Saturday, May 19, 2007

 

If no one celebrates, how can you tell who won?



Yesterday, I went to San Antonio to give a Continuing Legal Education lecture. The lecture went ok, but not great, because people in San Antonio seem to be restricted to this form of communication:

Person One: "Go Spurs, go!"
Person Two: "Go Spurs!"
[Hug]


Had I stuck to that script, I would have been fine.

Anyways, I was on my way back after a stop to see old friends in Austin, and heard the end of the game. What troubled me was that after the Spurs clinched the series, the fans got in their cars and went home. What? Don't these people know how to celebrate?

Back in Detroit, winning an important series merits a real celebration. In those moments, Detroiters like to combine their two great loves: Cars and arson. Some people from "the outside" don't know this, but traditionally Detroit has celebrated an annual holiday of arson. "Devil's Night" is celebrated every October 30, the night before Halloween, and calls for the celebrants to burn abandoned homes and businesses and fire guns at random. Devil's Night, in fact, is one of the few events in Detroit (other than the Super Bowl) which attracts tourists; for example this site chronicles the visit of the Hyattsville Fire Department to Detroit for Devil's Night in 1997. Good times!

The problem with these folks in San Antonio might be that they never learned proper celebration techniques in college, like people in Michigan do...

Comments:
So many good times... when the Tigers won the 1984 World Series.... when the Pistons were so big When the Red Wings qwere so big... In Detroit you do not just celebrate, you invent new ways to to celebrate.

Detroit has always been on the cutting edge of crime. I remember when they started dropping cinder blocks off of overpasses of I - 94 you know.. just for fun. Or remember the time the Republicans were in town for the convention and one of the news satellite trucks was stolen? That was a day I remember with pride. And of course Tonya Harding was from Portland but of course she had to whack Nancy in DETROIT.

What goes better together, after all, than Arson and sports? NO ONE has devil's night except Detroit. But then no one else had Bill Bonds, Mayor Coleman Young, the Detroit Schoolboard with their limos, Barbara Rose Collins or any of the other Detroit crazies. And they still have Dick Purtain, who is great.

I mean how do I know all of the words to the Canadian National Anthem? Uhmmm Hockey Night in Canada on the CBC, that's how, Eh?
 
Oh, Canada!
My home and native land!
You... are...very cold
And your food is bland!
Oh, Canada my home
And Naaaaaaative laaaaaand!
 
Important note: The photo shows not just a burning car, but a burning police car.
 
Yee ha Mark!
I'm glad you finally found that picture of the two of us in '84!
 
The problem with the Michigan area is that they act the same either win or lose. The only difference is in winning they smile while flipping the police car and in loss they frown.
 
We're too busy partying. Who has time to mess up some dude's ride?
 
All I know is that I sure am glad the fashion statement being made by the fellow in the photo did not catch on!
 
Wha? I still have that shirt!
 
The shirt's OK. Its the pants that scare me.
 
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