Ian Westlake

Ian Westlake is another English soccer player, the second in Wikibloogia. In time, Wikibloogia will be able to field its own soccer team. I look forward to that day. Westlake plays in the English League One for a team called the Wycombe Wanderers. Sort of a discouraging name for a soccer team.

But the real story here is Westlake's last name. Westlake. One can't help but think of Theo Huxtable's sexy-yet-demanding teacher Mrs. Westlake. Mrs. Westlake was tough. She pushed Theo to do his best in school, even though he had dyslexia (though we didn't know it at the time).

It was Mrs. Westlake who inspired me to become a teacher. Of course, I'm not a teacher. But Mrs. Westlake inspired me to become one.


A long-awaited arrival.
Photo: Mr Ush via Flickr (CC)

SV Eintracht Trier 05

SV Eintracht Trier 05 is a German soccer club, originally founded in 1905. They currently play down in the fourth level of professional German leagues.

In Germany they call soccer Fußball (pronouced FOOS-ball). This is funny because that's our English word for a table game with hard plastic men lined up on metal rods with big heads and blocks for feet spinning very fast and knocking a ball into a goal. One can imagine a world in which this was always how German-English language relationships worked. For example, the German word for farming is Landwirtschaft. In English, landwirtschaft would be our word for hard plastic men lined up on metal rods with big heads and blocks for feet spinning very fast and planting crops.

Soccer is one of Germany's most cherished pastimes.


These foosball players wish they weren't suspended from metal rods.
Photo: Rev. Xanatos Satanicos Bombasticos (ClintJCL) via Flickr (CC)

Gary Cohen (footballer)

Gary Cohen (footballer) is a soccer player in England. Gary was born on January 20, 1984. Four days later, the Apple Macintosh was introduced.

Gary's dad, Gary's mom, and Gary's aunt Shirley all ran in the Olympic Games for Great Britain.


Gary once kicked a ball so hard it turned into a panda.
Photo: teresa_dominijanni via Flickr (CC)