Let's wrap up some loose ends from the last seven. Sarah was under it pretty severely with a cold all week so not all that much has gone on. Did see Germany lay a beat-down on Portugal this afternoon. Actually, only the second half was the extreme beat-down I'd been expecting. Still, it was a good match at the loser's lounge. I remain amused that Portugal's Christian Ronaldo has become the designated prince of darkness for the tournament. As the blogger at the Guardian pointed out today, he hasn't elbowed anyone in the face, delivered a headbutt, or stomped on anyone's nads. As for tomorrow, I'm backing the Azzurri. As I think I said earlier, I have fond memories of Sunday mornings spent watching Serie A matches on RAI -- they were picked up by one of the UHF stations in New York.

Watched a couple of movies this week. One was Mars Attacks, which we'd tried to watch once a few years ago and gave up on. I enjoyed it much more this time. It doesn't all work but when it does, it's quite fun. It feels to me like Burton set out to make his version of a bad 60s/70s blockbuster -- big cast of mostly "B" stars, rambling plot, too many characters, cheesy effects. Plus it's partly set in Vegas (inc. lots of Luxor, several scenes filmed in the Neon Museum Boneyard, a casino implosion, and many shots of Vegas locations now gone). And how can I not love any movie where the aliens are killed off by yodeling? And that ends with Tom Jones (!!) singing "It's Not Unusual" in a scene that's a clear and self-conscious Snow White homage. A long slide down the quality scale to our next cinematic offering, National Treasure. I wanna tell you, this may be the stupidest movie I've ever seen. (and, yes, I've seen the Core) Nic Cage steals the Declaration of Indepence. To keep Sean Bean from stealing it. They both want it because there's actually a treasure map on the back. Which they reveal by smearing the back of the Declaration with lemon juice. Oh, and the treasure belonged to the Knights Templar, who became the Freemasons when they moved to America. I'm pretty sure Tom Hanks, Jesus' great-great-granddaughter, and Rat Scabies do not make an appearance, altho I wouldn't guarantee that as my brain started to glaze over after a while. Jon Voight and Harvey Keitel do show up, phoning it in about as badly as Cage and Bean. Just stupefying, really. Made Tomb Raider look like Citizen Kane.