[lit-ideas] Re: Geary: Two in one day
- From: eternitytime1@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 07 Feb 2006 09:33:12 -0500
Hi, to all!
I almost sent this out last weekend...obviuusly I should have!
Maybe Seattle's loss caused Mikey to be so inflammatory on that other
list...and that should have been taken into account! Glad we are a bit more
accommodating and can see the care and concern underlying each of us here...
Back to thoughts on the Super Bowl...
Best,
Marlena in Missouri
Hi,
In honor of the Super Bowl, here are a few thoughts from others besides
me...The first one simply had to be included even though it was not
specifically about the Super Bowl...<g> but the last is especially important
for our overseas viewers:
"Football combines the two worst features of American life. It is violence
punctuated by
committee meetings."
-George F. Will
Super Bowl Explores Feminine Side
---------------------------------
Normally the domain of pizza, auto, razor and beer advertising often punctuated
with bawdy jokes, the Super Bowl seems to finally be getting in touch with its
feminine side. Unilever, for one, is using it as a platform to run its Dove
"Real Beauty" spots and Anheuser-Busch is on record as saying it plans to take
female beer drinkers into account while it's selecting big-game spots this
year. Moreover, about half the 89 million viewers expected to tune in are
women. The change can't come fast enough for the Marketing to Moms Coalition,
which said 80% of female Super Bowl fans feel advertisers haven't targeted them
in the past. Maria Bailey, CEO of BSM Media and a member of the coalition,
said its recent survey of 256 moms is intended to show marketers that "if they
are spending millions of
dollars on Super Bowl ads and not making them relevant to women, they're
missing half their market." ESPN Research, in fact, shows last year's Super
Bowl audience was 56% male and 44% female, 40% of whom had kids 18 and under in
the house. Judging from the broader category span in this year's game, which
includes everything from antibacterial soaps and Aleve to nuts and life
insurance, "media people are starting to see that [the Super Bowl] is a media
vehicle that transcends just men," said Ed Erhardt, president-ad sales and
customer marketing for ESPN and ABC Sports. Mr. Erhardt said that, "As the
property continues to be seen as a social event, advertisers are clearly using
it to reach a wide variety of audiences," especially, he said, as the game
offers an increasingly rare opportunity to send out a "big message in a big
environment."
(Stephanie Thompson <http://www.adage.com> 1/31/06)
------------------------------------------
MB: And this older article is still kind of fun if you have not seen it for a
while...:
Football for Foreigners
-----------------------
By Dave Barry, January 2001
We are coming up on the Super Bowl, which is by far the most important sporting
event in the world as measured in total tons of free shrimp consumed by
sportswriters.
This year, the Super Bowl will be broadcast to many foreign nations, which,
almost by definition, contain numerous foreigners. These people are often
puzzled by American football, a highly complex sport that requires a knowledge
of many technical terms such as "run", "pass", "cornerbacker", "blitzkrieg",
"Texas Leaguer", "ligament" and "Hank Stram". This complexity makes the game
difficult for foreigners to grasp.
I know this because some years ago, while visiting Japan, I watched the Miami
Dolphins and the Oakland Raiders play a demonstration game in a Tokyo stadium
where, for a zesty snack, you could buy pieces of fried octopus on a stick.
The fans were polite, but they had no clue what was going on. The only thing
that aroused their interest was the Dolphins cheerleaders. The game would stop
for a time out, and the cheerleaders would start jumping around, and
immediately the fans would go WILD, cheering and thrusting their octopus
nuggets into the air.
I'm not being critical here. I've been on the other side of this coin. While
visiting Ireland, I watched an Irish sport called "hurling" (really) in which
men who are not wearing helmets basically beat each other senseless with
sticks. In terms of violence, this sport makes American football look like Pat
the Bunny. I'd never seen this sport, so I relied on the fans around me to
answer my questions ("Is that player dead?" "Did all that blood come out of his
EAR?" etc.).
So I know how hard it can be to understand a foreign sport, which is why today,
to help you foreign persons follow the Super Bowl, I am presenting:
THE RULES OF AMERICAN PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL
Football is played on a field that is 100 yards (374 kilometers) long and is
covered with lines called "hash marks" to indicate where players have lost
their breakfasts. On either side of the field are the benches, where the 350
players who are not involved in the game sit and wave to their moms. Behind
each bench is a big plastic jug of Gatorade. The object of the game is to be
the first team to dump this on the "coach", a very angry man who hates
everybody.
The game is divided into four 15-minute quarters, each of which lasts a little
over three hours. Timeouts may be called by anybody at any time for any
reason, including political unrest in Guatemala. Between the second and third
quarters, there is a halftime musical
extravaganza in which Neil Diamond, Toni Tennille, the Muppets and the late Al
Hirt join with every human being who has ever auditioned for Star Search to
perform "A Tribute to Medleys".
The game begins when a small man of foreign extraction kicks the pigskin, or
"ball", as far as possible, then wisely scuttles off the field. The referee
then places the ball on an imaginary "line of scrimmage", which is visible only
to the referee and his imaginary
friend, Mr. Pootywinkle. On either side of this line, the two teams form
"huddles", where they decide who will perform the traditional celebratory dance
when the upcoming "play" is over.
The "play" itself happens very quickly, so you foreign persons must not blink,
or you'll miss it. Here's what happens:
1. A large player called the "center" squats over the ball, and then the
"quarterdeck" touches him in a way that would get them both executed in the
Middle East.
2. All the players run into each other and fall down.
3. Certain players leap to their feet and perform celebratory dances, while
referees add to the festivity by hurling brightly colored flags into the air.
Now comes the heart and soul of football: Watching slow-motion replays of the
players falling down. You'll see this from every possible point of reference,
including the Hubble telescope. You'll see so many replays that at some point
you'll swear that, in the background, you can see Mr. Pootywinkle.
When the replays are finally over, the referee formally announces that the play
does not count. Then it's time for eight commercials featuring sport utility
vehicles climbing Mount Everest, and it's back to the huddles for more nonstop
action!
Yes, foreign persons, football is a complex sport, but you'll find that if you
take the time to watch this year's Super Bowl, you will soon discover why every
year, so many millions of Americans are glued to their television sets.
Watching rental videos.
-----Original Message-----
From: P.H.Lundbech <ml@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tue, 07 Feb 2006 11:20:15 +0100
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Geary: Two in one day
On Mon, 6 Feb 2006 21:26:50 -0800, "Andreas Ramos"
<andreas@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>You want a reason? Because Seattle lost.
What kind of sport is that anyway?
An endless row of tedious breaks, while a bunch of what appears
to be construction workers on steroids again and again line up
for another meager two seconds of action. So much effort for so
little play. Why bother?
No, give me some real football (soccer) as the British play it.
Now that's sports!
;-)
P. H. Lundbech
Odense, DK
>
>yrs,
>andreas
>www.andreas.com
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Mike Geary" <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Sent: Monday, February 06, 2006 5:29 AM
>Subject: [lit-ideas]
>
>
>I've been kicked off Theoria!!! Ha!
>
>This from Larry Kramer: "Your last tantrum broke this camel's back. You have
been unsubbed.
>
>LJK"
>
>And all because I wrote this:
>
>Delia:
>>>The reason I came to like Bush is that he is not a racist.
>He is much more a humanist than arrogant leftists who think of people as
stupids. <<
>
>
>No, Bush is no racist. He's just a corrupt, greed-driven, sexist,
war-mongering, dimwitted,
>fascist motherfucker. He's the single worst thing that's ever happened to
>this
country and
>probably the majority of the voting public surport him because they perceive
that he
>supports their greed-driven, anti-social, ignore social injustices and
inequities,
>fascistic, McMasion life-styles. Such is life in America.
>
>As I've asked before, Are all Republicans evil or just the white, Christian
ones?
>
>Mike Geary
>Memphis
>
>OK, maybe I deserved to kicked off : ) I'm glad Larry proved my point
though.
>
>Mike Geary
>
>
>
>
>
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