Comments on: It Was That, Or Skin My Chauffeurs

By: ursus arctos

ursus arctos — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:51:00 +0000

A friend of mine once next sat next to Henry Kissinger’s brother at a dinner party.

Said brother was several years older than Henry the K, and conventional wisdom would have it that his Germanic accent was therefore more established at the time that they emigrated. Nevertheless, at least by the late 70s, he spoke without any trace of said accent.

When my friend asked him how he and his brother could sound so dramatically different, he quickly responded with what must have been a standard reply.

“It’s simple. I listen to other people.”

By: A.

A. — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:55:49 +0000

Yes, Mustoe it is, thank you Brian. Btw has Andy Gray used his “that wasn’t a foul…he was just strrronggr!” line yet?

By: Fredorrarci

Fredorrarci — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:30:09 +0000

He might use it to talk nonsense, but that’s an accent worth striving to keep. God’s own brogue, that.

By: Brian

Brian — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 11:18:07 +0000

I think you mean Robbie Mustoe. He stays on-topic, it’s true, and has very little to say about the bulgedness of onion bags, but his commentary is so minimal and reserved that he can seem almost sour. There have been a couple of high-excitement games in this tournament when I wanted to check his batteries, because it seemed like every comment he made started with a sigh and ended with a shrug.

Andy Gray, somewhat to my surprise, seems to have struck a chord with American viewers—maybe because those absolutist declarations that Richard points out take away a lot of ambiguity. (Was that a terrible call? Andy will stright-up tell you.) He’s able to be disgusted when disgust is called for but still preserve his basic enthusiasm for the game. I agree that his groundless total certainty can be annoying, but he does a better job than anyone else on ESPN of providing an emotional context for the game.

Random Tommy Smyth fact of the day: Did you know he’s lived in the U.S. since the early 1960s? How hard do you think he has to work to preserve his accent at this point? I think if I’d lived in Ireland for 45 years I might have lost some trace of my charming American brogue.

By: A.

A. — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 02:11:13 +0000

Andy Gray is on ESPN now? They had a perfectly good ‘analyst’ person in that ex Middlesborough player, what’s his name?. He might not be very excitable or exciting but at least what he has to say is pertinent in the context of the game, quite unlike Smyth who besides his obvious biases has failing eye sight to boot.

By: Richard Whittall

Richard Whittall — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 22:40:43 +0000

I don’t know whether to love or hate these two. The mixing in of Andy Gray has confused things even more. When Italy went one up against France, Gray said something like,

“France will equalize, I’m sure of that.”

Then, when Italy scored again,

“France are out of the tournament.”

These offhand absolutist declarations fascinate me even as they annoy. The difference between one goal and another; it’s like opening the box on Schroedinger’s cat.