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I know that many long-suffering U.S. soccer fans are a bit sensitive, but I am curious about the following:
1. I thought Washington City Paper readers were a fairly intelligent, well-traveled, and culturally informed group, so that the vast majority are probably aware that virtually everyone else in the world calls the game of “soccer,” “football” as was handily pointed out not once, but twice (Short Subjects; Talking Pictures, “Gender Bending”) in the March 28 issue. Fair enoughit never hurts to make things clear.
2. While I guess it’s her place to editorialize on matters outside of the movie being reviewed, I’m confident that at least a few hundred thousand local residents don’t find soccer as boring as Arion Berger suggests in an aside in her review (Short Subjects, 3/28) of Bend It Like Beckham (“that boring sport we call ‘soccer’”). Most people I talk to think that soccer is very exciting (if you forget about D.C. United’s past three seasons).
Mount Pleasant