Today in nitwittery

 (In which the Blob goes international, first to Australia and then to Africa)

Speaking of Down Under ...

The Australian Open tennis tournament is Under a whether delay, as in "it all depends on whether or not one guy decides to follow the rules or go home." 

That one guy is Novak Djokovic, who has 20 career grand slam titles and thus is one of the greatest male players in history. He's also a self-indulgent jackass whose unvaccinated status and refusal to abide by Australia's Bastard Plague vaccination statutes has now caused the organizers to delay the tournament.

Joker -- who supposedly had a visa exemption, but it turned out he didn't -- remains in Australia because an Australian court ruled the country couldn't just deport him the way it would, I don't know, anyone else. Australia, like much of the world, is struggling to contain an outbreak of the especially virulent omicron variant of the Plague -- and, unlike the U.S., doesn't mess around about it.

Well, unless it involves Novak Djokovic, one of those kooky anti-vaccine wusses who don't think the rules should apply to him. 

I say the organizers need to say "OK, fine," and proceed without him. Of course, because it's Djokovic, they probably won't.

Which is the whole problem.

* And now to Cameroon, where the whole problem was not the Plague but the fact a certain referee had apparently not been exposed to it, and so was free to ...

Well, I don't know what you'd call it. Not refereeing, that's for sure.

What happened in the Africa Cup of Nations soccer tournament was Zambian ref Janny Sikazwe -- who actually is regarded well enough to have been a World Cup ref in 2018 -- forgot how to tell time, which is sort of crucial in a soccer match. And so, with Mali leading Tunisia 1-0 in the 85th minute, he suddenly blew his whistle and declared the match completed.

The sticking point, of course, is that soccer matches last 90 minutes plus extra time.

Tunisia's side, naturally, threw a fit, after which Sikazwe changed his mind and ruled the match would continue -- only to again declare the match over in the 89th minute.

This after a half that included a penalty, a red card, two video reviews and a water break, which should have added several minutes of extra time. Sikazwe apparently decided the extra time was actually reverse extra time, which is why he declared the match over with 15 seconds remaining in the required 90 minutes.

But wait, there's more!

After everyone had left the pitch, done their media availability and dressed -- a 30-minute stretch, all told -- tournament officials decided to bring everyone back to replay the last three minutes and include the appropriate injury time. Tunisia, still miffed, refused. And so Mali won 1-0.

Nitwittery. It's contagious, too.