The Quidditch World Cup begins today. ESPN and Yahoo both have solid splash pages devoted to the subject, and I've already pointed you to the massive World Cup Blog.

If you don't have cable, you can pretty much only get matches on the weekend -- but the BBC will apparently be streaming games as they happen. UK users only! Bullkidneys.

With Ireland out of the equation, I think our household will start out rooting for Italy, and if that fails we'll most likely switch to Germany or Japan*. I realize those are the Axis powers, but they've reformed now, and I for one believe in redemption. In any event, as is the case with all sporting events, my loyalties are effectively random.

* I also have soft spots for the Czech Republic and Sweden.