Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id TAA26125 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Mon, 28 May 2001 19:37:18 +0100 Message-ID: <49AB9D0C6521D84ABD017BF83CDF44C408D79C@xch1.ucc.ie> From: "Ryan, Angela" <ARyan@french.ucc.ie> To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: Or the oversight of the instant response? Date: Mon, 28 May 2001 19:32:28 +0100 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Dear Wade
Thank you very much for such a clear answer. This is where I confess
to being a closet owner of an original full-size cinema poster of _The
Natural_ (not that I ever really followed how baseball worked: _A League of
Their Own__'s ending made it a little clearer). Query: is spectator sport a
memetic successor to Roman bread and circuses? And if so, is it a necessary
and relatively less damaging channelling of aggression, or a throwback? Or a
ludic obsession, like the third stage in Adams' definition of the evolution
of attitudes to food [qv._The Restaurant at the End of the Universe_ ], the
other obvious example, not to be sexist, being women and shoe shops?
Yours sincerely,
Angela Ryan
aryan@french.ucc.ie
Dr A.M.T. Ryan agrégée de l'Université,
Department of French,
National University of Ireland, Cork,
Ireland.
-----Original Message-----
From: Wade T.Smith [mailto:wade_smith@harvard.edu]
Sent: Friday, May 25, 2001 6:24 PM
To: memetics list
Subject: RE: Or the oversight of the instant response?
On 05/25/01 11:43, Ryan, Angela said this-
>And could you translate Curse of the Bambino,
>please? (I suspect it's a sports thing.)
It's a bit of a sports thing, yes. Vincent mentioned the addictive
quality of Red Sox fanship, (and although I now live in Cambridge, I was
raised in Connecticut, equidistant from Boston and New York, and never
did take sides in that classic rivalry.)
Of course, while baseball can still be considered a religion, it had its
ecumenical heyday in the early part of the twentieth century. (And can
anyone believe I can now say that, looking back...?)
The Curse of the Bambino comes from those golden times (and, regardless
of your leanings towards sports or fans, I highly recommend the book 'The
Glory of Their Times'), when the Boston Red Sox (or was it the Braves...?
(Don't castigate me before I tell you I ain't a real trivia nut about
these things), had a crackerjack pitcher/hitsman by the name of George
Herman "Babe" Ruth, who could do it all. And, in the black year of 1908
(or '09, or '10, or '06...), the Babe was traded to the arch-rival New
York Yankees for some godalmighty amount of money.
And, while the Red Sox had enjoyed a heady run of World Series wins over
the course of their years, they have never, ever, won a World Series
since they traded the Babe, although they continue to come tantalizingly
close.
Thus, The Curse of the Bambino.
And thus, the irrational committment, akin to addiction, that Red Sox
fanship has become....
- Wade
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