My friend Parn Taimsalu, an Estonian who lives in our village in France in the company of his wife and an unspecified number of pedigree dogs, has sent me a link to a piece in The Spectator, a magazine in which the right wing play at being intellectuals. The Spectator was first published in 1628, making it the oldest continuously published magazine in the UK and thus, probably, the world. Its editors are usually previous Tory grandees – Ian Gilmour, too-clever-by-half Iain McCleod; or those about to be Tory grandees – Nigel Lawson, Boris Johnson.
I have been reading it this last week because the link from Parn referred me to an article by one Alex Massie, and its title read as follows: ‘Ed Miliband supports the Boston Red Sox. This is all anyone need know about him.’
I didn’t know this. I know that the Sox are followed by the likes of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, Simon Sharma, pretty much all of the Kennedys and some designer guy who lives in New York – there is no shortage of slebs and famous people who are part of the Nation. But it had never occurred to me that a senior British politician might also be found with me, in the early hours of the morning last week, punching the air and singing “Let’s go Red Sox’.
As you would expect, the article by Alex Massie included a whole load of shit about the Sox. It made comparisons between the Sox and Labour: “Each defeat, each disaster, each betrayal remained raw, just as the Labour Party never really forgives, or gets over, its own defeats.” He went further, quoting the Berkeley linguist and political theorist George Lakoff (I commend him to you, he’s a sort of West Coast Chomsky) who came up with the idea of mummy Democrats and and daddy Republicans, extending the thought to mummy Sox and daddy Yankees.
It’s pretty simplistic stuff, to be honest. Daddy has the money and the power. Mummy loves you and forgives your failings. Er, that’s it, really.
So is it an appropriate analogy after the Sox take the Series for the third time in a less than a decade? Perhaps it is true that many of us have assumed an air of moral superiority over the Yankees and the insufferably smug Cardinals and the nouveau Dodgers and ...the rest of those who have looked down on us for nearly a 100 years. And it is certainly true that we all embraced Lucchino’s epithet for the Yankees, the Evil Empire. But then so did the Yankees. To the extent that they patented it and sued T-shirt makers who dared to use the words.
That sounds like the Tories to me. Who cares what anyone says so long as I can make money out of it.
But unlike The Spectator, I’m not here to make political points today. I’m here to celebrate, with a great city, a great team. A team in which a wonderfully diverse group of guys came together and fought together in a common cause. And had fun while they did it. And never gave up. And always believed. And attracted the hearts and minds of the masses in so doing.
It occurs to me now that that may sound just a tad socialist, but it wasn’t my purpose. Worth thinking about though, isn’t it?
Today from the everysmith vault: Pink Floyd, from Meadowlands in 1987. Jill and I watched a documentary about them last night and realised that we have ignored them for too long. Have we? I’ll let you know.
P.S. Just seen this and felt I had to share. It's Mike Napoli heading for home plate in the early hours ...
I have been reading it this last week because the link from Parn referred me to an article by one Alex Massie, and its title read as follows: ‘Ed Miliband supports the Boston Red Sox. This is all anyone need know about him.’
I didn’t know this. I know that the Sox are followed by the likes of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, Simon Sharma, pretty much all of the Kennedys and some designer guy who lives in New York – there is no shortage of slebs and famous people who are part of the Nation. But it had never occurred to me that a senior British politician might also be found with me, in the early hours of the morning last week, punching the air and singing “Let’s go Red Sox’.
As you would expect, the article by Alex Massie included a whole load of shit about the Sox. It made comparisons between the Sox and Labour: “Each defeat, each disaster, each betrayal remained raw, just as the Labour Party never really forgives, or gets over, its own defeats.” He went further, quoting the Berkeley linguist and political theorist George Lakoff (I commend him to you, he’s a sort of West Coast Chomsky) who came up with the idea of mummy Democrats and and daddy Republicans, extending the thought to mummy Sox and daddy Yankees.
It’s pretty simplistic stuff, to be honest. Daddy has the money and the power. Mummy loves you and forgives your failings. Er, that’s it, really.
So is it an appropriate analogy after the Sox take the Series for the third time in a less than a decade? Perhaps it is true that many of us have assumed an air of moral superiority over the Yankees and the insufferably smug Cardinals and the nouveau Dodgers and ...the rest of those who have looked down on us for nearly a 100 years. And it is certainly true that we all embraced Lucchino’s epithet for the Yankees, the Evil Empire. But then so did the Yankees. To the extent that they patented it and sued T-shirt makers who dared to use the words.
That sounds like the Tories to me. Who cares what anyone says so long as I can make money out of it.
But unlike The Spectator, I’m not here to make political points today. I’m here to celebrate, with a great city, a great team. A team in which a wonderfully diverse group of guys came together and fought together in a common cause. And had fun while they did it. And never gave up. And always believed. And attracted the hearts and minds of the masses in so doing.
It occurs to me now that that may sound just a tad socialist, but it wasn’t my purpose. Worth thinking about though, isn’t it?
Today from the everysmith vault: Pink Floyd, from Meadowlands in 1987. Jill and I watched a documentary about them last night and realised that we have ignored them for too long. Have we? I’ll let you know.
P.S. Just seen this and felt I had to share. It's Mike Napoli heading for home plate in the early hours ...
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