The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur news and links for Friday, November 16

Hey, everyone!

I’m in a pretty good mood as I write this because my younger sister keeps playing some songs from old FIFA games.

Ramble of the Day

It snowed in my part of the world yesterday, the first official snow of the season around here. It snowed more than I expected, and hopefully the weather gets warmer over the next few days so it melts as quickly as possible and goes away. The truth is, snow is hardly glamorous, and it’s pretty annoying even to people who’ve gotten used to dealing with it.

Allow me to explain. At first, snow is pretty cool to watch from a window. Maybe it’s because I’m not that far removed from my school years when snow meant a ticket out of class, but snow is fine at the beginning. It looks nice, plus it comes with the hope that it might not actually stick to the streets and sidewalk because they’re so warm. Usually, though, it sticks to the streets and sidewalk, and you start hoping you wore the right shoes and jacket outside. (Usually, you find out in advance and you are.) Mostly, you’re hoping it won’t be so bad when you’re outside.

Most of the time, you go outside and you convince yourself it isn’t so bad. You put on the hood of your jacket if you’ve got one and pull out an umbrella if you have it, dashing as quickly as you can to get to where you need to be. Maybe it’s a subway and the snow ends up in your face; maybe it’s your car, and hopefully it’s parked nearby. You eventually get to where you need to be and settle down, but sometimes taking trains or the roads takes longer than usual. (It did for people who were driving yesterday because many streets in the New York metropolitan area haven’t been properly plowed.) You watch the snow fall, hoping it won’t be too much. It’s always more than you need, though.

Once it’s all over, it’s no fun to deal with. In my part of the world, we basically get a few inches of snow every few weeks from the beginning of January to the beginning of March, so you have to live in snow boots for two months. Sometimes you get frustrated and decide to be bold and wear something that isn’t a pair of snow boots, even if you slip and fall. (You probably won’t.) The streets, though, are lined with piles of snows, while parking lots are dotted with them. It becomes incredibly inconvenient to own a car if you have one (I don’t) for those reasons, but if you don’t, these piles become eyesores. While the grass is just covered with pristine white snow, the piles along the streets and in parking lots get darker and darker. If it stays cold, they don’t ever get a chance to melt, and it almost always snows again.

The cycle repeats.

tl;dr: I guess I don’t like snow.

Links of the Day

The Premier League will being using video assistant referees next season.

PFA chairman Ben Purkiss has called for an independent review of the organization to ensure that it is evolving with the sport.

Chelsea’s Olivier Giroud believes the sport is currently not in a position to support openly gay players.

Today’s longer read: Suzanne Wrack on the struggles women’s clubs still face breaking even despite the strides the sport has made for The Guardian