I may have some sort of magical power rather like the Rain God in Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker books. Why do I say this? Well, unless you're a St Kilda footie team fan and you believe strongly in the Jinx, read on:...
Item#1 In 1986 after moving to England to attend Warwick University I started going to Coventry City games. Coventry were the local football team and you could always get tickets because Cov had never won anything in its 104 year history. Eight months after I started supporting Coventry they won the FA Cup, the most important trophy in English football and the only one they have ever taken.
...
Item#2 In 1993 I moved to New York City and because I was living in Harlem and working in Washington Heights, naturally I became a Yankees fan for baseball and a Rangers fan for hockey. (I don't like basketball or American football). In 1994 the Rangers won their first Stanley Cup in 54 years and in 1996 the New York Yankees won their first World Series in 19 years.
...
Item #3 In 2001 we moved to Denver, Colorado and started going to Colorado Rockies games. In 2007 the Rockies got to the World Series for the first time in their history and although they lost, it was still quite an achievement for them to take the NL Pennant.
...
Item #4 Last year we moved to St Kilda, Melbourne, Australia. I quickly discovered to my dismay that no one really cares about soccer or rugby in this town, but footie - Aussie Rules - is everything. I started watching Aussie Rules on telly and found that I liked the game. But which team to support? Well there was really no choice: we live in St Kilda, my daughter goes to St Kilda Primary School and every Monday the St Kilda FC boys come to the Sea Baths to ruin my swimming session (but we'll forgive them that) so it had to be The Saints. What has happened? What do you think? St Kilda are in the Grand Final with a chance of taking the whole thing for the first time since 1966. Are they actually going to win? I don't know, but I wouldn't bet against them.
64 comments:
I'm going to post a link to this on the Stoke City FC fan club's website. Don't be surprised if you get a request to up sticks for an all expenses paid move in the near future.
I'm kidding, of course. Stoke City FC hasn't got a fanclub. Well, they have, but they don't have a website...They do? Oh, I better get posting, then.
Is there any chance you could move to Toronto? Leafs fans will probably pay your way...
Nah, he should move to Liverpool... it's time for Everton to break the stranglehold of the 4 evil Russian/Chinese mafia conglomerates.
Or should I say five, now that there's also Manchester City.
A good friend of mine moved to England in the early 80s - his mother, a professor at York, started teaching theatre at Warwick University. Beautiful house in Leamington Spa. Visited them in 1987, had a great time. Saw the Pretenders and Level 42.
I'd second the move to Toronto, but if the Leafs management helped torpedo the Hamilton NHL franchise, they're in my bad books.
Michael
Well they've been promoted havent they, so at the very least they'll get a financial windfall.
John
I'm worried about the cold. The missus lived in Chicago for 2 years (home of the doomed Cubs of course) and said that that wind off the lake was a killer. I assume there's a similar wind in Toronto. Doesnt sound good.
Marco
The Man City rise is going to be interesting this season. I think the mighty pool are the only English team left not owned by the Russian mafia, of course thats because they're owned by the US mafia.
Matt
Our paths might have crossed. In my second year I lived in Leamington Spa. Dont remember a whole lot about it to be honest except that there were a lot of tea shops.
If the Leafs want me to move they'll have to go back to calling themselves the Toronto Saint Patricks.
So what's your problem with basketball exactly? Even I've played it and liked it, sort of. One of my most touching stories about my grandmother is that she wore bloomers when they first came on the scene and I came across some family document about her playing basketball in them. Or at least they made it possible for a proper young woman to do so.
As to the wind chill factor off of Lake Michigan, I can testify. I went to visit my Illinois relatives one Christmas, and was persuaded to come to downtown with my cousin and my aunt to drop off some transcripts at some graduate school office right on the lake. I realized that I hadn't really understood the true meaning of wind chill before.
Luckily, my aunt and cousin thought that the best way to get back to the car would be to stop in a few bars and have Irish coffees along the way. It was in one of these bars that we heard the news that Mayor Daly had died. I still feel oddly involved in an historic moment because of that.
Oh, yeah--go, St. Kilda!
Seana
Oh crap! St Kilda just lost. It was one of the best finals in years and the lead changed a dozen times. In the fourth period there was a massive period when it was tied, but St Kilda were just too tired and the Geelong Cats won by a whisker at the very end.
We went to the big screen TV and stood in a weather front that had come in from Antarctica (I'm not kidding about that). A great game though.
I felt St Kilda deserved to win but the Geelong fans have to live in Geelong and that I feel is punishment enough.
Oh well, they'll be asking you to move now.
Miss Witch
No no you've got to give the McKinty magic a couple of years. Especially since Eric Bana flew in for the final especially and that guy is a huge jinx. My powers had to battle against his.
But next year they'll take if for definite. On verra.
Oh poor old Saints. You have to stay now, so they can win it back next year.
Too bad about St. Kilda, better luck next year.
Here in Toronto we're on the other side of the lake it's not so bad. Buffalo gets hits hard, that's where the "lake effect," as they call it really hits.
Or maybe after 30 years in Montreal, Toronto winters just seem mild to me.
As for basketball, I've been to a few games but I can never figure out why the whistle is blowing and the game is stopping. And really, 112-110, that's a score? And the last two minutes take an hour to play?
I hope I'm still around when all those American kids start taking soccer seriously. We had Real Madrid in Toronto this summer and that Ronaldo guy is okay, but if he was up against Terrell Owens I doubt he'd touch the ball...
Sorry, but nothing tops my accomplishment of wandering into what may be the greatest exhibition of hurling ever.
And you somehow fail to mention that the Yankees appear poised to break a World Series jinx this season, now that you have left America.
John, Adrian doesn't like ice hockey unless Fijians are playing it.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
JOhn
Oh I see, the snow goes from north to south that makes sense. I imagine that Cleveland also gets pretty hard then, coupled with all the other problems of Cleveland (if Harvey Pekar is to be believed).
No I just cant watch basketball. I dont get it at all.
Gen,
As I explained to my daughter, there's always next year.
Oh, hey, and did you hear that Ellroy thinks Pynchon’s latest is a big snorefest?
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Peter
No, the Yankees Jinx was George Bush. The Yankees cant win when a George Bush is Vice President or President - look it up. That family is bad news for New York.
I assume Peter you are referring to this sorry spectacle
That very spectacle, yes, a little thing John and I might call Haka Night in Canada.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Peter
I liked the Pynchon but I think history will judge Ellroy the more important writer.
Peter
I assume the NZ synchronized swimming team does a haka before they go into battle.
Maybe the Yankees can't win during times of baaaaaaad juju. Their one sustained period of failure started after LBJ was elected then lasted through the Nixon years and ended a month before Jimmy Carter was elected.
The warriorlike aspect has made the Kiwis the most feared squads in all of synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Peter
You may be right, so what you're really saying is that whats good for the Yankees is good for America.
Ellroy is 11 years older than Pynchon, but seems to understand post war America in a way Pynchon doesnt or cant. Coming from the wrong side of the tracks may have helped. Thats why I think British fiction is so bad at the moment - too many of the great new writers are public school boys (ie private school) who have no idea about the real world.
Do you think Ellroy might be too much fun to make it into the American literary pantheon?
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
I am floored that you guys don't understand basketball. I mean, it's not cricket.
I couldn't really tell if Ellroy was kidding around or sincere about Pynchon from your comments, Peter.
I really hope that the McKinty effect doesn't reverse somehow in the Antipodes.
NBA basketball has two rules:
a) You have to stick the ball in the basket
and
b) The number of steps a player is permitted while carrying the ball equals his annual salary divided by 2 million.
I suspect -- just suspect -- that Ellroy's comments are an exaggeration, though not a misstatement, of his opinion of Pynchon. There were no follow-up questions, though. No one wanted to talk about Pynchon because Ellroy was putting on too good a show.
I think that if he put pen to paper, Ellroy might have interesting things to say about Pynchon. He says interesting things about noir and crime fiction, even if some fans of that kind of fiction might not welcome them. His comments are well-supported, I think, even if one does not agree with his conclusions.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
So it's the higher math that's doing these guys heads in, is it?
Seana
I'm afraid I just dont get the nuance in basketball. After a few minutes watching I just want to change the channel. Also I dont feel invested in the NBA. There's no team that has captured my imagination. I like the Harlem Globetrotters though, especially when they were on Scooby Doo.
Peter
I think Ellroy is unlikely to enter the Pantheon because the prejudice against genre fiction is too strong. I dont think any living American novelist has the ambition or daring that Ellroy has shown in the American Underworld trilogy though may take until after Ellroy is dead for the canon to recognise his brilliance.
You're probably right. If Ellroy has made it onto American university reading lists, it's probably in American studies rather than English departments.
The irony is that Ellroy has said he no longer writes crime fiction, and he has had some intelligent criticism of the genre, its forms, and why his work is different.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Well, in Santa Cruz, they taught detective fiction when I was up there, though I didn't take it, and some of my young lit-savvy friends at work are taking a course on Chandler, etc. right now. I don't think Ellroy is on the reading list, but I wouldn't say never.
No, I don't look for nuance in sports. That probably explains the divide. Not that I ever watch basketball anyway. But I do like the Harlem Globetrotters, though I can't remember the last time I saw them.
The American studies department offered a detective-stories course when I was in school. I didn't take it, because I had not yet started reading crime fiction in a big way. I did write a two-part Chandler parody for the school paper, though. It was, as is said in Adrian's native land, shite.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
I don't know if the higher math does these guys in. The referees don't seem to be able to count above two when superstars grab the ball and drive to the basket, though.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Adrian,sorry about St Kilda watched it on ESPN which surprisingly we now get free on Virgin Media.
I have supported Geelong Cats not because they won the first year I watched Aussie Rules [the Man. Utd syndrome] but because Ablett and Chapman looked so much like my older son. Shortish with no hair!
You spoke too soon and tempted the fates, they took offense and St.Kilda lost. It's all your fault.
So the Geelong cats won by a whisker. You really couldn't let that one go, eh?
Basketball is the only tolerable American sport, and that's why it is played everywhere.
By the way, apparently there's a baseball world championship in Italy now. Not that anyone cares.
And to cap up the sport news the Serie A Tuscan derby Livorno-Fiorentina ended 0-1, which means that a certain Livornese priest I know in Florence probably had a pretty hellish sunday.
I liked the Pynchon but I think history will judge Ellroy the more important writer.
That was a very bold faced statement. My Italic opinion is: no way!
Vainly trying to avert a long argument of "No way!", "Yes, way!", I'll ask
Is there really a town called Geelong, or is there some other reason for the name?
Seana, I have never been within thousands of miles of the second-largest city in Victoria, Australia, but yes, there is a Geelong. I know this because I have long been beguiled by the name. The name would be even better if the accent were on the first syllable, but even as is, it's pretty lilting and melodic.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Probably it was a commuter town. Like Grant McLennan in Cattle and Cane ,its inhabitants had to travel long distances in order to go to school or work, and when they finally made it back home they always said: "GEE, that was LONG".
Alternative version
Uriah,
I know of whom you speak. Geelong's most famous player is that big bald guy. I'm not so big a fan that I know the names of all the St Kilda players but I have seen them all naked which is quite intimate.
Marco
I think the American Underworld trilogy stacks pretty favourably against anything in the Pynchon canon. Although dimissing Pynchon as "boring" as Ellroy did in Peter's post is crazy. Inherent Vice was a lot of things but never boring.
Seana
There is indeed a town called Geelong. We drove through it twice last January on the way to Apollo Bay. It reminded me of Trenton, New Jersey or perhaps Larne, Northern Ireland. Peter Carey of Oscar and Lucinda etc. fame went to Geelong Grammar so I assume he is their most famous fan.
Peter
If and when you come to Australia I wouldnt have Geelong high on your list of places to visit. This isn't bitterness speaking, but rather, I hope, a cool appraisal of the facts.
Marco, Genevieve,
I already have a plan for next year, but fearing the jinx I wont reveal it until after the finals.
Gravity's Rainbow alone
By the way, I just bought (used) Cristo si è fermato ad Eboli, plus a couple of book by Chaim Potok. Does your wife know/appreciate him?
I'm not so big a fan that I know the names of all the St Kilda players but I have seen them all naked which is quite intimate.
The mental image is...interesting.
Next time take pictures.
hmm I meant to say Gravity Rainbow alone stands among the books of the century or somesuch but something must have distracted me.
Christ Stopped at Eboli has come up several times recently. Worth reading, is it?
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Adrian, I don't need to see the place. Hearing its name pronounced would be enough for me. ==============
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
I'm not surprised to find I know little or nothing about a place, but I'm a little surprised that I had never even heard the name, which is pretty memorable. Especially when it's the birthplace of an author I love. On the other hand, I'd never heard of Larne or Carrickfergus till recently either.
Sounds like Geelong needs its own Janet Evanovich to really bring it to prominence.
Or its own John McFetridge. (I think his ancestors came from Larne.)
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Marco
I go along with you about Gravity's Rainbow. Its a brilliant piece of work and deserves its acclaim.
Peter
I liked Eboli a lot but if you havent read The Worst Journey In the World or A Time of Gifts, I'd read those first.
Seana
I dont believe that you havent heard of Carrickfergus, you almost certainly have heard the song I Wish I Was in Carrickfergus at some point in your life but just didnt register what it was.
Just have to jump in here on behalf of basketball lovers everywhere:
Two of the Harlem Globetrotters are on the new season of The Amazing Race!
Though I'm not sure yet whether they will make it to the end of the two hour premiere.
I know the tune of I Wish I Was in Carrickfergus now, of course, but couldn't swear I heard it before. Or if I did, I probably thought it really all about living a life of real intregity in Larne.
Oh, I've also bought six crime stories by Faulkner. Who knew Faulkner wrote detective stories.
Marco
In the Paris Review interview he says that "Sanctuary" is one long crime story.
I thought about that, but these have a honest-to-god detective doing the sleuthing.
One of my housemates was a big Faulkner fan and he had that collection, though I can't remember what it was called. As I recall they were a good dealmore straightforward than some of his stuff.
and where would Larne be now? (MWAHAHAHAH wicked online laugh).
Gen,
I wouldnt say it was the worst town in Ulster.
(too afraid to really)
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