The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur News and Links for Wednesday, April 18

Hi, people!

Let’s talk about me as a child again!

Ramble of the Day

I ran into my fifth grade teacher yesterday, and I immediately began thinking about that year of my life. I already told you all about how ten-year-old me was very Tim Sherwood-esque and made a girl cry in the process. However, I realized that I was a very weird ten-year-old.

That was the year that many parents thought our teacher was letting us have too much fun and thought we weren’t learning anything, but that was the year I learned what the word “chronological” meant. (It is possible I didn’t learn much else.) While our parents complained, we had a blast, and I think we all turned out okay.

That year of my schooling was also when I entered a very weird jewelry phase where I touched my teacher’s jewelry of choice every single day. It started with me just staring at her choices. She mostly changed out her earrings and bracelets, but had plenty of necklace and ring options, too. Then, I told her how much I liked it. Finally, she let me touch her accessories.

I remember I was particularly enamored with a charm bracelet that I think she picked up at Victoria’s Secret. The links were gold-tinted, but certainly not gold. The charms hanging off included medium sized circular beads of different colors, a gold-tinted high heeled shoe, and a gold-tinted purse. In retrospect, I can see how tacky it was. I wish I could find you a picture, but I had no luck. Regardless, at age ten, I loved that thing. I even convinced many of my classmates to fall in love with it, too.

My teacher decided to buy the jewelry-obsessed girls of the class the same bracelet and give them to us on the last day of school, but that didn’t pan out. Instead, she got us much classier sterling silver bracelets, but the silver went black very quickly. Plus, my skin has an allergic reaction to sterling silver and other types of fake metal, so it’s best I tossed it out quickly.

Anyway, I’m glad I didn’t end up with a tacky bracelet. More importantly, though, I feel like it was weird that my teacher would toss her hands, neck, and ears in my direction. I was talking about it with my older sister, who thinks it’s fine that a young child was curious about her teacher’s jewelry. I don’t know, I’m still weirded out by it, but she was very receptive to it.

For what it’s worth, I did not touch her jewelry yesterday. It was a quick moment, and I don’t think she was wearing anything flashy.

tl;dr: Me, weird ten-year-old: Episode Two

Links of the Day

Russia has been charged with fan racism less than 60 days before they begin hosting the men’s World Cup.

World Cup qualifying has wrapped up in Asia ahead of the 2019 Women’s World Cup, as Japan, Australia, China, Thailand, and South Korea are the first nations to book their tickets to France.

Sergio Agüero’s Manchester City season has ended after undergoing knee surgery.

Arturo Vidal will miss the rest of Bayern Munich’s season after also having knee surgery.

David Squires’s latest cartoon is about Manchester City’s title celebrations.

Today’s longer read: Rory Smith on legends matches, unimportant to many but meaningful to the retired players, for The New York Times