I haven't shot any new material since I got back from vacation except the balloon race so I'm scraping the archives. These are three of the cheerleaders for the St. Louis Rams, the local football team. Not the world's football. American football. The picture was shot back at the Fourth of July parade. The season started this month and the Rams are 0-2.
Actually, I hate football. It's all violence and glitz with a dash of sex. It reminds me of America's wars from Vietnam forward. It is about capturing territory at all costs and then inevitably losing it, while wearing uniforms that make the players look like steroid-inflated spacemen. Many veterans of the National Football League are near cripples, their joints wrecked by years of smashing into other large men as hard as possible. IMHO, the line from Shakespeare's Macbeth fits well: "It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." The football championship, the Super Bowl, is usually held in early February. Most Americans watch it. For many years, my wife and I have gone out to dinner in a TV-free restaurant during the game for our private Stupid Bowl party. If the restaurant is open, you've got the best table in the house.
The only professional sport I follow is baseball, with its greater variety of graceful athleticism, no time clock (I think that it exists in another dimension) and subtle, intellectual decisions. Baseball is not deliberately violent, although throwing a small, hard ball at 150 km/h and swinging around hefty ash wood bats has its risks. Baseball has strategy like chess. football like warfare.
So that's my rant for today. And anyway, a picture of three pretty young ladies will probably draw hits from the portal.
Actually, I hate football. It's all violence and glitz with a dash of sex. It reminds me of America's wars from Vietnam forward. It is about capturing territory at all costs and then inevitably losing it, while wearing uniforms that make the players look like steroid-inflated spacemen. Many veterans of the National Football League are near cripples, their joints wrecked by years of smashing into other large men as hard as possible. IMHO, the line from Shakespeare's Macbeth fits well: "It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." The football championship, the Super Bowl, is usually held in early February. Most Americans watch it. For many years, my wife and I have gone out to dinner in a TV-free restaurant during the game for our private Stupid Bowl party. If the restaurant is open, you've got the best table in the house.
The only professional sport I follow is baseball, with its greater variety of graceful athleticism, no time clock (I think that it exists in another dimension) and subtle, intellectual decisions. Baseball is not deliberately violent, although throwing a small, hard ball at 150 km/h and swinging around hefty ash wood bats has its risks. Baseball has strategy like chess. football like warfare.
So that's my rant for today. And anyway, a picture of three pretty young ladies will probably draw hits from the portal.
It's reeled me in!
ReplyDeleteExcellent rant. You're in fine form.
ReplyDeleteCame from the portal because I wondered "Why?!" Good to know it is not because you like them.
ReplyDeleteI will be getting adicted in watching football games. Here when Penn State plays home games, everything could happen, trafic jams, hoveing helicopters, more police, and ...
ReplyDeleteViola - thanks for your note. My sister and brother-in-law both work for PSU and live in State College. I've been to see the gargantuan stadium (although not attended a game), driven by Joe Paterno's house, the whole tour. My brother-in-law, the acting chairman of the psych department, could happily sit in his living room and watch football the whole day long. Not me. PSU has a great little art museum, which is more up my alley.
ReplyDeleteI do watch the Super Bowl, but really only for the ads. I kinda enjoy high school games, but that's only to support Brentwood High School! Like you, though, I much prefer baseball. And I gotta say, I very much enjoy reading your rants when they come! You've got some of the most intelligent rants I've ever seen!
ReplyDeleteHAHAHA! I'm with you.
ReplyDeleteMy brother asked me recently, if I watch any sports....and before I opened my mouth, he said "figure skating doesn't count."
Actually, I like basketball and tennis, if I'm in the mood to watch sport programming on TV.
I like this picture--nice repetition of form, LOL and color. But I too hate football and never go sinceI was required to go as a Freshman at St. Lawrence.
ReplyDeleteFInally someone with some common sense, lol ! You explained exactly what i am thinking of American football too. I don't understand it. I don't understand the appeal at all. I'd rather watch a dart competition on the BBC!
ReplyDelete