to join his team days later.

• Iraqi national team player Aymen Hussein was held for questioning for nearly 7 hours upon entering the United States.

• The Iranian national team spent days dealing with visa procedures at the U.S. Consulate in Türkiye. The U.S. only allowed them entry on match days. Fifteen members of the delegation were denied visas.

• Omar Abdulkadir Artan, named CAF's Best African Referee of 2025, was denied a visa. Despite travelling to the U.S. with a diplomatic passport, he was refused entry and sent back. FIFA announced that he will not be able to officiate at the tournament.

• The South African national team arrived in the United States much later than planned because part of the delegation was not granted visas.

• Members of the Senegal national team staff were forced to remove their shoes and subjected to lengthy searches, sparking accusations of racism.

• The Uzbekistan national team was searched with bomb-sniffing dogs and the footage went viral in international media.

• Some Scottish supporters, despite being eligible to enter the U.S. visa-free under the ESTA programme, had their travel authorisations revoked just days before departure.

• Many supporters who had already bought tickets and booked accommodation had their visa applications rejected, resulting in financial losses.

Taken from The Other 98% on Facebook. Welcome to the sh*t show folks. So, who wins? Heck at the rate things are going from the above text, I'll say the USA. Hell, our country is being run like a bad episode of "Monday Night Raw" right now. I'm sure there will be plenty of shenanigans for that to happen.

Seriously though, I think it will be Portugal and Netherlands meeting in the final with the Orange Army finally lifting the first World Cup. Enjoy the soccer, if you dare.

BonyScribe

Screw It, I'm Writing.

 Good evening everyone, except you Samantha. I'm a little drunk this Friday night, so I have nothing else better to do than to rant on here for a little bit. So, what should we talk about? Well, for starters, the OTHER team I root for in the NHL, (the Carolina Hurricanes) have finally reached the Stanley Cup Final after two decades after beating the Montreal Canadiens in five games. They now will face the Vegas Golden Showers Knights starting June 2 on ABC with Sean O'Mac (McDonough) and Chicken Parm (Ray Ferraro) on the call. 

You might wonder what happened to make me say at the open "except you Samantha." Well long story short, we are no longer talking. Won't go into detail, but let's just say what happened was the equivalent of what happened at Cape Canaveral Thursday night. Don't have a GIF handy but it looked something like this:

...and boom goes the dynamite.

Now normally I wouldn't play the conspiracy theory card, but I will on this occasion. We know that Jeff Bezos and Squealon Muskrat are the embodiments of Lex Luthor. Bezos the comic book version and Musk the "New Adventures of Superman" version, and both are in a glorified urinating contest to see who can get to the moon and beyond first. So, wouldn't it be something if it turns out that last night's explosion was an act of sabotage? 

Side note, I despise Alex Jones even going back to when he was a "contributor" on Coast to Coast AM overnights over a decade ago. 

Speaking of the explosion, I have to call out WESH out of Orlando. They sent a helicopter to the Cape this morning to get an ariel view of the damage caused from it (one of the lightning towers was destroyed) to the launch pad. They spent a good five minutes trying to find where LC 36 was. You're a TV station in a top 15 media market, you should know where the complex is beforehand. It's called doing research. Instead, we got views of LC 39, the Vehicle Assembly Building, and everything else EXCEPT the Launch pad in question. Way to be on the ball, WESH...

I cannot wait for Monday to be honest. I will be out and about probably drinking my sorrows, which aren't really sorrows, away. And no, I don't need by former favorite bartender to keep me happy, I can keep myself happy. I just want some good people to share it with. Maybe it was the fact that she was a redhead, but I'm attracted to redheads. Damnit, I can't win either way. Oh well...

I think later this weekend or next week, I'll have another flashback Top 40 chart. I don't really know which one yet though; I had thought about doing on for May 19 and incorporating it with the song "Hey 19" by Steely Dan from years ago, but I understand the mayor of Knox County, TN would have been triggered by said post, so I held off.

Well that's all I have for right now. I guess I'll play some games on my computer or my phone until I fall asleep. Until next time, miscreants.

BS

What in the Tar Heel Is Going On??

 Good evening, miscreants. Over the past couple of nights, those of us who watch the Tampa Bay Rays have noticed something peculiar. Tarps off. What is it exactly? Well without researching this at first, it appears to be a bunch of young men (and some females) taking off their tops and waving it around like a towel. Like this:

Of course, this is nothing new. It started thanks to Petey Pablo all the way back in 2001 with his rap hit "Raise Up," where he states, "take your shirt off, twist it 'round yo' hand, spin it like a helicopter." It's a North Carolina anthem (he's from there), and in 2018 the Carolina Hurricanes used it as their goal song, where I assume the above GIF comes from.

Fast forward to last autumn, and some students at Oklahoma State University during a football game started doing the same thing, the next thing you know, everyone is doing it. Until it died down when the college football season ended.

Then we come to last weekend in St. Louis, when a bunch of club baseball players from Stephen A. Austin University in Texas who were attending a game there did it, and the result was a comeback victory for the Redbirds over Kansas City. Next thing you know, EVERYONE is doing it.

Will it last? Doubt it. But could we calm down in saying that the Cardinals started this trend? It's actually been happening for a generation now. Hell, soccer fans might remember Sergio Aguero's iconic goal in 2012 for Manchester City when he basically did the same thing:

AguerOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoo!!!

Still the greatest moment I've seen in a soccer match anywhere and probably in my top ten of iconic sports moments ever. On a side note, congrats to Arsenal on winning the English Premier League this season, beating out...Manchester City. But I digress.

The fact to the matter is that Petey Pablo actually started this trend a generation ago, so this ex-Tar Heel would like to say, put some respect on the name.

Until next time

BonyScribe