Posted 5:08 PM by Gene

Living as I must near 500 RENDELIS with liquor licenses I am forced every NFL Sunday to behold hundreds of young people wearing fake team uniforms. This annoys me no end because 1. Aren't those mercenaries rich enough?* and 2. A certain conformity gets people to do it. When I was young I wanted to know as many people I could provided they were interesting. Everybody wearing IGGLES shirts or SKINS shirts or STEELERS shirts or whoever's shirts speaks of people who are happy with their little tiny mindset and content to hang out with people who mutually endorse their eenie-weenie ways. Yes, I know Babbitt; it's unaccountably one of my favorite novels; but I am convinced America has far less social diversity than she used to, and that's a big reason we're in trouble. And let us not forget even in 1922 America still teemed with immigrants, and her cities were boiling melting pots; she didn't know PC, or DILBERTS, or anything near BIGMEDIA. And in the twenties professional football was associated with such wholesome pursuits as flagpole sitting and dance marathons, and thus acquired a smell, a smell washed clean by CEOs screaming of their fealty to the SUPER BOWL.

*Although happily for many of them the answer is NO.