Heidi Harris reviews global sports culture and a listener's historical Cuba ties.

What this episode covers

Heidi Harris: Go USA, baby! Go USA tonight! All of us have become soccer fans, right? [laughs] Even people who didn't care about soccer have now looked at this and gone, "Oh, what? They're mad? Good." Here's a little message that Belgium has put out there, they've issued a— they're upset about this, it's the Royal Belgian Football Association. They said, "To date, the RBFA still has not received any grounds for this decision, nor has it received the information it's been requesting since the start of this procedure for a copy of this decision, bla bla bla bla bla bla. The RBFA has informed the United States Soccer Federation that it can contest the eligibility of the player, should the player be listed on the referee's team sheet. This leaves all further actions open." Oh, harumph. Na-na-na-na-na. 800-905-0989, read 'em and weep, baby, read 'em and weep! Wes in Greer, how are you? Welcome to The Charlie James Show. Wes: Fine, Heidi. There's a word for this, it's called "Euro-weenie." Heidi Harris: [bursts out laughing] Wes: Okay, I mean, if y'all want to go this far over what was blatantly not a foul in any way, shape, manner, or form— Heidi Harris: Uh, no, well, not a red card. Not a red card anyway. I mean, that's ridiculous, yeah. Wes: Well, I will admit, like you said, I never thought I'd be a soccer fan, but [laughs] but I am, so [laughs] Go Team USA! Um, I wanted to just throw something in, you know, as a kid growing up in the '70s, I learned two things by going to my grandmother's house and looking into my dad's huge, huge photograph boxes. Um, you know the— you remember how they used to have like the Polaroid pictures, but they had the little rounded, little edges around the— round them, the black-and-white ones? Heidi Harris: Oh my gosh, yes. Uh-huh. Wes: So, dad had businesses in Miami. Um, went to Cuba all the time. And I saw photographs of hotels, and, I mean, the best way to look at it, folks, was Las Vegas on an island. That was a 30-minute ride off the coast of Florida. Heidi Harris: Yeah. Wes: And dad would sit there and tell me, uh, you know, what a shame it was, and that, uh, yeah, they— that they couldn't believe that they would let something that close, you know, fall into communist hands. Um, all the Bay of Pigs. But, um— the— the next thing I learned, Heidi, you know, the news media, and nobody wants to teach us all that tornadoes and storms just started, you know, about the time George Bush became president and George Bush and Cheney put the weather machine in the basement, you know. [laughs] That— that— that could— could steer the storms. But, as a kid, I looked through this box. I saw ships, and my dad would tell me about all the horrific storms that would blow through Florida, the pictures, boats that were miles inland that were sitting in the middle of the intersection, on top of houses. And I just remember as a kid, every time I would go to grandma's house, you know, we wanted to tear into these pictures and look at them again and again. Heidi Harris: Wow, how great. Wes: And as a— and as a kid, you know, in the— '90s and the 2000s, to hear these people come forward, "There's been storms down in Florida." And I was like, "Oh yeah, kind of like the ones my dad had in that box, you know, that— that happened back in the—" You know, they just try to convince us that it never happened. And my dad said, point-blank, "You didn't— there was no media. People didn't have an idea of the impact of these storms unless they happened to travel there or had a loved one, or happened to have somebody who had a box full of photographs." Heidi Harris: That's right. Well, that— that— no, that's a good point. That's a good point that you made though, that unless you lived in that neighborhood— I mean, 1900, you know, the Galveston hurricane killed 6 to 12,000 people, wiped out Galveston. 1900, before George Bush, just slightly before George Bush. [laughs] Wes: Yeah, yeah, and— and they had no warning a ...

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