Indeed the recent penalty shots mande by England were less than average. In which case I shall hide behind the usual English excuse: "We invented the game!"
Re: British vs US Humour A few years ago I spent a week in Prague (I wanna go back some time when the temperature is above -10 Celsius though) and one on my felloow students was (poor chap) American. This same topic came up one night after a couple of bottles nice cheap Pilsener (Plsen is a couple of dozen km away from Prague IIRC). I told the problem was that Americans think irony is something you use to get creases out of your shirty. He was still trying to work it out a week later when we returned to the UK!! :-? Oli
Budweisser is olso of Czech origin: the town of Budweiss (In Czech Ceske Budejovice). I like Prague too. The first time - 1980, it was a gray, uninviting, polluted, dirty place full of apathetic creatures. I´ve been there a couple of years ago - a total transformation into a beauty of a city. Not as ancient as Krakow but very big and full of life. I remember, in 1980 I asked some Prague Jews: are the Czechs always so apathetic and ghost-like? "Yes, and we are afraid nothing is going to change them." A miracle happened: communism disappeared and Czechs are what they have been before: the down to earth, hardworking and full of humor. No wonder it was Skoda that produced the Hetzer (and the Czechs developed pilsner and the original Czech Budweisser)!