So, despite the heart-breaking one-run loss on Thursday night, it still feels like the Yankees are rolling merrily along. Honestly I'm looking at the bright side of potentially winning the AL title in Yankee Stadium - that will be good times! But I caught myself doing something amusingly dumb on Tuesday night which I must share (because sharing is what I'm all about). I was flipping between the Sabathia-Kazmir duel and The Biggest Loser (of course) and I flipped back to the game in time to see A-Rod bash a home run. Both my arms shot up overhead in exultation, hands straight as knife-edges, and I was sheepishly grateful that I was alone and didn't have to suffer anyone, my wife for example, saying, "That's the sign for touchdown, sweetie. That's football." (Although she does love a wacky juxtaposition of sports tropes. She's been known to ask during the late innings of lopsided ballgames "When are they gonna pull the goalie?") The thing is, I know the difference between football and baseball (and hockey!) and I know that just as football has a gesture for touchdowns (and field goals and PATs) baseball has a gesture made by umpires when a hit is a homerun: index finger pointing up and twirling counterclockwise, presumably mimicking a baserunner touching them all. I also know this: the homerun gesture is not as much fun to do at home on the couch as the touchdown gesture. Come on, MLB, get with it! Somebody get working on the new homerun gesture technology immediately. Chop chop, let's go.
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Speaking of The Biggest Loser, I didn't comment on this week's episode - there was a refreshing lack of chicanery and it seems like they're no longer full-throttle on the "Tracey is Evil" storyline - but it did occur to me that there is an obvious parallel between Saint Abby's backstory about losing her family in a car accident and Rob Sheffield losing his wife. Both are random, could-happen-to-anyone tragedies, but I still have a much harder time blogging about Abby, whereas I wrote a 2,000 word post about Rob. I don't think it's just that Abby's tragedy involves a baby and a small child dying, although that's got to be part of it. I think it has much more to do with the fact that Love Is a Mix Tape has a strong sense of closure to it. The tragedy has been procesed, past tense, even if Rob is still living with it and will be reminded of Renee in small ways for the rest of his life. They say that demons shrivel in the light, and Rob takes a long, hard look at the effects of death and grief in his book. And at the end of the day he is a working journalist and published memoirist, which are things I more or less idolize. Thus I believe Rob is gonna be OK. Abby, on the other hand, seems like she's still going through the process. And it's a subplot on TBL, not the main focus of the show, so there's no room to explore it in Love Is a Mix Tape levels of detail, even if she wanted to. She referred to the accident in passing at one point, saying something about "Since The Wreck ..." (and yes, I could hear the capitalization) and I felt pretty sure that was her shorthand way of referring to something that could very easily be too big and unwieldy too handle. So her difficulties - which, again, I absolutely do not blame her for - translate into my difficulties. The sad thing is I doubt she'll be fully through her personal process by the time this season ends. I hope that if she ever does reach the gonna-be-OK point that somehow (stray issue of People magazine in the powder room at my mom's house?) I find out about it.
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One thing that never fails to amuse me about the Orange Line of the Metro is the advertising placards in the train cars. Because so many people using the Metro work for the military or government, the ads always strike me as bizarrely specific. In NYC you see posters on the subway for TV shows and movies and common products like sneakers or alcohol. (Do they still have cigarette ads on the subway? They did when I was a kid and my dad would take me into his Manhattan office around the holidays.) In D.C. you see posters for mid-air refueling tankers. I cannot even envision the circumstances under which I might be shopping around for mid-air refueling tankers, but if I stumble into that scenario at least I know Boeing wants my business.
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Quickie grab bag this week because of the aforementioned wedding tonight - need to focus energies on getting the house ready for grandparents to come and watch the baby. But coming soon - a permanent blogonym for the baby! And for the missus! And more thoughts on interesting things that fall into my line of sight!
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