Apparently the FCC has received 26--count 'em--26 complaints from Mets fans concerned Americans over Chase Utley's use of a Bad Word in his World Series celebration speech. Of course it was vulgar, unnecessary, and immature, but it was also the greatest speech ever made by a sports figure from the perspective of a Philadelphia fan. It was a moment of pure unbridled triumph from a talented, hard-working, but normally reticent young man.
I loved it because, besides being completely hilarious, it was just so thematically perfect coming from Chase Utley. It is, perhaps, something only an English major could fully appreciate. The incident circled back to the All-Star game. Chase was the top vote-getter for both leagues after having a torrid spring. He was certainly popular, handsome, talented, and hard-working despite the talent, always seeking to improve and play his best. He spent hours preparing for each game, watching video and taking batting practice. He and his lovely wife paid for the medical care of a dog badly injured by sociopaths. He was practically Roy Hobbs for cryin' in a bucket. But Chase was quiet, self-effacing, didn't want undue attention. He just wanted to play ball the best he knew how--and we loved him for it.
Then at the All-Star Game Home Run Derby, when Chase was introduced to the New York crowd, he was booed. His response was quite natural, quite funny, and quite unexpected, and, unfortunately for Chase, he forgot he was wearing a live mic on national television when he said it. It immediately endeared him to the Philadelphia fans, who always like it when New Yorkers get told off. There were t-shirts saying, "Boo? F*** you!" on the Internet within hours after the Derby (and they didn't have the asterisks, either). There was a mild brouhaha, but Chase apologized and everyone except the Mets fans understood that These Things Happened and what rocket scientist thought it would be a good idea to mic a professional athlete without a delay, anyway?
The National League lost the All-Star Game, and lost their chance at home field advantage for the World Series. Turned out the National League didn't need no stinkin' home field advantage. The Phightins took it in five--well, maybe five and a half--and Philadelphia exploded with joy. I was in the crowd choking the sidewalks of Market Street when the trucks carrying the players rolled by, their faces joyful, unbelieving of the love being beamed at them by impossible crowds of red-clad, championship-deprived fans. And when they got to the stadium, and Chase Utley took the microphone, he let out all the pent-up emotion and humor he had tried to hide from us for so long. "World Champions!" he said. "World F***ing Champions!"
It was a beautiful moment. Citizens Bank Park exploded, and the co-workers with whom I was watching the stream on the Internet nearly busted a gut laughing. It might have been vulgar and immature, but it had a circular sort of narrative elegance that, as a writer, I admire tremendously. From anyone but Chase it would have just been immature, but after the Home Run Derby incident, he almost had to do it. He was just completing the narrative.
Off to Chicago for the 2008 JASNA AGM (thus the theme--which will change back to the Fightins when I return, of course). George is coming with me, as is Enrico, my personal assistant, so I'll try to blog at least at AustenBlog each night. Also I'll be Twittering updates throughout the weekend.
My JASNA region is very fortunate, as Mr. Tilney writes an advice column for our quarterly newsletter, Bits & Scraps. (Full disclosure: I assist him with the related correspondence. *ahem*) This past spring, one of the letters read as follows:
Dear Mr. Tilney,Whom do you like in the National League East this year?
C.M., Avid Sportsman
P.S. I am pleased to report that the Uppercross Rotisserie League is off to a rousing start, as usual.
My dear Sportsman,
Not being an expert in the sport of Base Ball, I consulted with Mrs. Tilney. She said that the real contest will be between the New York Metropolitans and the Philadelphia club, no doubt good news for our friends in the Eastern Pennsylvania Region. She said the addition of Mr. Santana cannot but be helpful to the Metropolitans, but that the Philadelphia team has more talent at all positions, and strengthened their pitching staff as well with the addition of Mr. Lidge; tho' their performance in spring training, and the athletes' injuries, has left room for concern. However, she said she will be supporting the Philadelphia club this summer, and trusts that Mr. Howard, Mr. Rollins, Mr. Utley, and Mr. Hamels will repeat their recent successes. Mrs. Tilney has chosen Mr. Utley first for her fantasy league team the past three seasons, and is always well-served by it. Tho' she has often remarked that he is a handsome gentleman, I believe she admires his excellent play, and his affection for dogs, a trait that I share.
Yours &c.,
H. Tilney
Looks like Catherine called it, eh? Though she should have given Mr. Moyer a shoutout as well. And Mr. Tilney is the most forbearing of husbands when it comes to baseball-player crushes. ;-)
GO PHILLIES!!!!
An addition to the household...an Eee PC 4G Surf in Galaxy Black that I've named George. No, not after Mr. Knightley. When I saw him out of the box, I wanted to hug him and pet him and call him George! So he is George.
I've wanted one of these for more than a year, by "one of these" meaning a netbook, one of the tiny laptops that are proliferating of late. I really wanted a Foleo but when Palm canceled it, I considered an Eee PC. I even had one on preorder. I wanted it to take to the JASNA AGM in Vancouver last year, but it wouldn't be out in time, and I wasn't really sure I wanted one, so I canceled it.
I ended up purchasing a used Toshiba Portege 100, which is also very light and has a bigger screen and keyboard. However, because it is (well) used, I've had some trouble with it, and even though the laptop itself weighs about 2 pounds, the extra battery (necessary) and the charger (also necessary) effectively double the weight.
Meanwhile, I told one of my co-workers about the Eee PC, and she ordered one. I tried it out, and thought the screen and keyboard were both too small. I was interested in Dell's netbook, which was rumored all summer, and recently released in Windows XP version only. I would have ordered it if the Ubuntu version was available in time for this year's AGM (and the Hornblower convention in San Diego a week later), but it wouldn't be available until the middle of October--too late. Also I'm not crazy about glossy screens. Didn't we get rid of them when we got rid of big fat CRTs, because they make glare and give users headaches? I guess the modern kind are better, but I really think I prefer a matte screen.
I made up my mind to take the Toshiba to Chicago and San Diego, but I really dreaded the idea. The weight, the logistics of TSA, etc. just made it so much difficult, as I am trying to one-bag it this year. I have a new convertible backpack--we'll see how it goes. But of course I want to save weight and bulk whenever possible.
I revisited the idea of the Eee PC. I tried my co-worker's again, and was surprised how quickly I became adjusted to the keyboard. She has it set up to boot into advanced mode, which I really like (and will be doing for George). The screen size is fine for what I need. And the price has dropped $50 since I had it on preorder. So I went for it, and George has arrived and made himself at home. I was thinking about selling the Toshiba, but since it's a little more powerful than the Eee PC, I'll hang onto it for a bit. If I don't use it for a few months, I'll probably sell it. I can see myself carrying the Eee PC on a daily basis. Maybe I'll even do some writing; stranger things have happened. ;-)
Dear Retail Workers Giving Me Change,
Please learn how to give change. No, I don't mean learn how to count it properly. With the cunning machines they have these days that tell you how much to give me, you don't even need to know how to count. But hand it to me correctly. Don't count out the money to yourself and pour it into my hand, coins and bills in a big lump, while I stand there holding my merchandise in one hand and my wallet in the other and trying to juggle it all and determine if you've given me the correct change. I had a scare today that I was shortchanged $10 on lunch (I wasn't) but there was no way to figure that out the way I received the change (repeating: in a big lump, poured into my hand).
This is how you do it. Say my purchase comes to $6.63 and I hand you a $20 bill. Your cunning machine will tell you that the change is $13.37. (I just figured that out without recourse to a machine, cunning or otherwise, incidentally.)
Count out the change from your drawer. Hand me the change and say, "That's seven dollars."
Then count out the bills into my hand. For example, if there are three dollar bills and a $10 bill, count out, "Eight, nine, ten," (while counting out the ones) "...and that makes twenty" (as you hand me the $10).
It would be extra-courteous to wait for me to put away my coins before counting out the bills, but I understand that time is money in retail and I don't expect it.
I know this involves counting and that makes it more difficult, but I would be most grateful if you could oblige.
Best,
Mags
I realized I wouldn't have time to do it, so I just went ahead and bought the Pacsafe Metro 200. So far I really like it! But I have all the yarn and I want to do some kind of Tunisian crochet project. I don't know what. Perhaps a scarf would be a good beginning...
Since I'm jealous of Heather's lovely blog posts about her cross-stitch projects, in the best tradition of bloggers everywhere I'm brazenly stealing her idea and trying to capture the progress of my latest crochet project.
I love me some Vera Bradley handbags. I like to joke that I have "a little problem" with them, because I own a half dozen or so; then I went to my friend Fran's house and saw her bedroom redo, which included a special purse hanger on the back of her door for her SEVERAL DOZEN Veras! It made me feel much better... ;-) Lately I've mostly been carrying the basic Vera Handbag design in the (soon to be retired *sob*) Botanica fabric. I like it a lot and it works well for most of my needs, but for my daily commute I'd rather have something hands-free, preferably a bag I can wear with the strap cross-body. Vera doesn't do a lot of long-strap bags; her handbags usually have long enough straps to be used as shoulder bags, just not across the body. I see they are discontinuing the Hipster bag, and I almost bought one at 30% off last week, but couldn't pull the trigger; though if they had it in Botanica I probably would have bought it! It's close to what I want, but not quite. This is one of the times I wish I could sew, because I could probably make up a nice bag, though maybe not with the fabulous Vera fabrics. I used to carry a Betsy in the (now retired) Chelsea Green fabric, which was great but a little big for my needs right now--and again, not a hands-free bag. It makes a great carry-on bag when you're checking a rolling bag, though--it sits nicely on top of the rolling bag and I love all the pockets and organizational features. I dare say TSA loves it, too. No clutter means happy Xraying for TSA. I actually bought my rolling bag in green to match it. ;-)
I also love my Pacsafe Metro 100, which I use for sightseeing and traveling. I love the built-in security features. I've had my eye on the Metro 200 for a possible daily-commute bag. I've decided to hold off till I get a netbook. That might not be till next year, if Toshi the Portege stops acting up. (Though I might contravene my self-imposed rest-of-2008 gadget moratorium and buy a Dell E...it will make my autumn trips to Chicago for the JASNA AGM and San Diego for the Hornblower convention SO much easier. We'll see.)
But I still want a hands-free bag. What to do in the meantime?
Over the weekend I thought about possibly crocheting a bag with a nice long strap, but I was concerned about the strap stretching out under the weight of all the junk I carry on a daily basis (tho' compared to some women I see on the train, who carry a purse AND a tote AND a briefcase/messenger bag, I travel relatively light). I started thinking, if I could only combine the best of Vera and Pacsafe with crochet techniques, maybe I could come up with something...
And I think I have. :-) More soon!
This is such a great story...I'm kind of a Twitterer in waves, but I love how an American grad student who was photographing government protests in Egypt used Twitter to get word out that he was arrested so his friends back home could get him immediately freed.
He kept working to get his translator, an Egyptian national, freed as well, and when he succeeded last week, he put the word out on Twitter as well. See, this Web 2.0 stuff isn't as useless as it sometimes appears!
....because our boy's an ALL STAR! And he had a real Philadelphia-style greeting for New York, too, bless his heart. (Warning, ungentlemanlike language...) Yes, I know he apologized, but here at home there was no need to...it's endeared him to Philadelphia sports fans FOREVER. What the heck was ESPN doing INTERVIEWING DAVID WRIGHT (Mr. Only Got In Because Someone Else Got Injured Anyway) while Chase was batting in the Home Run Derby???
I think I missed a week, though; but in the rapidly-becoming-immortal words of Harry Kalas, "Chase Utley, YOU ARE THE MAN!"
