Rugby, News, Latin, and Pinochle

(From Christophe Simon/AFT/Getty Images, via CNN, used w/o permission.)
"Rugby has become increasingly popular from Copacabana Beach to the rugby pitches of Rio de Janeiro and elsewhere"

"Olympic Games 2016: Samba sevens as Brazil granted rugby spots"
CNN (February 7, 2014)

"As a nation, Brazil might be better known for its round rather than oval-ball prowess but the World Cup host has been granted automatic spots in the rugby sevens at the 2016 Olympics.

"Sevens is making its Olympic bow in Rio de Janeiro and increasingly teams in the Brazilian city are seen practicing on the iconic Copacabana Beach and elsewhere - overall in the country, rugby participation in Brazil has risen by 25% since 2011...."

The Sochi Winter Olympics are over. Some folks won, some didn't, and now the world breathlessly awaits Olympics yet un-commentaried. If that wasn't a word before, it is now, but the Lemming digresses.

The Lemming has already seen one op-ed about the unfairness of the 2016 Olympics in Brazil, and is confident that there will be more of the same over the next year or so.

That's understandable, since editors have space to fill in their publications; and a persistent need for something, anything, to prevent those regularly-scheduled broadcasts from descending into ad-libbed witticisms.

Or, perhaps, for those who go for Baroque, a piacere: which has nothing to do with pizza.

On a more — or less — serious note, the Lemming recognizes the importance of rugby in the lives of so many of this world's people.

This brings to the Lemming's mind a question: why is there so very little attention paid to Pinochle?

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