The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur news and links for Monday, December 17

Hi, Hoddlers!

The weird thing about weekends is that I sometimes forget that Monday, and the things that come with it, follows Sunday. Weird.

Ramble of the Day

There is quite something about the camaraderie one develops with strangers when you’re in a bit of a tough situation. I’m not actually talking about I’m a Celebrity, if you’ve been reading my rambles at all — this is a story from my weekend waiting for lunch.

I stopped by a little stand where they were selling crêpes of all types — savory, sweet, some that were a bit of both — over the weekend, and I was very excited because I hadn’t had a crêpe in quite some time. The line to order was shorter than I anticipated, which was mildly exciting. There were only a couple of people ahead of me, and I quickly ordered my crêpe and shuffled to my right, where the pick-up window was.

I wasn’t anywhere close to the window, though, because there were around ten to 15 people who got there before me, waiting for their crêpes. At first, I didn’t make much of, but as a trio of preteens got antsy and someone else behind me was joking about taking an unclaimed crêpe because she had waiting a while, I realized this might take a bit of time. A few other people joined, including an eight-year-old and his mother, and we talked quite a bit about waiting for crêpes.

Each time one of the chefs called a number, everyone would glance at the number card they had, even if they had memorized their number (mine was 2-27), and bowed their heads because the crêpe belonged to someone else. The eight-year-old took one look at the crowd in action and told his mother, “We’ll be here for an hour.” A teenager talked to her mother across the crowd; her mother had already gotten a panini from a nearby stand and finished it. The numbers called seemed to come in no order, making matters more tense, but giving us all more opportunity to build our bond. Someone finally a crêpe; I congratulated her. Mine came soon after; I wished everyone “good luck,” to which a few smiled.

Perhaps my very tasty crêpe was worth the wait.

tl;dr: The company of strangers.

Links of the Day

Bolton Wanderers have banned The Bolton News’s chief football writer Mark Iles after he used a gif from The Muppets Christmas Carol while tweeting about the club paying overdue wages to the coaching staff and players.

Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhüttl has suggested that the club offer season ticket holders free beers before every home match after they did so before the team’s 3-2 victory over Arsenal.

Today’s longer read: Steve Brenner interviews Bordeaux’s new owner Joseph DaGrosa on competing with limited funds and his ownership style for The Guardian