Saturday, December 02, 2006

Encouragement from the Desert

From Sundevil Joe. And this from Robbie-Boy, who lives and dies all things Tempe:

". . . Yours is a program the rest of us can only dream of being.

FIGHT ON!!!!!!"

Finally, my brother John called me up. I was avoiding all phone calls, but John kept ringing and ringing (five times) until I answered. He then proceeded to hold his cell phone to his TV while he played the DVD of the greatest "Bob Newhart" episode ever. This was when Bob and his bachelor friends are stuck in his apartment on Thanksgiving, whereupon they proceed to 1) get trashed on Jerry the orthodontist's hard cider, 2) engage in an on-going seminar of the knock-knock joke, 3) fail to thaw out a frozen turkey, 4) watch seven football games, and 5) attempt to order Chinese food while plastered out of their minds.

As I was out on the balcony, brooding over a post-game whiskey and cigar when John called, Astro-Girl's view of my laughter through the glass doors truly convinced her I was having a fit.

No, no, I'm fine, never mind how unable I am to explain the humor in Moo-Goo Guy Pan, or in this exchange:

"Whaddya want?"

"Sweet and sour pork."

"Make up your mind."

To go from the emotional nirvana of Notre Dame, to the despair of today . . . it is always important to remind ourselves, as the great sportswriter Red Smith often did, that these are games little boys play.

Fight on, indeed.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I told myself all year that the only game that REALLY mattered was against Notre Dame. The rest was just icing. Can't say I wasn't disappointed (especially in the lackluster offense), but if falling short means another Pac 10 title and the Rose Bowl--against a superb Big 10 team, no less, AND in a rebuilding year--I think I can accept that. And the flowers on top of the icing: the Rose Bowl won't be sullied by Notre Dame.

texasyank said...

Good point

Anonymous said...

We must have discussed this before, but Moo Goo Gai Pan is my favorite Newhart episode of all time, too. "Moo goo goo goo..."

texasyank said...

I knew I had the spelling wrong. Moo Goo Gai Pan! Comedy episodes? Ranks with "Chuckles Bites the Dust" and any number of "Dick Van Dyke" episodes as the greatest.