Posted On: Thursday - December 11th 2025 7:18PM MST
In Topics: Music Bread and Circuses
...could you beam me somewhere, Mr. Scott?
Peak Stupidity has explained what our problem is with "Sportsball". Posts on the subject can be found with that little-used topic key Bread & Circuses, the use of that tag alone pretty much doing the explaining. There is a specific series though - see Intro. - - Unlimited Breadsticks - - The Greatest (number of) Shows on Earth - - The Media Circus and a Conclusion.
Using "Sportspuck", however, would sound kind of awkward, but we did go to a, and my first, pro Hockey game. A friend hooked us up with some very good seats too.
The regular PS reader may have determined without hiring a Jim Rockford at $2,000 a day ... plus expenses (he's gone up!) that our headquarters is not in Edmonton, Alberta, Toronto, Ontario, The Maritimes, or even down south in Minneagadishu. We don't play hockey. Nobody here plays hockey*. Nobody from around here is on a pro hockey team, because he wouldn't have had a rink or frozen pond to practice on. If I could PLAY hockey, this whole post would have to be revised.
But, hey, they were good seats, and I'd promised the kid. Here are some impressions:
The lighting is amazing. They can turn the whole rink into a big advertisement now. Loud music - at least it's rock sounding - is played right up until that ump guy drops the puck during the face-off.
Where are the air horns nowadays? I went to a minor league game way back, and people had those loud boater-emergency-style air horns. You'd hear them on the games on the radio too. I think it's a good thing they've been apparently banned. There are enough fights down on the rink.
Well, you'd think in today's NHL, rather than going to a fight and seeing a hockey game break out, as the old joke goes, we'd have to endure a lot of mean tweeting and un-LIKE-ing on the ice and difficult "conversations". No, they still do have fights, the about only one we saw was pretty minor ... league. I didn't come for that.
The crowd was very well behaved. The fights were contained to the that one on the rink. In a metro area that is 15-25% Black! and with 25% or so foreigners, the crowd was 99% White. That might explain some of it... In fact the only black person I saw was a girl with the 2nd biggest Afro I'd seen since the 1970s, not quite as big as the one on the escalator in our recent post on this important matter. With our great seats, that was not a factor.
"Our" team won. OK, that's getting to the Sportsball matter now. What's exactly "our" team? We didn't live in this city, but the people from there ALSO don't play hockey and can't ice skate (maybe a few transplants with their own skating rink somewhere can), and don't have high school friends in the NFL, etc. That "local" team is made up of Canadians and Europeans, and Russians, one of whom, going by name, may well have had a great-grandfather involved in the story of Doctor Zhivago. "Our team", my ass. What does it mean to "support the team" really?
I guess that's OK. I don't begrudge the people their Bread & Circuses. We can't all be discussing and blogging about politics all day as a hobby. In fact, our host, being not much more of a fan than I, but with the tickets, is big into politics too, very much on OUR side. One can't help but wonder, though, how different things would be if Americans had paid 1/10 the attention they pay to the Sports-ball&puck to what's been done to their country over my lifetime. Rather than the voices of a few crying in the wilderness being ignored, imagine if Americans had cared enough about the politics that has been interested in them, rather than fixating on their favorite hockey players from far off places that don't even want to know them.
Yet, they've got the jerseys. At the arena, I checked one of them, and it cost over $200, before tax! Hats were cheaper, at something like $40.
I get buying a team shirt or hat, if nothing but to show pride in one's town. I can't see EVER caring enough about the Bread & Circuses to buy a jersey of a certain player. (As my kid noted, what if he gets traded?)
Well, now we'll get to this Jimmy Buffett song again. It's appropriate this season.
Boat drinks,This one is from 1979, from Mr. Buffett's album Volcano.
the boys in the band ordered boat drinks.
Visitors scored on the home rink.
Everything seems to be wrong.
Lately, the newspaper mentioned cheap airfare.
I've got to fly to Saint Somewhere.
I'm close to bodily harm.
It's 20 degrees and the hockey game's on.
Nobody cares, they are way too far gone.
Screamin', "Boat drinks!"
Somethin' to keep them all warm.
My favorite part:
This morningJimmy Buffett, no longer with us, was from south Alabama, but he spent much of his life in the Florida Keys or on mother, mother, ocean. His Coral Reefers and the Parrotheads all would rather go where it's warm.
I shot six holes in my freezer.
I think I got cabin fever.
Somebody sound the alarm.
I'd like to go where the pace of life's slow
Could you beam me somewhere, Mister Scott?
Any old place here on Earth or in Space
You pick the century, and I'll pick the spot.
* I've ice skated twice, and contrary to advice given to me that it's not like rollerblading, it IS a lot like rollerblading, so I could do it.
Comments:
Ganderson
Tuesday - December 16th 2025 7:15AM MST
PS
And…
*” dr. Parkinson declared
I’m not surprised to see you here.
You’ve got smokers cough from smoking brew is droop from drinking beer.
I don’t know how you came to get those Betty Davis knees
But worst of all young man, you’ve got industrial disease
He wrote me a prescription and said you are depressed
I’m glad you came to see me to get this off your chest
Come back and see me later
next patient please
send in another victim of industrial disease. “
And…
*” dr. Parkinson declared
I’m not surprised to see you here.
You’ve got smokers cough from smoking brew is droop from drinking beer.
I don’t know how you came to get those Betty Davis knees
But worst of all young man, you’ve got industrial disease
He wrote me a prescription and said you are depressed
I’m glad you came to see me to get this off your chest
Come back and see me later
next patient please
send in another victim of industrial disease. “
Ganderson
Tuesday - December 16th 2025 7:09AM MST
PS
( hit the submit button by accident…)
Anyway nowadays the NHL is about half Canuck, a quarter American and a quarter European. The game is way better that it was 50 years ago, the players are faster and more skilled. And, Hockey is much better life than on TV.
Hockey players are way less prone to off ice shenanigans, too. ( Hmmm, wonder why?)I’ve always said that if an NBA or an NFL player moved in next-door to you, you’d sell your house, but if an NHL player moved in next-door to you, he’d come over and help you shovel your driveway. Anyway, Mr. Moderator , I’m glad you enjoyed your trip to the rink. If you ever make it up here to the northeast, I’d be happy to take you to the college hockey game; cheaper than just as much fun as in an NHL game.
( hit the submit button by accident…)
Anyway nowadays the NHL is about half Canuck, a quarter American and a quarter European. The game is way better that it was 50 years ago, the players are faster and more skilled. And, Hockey is much better life than on TV.
Hockey players are way less prone to off ice shenanigans, too. ( Hmmm, wonder why?)I’ve always said that if an NBA or an NFL player moved in next-door to you, you’d sell your house, but if an NHL player moved in next-door to you, he’d come over and help you shovel your driveway. Anyway, Mr. Moderator , I’m glad you enjoyed your trip to the rink. If you ever make it up here to the northeast, I’d be happy to take you to the college hockey game; cheaper than just as much fun as in an NHL game.
Ganderson
Tuesday - December 16th 2025 6:57AM MST
PS Happy winter, fellow Stupids! I’m assuming that picture above is clipped from the net, not taken at the game you attended- one team looks to be the. Czech nationals.
I suppose I could use this post to do a full blown discursion on the sociology of hockey, but… I’ll spare you all.
I grew up playing outside in the frozen tundra of the Upper Midwest- I was never any good , but I loved to play. My hockey career is a testament to the notion ithat “Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly “ . I wanted to make it to age 70 to stop playing , but Dr Parkinson’s* namesake disease cased me quit at age 69. Oh well, a good run!
Where I grew up we played a lot, but didn’t watch a lot- the NHL , which was run by and for Canadians didn’t arrive in our patch of the permafrost until 1967, and even at that the league was closed to Americans and other foreigners until the early 70’s- the “Original Six “ NHL that people around here get all misty-eyed about was NANA (No Americans Need Apply) even though there were many NHL quality players. For example only one member of the 1960 gold medal winning US team, (Tommy Williams, from Duluth) had any kind of NHL careeer.
I suppose I could use this post to do a full blown discursion on the sociology of hockey, but… I’ll spare you all.
I grew up playing outside in the frozen tundra of the Upper Midwest- I was never any good , but I loved to play. My hockey career is a testament to the notion ithat “Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly “ . I wanted to make it to age 70 to stop playing , but Dr Parkinson’s* namesake disease cased me quit at age 69. Oh well, a good run!
Where I grew up we played a lot, but didn’t watch a lot- the NHL , which was run by and for Canadians didn’t arrive in our patch of the permafrost until 1967, and even at that the league was closed to Americans and other foreigners until the early 70’s- the “Original Six “ NHL that people around here get all misty-eyed about was NANA (No Americans Need Apply) even though there were many NHL quality players. For example only one member of the 1960 gold medal winning US team, (Tommy Williams, from Duluth) had any kind of NHL careeer.
Moderator
Saturday - December 13th 2025 6:40AM MST
PS: I've been all over Florida, Tarheel, but never to Fernandina//Amelia Is. I'll have to get there sometime. Ever been.Cedar Key? (It's not in THE Keys.)
That sounds like a great day! That part of Florida gets something resembling winter on occasion. At least the mosquitoes go away (hibernate for a couple months?)
That sounds like a great day! That part of Florida gets something resembling winter on occasion. At least the mosquitoes go away (hibernate for a couple months?)
70sTarheel
Friday - December 12th 2025 7:37PM MST
PS So today I drove from Amelia Island down the northernmost part of the Jimmy Buffet Memorial Highway along the north Florida keys. Took the ferry over to Mayport and had a mahi sandwich on the St. John's river at Singletons. Beautiful late autumn day. Changes in latitude/attitude from my Carolina days.
Moderator
Friday - December 12th 2025 4:39PM MST
PS: I've got the 2 temp unit systems down enough to where I can convert, "OK 4 is 40, so 3 is about high 30's" etc. Anyplace that's over 40 in C, I probably don't wanna be. Make that under -5 C either. That's my range. It's a bitch being warm-blooded.
The Alarmist
Friday - December 12th 2025 12:49PM MST
PS
Or like you trade your first wife for a trophy wife … though that’s harder to explain to the kidz.
The problem with living in the metric system is that at first glance, 20° sounds a bit warm for ice hockey. Man, merch was always a ripoff, but it sounds far worse these days. How long before the denizens of the WEF figure out how to lease it to people.
Jimmy Buffet, PBUH, a prophet for our times.
🕉
Or like you trade your first wife for a trophy wife … though that’s harder to explain to the kidz.
The problem with living in the metric system is that at first glance, 20° sounds a bit warm for ice hockey. Man, merch was always a ripoff, but it sounds far worse these days. How long before the denizens of the WEF figure out how to lease it to people.
Jimmy Buffet, PBUH, a prophet for our times.
🕉
Moderator
Friday - December 12th 2025 9:23AM MST
PS: He's reasonably astute. Then, we discussed whether said fan would keep the jersey. I said sell it on ebay.
SafeNow
Friday - December 12th 2025 8:09AM MST
PS
“(As my kid noted, what if he gets traded?)”
This is extremely astute….all by itself. But probably the kid ALSO realizes that this can be a metaphor for domestic life; despite your considerable investment, the wife (or husband) trades you in for a “better” model. Or, the employer trades you in for a cheaper model. This business of “trades you” didn’t used to be the case, back in the day. (Except in high school, where it was understood that you would probably get traded. Or, you would do the trading.)
“(As my kid noted, what if he gets traded?)”
This is extremely astute….all by itself. But probably the kid ALSO realizes that this can be a metaphor for domestic life; despite your considerable investment, the wife (or husband) trades you in for a “better” model. Or, the employer trades you in for a cheaper model. This business of “trades you” didn’t used to be the case, back in the day. (Except in high school, where it was understood that you would probably get traded. Or, you would do the trading.)
One more thing…
Happy Day of the Covenant everyone!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_the_Vow