World, Writing, Wealth discussion

No worries, guys, Russian hackers didn't pull down Taj Mahal and replaced it with Saint Basil's Cathedral from Moscow (at least, not that we are aware of).
It's just in a few days Football World Cup will start in Russia, to be overshadowed by Trump - Kim meeting, of course, but otherwise widely televised.
With world's attention on Russia, we couldn't stand aside and thus adapted the masthead for a couple of months or so.
If anyone's gonna be following football/soccer World Cup, I'm game to discuss and share impressions..

Football - the world's game.

Yes but, as usual, the USA is apart from the rest of the World and calls another game 'football'.

I've commented elsewhere about football and the USA. The Association Football World Cup (real world not World series or world champions) is the 3rd largest sporting event by participant (After Olympics and Commonwealth Games) and largest by watching audience.

There is of course Rugby Union Football - again see reference to NFL, but this remains a relatively minor activity

Anyway let us welcome the banner - after all Russia paid handsomely for the privilege of hosting the tournament. Not as much as Qatar will in 2022 - if the sanctions are lifted by then.

My main annoyance with Russia holding it is it is probably in the least convenient time zone for me. Now if they would only hold games that interest me in the early evening I could watch them, but as it is, sleep is going to conflict. As far as I know, nothing in Vladivostok either.

Ian wrote: "As far as I know, nothing in Vladivostok either. ..."

I think they considered Vladi, but decided against it (not to annoy you though, I suspect)

My guess is they dropped that one mainly because of the time zone difference for Europe, and also because of the rather strenuous travel requirements. Going from Moscow to Vladivostok to play one game and then come back to play the next one would be very tiring on the teams, and unless they were used to it (and apart possibly from NZ/SA rugby teams, who is?) it would be critical for some teams not to have that in the draw.

The Cathedral of Vasily the Blessed (Russian: Собор Василия Блаженного, Sobor Vasiliya Blazhennogo), commonly known as Saint Basil's Cathedral, is a church in Red Square in Moscow, Russia.

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_B...)

Attribution
By A.Savin (Wikimedia Commons · WikiPhotoSpace) [FAL or CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...)], from Wikimedia Commons

It's a stunning building.

And right opposite the Lubyanka in case you get out of hand :-)

Ian wrote: "And right opposite the Lubyanka in case you get out of hand :-)"

It's not that close, Ian. You have about 5 min of excitement and fresh air before they get you

Well, the World Cup is over and allowing for a cosmic inclination of some of the members, we might as well place a small glimpse from above as a masthead. Hope you like it

Cool. Who took this shot?

Obviously someone with a very long selfie-stick -:)
Don't know, found it on the internet as a cc0 pic

Love it - great shot.

Nik wrote: "Ian wrote: "And right opposite the Lubyanka in case you get out of hand :-)"

It's not that close, Ian. You have about 5 min of excitement and fresh air before they get you"

When I saw it, it seemed close enough that 5 mins would be optimistic :-)

Very long selfie stick :-) Beautiful. And we're all down here staking our claims and messing with each other. Human nature.

As the fate of my native city is at stake, I felt I needed to show solidarity

I'm with you, Nik.

Thank you, Scout, much appreciated!