Nurse the Hate: The Super Bowl Reality

I am cramped into an excruciatingly tight space on my flight to SFO.  To my left is a prim woman.  Her mousy brown hair is cut in a bob that reminds me of postcards from 1961, with tiny barrettes clasped down to hold everything in place.  Her thin lips are severe.  They are highlighted by a shock of bright red lipstick.  Her clothes are thrift store chic with a black and white two toned strap saddle shoe that must have been quite the triumphant find.  Thin glasses accent her perpetual look of disapproval on her face.  I can see her first name on her boarding pass, Mary Louise.  Perfect.  She has a blindfold on but I can still feel her look of disdain.

I am very cognizant of not shifting my weight in the slightest or moving my left arm as to not further upset Mary Louise.  This pinning of my left arm to my side has left me sweating uncontrollably as I "pit out" completely.  Yet this is just the price to be paid so as to not incur the disdain of Mary Louise.  I can only imagine the catastrophic turn of events that would take place if I were to jostle her half finished almond milk which is perched dangerously close to the edge of her tray.  This will be a tense flight.  Mary Louise has bad vibes coming off her like a soft fog.  The last thing I need is some sort of catastrophe involving her precious almond milk.

I am once again en route to the Bay Area to attempt to internalize a mountain of information about wine.  This time I will have all of Spain, Italy, and the Rhone shoveled on top of me in about 16 hours of time.  Italy alone has 600+ grapes they make wine from across  74 official wine making zones.  Of course, Italians being Italians, they need to make it more complicated by calling the same grape different things in different areas.  Reality is whatever you decide it is I suppose.

For example, a friend of mine once told me about a conversation he had with Roky Erickson.  Roky, in case you don't know, is an amazing musician and songwriter.  He was in an influential 60s band called the 13th Floor Elevators.  He got tossed in a sanitarium when he was arrested for marijuana possession in the 60s in Texas, which was better than serving the 25 years in prison he would have had for the pot.  Problem was they gave him electroshock and he came out of there more whacked out than when he went in even after having done massive LSD doses for a few years every single day.  He got a band going after getting out and had the bright idea to substitute the devil in his lyrics where he had written Jesus and monsters for happy images.  This led to songs like "Two Headed Dog", "I Walked With A Zombie" and "Bloody Hammer" amongst others.  I strongly suggest getting the entire catalogue.

So Roky was asking my friend if he had ever been to Roky's hometown of Austin.  My friend answered he had while on a tour where they had gone to many cities in Texas.  Roky then said "It's a shame they closed El Paso."  Excuse me?  "Well, because of all the UFOs.  They don't let you go there no more."  That was it.  Roky believed that El Paso had been shut down due to government oversight after all the UFO activity.  As Sangiovese is Brunello if you live in Montepulciano Italy, and I'm a threat to Mary Louise's almond milk, so is perception reality.  It's what we choose to believe.

I watched a roomful of Trump supporters dismiss reality on CNN today.  The facts didn't match the way they chose to see things.  They dismissed the facts.  People need to twist things around to make life palatable to them.  How else can you go on knowing you missed big chances in life, weren't really that good a high school athlete, or maybe just aren't that special now?  Make your own reality!  See what you want to see!  It's this principle that concerns me with the Super Bowl.

I really was torn on this game.  It seems when coldly dissecting this game the Patriots should win.  They went 14-2 and one of those losses was with a third string QB who is already out of football trying to grapple with what happened.  The Patriots beat teams however that they decide they need to win.  It makes no difference to them.  They coldly go out and impose their will with strong defense and timely offense.

The media buzz has turned to embrace the Falcons in the last 48 hours.  No one had seen a Falcons game until last week so I'm surprised to see this turn of events.  Yet this "Patriots bad versus Super Bowl spread" story has taken root as has the "no one can atop the Falcons offense" storyline.  This goes to the most important basic of football gambling.  When the crowd goes one way, go the other.  I am going to balk at this reality being created out of the dust right now by sports media with nothing to talk about.  Two weeks is too long to try and create football news.  Give me Brady and Belichick.  Teams with good defense beat teams with good offense, especially with two weeks of prep.  I'm being conservative on New England -3.