Get yourself connected

First, where have I been? This, broad readership, is an excellent question. For much of the past couple of weeks I’ve been in St. Croix. I highly recommend this destination unless you have some moral or aesthetic objection to sun, rum, and endless sandy beaches.

But now I’m back and it’s time to celebrate my return with a World Cup related note. In a move of retrospectively astonishing foolishness, I failed to pre-order tickets to the US-Ghana game, despite having the incredible luck to have a friend with an inside track to tickets that allows me to bypass the whole USSF/FIFA ticket fiasco.

As a result, I have for the past few months been trolling around various sites to get a ticket to the game. For a moment, it appeared that my good friend and occasional co-blogger mirarchi would have an extra, but no such luck. At one point I was in touch with a very shady Englishman who had two tix but lost me when he asked “Am I looking at 350 pounds sterling for the pair?” It was the smarmy tone as much as the extortionate price that made me decline the offer.

Then, a couple days ago, my secret connection put me in touch with a colleage who apparently has tons of extra tix and was able to hook me up with just what I needed: a Cat I ticket to US-Ghana, at face value. He might also be able to get me into Mexico-Portugal. The lesson: despite the countervailing wisdom propounded by country and western singers, it's good to have friends in high places.