Thursday, February 12, 2009

News You Missed

Okay, you folks in Texas, or those that follow water problems closely, didn't miss the drought affecting more than half of Texas. We heard about it from our hosts in San Antonio, but I don't think I really got how extensive this is.

But I imagine you missed what is the big news in Romania this week: a premier handball player was stabbed to death in a disco in a peaceful Hungarian vacation city. Handball is big in Romania, for both men and women, and team handball not the same thing as ten other kinds of handball, including the preppy sport you are envisioning, is an Olympic sport. Apparently, someone in the disco mistook the situation, and thirty people attacked a dozen unarmed athletes. As the newspapers in America often say, "alcohol is thought to be a factor." Yeah, you think? And yes, discos remain big in Hungary and Romania. (It's not your computer that's slow loading, got it?) At least two, and possibly three of my sons know people in these pictures. These capture the spirit of young Romania as well as anything I could post. Well, actually no. Fotos of young Romanians working in other EU countries would probably capture their spirit better.

I have no idea whether gypsies (Csigani, Roma) were actually involved, but unsurprisingly, they are being accused on all the southeastern European handball forums. I don't know why I bothered to point that out. I'm sure all of you keep up with southeastern European handball forums on your own, and don't need me to belabor the obvious.

No comments: