Word: stadiums
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Somehow, the ride still takes over four hours, so we ended up having to run from the Harvard Square T stop to get to Harvard Stadium in time for kickoff. Luckily, there were plenty of seats still available. Just like always, Harvard-Columbia wasn’t exactly breaking box office records, only it was worse now. There were about 1,000 other people in the stadium. Just like always, there were about as many stodgy alums in the seats as there were students. Only this time, I was one of the stodgy alums. It felt creepy, and I decided...
...with tuk-tuk drivers in all corners of the capital. A white-knuckle, smog-shrouded ride in one of these golf-carts-on-steroids should be on the top of any Bangkok tourist's checklist, up there with a visit to the Grand Palace, a kickboxing match at Lumpini Stadium, shopping at Chatuchak weekend market and a longtail-boat ride to the Temple of the Dawn. Tourists get palpitations, incipient lung spots and bragging rights back home; in exchange, the smirking pilot gets a sweaty handful of baht and the chance to strike terror into visiting souls...
...That's what we thought, anyway. Alas, reality proved us wrong. Rather than give us the freedom to explore the city, the authorities have decreed that we are to drive straight to Tikrit?s parade stadium (every Iraqi city worth its salt has one), then straight back to Baghdad. No stops in the city, not even for a beverage at a local teahouse, much less a bit of conversation with the locals. My government-appointed minder is apologetic, but firm...
...only interaction I can have with Tikritis is inside the stadium, where the few hundred people who are not marching have gathered to cheer. Since these can only be hurried conversations in the minutes before the marching starts, I decide to focus on one broad question: What is it about Tikrit that produces strongmen like Saladin and Saddam...
...Outside the gates of the stadium, as groups of marchers await their turn in front of the cameras, there?s a lot of joshing and laughing. Lots of singing, too - not military dirges or paeans to the President, but traditional songs of love and camaraderie. A middle-aged man in the traditional Arab dishdash and red keffiyeh breaks into a tribal dance; a couple of young men, egged on by their mates, join in the jig. Soon there?s a circle of men clapping and cheering as the dangers strut their stuff. The commotion attracts the attention...