blktour

So I finally came to you folks for this.

I like to go to bars and hang out once in a while, or even to a friends house, and when i see a big screen TV, all they play is FOOTBALL, BASKETBAL, whatever the sport for the season is. there it is.

I personally get put to sleep with sports. I never understood glorifying another man when his JOB is to run with a ball. I am a determined person and if i ever chose to do this type of thing, i feel that i will be decent, and be able to hold my own.

now my gripe is that once people talk to me about sports, i know who they are talking about somewhat but if i dont, i tell them i dont know why Kobe Bryant is so "talked about".

I understand that he is a great basketball player, but when i was growning up, my father told me that "there will always be someone bigger and badder than the next guy".

with this said. why do we idolize over them so much?

sports to me is a "waste of time".

if i dont watch any sports, does that make me "less of a man?" i know i dont feel any less, but if you were to meet me in real life, would you think of me as this?

I like to read, better myself in life, keep the family strong, debate, clean, think about life, read about politics, lend a helping hand, learn about new things in life.

I just wanted to know what you all think of this.

about sports, and people who dont like them, or if sports didnt exist.

Charlatan

I am so with you on this. The only intersection my life has with Professional Sports is when I am out, I hear the sports report or when someone starts nattering about stats and the like.

Don't get me wrong, I like to play some sports and can even get behind the Olympics... but the over-the-top, die die must watch attitude of some to their sport is anathema to me.

I don't think I would want a world without sport, I would just rather see a world that was less interested in Professional Sport and the need tie their identity to their team.

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Zeraph

Yeah, I can't help ya. I get quite bored trying to watch any sport. I've always wondered the same thing. I do like playing sports though. Ironically I probably play more than the die hard fans that love watching it.

blktour

i like playing basketball but not much now a days, but if you love it so much why not experience it, and not watch it?

is that the lazy american way?

I once went to a buddies house for super bowl night and i fell asleep. haha.

hence, "sports put me to sleep."

snowy

My boyfriend is not a fan of spectator sports but he's still manly; he would much prefer to play the sports himself. I'm the one who enjoys watching sports out of the two of us. He generally has no clue as to who's who or what's what in the world of sports, with only a couple of exceptions--he loves watching soccer, especially the big international tournaments like the World Cup and the UEFA European Football Championship. Admittedly, I'm not sure if he really loves it on his own or if my obsessive watching of international soccer tournaments has inspired him to be equally into it. I'm also starting to rub off on him when it comes to watching college football.

For me growing up, it was impossible to avoid watching spectator sports/professional sports on television as one of the televisions in my family's house was ALWAYS on sports. My brother would watch SportsCenter before school every morning. My father didn't go to church with us on Sundays; rather, he attended the Church of the National Football League. If you wanted to talk to Dad during the week, you would have to catch him while he was watching CNN Sports Tonight and wait for a commercial break. My brother grew up obsessed with baseball. We're also a family of die-hard Seattle Seahawks fans (if you're a Seahawks fan, you HAVE to be die-hard; their performance through the years is not generally encouraging to more fair-weather fans) and Seattle Mariners fans (same sort of deal, but with Ichiro). I was deeply saddened when they decided to move the Sonics to Oklahoma City.

I will never be into professional sports to the degree my brother is, but I'm okay with that. He's memorized more stats than anyone else I know. I really don't need all those stats floating around in my head when he's just a phone call away.

I'm not a big fan of professional sports beyond my hometown sports teams--the Seahawks and the Mariners. I follow my college football team--the Oregon State Beavers. I really enjoy college football in general and look forward to fall for the prospect of getting to watch college games. I also watch the Grand Slam tennis tournaments, particularly the French Open and Wimbledon, with relish. I love the Olympics for their variety of sport; generally when it comes to watching them I gravitate to the events that feature athletes that aren't necessarily famous professionals. As I mentioned before, I also really love international soccer, and typically cheer for the Netherlands (Go Oranje!). I don't idolize these people, but I do enjoy watching them compete. And while I do enjoy teasing my boyfriend for not knowing who Peyton Manning is, I wouldn't do the same to another person.

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If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Jozrael

Do e-sports count? And is Manning that dude on all the insurance commercials now?

Amaras

Look, I think the fact that you don't like watching sports is fine. Doesn't make you any less of a "man". What you defined as your interests defines you as quite an ideal man, in my opinion!
BUT (you knew it was coming) I do. Not always, and not all sports.
Actually, it's ironic that I grew up in Montreal and didn't like hockey. Don't watch it, don't play it.
But I grew up playing football, rugby, soccer, basketball, swim team, volleyball, handball, water polo, and tennis.
I have played 56 seasons of organized team sport seasons'.
I have been a captain of several of these seasons, in different sports.
I like watching football some lazy Sundays (2 out of 3 I'll watch 2 hours maybe).
World Cup Soccer once every four years.
Hey it's harmless, it's fun (for me), and I'm a fan of certain teams so it makes me feel like I'm part of something.
If it's a choice between ending worldwide poverty or sports, goodbye sports.
Of course, it ain't just guns or butter. There is waay more to it than that.

__________________
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-Noam Chomsky
Love is a verb, not a noun.
-My Mom
The function of genius is to furnish cretins with ideas twenty years later.
-Louis Aragon, "La Porte-plume," Traite du style, 1928

LoganSnake

I hate it when people talk about men having to watch "the game". I've never watched "the game" in my life and really don't think I've missed anything.

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Maturity is knowing you were an idiot in the past. Wisdom is knowing that you'll be an idiot in the future. Common sense is knowing that you should try not to be an idiot now. - J. Jacques

ASU2003

I watch a few sports, but not that much. I'm not a huge fan and don't really know too many names. College football is fun to watch during the bowl season or if ASU is playing. I usually get behind teams more than certain players (playoffs in hockey, superbowl, world series in baseball).

But I don't have a problem watching any sport on TV besides basketball. It's the one sport that I just am not a fan of.

dlish

i love sport and sport has been a large part of my life ever since i was a kid.

everyone has goals...some people collect cars for hobbies..others get their motivation from doing sport, some other get their inspiration from watching it.

i dont see the problem with people watching or playing sport, as much as someone watching Greys Anatomy.

you may also find that people involved in sport are more likely to be healthy, and more driven than couch potatoes.


my question to you is...why cant you do all that you like doing AND watch/play sport? a balance is always good.

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An injustice anywhere, is an injustice everywhere

I always sign my facebook comments with ()()===========(}. Does that make me gay?
- Filthy

Willravel

I tried to get into hockey a few years ago (among other sports foreign to the US, which dlish can attest to), but it just didn't feel right. Spectating isn't for me.

Playing? More fun, but I'll admit that it's the camaraderie and exercise that interest me, not the sport.

dlish

try rugby. nothing better than having mud all over you after a tough slugfest and having a drink with the boys. now thats comraderie!

__________________
An injustice anywhere, is an injustice everywhere

I always sign my facebook comments with ()()===========(}. Does that make me gay?
- Filthy

Willravel

Oh hell yeah, I play rugby as often as I can (which unfortunately isn't that often). I also play soccer, basketball, water polo, and even tennis. I still do boxing, wrestling, and martial arts, too. I don't watch any of them, though.

QuasiMondo

Sports is the greatest form of reality television. It makes its own drama. It's all about the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.

I think oversimplifying what an athelete does contributes to your lack of appreciation of a sports entertainment value. You understand that Koby is a great basketball player, but you don't follow basketball enough to understand why people think he's one of the greatest players ever. There's more to sports than just running (unless it's track and field, but even those events involve more than running). It's part chess match, part stare-down, part pressure cooker. Who steps up in the big moment, who folds under pressure. It's those elements and much more.

Why do we admire a particular player or team? Different reasons. Some admire a player based on talent alone (like Kobe). Others admire a player because he gets by on grit and effort to make up for talent (like Cal Ripken, Jr.). Still, others like a player because he relies on intelligence and wits to make up the former two (like Chad Pennington). It's true that there's always going to be somebody greater than that player, but how often will that somebody come along? Look at how long it took the NBA to find it's next Michael Jordan (and think about how many people came and went that everybody proclaimed was going to be the next Michael Jordan). Great atheletes don't come by as often as we think they do.

In the grand scheme of things, he's not out there saving the world. He's just making it a bit more fun to live in.

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-From the Collector's Edition DVD of The Terminator

skizziks

I don't care about sports at all, except for cycling. I watch the Giro d' Italia and the Tour de France and the Vuelta d' Espania when I can, and I cheer for everyone and love to watch them push themselves to the limit, I love the drama and excitement of the rolling soap opera. Other than that, I can appreciate sport, we need to have it for entertainment and all, but I have no idea what is happening in football, basketball, baseball, etc.

The sport fan I pity/look down on the most is the guy (I know at least three of them) living out his high school glory days vicariously through the pros, the guy who stands in front of the tv, with his team's jersey on, cheering them on, possibly a football in his hand (I have actually seen this). When you ask how the game went, he says "WE lost/won." No dude, THEY lost/won, you watched them. (I confess I sometimes imagine I'm in the tour when I'm out riding my bike, climbing a huge hill, I imagine I'm fighting for the king of the mountain jersey)

You are in no way "less of a man" because you don't follow a game. I'd rather be not so much a man and not know a damn thing about a sport than to be that pathetic guy who is so obsessed he can't let it go.

Eweser

I'm actually the sport watcher in my family. My husband likes sports, but he doesn't watch as often as me. I grew up with sports, whether it was organized or on the playground. I've recently, well, the past few years, fallen in love with Rugby. I really don't have a favorite team, except for maybe the LA Angels (of Anaheim ). My friend plays outfield for them. When I was growing up I had a favorite player in each baseball (Cal Ripken Jr), football (Dan Marino), and basketball (Larry Bird). But I didn't idolize those guys. I have a problem with that. If a sports figure also works hard for charity, that's the reason to put them on a pedestal. Not for carrying a ball for 100 yards a game.

I don't think you have to watch sports to be a man. I've known many a "man" that is a die hard sports fan that doesn't contribute a positive thing to society.

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"Whoever wrote this episode should die!"

blktour

well I accept the sports and all and i liked to play a nice pick up game, or a small organized game to have fun and drink after the game type of deal, but what I am talking about are those fans that act as if I am a peice of nothing, if i don't know who Kobe Bryant is.
I know who he is but it's hard not to, since the news will play that all day.

I am more of changing the way it is brought to us. not use manliness, fame, fortune and the rest of that i see to program in our brains the sport.

how about we take away sports, and people teach us how to be great people and help one another and learn to like it, so that when we get older, we think its FUN to help one another, and read, and learn, and be nice to people.

wouldnt you like to see FOXNEWS or CNN or any other news station have a "Monday Night Science Project" or whatever the likes are. (as you can tell I am not very creative.)

alot of you will say that this is "boring" since you are use to watching sports.

It is all in the mind if you ask me. the time i fell asleep at the superbowl, i felt bad since i was a guest in his house and I didnt want to make him feel as if he was a boring host, though i dont think he would have thought that, since he was very much in the game, so after half-time I got more into the game, and tried to learn names and watch random things like mess ups, or replays or what have you.

I plan to do my part that is for sure. When I have kids, I will not put them in sports, but I will try my hardest to make reading, learning, helping, cleaning, talking, family, fun.

I am sure it will be hard for me and the wife since we are surrounded everyday by people who idolize over others, when all they do is play.

does anyone idolize over writers, scientists, good noble people, and the news surrounding them?


this is where I am getting at.

those of you who play/watch sports.

what would you do if there weren't any sports?

World's King

Sports have always been a part of my life. But it wasn't till a few years ago that I really started paying attention. I was going through a tough time in my relationship at the time and basketball helped me escape. The Denver Nuggets seriously saved my life.

It was a reason to get out of the house and get away from the war that was going on. It got my mind off of everything for a few hours. Now when I'm feeling trapped or 'down' I turn on ESPN and everything melts away.

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heavy is the head that wears the crown

snowy

Wait a sec--what if your kid wanted to participate in sports? What if they wanted to play soccer or take swimming lessons? Is it really a good idea to say no to that? Sports teach kids how to play fair, how to follow rules, how to work with others to achieve a common goal, and they help to keep kids fit and healthy. Certainly, there are other activities that can take the place of sports, but most are solo pursuits. Ballet, for instance, is a physically active endeavor, but it does little to teach the things that playing a sport does. You cannot beat sports for the socialization aspect of a childhood activity.

An example: A child I did afterschool care for last school year played teeball last spring. He loved it! He had always been unsure of himself before and awkward around other kids, but going to teeball and associating with his teammates taught him a lot about socializing casually outside of a school environment. He gets along better with other kids now as a result, in and out of school. This in turn gave him a lot more confidence and self-esteem beyond the teeball setting.

If a child wishes to play sports, they should be allowed to do so. It's to their detriment if they're kept from participating.

__________________
If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

blktour

well if he so chooses yes. but I will not say, "my son/daughter will play (insert sport)".

you know those people who want to "push" their kids to play since they didnt get to play when they were younger?

it is funny how people think there is only one way to do something.

I do agree with them learning something from sports with the right mind in it.

but sports is not the only thing on this planet that will teach them this.

I have a LARGE family, and we are GREAT with people and our social skills are very good also, but we never played sports. did it hurt us? no.

you can use sports to teach things in life, but if you dont. they will be ok also.

skizziks

Hell yeah. how many people have gonzo tattoos because of Hunter S. Thompson? How many people have a picture of Alfred Einstein (yes, I did that on purpose) or that Beethoven guy on a desk or a wall or a t-shirt? It's just the circle you are in.

Go to a comic book convention and mention Warren Ellis and you will see how many people idolize a writer.

canuckguy

Sports are just another activity people watch/participate in that helps fill the time. Maybe yours is reading, gardening or murdering. We all enjoy some type of activity we get pleasure from I think to some degree.

I am a huge sports nut, reading my daily fill of online sites, stats and watching my team every chance I get. I realize I am not the 10th man, nor can I affect the outcome of the game from my couch. It is just something I do that I enjoy that hurts nobody.

Playing sports is much better than watching, I cycle daily and watch all the big tours and classics. Pick up hockey is my winter time vice and gets me out and active with friends and gets your mind off the day. Good times.


I have no idea why people would not enjoy sports as the possibles are endless, maybe a bad experience as a child or an overbearing parent...etc. I could see the world without sports, in fact I kind of wish there was no professional sports just so I could feel better with some of these premadonna athletes having to do some real work for a living....

snowy

Of course I idolize writers over athletes; I have an English degree!

The point I was trying to make is that yes, you can engage in other activities that have the same benefits as sports, but you have to participate in multiple activities to gain the same benefit that a single sport provides in socialization, discipline, learning respect, learning responsibility, and physical fitness.

And no, I don't know any parents who forced their children into sports. I generally don't associate with people like that. Most parents I know let their children choose what they want to choose in regards to activities. Invariably children usually choose to participate in at least one athletic activity.

__________________
If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

dlish

my kids' going to play tennis and golf 5 days a week from the age of 5.

who said anything about obsessed parents??

__________________
An injustice anywhere, is an injustice everywhere

I always sign my facebook comments with ()()===========(}. Does that make me gay?
- Filthy

guy44

Hey, if sports aren't for you, that's cool. Most of my friends don't care at all about sports. And I can see how, if you don't care about sports, it can be annoying to live in a world where sports are impossible to ignore. I think the best solution is to just deal with it - it's what I do with reality TV, for example. I can't stand reality TV for even a second, but many people I know watch it and want to talk about. I just deal.

I'm a huge baseball fan, and can occasionally get into football, soccer, basketball, and tennis. I think the reason I enjoy sports is that it provides an entertaining, unpredictable outlet. I love scripted entertainment, but sports allows for the truly unknowable to occur. Competition is exciting (ever played a video game?), and watching people who are truly excellent at what they do compete can be a real pleasure. Rooting for a team is like an ongoing, neverending experience in which you get to enjoy highs and lows and a common topic of discussion with thousands of other people. It's communal. Just today, walking around campus wearing my Cubs cap, I had two discussions with people I barely know about the team (I'm not in Chicago at the moment). One, a fellow Cubs fan, commiserated with me over the playoffs and we compared our experiences from the Cubs' recent failing years. Being a sports fan is like sharing an instant bond with folks.

I don't expect those who don't care about sports to start caring, but I think its also wrong to dismiss sports as fluff or unworthy of our attention.

Update:

I'm reminded of this classic Onion article, which I loved being both a sci-fi geek and a sports nut:

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northstar

I think its human nature to come up with games that test physical or mental acumen through competition.

I find sports to be a leisurely and social activity. Also I highly doubt that even if you dedicated all your time to it, that you could be a professional athlete. These men are supremely talented and there are hundreds of thousands of kids trying to grow up to be pro athletes.

Sports is an outlet, it gives people a team to root for and an identity to associate with. One can never be wrong for rooting for his team. With sports, we can pretend to be sure and bullshit with no real consequences. I can say, this guy sucks bla bla bla with full confidence even though I might be wrong. In politics, I can tell you that this policy will work but in reality it might not. Hell for example, I argued for the invasion of Iraq at the time but I was wrong.

As far as people who don't like sports, there's plenty of them and there's nothing wrong with that. Some of my friends do, some of them don't.

Jetée

Sports, whether you are actively participating or vicariously experiencing it, is a good-natured hobby; it allows for wholesome enjoyment for those that love the thrill of a competitive venture being thrust into their life. It can soothe some and help instill life lessons in others. Of course, there can be those that take the hobby and transmogrify it into an unpleasant and overbearing devotion, but I would think in most instances, devotion to the game allows for people to feel closer to friends, family, and strangers alike, so long as they share the common bond of a sport/professional team.

I don't deal well with hypotheticals, but if say, all professional sports(which I would assume could include the likes of sport equivalents, such as bass-fishing, rallycar racing, & volleyball) were to just crumble and vanish with the state of the economy, for instance, it'd be a heavy loss to a good fraction of the population worldwide that derive at least some measure of happiness, goodwill, and personal identification from the spectation and involvement in organized sporting activities. Crushed.

But, with all hobbies, if we lose interest in one, (or, we are forced by some mitigating factor to abandon our pastime for the betterment of ourselves and those around us) we can easily choose a new one to occupy our time to tinker. It is all how we perceive the task and whether or not to accept it.



exampli gratia: Some choose to be involved in book clubs because it involves a particular fondness of reading with those that are comfortable sharing their insights with a group of friends; it is a good hobby, I'm sure, but I would much rather decide to read on my whim and fancy in solititude and without distractions, such as taking footnotes to share, or over-analzying the name of 'Ishmael' (maybe it just means his name is cool, not symbolic).

Or what about those that partake in the consumption of alcoholic drinks at a get-together? I'm sure they find the activity relaxing every so often, but I don't rightly drink or smoke by my own volition. Should I just excuse myself? It's their hobby, in some form, to pleasantly chat and drink with neighbors. Just as you wouldn't like someone else shoving statistics down your throat, I do my best to avoid finding an olive with a toothpick down mine.

-----Added 11/10/2008 at 09 : 28 : 19-----
I can identify with this accurate insight on the matter:
...and expand on it a bit...


To put it simply:
It is all how you approach and tactfully consider the certain interests others pursue to gain an extent of joy, solace, sociability, overall health, well-being, determination, knowledge, et al. in which they use it for purposes of livening up their existence.

I can respect you not for partaking in the interests that certain sports-spectators share, it's not your bag, cup o' tea, that's quite alright; opining a dissenting remark of those who do, a la "Walking Sports Database Scorns Walking Sci-Fi Database", seems discourteous, and the whole of the declamation seeks to alienate others in the same manner as the people who have subjected you to a tantamount unfamiliarity on the subject of the wide world of sports.

We all have different interests and hobbies, if we share one, that's great! Let's talk it over some and compare thoughts; if we don't, no big deal, maybe I'll turn you onto one of my pleasurable pursuits, maybe I'll find a reason to pursue one of yours. Or we can meander around topics and current events, until we stall in the conversation, and I eventually start yammering about the nebulations and discolorations of the sky.

__________________
As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world (that is the myth of the Atomic Age) as in being able to remake ourselves.

—Mohandas K. Gandhi

thingstodo

I think participation in sports is great. It gives you a chance to sue your body and feel good.

Watching sports, on the other hand, is like religion: if it does something for your then great. I can go a whole weekend in the fall and not watch a single football game. I would hate to center my life around March Madness. And I would really hate to spend all the money neccessary to attend games on a regular basis. My wife and I can play 18 holes of golf on the weekend at a nice course, have a few beers and lunch and still spend less than going to a game. And we did something physically beside walk to our tiny, uncomfortable seats and fight traffic to and from the game.

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Stangers have the best candy.

digme

Sometimes I wish sports would just go away. I get sucked in, and I want to know more, and pretty soon all my time is spent watching. I have always followed the Packers. A few years ago I started Fantasy Football with some friends, and I am compelled to watch different players on my team. Being a UW-Madison alum, I try to watch Badger games. This past year I watched more baseball since the Brewers didn't suck.

If I quit cold turkey, I'd have a lot more time for other things.

Lubeboy

I'm a casual sports fan, but I don't make it my life. I don't play any sports but I love going to the gym. I don't waste my time and money on going to sports events and merchandise etc.. The only time I go to sporting events is if I get free tickets. I only watch the NBA and NFL during the playoffs and finals of each season. That's about it.

highthief

I watch certain sports (soccer, ice hockey, rugby league and union, NCAA football, the Olympic-type sports, tennis and a little golf) both live and on TV (mostly on TV these days). It's a couple of things I guess.

I was raised to appreciate many sports - I watched as a kid and went to games. I grew up in both Montreal and Liverpool at a time when both cities boasted the most dominant teams in the world. Every spring brought trophies. I don't think I've ever really idolized a player, though I have witnessed some of the greatest athletes live. But with team sports there is certainly a tribal feeling - I am part of a greater nation when I cheer Liverpool at soccer, the Montreal Canadiens at ice hockey, the OSU Buckeyes at NCAA football, St. Helens at rugby league, or Canada or England's national teams.

I appreciate and cheer for athletes to break new barriers whether they are Tiger Woods, Roger Federer, or Usain Bolt. I'm involved in sports myself and have been my whole life - never quite good enough to make it at the highest levels but I've seen what it takes and the skill and dedication is amazing.

I would go back to what skizziks pointed out - people are facinated by all sorts of people. Writers, actors, singers, etc. But I think the fact is that sports - especially team sports or national events like the Olympics - can bring people together like none of those things tends to makes it a little different.

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Si vis pacem parabellum.

Iliftrocks

A new opiate of the masses? Hmmmmmm

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OzOz

I agree that sports are a great avenue for learning a raft of positive life skills and attitudes - however, it doesn't just automatically happen from chasing a ball around a field.

In my last year in high school at a well-respected boys' school here, I stayed in a boarding house that was run by a teacher who also happened to be the coach of the school's top Rugby Union team - the school's flagship sporting team. Now, I'm an absolute disaster on the sporting field - any sporting field - and my one and only season of playing Rugby the year before couldn't end quickly enough for me. When I moved into his house at the start of my last year, he had a long meeting with my parents during which he tried to instruct them in the virtues of having me play Rugby. Shortly thereafter he subjected me to an hour-long harangue about how playing Rugby "makes you a better person". This despite the fact that my parents had recently almost pulled me out of the school because of the sustained bullying I had been subjected to the previous year by several boys who were led by members of his own team. The same "sporting heroes" would routinely do things like steal younger boys' cut lunches when they were tasked with handing them out, and also get up in the middle of a class and start a game of cricket or football in the classroom.

Another attitude that the school did nothing to correct was the attitude alluded to by the OP - that if you don't idolise sports and "sporting heroes", then you're less of a man. I was shown open contempt by many of the younger boys because of this. For these reasons I have absolutely nothing to do with the school's alumni association (or whatever you call such things in the US).

Someone wants to watch or play sports? Cool. Go for it. Most importantly, enjoy! But don't expect me to join in enthusiastically - and above all, don't judge me for it. And don't describe someone whose only claim to fame is their ability to chase a ball around a field as a "hero".

If I ever have any kids, I'll encourage them to try different sports and hopefully stick with at least one they like. (After all, exercise is a good habit to get into.) However, I'll also try to do my best to make sure they keep a level head about it. I just hope I get it right.

__________________
Maybe you should put some shorts on or something, if you wanna keep fighting evil today.

Aladdin Sane

I'm a complete ignoramus about sports. It's one part of American culture I simply don't get. Am I less of a man? Naw. Whatever.

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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

OzOz

Not just American culture, Aladdin. We're sports-mad over here in Australia too. I can even remember a margarine ad here a few years ago that basically said that if you're no good with a bat or a ball, then you're not a 'true blue' Aussie.

__________________
Maybe you should put some shorts on or something, if you wanna keep fighting evil today.

Aladdin Sane

Perhaps I am inarticulate. Yes, I realize it's not just American culture. But I am American and I live in America. As an American, I "get" most of America, but there are probably (?) other parts of Aussie culture that I don't get.

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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

OzOz

Wasn't having a go at you, Aladdin. And as an Aussie, there are some parts of Aussie culture that I just don't get either. For instance, one game that the majority of the country is mad about is a game called Cricket. In one of its incarnations, Test Cricket, matches take five days to play, and in-between deliveries (each time the ball gets bowled at the batsman) the delay can be a couple of minutes. I've seen the TV commentators reduced to talking about the seagulls on the pitch to fill in time while waiting for something to happen.

__________________
Maybe you should put some shorts on or something, if you wanna keep fighting evil today.