The following is a verbatim excerpt from le journal du Billy. You guys are LUCKY that I'm doing this for you.

I REALLY NEED TO CLEAN OUT THE FILTER BETWEEN MY MOUTH AND MY BRAIN

If I ever become famous, I really could foresee some huge scandal in which I am overwhelmingly condemned as a racist bigot in the court of public opinion, all because of one slip of the tongue on live TV, or in the presence of the member of the media.

On the train from Nuremberg --> Amsterdam, we (Hunter, Jamison and I...this is the day after the Burg Open Air Festival, about a week ago) sat across from a pleasant German couple: early 30's, study abroad experience at UNC, impeccable English. We talked about anything and everything, for maybe 30 minutes, an hour, when suddenly, the topic of German flags was broached. Laura (Jamison's chica) had confessed her surprise when I saw her in Cologne over the abundance of red, yellow and black she had seen since touching down in her homeland a few weeks ago. To her and the entire generation of Germans disillusioned with their nation's history, flags = nationalism = another world war.

All I did was express the humor of the situation in joke form (to this incredibly nice couple who never said anything remotely offensive to me).

"Yeah, I mean, maybe it's not such a good thing that the World Cup is stoking the flames of German nationalism...we all remember what happened the last two times you guys got all riled up."

No good?

Call me oblivious, but I seriously did not detect any semblance of an adverse reaction from the two Germans.

It was only after they got off, and both Hunter and Jamison expressed their temporary desires to disavow any connection with me about 30 minutes beforehand, that I realized my gaffe.

But seriously...it was a pretty funny joke, no?

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Not included in that journal passage was the discussion we three had after having arrived in Amsterdam, while chilling at The Grasshopper, about five minutes before Jamison left me for good (tear).

It's especially funny now, seeing that there's a very real possibility France will face Germany in the World Cup Final next Sunday.

(Hunter and Jamison have both just discussed the fact that 'T-A-C-T' is a four-letter word to me)

Billy: "Oh dude, if Germany won, that would be CRAZY. But I would seriously be a little scared, too. What if they took it ... a little too far? Ya know, like 'WE ARE EXTREMELY CONFIDENT RIGHT NOW! WHAT DO WE ALWAYS DO WHEN WE HAVE CONFIDENCE?? LET'S INVADE FRANCE!! AHHHHH!"

Obviously, I kid.

But.... ya never know.