Aug 31 2009
Whatever Days
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The Last 100 Posts
- For the Kodi Fans Out There
- Your Science Fiction Award Nomination Suggestions
- There’s Snow Place Like Home
- Up in the Air: An Open Pimp Thread
- View From the Getty
- In Other News, I’m Old
- Kindle Versions of My Books Now Back Online
- Oh, and About The God Engines
- Books Back on Amazon (But Not Kindle)
- The Big Idea: James Knapp
- And Now, The Obligatory View Out the Hotel Window
- A Technical Thing re: Amazon and My Tor Books
- Mission Accomplished
- Hey, You Know What
- Science Fiction Oscar Thoughts
- A Quick Interview of Me, By Me, To Catch Up With Everything Amazon
- Why In Fact Publishing Will Not Go Away Anytime Soon: A Deeply Slanted Play in Three Acts
- SFWA Has a Point to Make
- Back Naps For Hep Cats
- The Big Idea: Katharine Beutner
- A Note Re: Amazon Links in Big Idea Pieces
- Just Arrived, 2/2/10
- Initial Oscar Thoughts, 2010
- A Call For Author Support
- Just Arrived, 2/1/10
- Procedural Notes, 2/1/10
- And Now, For Those Who Need It, For Whatever Reason: A Picture of My Cat
- Seriously? Now They’re Just Being Dicks
- All The Many Ways Amazon So Very Failed the Weekend
- Dear Amazon:
- RIP, Kage Baker
- In Which I Attempt Math — AND WIN!
- On a Personal Note
- It’s All About Timing
- A Quick Note On eBook Pricing and Amazon Hijinx
- Macmillan Books Gone Missing From Amazon
- Re: That “GOPers Are Nihilists” Comment of Mine
- The Intervention is Not Going Well
- Modeling Only the Finest in Pun-Based Geek Apparel
- A Musical Question On a Thursday Evening
- From the Whatever Archives: “Holden Caulfield in Middle Age”
- J.D. Salinger Dead
- State of the Union 2010
- The Big Idea: Sara Miles
- It Is a Good Day To Die!
- Meanwhile, On the Home Front, I Have Growing Suspicions My Male Cats Are Totally Gay
- Obligatory Quick Assessment of the iPad
- iPad Book Availability: No Idea
- Kage Baker
- Perhaps an Indication of How Far Into My Own Head I’ve Been the Last Several Days
- Quick Backend Note re: Comments
- LA Times Article on Science Fiction and the Oscars
- For the Deskgrazing Set
- The Big Idea: Margaret Ronald
- Dear The Internets: I Am Running For President of SFWA
- Meanwhile, On Instant Message, The Truth Emerges
- Bits, 1/25/10
- You Know —
- Weekend Update
- Zeus the Cat Confronts the Existential Conundrum of a Weekend Away From the Internet
- Inevitably Someone Will Complain About Being Called a “Larva”
- Apropos of Today’s Supreme Court Ruling
- The Big Idea: Josh Sundquist
- 3D Thoughts Plus AMC Notes
- Dude. Whoa. Just, Like, Whoa.
- Cherie Priest on Authorial Control
- A Reminder Regarding Political Prognostications
- Judge Sn: The Abridged Audio Version
- Political Thoughts Before Bed
- Brief Administrative Note Re: Deleted Comments
- Just Arrived, 1/19/10
- A Small Piece of Advice to Hopeful “Big Idea” Participants
- The Big Idea: Mark Teppo
- From the “Is There Nothing Sacred” Category
- Workspace Context
- Workspace
- Helping Shawn Powers
- Today Is Family Time Day
- Cult Pop Interview
- Today’s Observation on the Subject of Language
- Instant Podcast 1/15/10
- Things I Don’t Miss
- The Big Idea: Alan DeNiro
- Avatars, Blades, Spiders
- Sunset 1/12/10
- Agent Auf Deutsch
- Today’s Completely Context-Free Statement Which Will Make No Sense to Any Of You Now But Will Later, If You Remember It, Which You Probably Won’t
- Interviewing the Larbalestier Way
- Various & Sundry 1/12/10
- Just Arrived, 1/12/10
- The Big Idea: Patrick Lee
- A Small Request Re: Notifying Me About Typos
- Just Arrived, 1/11/10
- Possession is Nine Tenths of a Nap
- Shorter Joel Stein
- Frosty: The Snow, Man
- How Athena Spent Her Saturday
- That Takes Me Back
- TGE Soon at Borders; Taos Toolbox; Freer’s “Dragons”
- A Mildly Cranky Note to Would-Be Interviewers
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Socially Speaking

We’ve got world champs. Don’t that make you feel inadequate? :)
Pretty funny ad.
I am a Braves fan and I was at a Braves game at Fenway Park and people in the seventh inning starting chanting, “Yankees suck!”. When I asked them why they started chanting, I was givien the answer: “The Yankees always suck at Fenway!”
I was always fond of this one:
It’s spelled “Geisler”, actually.
And?
Regards,
Jack Tingle
(who lives a skosh north of Boston)
I mean, they do, so?
Regards,
Jack Tingle
David:
Fixed.
Well. Yeah. I don’t live in Boston, nor do I care much about sports, and even *I* know that the Yankees suck. And it’s difficult living in New York State with that outlook. But… meh. I’m a Cubs fan, so the New Yorkers usually forgive me because I’m obviously mental.
What gets me is the various folks I see getting on the T wearing Yankees gear. I’m not really sure if they’re aware of the risk they’re running…
One of my favorite ads is actually closer to home… OSU’s only an hour from where I grew up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liNBAvdfakg.
Personally I have nothing against sports, nothing at all. It’s the fans that scare me.
“Yankees suck” is, as far as I can tell, Boston’s civic motto, suitable for use on all occasions (like the Patriots winning the Super Bowl). It strikes me as a pretty conspicuous demonstration of insecurity, frankly.
You know what really sucks? Lookit the other Standings column. It’s the Brooklyn freakin’ Bums. Proof positive that the “good old days” weren’t so good after all. (Dey always wuz bums an’ dey always will be.) (Yankees SUCK!)
I always thought this was the beginning of teaching children bigotry.
First, the “wrong” team is evil.
Then the “wrong” school is evil, because their teams play your teams.
From there is only a small step to “anyone different is wrong and/or evil.”
I grew up in NYC. I still root for the Yankess.
Even if everyone hates me.
*sigh*
@JJS: Disagree. It *could* be, but at least, in the South, it isn’t. As a matter of fact, us Insects from the Institute have a phrase for it: Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate. E.g. If Uga, the Georgia Dawg, got loose, us Fuzzy Bees might collect him and hold him for some nominal ranson, but we would never mistreat the poor creature. That would be dishonorable. The culture of Southron gentlemen still has the tradition of respect between rival warriors.
And if you’ll notice in the vid, the Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate of the Yankees brings all sorts of Red Sox fans together, black and white, vendor and customer, parent and child.
But there’s a difference in “they suck” and “they’re evil”, and there’s a difference in “they suck because they cheer for the Yankees” and “they suck because they were born that way.”
Subtle? Yes. There? Also yes.
Total insecurity.
I live near Boston, travel there frequently and proudly proclaim my disdain for all Boston area teams whenever the opportunity permits.
Sox vs Yankees – come on. 7 measly World Series championships vs 26 over a bit more than a century: a 50/50 Superbowl record (by a team Boston won’t even take ownership of in name) vs NY Giants (75/25) AND to cap it off, Giants win in head-to-head. (Yeah, they’re really the Jersey Giants but when it comes to dissing Boston, that hardly matters.)
I won’t even start on the Bruins or Celtics BS…
Total insecurity. I…proudly proclaim my disdain for all Boston area teams whenever the opportunity permits.
And that is different from chanting “Yankees suck!” how, exactly?
What do you think my response is going to be? With a handle like mine, I could continue the much deserved chant, or ask ‘They’re talking about soccer, right?’
I’m a geek, but I know enough about sports. In this town, it’s pretty much a requirement for residency.
Your football and your football fans are very civilized. Here’s my football and my fans: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0mCUB-n1oo .
The real fun starts around 1:45 .
Reminds me of “The Mets are pond scum” in St. Louis back in the 1980’s. But less original.
Of course the BoSox had reason to hate the Mets back then, too. Nowadays, opponents LOVE the Mets.
Recommendation for parents bringing kids to Boston: put them in one of the “Yankees Stink” kiddie t-shirts. We did that with my four year old nephew. People kept waving, cheering, giving him thumbs up and high-fives. He actually got guys leaning down, asking if they could buy him a beer. The astonished look on his face was fantastic. “Noooooh!” Of course, he is one of those adorable, Howdy-Doody looking kids.
They sell them at Newbury Comics, FYI.
Oh, and I should mention that this boy’s father is from the South and is a huge Braves fan. But he does agree that the Yankees suck.
I’m a die hard Yanks fan and reading all these comments is fantastic. That isn’t sarcasm. It warms me to my heart to know that we’re making the Red Sux and their fans so insecure. Keep up the good work, boys! :)
Heh. It’s not just in Boston. I live in North Central Connecticut where the fan line is pretty much split down the middle.
Last year at my daughter’s field day, I volunteered and wore my Red Sox jersey. As various age groups moved through my games station, half the kids would say, “Yankees suck!”, and proceed to offer the stranger high five. The other half would argue that it was the Red Sox who sucked and that the Yankees had more WS wins.
It was very hard for a life long Red Sox fan to keep my calm when faced with taunting from a five year old.
*The “stranger high five” is most commonly seen in public areas (specifically Fenway, or bars showing the game). When the Red Sox do something right (usually at the end of the game when all hope is lost), you are bombarded with usually drunk and sweaty hands from strangers signalling overjoyed relief. Sometimes they miss and sometimes, they throw pizza instead.
Yeah, it’s that intense. ;)
Yet another “I don’t care about sports, and even less about sports rivalries” vote.
@Technoshaman; here here! While I hold a white hot loathing for the Alabama Crimson Tide, I don’t hate Alabamians… although I do feel better when they’re not around.
I was at Neyland when the Vols broke their 11 season losing streak to Alabama. Seeing a bunch of grown men tear down a goalpost, march it out of the stadium and toss it into the Tennessee River was an eye-opener to the joys of mayhem for this 12-year-old.
I don’t live in Boston, and I don’t care about sports, but the makers of this commercial most certainly suck: mahjong requires FOUR players!
I don’t actually care about professional sports, or course the Cubs and White Sox are simply paid amateurs.
I’m for whoever the Yankee’s are playing and I have to take a grand nephew to a Yankee’s game in two weeks. Born a Yankee’s fan to his father’s consternation.
Yankees suck!
I’m a former Bostonian living in NYC; now I’m homesick for Beantown.
Speaking of other funny sports ads, my favorite will continue to remain the one the California Golden Bears did one year: “Our Domicile”. Not only is brilliantly funny, it’s also so very Berkeley.
I believe that “Yankees Suck” has more to do with the Yankee’s poor moral fiber, dismal aptitude pleasing women sexually, inability to hold their liquor, etc, then it does their overall win/loss record.
Upon further inspection, Steve, I note that the Celtics have 17 championships and the Knicks have⦠2.
I was always dang impressed by Joe Torre, though, and thought he got a raw deal from Steinbrenner.
I’ve been in Boston for 16 years now. The Red Sox, they play baseball, right?
Jackie @ 29: Same deal here, but I don’t feel homesick for Boston. It’s actually a great deal of fun going to Yankee Stadium with a Red Sox Jersey on. That’s actually one of the best things about the rivalry…that no matter which stadium you go to, there are plenty of the enemy in attendance.
Oh, and Yankees Suck. (The Mets were OK until ‘86, but they suck too now.)
Woo! (that’s all i got)
@steve davidson – wow your picks are based on completely different arguments, with baseball somehow being completely opposite of basketball. Oh, and the Giants are in Jersey.
It’s not funny. It’s evil.