AP sports columnist John Leicester wrote this piece about that infernal droning you hear at the World Cup games.
No, it's not the ubiquitous African honeybee, but the vuvuzela, a type of horn, that for some reason, appeals to South Africans.
Leicester obviously got up on the wrong side of the bed:
The constant drone of cheap and tuneless plastic horns is killing the atmosphere at the World Cup.
Where are the loud choruses of "Oooohhsss" from enthralled crowds when a shot scorches just wide of the goalpost? And the sharp communal intake of breath, the shrill "Aaahhhhss," when a goalkeeper makes an acrobatic, match-winning save? Or the humorous/moving/offensive football chants and songs?
Mostly, they're being drowned out by the unrelenting water-torture beehive hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm of South African vuvuzela trumpets. Damn them. They are stripping World Cup 2010 of football's aural artistry.
Vuvuzela apologists - a few more weeks of this brainless white noise will perhaps change, or melt, their minds - defend the din as simply part of the South African experience. Each country to its own, they say. When in Rome, blah, blah, blah
I'm wondering if Leicester is a Brit who's obviously miserable because England gave away the game to the Americans when their goaltender, Robert 'Hands of Stone' Greene, let one slip by him. Greene was no doubt distracted by the incessant droning in the stands and lost concentration.
If I were at a match, they'd probably drive me crazy, too. But when watching on TV I just turn the sound down. You really need sportscasters to tell you what's going on?
"If God had wanted man to play soccer, he wouldn't have given us arms." -- Mike Ditka, former American football player and coach
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