I find myself in somewhat unusually buoyant spirits this frigid Monday morning. If nothing else, the fact that I've been walking down the halls doing the "stealth whistle" (a nigh inaudible whistling, under one's breath) to "47 Ginger Headed Sailors" ought to be an indication:
47 Ginger Headed Sailors
It's all the rage at the Drones at the moment.
After a brutal, disheartening failure to reproduce a true, slow smoked Kansas City BBQ slab of pork ribs last week, I've rallied the morale and am making plans to attack the challenge next year again, this time with a proper offset box smoker. There is only so much one can do with a small cheap charcoal grill designed for hot dogs and hamburgers. I'm sure the experts could have done better even with that, but hey, Rembrandt could have probably used a child's watercolor set to paint a masterpiece. My skill is not anywhere near that level, and I'll need to get the right tool for the job next year.
While I initially rooted a bit for Army given their underdog status on Saturday's game, I eventually returned to my senses, and realized that my heart was still in Annapolis, and so I cheered Navy on to win for the sixth straight time. That is my favourite football game of the year; each member of both teams is a scholar and an athlete, and the contest is unstained with the big business and professional overtones of college football in general. It is true that either team would probably get slaughtered by one of the big state college teams, but it is nice watching the Army Navy game because more than the other college football contests, this is truly just a game. It's not a job, it's not an internship, it isn't some sort of springboard into a pro career, and so there is a nice civility and sporting nature to it. These players will go on to be officers, engineers, pilots, astronauts, scientists, and government leaders. That in itself is quite impressive, and to these players (since in all likelihood they will never go "pro", having to serve 6 or so years in the service after graduation) the Army Navy game represents the climax of their years playing football, every bit as important to them as a Superbowl to a pro player. I'm not a football nut by any stretch, but I do like these games, they have a classic spirit to them, like some sort of older style of college sports, where it was more a game and less a business.
4 comments:
Well I am halfway through my first viewing of Jeeves and Wooster. I have to admit enjoying it even though it doesn't generate the cheap and yet gut busting laughs of your typical Seinfeld episode.
There is just something inherently funny about the Brits and their punctiliousness.
I'll agree with that, as the "Jeeves and Wooster" series is not exactly laughter generating...I guess I just find it more amusing than hilarious. There are some very funny bits, such as when he references his formidable aunts' ability to communicate, "aunt calling to aunt, like mastodons bellowing across the primeval swamp."
But for more classic Brit silliness and outright comedy I'd recommend the "Bit of Fry and Laurie" series which is much more akin to Python. J&W is kind of a character comedy; it definitely doesn't rely on outright silliness like a lot of the other British comedies I like do. Well, excepting an episode in the 4th season, where Jeeves is persuaded to impersonate a middle aged American female novelist. Something about Stephen Fry acting as an austere English butler acting as a chatty American woman is pretty funny, regardless. Brits doing American accents have always amused me (as they usually do it rather poorly). Hugh Laurie on the other hand has done quite well, as can be seen in the House series. His earlier attempts at the American accent (in the Bit of Fry and Laurie show) were much less polished and more exaggerated. His Dr. House character has never betrayed much of his English accent, that I have heard.
I've to check out Fry and Laurie but it is on the to-do list. The last thing I saw Stephen Fry in was 'V for Vendetta' which was very good I thought.
Hehe, I admit I watched V for Vendetta but I am reluctant to link to my review of it, I savaged it pretty relentless despite it being an entertaining movie. My objection to it had less to do with its merits as entertainment and more to do with with the degree of allegory that seemed stuffed into it, making a too-exaggerated point that the Patriot Act was a slippery slope to Orwell's 1984, a bit of a cliche anyway. But......I have a tendency to read too much into things anyway so I fear I might not have been fair to the movie.
Oh, and re Fry/Wodehouse, I really liked Stephen Fry's ode that he wrote here:
http://www.drones.com/fry.html
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