New Times Broward-Palm Beach Calendar Editor Mickie Centrone attends and details some of the finest -- and occasionally subpar -- events from a given week. On Sunday, she sort of watched the World Cup final at Biddy Early's in Oakland Park.
At the corner of the bar at Biddy Early's, Marty is the noisy Englishman with an air horn and who refers to his steady stream of bottled Heinekens as "Dutch spring water." "I watched every single game," he says, "and partied for most of the afternoon games." My friend and I didn't really watch any of the World Cup games, and now we're drinking with the dude who woke up each game day whenever the first match started -- even at 7 a.m. -- and kept his snooze set for every ten minutes just in case he dosed back off. Soon, we're finishing his half-drunk hand-me-down shots.
The light wooden bar that lines the wall might have been full of patrons watching the game, but Marty's ponytailed friend, Nick, tells me: "The atmosphere's nothing because nobody is supporting the teams." Nick is also English and follows the English. All right, I say to them, find me a Dutch bar. "I don't know if the Dutch bar exists," replies Marty. "Think about it: If you were Dutch, would you open a bar?"
Marty's rooting for Spain because of Paul the psychic octopus. This octopus, who lives in Germany, has picked World Cup winners by eating out of the food bucket, which represents a certain country by way of flag, of who will win. "He's an English
octopus," says Marty. "Not a lot of people know that." Then an Irish guy strikes fear into our hearts when he says: "Octopus is getting death threats -- picked against the Germans, and
he was right." Marty has 250 bucks riding on this game and $50 with his ponytailed friend at the bar. So, minus the $200 he spent on all his air horn purchases and whatever amount he spent drinking at the bar, he walks away with...
