Message text written by "A wine-dark proprietary product of insult,
intrigue and innuendo."
>Anybody else too unAmerican and/or unmanly to watch the Stupor Bowl
tonight,
or am I the only limpwristed Commie among the regular and/or lurking
Pinheads?

Ralph<

I am football-impaired. Don't understand it, never played it, never learned
how. I have seen only part of one Stupor Bowl, ever, and that was because I
was invited to a friend's house for a small party, ostensibly to watch the
game, but the conversation was more interesting and none of us paid much
attention to anything else. I do try to find out who won, because not
knowing this is like not knowing who's President. Common knowledge is often
the hardest to discover. A couple of weeks ago I wanted to find out what
day the game is this year, and I had to go quite deep into the Yahoo Sports
site to find out. Evidently not knowing the date of Stupor Snuday is like
not knowing when's Christmas... or the Fourth of July. And I was
embarrassed to ask anyone, lest they consider me hopelessly unconnected to
modern life (more or less true, but I try not to draw attention to it
except among the like-minded, who wouldn't know either). 

I have always been more interested in partipating than in watching (sums up
my feelings about pornography, too) and was limited by physical
difficulties in running, throwing and catching (legacy of childhood
illness, though no trace was visible) which made me invariably the last
person chosen for any team. Oddly enough, I was able to play soccer, but in
my yout' that was not a mainstream game. It was only played at one of my
schools because we had a teacher who had been to Oxford, and only those of
us who were too wimpy for football played it... probably why I was able to
excel in the absence of serious competition. I was better at bicycling,
sailing, rowing, although I still don't have much interest in watching
other people do them. In June, I started bicycling again after a long
absence (about 16 years) and my longest ride of 2001 (longest since 1976
when I toured England on a bike I had built myself) was 33 miles on the
afternoon of September 11. I am trying to keep up some riding even through
the winter, and rode 20 miles last week. My brother, the mighty outdoorsman
of Ossipee, NH, rode about 4,000 miles last year, and that's with virtually
no winter riding. I have a ways to go yet. 

Actually, on Stupor Stunday I went waltzing at Glen Echo Park in the
afternoon, then after I got home was waylaid by a 3-hour phone call from a
(recently) ex-girlfriend who wanted to tell me all about her wonderful new
engagement. Love at first sight, he proposed on the 3rd date, etc... The
bright side is, I will get to list her house after she gets married. I am
dealing with the inevitable twinges of wistfulness that seem to follow such
news, even though I had long ago decided I didn't want to marry her myself!
But if she'd been as nice to me as she's being to him, I might have. I'll
console myself with the money I can make on the situation. 

Lonely Wheelman
PS. I considered going for a ride this morning and decided it was too cold
even with my recently acquired winter cycling togs. Good thing. At this
very moment, the predicted "snow flurries with no accumulation" seems to be
turning into a blizzard. This has happened before in DC. 
--
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