Bandy in the Olympics?

BOULDER, Colorado -- This post has nothing to do with bandy being in the Olympics. Even if they're held in Russia in 2014, which is a totally preposterous idea, it won't be in. I've seen the proposed venues in Sochi, and they are pretty, well, terrible. Not to mention the fact that the skiing venues are immediately adjacent to the war-torn breakaway republic of Abkhazia. But again, that has nothing to do with this post. If I offend anyone by speaking ill of Sochi, I encourage you to make the case for their Olympic bid in the form of an email.

First things first:

My market research has been showing that news about the Russian Bandy League is not the big hit among English speakers that I thought it would be. In fact, the number of hits has been downright sad. So in an act of desperation, I posted an announcement about this site on the bulletin board of the Baikal-Energia fan site, www.sibscana.irkutsk.ru. It read as follows:

Приглашение и просьба.

Ребята, хотите улучшить ваш английский и читать о хоккее с мячом? Нажмите сюда (http://bandycentral.blogspot.com) - первый в истории англоязычный сайт о русском хоккее. Пишите какие-нибудь новости из Иркутска, о случаях на трибунах Труда, о фан-клубе, и т.д., и я перевожу и поставлю на свой сайт.

Мой email: agustafson@gmail.com.

Легионер Густафсон скоро вернется на 9-й сектор!

As a direct result of this posting, something spectacular happened - we had our first hits from the fine city of Irkutsk, and they keep on coming. Just as I learned Russian from reading bandy newspapers, my fellow fans can learn English from reading about bandy on this site.

Second:

If you are not familiar with World-Systems Theory and the contending approaches of George Modelski and Immanuel Wallerstein, count yourself lucky. I, on the other hand, am in the middle of writing a 15-page paper on the topic which, when coupled with the 15-page paper I am also writing on nationalism, will likely prevent me from doing this week's Superleague roundup.

If a roundup does appear on Tuesday, it will likely portend my expulsion from graduate school, as it will mean that I am messing around with this site (like I'm doing now) instead of studying (which I'm not doing now).

But not to fear - all work will be completed by Thursday, and I'll have the news from behind the Iron Curtain for you then.