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In the lower right pane you can see the recent postings.
By clicking the Archive (for August 2006), you can see ALL the postings and threads for the month.
posted by Ridley at 7:25 PM
12 Comments:
I'm glad to see this is up and running and hope it starts something BIG! Anyone else out there?
Pam: We just sent out a newsletter letting the mailing list know about the blogs. Hopefully we'll have some fun.
Ridley
Dean, From a Miami Heat fan to you (originally printed by Dave Barry in the Miami Herald)
Posted on Thu, Jun. 22, 2006email thisprint thisA love letter to S. Fla. fansBY DAVE BARRY
Everybody's talking about how great the Heat is, and it certainly is, especially Dwyane Wade, who in my opinion should be placed in charge of the War on Terror. I believe Dwyane could defeat Terrorism in a matter of days all by himself, although afterward he would be all modest and claim it was a team effort.
So congratulations to Dwyane, and Shaq, and the other Heat players, and Pat Riley, and -- above all -- owner Micky Arison, for never getting quoted by anybody about anything.
But I'm not writing this column to praise the Heat. I'm writing it to praise the Heat fans. Really.
The big knock on South Florida sports fans is that we are a bunch of bandwagon-jumpers who only support our teams when they win. This criticism, like so many stereotypes about South Florida parroted by people who do not live here, is absolutely true.
Remember when our hockey team, the Whadyacallems, were in the Stanley Cup finals? For a few wild and crazy days, everybody in Miami was a HUGE hockey fan. We were all buying rubber rats. (Remember the rubber rats?) We were glued to our TVs during the playoffs, despite the fact that many of us could not see the puck -- or, as my Cuban mother-in-law referred to it, ''la cosita'' (''the little thing''). Some of us even reached the point where we sort of understood the concept of ``icing,'' which is some kind of hockey rule involving, I don't know, the ice.
And then the Whadyacallems lost, and -- Poof! -- that was pretty much it for hockey mania. I believe we still have a team playing down here somewhere, but you don't hear much about it.
Same with the Marlins: They won the World Series twice, and both times Miami transformed itself into Baseball Nation for, what, several weeks. And then Poof!
During the years when the Marlins are not winning the World Series, I believe the only person who actually attends the games is my assistant, Judi Smith, a very loyal fan. I don't think that even the Marlins players attend all the games. I think sometimes it's just the opposing team, and Judi.
That's just how we are down here. We're not like fans in Detroit and Boston and Chicago who remain grimly loyal to a losing team year after year, or (in the case of Cubs fans) century after century. If we're not getting the Thrill of Victory from one team, we turn to another team, or the mall.
So right now we LOVE our World Champion Miami Heat. But I believe that many of us, if we are honest with ourselves, know in our heart of hearts that this is not the sacred undying lifelong-commitment love of holy matrimony. This is more the hasty groping backseat passion of Prom Night.
And you know what? That's a good thing. Because, to state the obvious: It's a game. The players are paid to shoot the ball or whack the cosita, and they do these things for whoever pays them the most money. And while it's nice when the paid players from your city beat the paid players from another city, it's important not to confuse this with anything truly important in your life, or you run the risk of turning into well, Mark Cuban.
So I think that South Floridians, so often knocked for fickleness, in fact have a fairly healthy perspective on this whole sports deal. If the Heat had lost, I think most of us -- all but the eight guys who call sports-talk radio -- would have gotten over it pretty quickly.
But the Heat won, which means we have a reason to party. And we South Floridians are very, very good at partying, possibly because we practice so hard every weekend. Sometimes I think that sports teams from other cities should hold their victory parades in Miami, just because of how good we are at celebrating.
So what I'm saying to my fellow South Floridians is: Go ahead and enjoy the moment. You're welcome on the Heat bandwagon, even if you didn't jump aboard until Jason Terry missed that last three-point attempt. Let the sports purists sneer; let them feel superior because they've suffered so much for their team. Good for them! And good for you, for not seeing the need to suffer, as you toast the heroes of the hour, and dance on Biscayne Boulevard.
Carol
I don't give story help, but once your story is in shape I can help get an agent to see it (sometimes). But sadly, due to people wanting to sue authors, I never look at unpublished work anymore.
Ridley
Sorry if my Dave Barry post was so long. Did't realize it. Won't happen again. It was nice to be chastised nicely rather than the way some boards members rip into the poster.
Dean,
I am with you. This blogging stuff takes some getting used to.
Maybe the Red Sox just didn't kike the massive heat wave the US went thru and they will start coming back. One good thing about Pro Basketball - A/C.
What did you think about the Tour de France incident with the drug test? If it's true, it sure explains that last day's remarkable comeback.
Carol
I posted the 'anonymous' post and my spelling was atrocious. So sorry. I obviously did not mean 'kike' I meant 'like'.
I think I have a blog name now and I will definitely preview better.
I, like Dean and Carol, am still a little baffled about how this thing works. Is there some way to tell if anyone has posted without going to each section to check? It's a little cumbersome(at least for me) or am I suppose to just remember how many posts there were the last time I checked? One more question- Is this where we post if we want to communicate, but not about anything related to the other sections? I don't really know the protocol for blogs. thanks.
Hey Dean, Until someone tells us different, we own "instructions"! We went to the the Astros game last night and left in the 7th. Roger had been hit by a pitch and hit the pinch hitter for the pitcher when he came up. Everyone stood and cheered, yelling "RO-GER". That's what it's come to. When you can't cheer your team for playing well I guess you cheer for retaliation. They of course went on to lose in 18! Lidge is out as the closer (9 homers this season) and the "second half kids" are not going to see the post season. On a personal note, my oldest son is going to college on thursday and that is freaking me out enough (I'm sure he thinks socks appear magically in your drawer rolled into little balls) but he insisted on driving to So Padre Island for 3 days w/his girlfriend's family. 4 hrs from home, going 75 miles per hour in his Honda Civic, he hit a six point buck! (They tell me this is pretty big) He did manage to swerve so he didn't hit it head on. The kids are ok, but the car is a mess. I just drove 8 hrs so I could take the key to the body shop near some Texas town with 279 people & pick up my son. I swear between the insurance co and my husband (why did he have to go down there?!!) I hope it's happy hour somewhere!
Dum dum dum dum dum.....sorry Dean
Finished readin 'The Ruins' by Scott Smith. I was disappointed. While the writing and character develop were good, I felt he left too many unanswered questions. Look for it in your teenagers horrod DVD collection in a few months.
Dean- Being a baseball fan can sure be painfull can't it? I've decided that when we go to our last two games I'm just going to eat. I never eat at the game (or drink that beer that people seem to drink like water) I always just watch the game. This way when they lose I can say "I'm just here for the food"! Carol and I are trying to figure out a way to start a new heading here so we can just gab. Hope we can come up with something.
You both have my sympathies on the Sox.
Yeah, Pam and I are trying to figure something out. I have clicked on the Blogger logo at the bottom and it has some stuff that might help, but it sur would be nice if some of the other posters who have figured out how to separate posts with different titles would let Pam, Dean, or me - Carol how to do it.
I think one of the problems is that under this new format posts are not dated. For example, I'm answering Dean's previous posting and I have no idea when it was posted. And you all might remember I lost track of this thread when I didn't scroll down far enough. Maybe the first heading for each month could be, "Just Talk: September" or whatever and it would be nice if the posts could be dated. (9/23/06)
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