Inflation

The last time I watched professional soccer with any regularity was when I lived in Madrid 10 years ago. If Real Madrid scored a goal, everyone in the bar I was in would toast, hug and slap five as the announcer wailed a minute-long "Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool!" Only when a spectacular or clutch goal was scored would the announcer flourish it with an "azo" -- "Golazo" meaning "really big goal."

I don't know if it's a South American thing or if the standards have dropped, but television announcers here are very promiscuous with "golazos." I was at our bar watching Boca Juniors play last night -- they're the Argentine former team of history's second best soccer player, Diego Maradona. Boca was already ahead of International 2-1 with just a few seconds left when the ball, lost in a blitz by Boca players, slowly scooted across the goal line. Hardly a spectacular or clutch goal. But nonetheless, it earned repeated "gooooooooooooolazos!" from the announcer.

On a side note, the most entertaining part of the game for me was the cuts to Maradona's box. The guy -- also one of the world's most famous former cocaine addicts, strugglers with obesity and now talk show hosts -- has one of the strangest, most expressive faces ever. After each goal he would around the stands in a manic state of exuberance and then sink back into his seat sobbing and weeping. I could watch him for hours. And in fact, I have: He's been on television news here in Bolivia all week after joining Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Bolivian presidential hopeful and cocalero Evo Morales in the anti-Bush rallies in Mar del Plata last week.