I managed to go almost seven full days and 10 posts without falling back on the comedy crutch otherwise known as the World Cup. But there's just such good material here, I simply can't resist anymore, although I promise to try to limit myself to a weekly excursion to the wacky world of World Cup.

At any rate, here's the story that made it absolutely necessary for me to end my self-imposed World Cup embargo:

Togo is making its first World Cup appearance ever and is ranked 32nd among the 32 qualifiers. But the West African country has got something going for it that the other 31 teams (presumably) don't. A chief Voodoo fetish priest, who claims to oversee 650 naked priests and priestesses who worship in a sacred forest and says he is the chief intermediary between the living and ancestral spirits, will be making the trip to Germany to support the team.

But the best part of the story (at least as far as I'm concerned) is that Togbui Assiogbo Gnagblondiro III is a journalist by trade. Who knew that I was on a career path that could ultimately result in a management-level position involving naked priestesses numbering in the hundreds?

In other World Cup fun:

- Ronaldo will hopefully be able to concentrate on the task at hand -- a third World Cup title in the last four tries (and an unprecedented sixth overall) for Brazil -- now that his supermodel girlfriend Raica Oliveira has unequivocally stated for the record that she will never pose in the nude. Take a gander to the right to see how Ronaldo's gain is most definitely our loss.

- Upon his arrival in Italy, former Argentine star Diego Maradona had a pair of Rolexes (one from each wrist ... we kid you not) confiscated by Italian's tax police to help chip away at the $38.5 million in taxes Maradona owes from his 1980s stint with Naples in Italy's Serie A league.

- A German documentary aired Tuesday argued that a "phantom goal" that enabled England to win the 1966 World Cup has resulted in a curse that has kept England title-less in the ensuing 40 years.