Super Bowl

Every year, I am asked who I want to win the Super Bowl. My practiced answer has always been "First, tell me who's playing". That about sums up my interest in this yearly ritual.

I grew up in baseball land, and now live in a town where you have to be careful not to wear blue or red to certain homes as it might be indicative of your leanings for a particular basketball team. Here, your basketball affiliation (regardless of whether you attended that University or even made it out of high school) can be used to size you up in seconds. More important than whether you are Democrat or Republican, what religion you practice, or whether you agree with the war in Iraq is your answer to the the question, "How about them 'Cats?"

It is an important social skill, having a team affiliation. You can then converse with any yahoo that happens to be thrown in your personal space. It doesn't matter if you have no single other thing in common, you can talk basketball. Poor dear husband must keep up with the season, (though I do think he enjoys it) as it is an expected topic of conversation at work.

Me? I plead ignorance and am looked at with pity. Silly woman, doesn't know anything, does she? But I'm ready for the Super Bowl. Ellen Degeneres gave me a new line in answer to who I want to win: "I've got it narrowed down to two teams." Dear husband rehearsed me this morning. The two teams playing are Pittsburgh and Seattle. I am supposed to want Pittsburg to win because the teams where we were raised, the Bengals and the Browns, are in the same conference. Seems to me that Pittsburgh would then be considered our mortal enemy. But no, they are in our conference and so we need to pull for them (as if that will make a difference). I'll try to reach down inside myself and muster some enthusiasm.