The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur news and links for Friday, October 9

Hi, all!

The New York Times improved their dialect quiz and my results naturally indicated I speak like I’m from New York, but I also did the Britain and Ireland dialect quiz and I am definitely not British or Irish.

Ramble of the Day

There’s a film trailer making the rounds, so I figured I’d share. It’s Fatman, directed by Eshom and Ian Nelms and starring Mel Gibson. I’d encourage you to find out as little as possible before going into this, and maybe taking a guess about the plot before you press play.

I am being honest when I say this: I guessed Fatman was a reference to Santa Claus, and had an inkling it would be a serious film that had some action aspects to it because that’s what Gibson does nowadays. I naturally didn’t predict a child putting a hit out on Santa Claus.

As I rewatch the trailer, my first thought is that of course Mel Gibson did a Santa Claus action movie. The second watch of this, though, makes me also feel like the storyline where Santa is hired by the U.S. government seems a bit out of place; I hope they tie that loose end in the film because I’m not sure what exactly the government wants from him (though I imagine he’s a valuable hire). Another thing that automatically sticks out is the clip of Walter Goggins’ character beating up a log-like thing with a picture of Santa Claus’ face glued to the top in what appears to be a storage closet, which makes me laugh because I find it pathetic. I also find the scene where the child screams, “You just messed up big time, Fatman!” in a similar vein, but much more funny because I’m laughing at it.

The shock value of everything is incredible, and they absolutely should have saved it for the trailer and not the movie, but I don’t know how the movie can top the trailer. They’ve done the work of making sure a lot of people will tune into media for the film, and I think there will be some earned interest in reviews. I know I’m going to be genuinely curious to find out how it shapes up — here’s hoping they saved some good stuff for the actual film.

tl;dr: Of course Mel Gibson is doing a Santa Claus action movie where the antagonist is a 12 year old upset at getting coal for Christmas.

Stay informed, read this: Lola Ogunnaike interviewed actress and businesswoman Gabrielle Union on facing and tackling racism in Hollywood and staying busy for Marie Claire

Links of the Day

A U19 match between England and Scotland was called off at halftime after Scotland manager Billy Stark received a positive COVID-19 test.

A study by Women in Football revealed two thirds of women have experienced some form of sexism in the workplace.

Arsenal left Mesut Özil and Sokratis out of its Europa League squad.

Switzerland’s Xherdan Shaqiri tested negative for COVID-19 after a positive earlier this week and rejoined the national team.

A longer read: Tim Vickery on the state of CONMEBOL World Cup qualifying as it begins months behind schedule during the coronavirus pandemic for ESPN