Friday 8 January 2010

Thursday 7th January 2010 - Songs and Spies and Underdogs

          I struggled out for breakfast.  My Grown-up Lady spy had told me the county weekly paper had a big spread on me, so I stopped off where I was told to buy it.  Newspapers are awful: it wasn't quite right in places, but I could see how it was partly my fault for kind-of 'mumbling'.  I can see why the Tony Blairs of this world have to do what they do: I can see why corporate bodies have to hire people to keep them "on-message".  But it was mostly OK.
          While I was reading this, at breakfast, "on the square" (there's a lot of "on the square" in Glasgow KY, I suspect a heavy masonic presence), I heard a country song called "Small Town USA".  It approximates, a little, to my experiences over the last few months.  It's not the best song I've ever heard, but, judge for yourself:
 
          I went round to the Grown-up Lady spy for a quick de-briefing, and almost got snowed-in.  The state and the county have a little money for salting the roads during these rare events, but the city has none: venture off the highway and you're on your own:
[n0702]
I managed to slither away with all our virtue more-or-less intact.
 
          Of course, Later that night, I was ensconced in my room with only a television and the internet for company.  It's the big football event of the college season.  It's called the "BCS" (Bowl College Series").  But it doesn't seem to involve any 'series': the media tick boxes, and some computer decides which two teams get to the final.  I'm not a betting man, but I bet you couldn't find a single bar in all the world ( that's "world" as in "world series") where they would say this was the best way of doing it.
          But it was quite entertaining.  I always find myself supporting the underdog.  Since I don't understand American football too well, the night produced several underdogs.  First, Alabama ("the Crimson Tide") went behind to Texas. Then Texas went seriously behind to the Crimson Tide.  Then Texas nearly caught up. Then, right at the end, Alabama ran away with it.  At least they had the good sense to play it in Pasadena, California, which may be the only part of the sub-continent which is not freezing.

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