The longer answer: if sports are the measure of real American, I am in real trouble and the entire Puget Sound region is in danger of assimilation with Canada--except we cannot quite muster critical mass for hockey or curling.
Personally, for reasons of self-preservation, I stay away from any sport where the ball is smaller than my head. I make slight conversational exception for baseball, but only because my public transit habits allow me to combine that with linguistic research about current vernacular and the vibe of local race relations. Plus the M's got their taxpayer-funded stadium a few years back, a fact I fiercely resent whenever I do minute analysis of all the sales tax I pay.
The ball bigger than my head rule pretty much means volleyball which I used to play tolerably and basketball. The local men's pro team just got soundly spanked by taxpayers who more or less told their local billionaires seeking taxpayer handouts ownership group to stick it in their ear. The owners got huffy and sold the whole mess to dude from OK city where taxpayers seem more willing to ...., Meanwhile, we kept the hugely popular women's franchise and when the mayor needs to take time off from paving the whole city a mile deep in condo studios, he makes noises about getting another men's franchise. Dunno how he's gonna fund it since people are still honked off about state of local schools and revenues are a mess because of general economic dyspepsia.
On the Real American front though, despite the horrifying facts outlined above, this morning's indicators:
--Know people who dress like Sarah Palin's before pictures. Even related to a few of them.
--Read an awful lot of the late Tony Hillerman. Even walked a good bit of New Mexico desert and know who code-talkers were. Don't think that makes me an expert about the Navahos Sadly, know people who do think that.
--Have TWO tv's of my own that never even get plugged in but last night I spent part of the evening hanging with Mom and watching TeeVee, Dancing with the Stars. Nothing like watching a couple huge pro football stars try to waltz. The most important point, this capped the key festivity of the evening, VOTING!!!!
Yes indeedy Mom and I ate broccoli and chicken and fruit crisp and MARKED our absentee ballots! So now Pugetopolis can fall into the sea. Wheeeeee!
DC
On Tue, Oct 28, 2008 at 7:02 AM, Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> wrote:
>
>
> Dennis Claxton wrote:
> >
> > joseph noonan wrote:
> >
> > >That's because you are not a Real American.
> >
> > There's not a Real American on this entire flapdoodling list. We're
> > in the middle of one of the most embarrassing World Series in the
> > history of the republic and nary a word here, yea nay or indifferent.
>
> Well, Detroit isn't playing. Fifty years ago I adopted a perfect
> strategy for my team always winning: MLB exists only when Detroit wins
> the American League penant. Who's playing in the Series anyhow, and
> which is winning?
>
> Carrol
>
> ___________________________________
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>