UPDATED: Bits & Bobs: The “I Need A Cocktail Something Fierce” Edition

Oh boy, it has been a long day. I was up really early working from home while waiting for not one, but two (!), visits from the air conditioner repairman and considering how humid and gross this NYC summer has been, it was an absolute must. So, now I’m a couple of hundred bucks poorer, but the house is cool again. Alas, my brain is fried though. Summers are supposed to be slow, don’t you think? Why is work so busy? Argh. Anyhow, I’m going to drop some bits and bobs that I’ve collected on y’all, then pour myself a nice glass of wine and kick back for the evening.

To start things off, the fabulous torso of Sami Khedira! He and Lena are now in Miami. However, he’s sporting the same trunks that Mesut and Sergio had last summer.  C’mon, Sami! Those trunks are sooooo 2011! He still looks hot as hell.

Iranian Photographer And Women’s Soccer Rights Activist Disappears In Tehran

Maryam Majd, a photojournalist and women's rights activist, campaigns for female football fans to be allowed to watch matches in stadiums. (File Photo)

 Iranian photographer and women’s soccer rights activist disappears in Tehran

Thursday, 23 June 2011
By JAMES M. DORSEY
REPRINTED FROM AL ARABIYA

An Iranian photographer and activist for women’s soccer rights has disappeared as the Islamic republic battles world soccer body FIFA for its own interpretation of the rights of women in the beautiful game.

Maryam Majd, 25, is believed to have been detained by Iranian security officials as she was boarding a flight from Tehran to Düsseldorf to cover world soccer body FIFA’s Women’s World Cup.

Wackass Bullshit

The Iranian women’s football team were banned from playing, moments before an Olympic qualifier against Jordan, because of their strip. Photograph: Ali Jarekji/Reuters

Iran’s women footballers banned from Olympics because of Islamic strip

Iran’s dream of competing in the London 2012 Olympic women’s football tournament have been crushed by an unexpected ruling that their Islamic dress broke Fifa rules, said a football federation official in Tehran.