Yesterday I was a real American, I watched the Super Bowl. I timed things well. I sat down to eat dinner as Amanda Gorman was about to read her poem. She has become a celebrity poet. Have we had one before? Maybe Robert Frost but I was too young to remember that well. The Super Bowl poem is not a classic like the one at the inauguration, but I still enjoyed it. She will expand how people think about poets. When I picture a woman poet I picture my favorite, Emily Dickenson, the bookish Belle of Amherst. Gorman is glamorous, you have to go back to Byron, Keats, and Shelley, for rock star poets. Have you heard Earthrise? It is also a classic. She says important things and says them beautifully.
Kids in the future are lucky, they’ll get to not just read this in school but hear her read it. Much better than Reflections of the Gift of a Watermelon Pickle, the poetry book I was given in school. Good thing I had my father’s library in my room, so I grew up with Byron, Keats, Shelley, and Coleridge.
Sorry, Gorman distracted me from what’s important, what I made for dinner. It was Super Bowl Sunday, so I made Buffalo Wings; there was a half price sale. The problem is that they were skinless. I did not see that on the packaging. My culinary experiment was potato chips. For the first time in my life, I used a mandolin. It didn’t work well at first. I thought I would just push the potato through the strings. Damn silent e. It worked much better when I tried the mandoline. I was told to be careful and not cut myself. I took a basic safety precautions and counted my fingers both before and after slicing. I got the same result, but the Republicans are insisting on a recount. The best thing about chips versus fries is that it halves the cooking time. I’m impatient. While I don’t want fast food, I want my food fast.
Too bad this was followed by a poor excuse for a football game. I was strongly rooting for KC and they lost bad. I have never seen so many penalties in a football game. I hate Brady with a passion but that doesn’t stop me from recognizing his greatness. As in so many fields being great does not correlate with being a good person.
Some people watch the Super Bowl for the ads. I don’t get it. They are ads. I got no pleasure from them. Some people watch the Super Bowl for the half-time show. I took advantage of half-time to make popcorn. I watched 30 seconds of some guy missing vowels in his name dancing with men that had jock straps on their head. That was all I could take. I turned the game off in the third quarter. I had enough.
Last year I had a beer during my annual attempt to be a typical American male. It was a chocolate stout. I forgot where I got it, but I know it was left over from something and I took it home with me to drink during the game. That was the last alcohol to pass my lips. The World Series is different. I watch baseball all the time. I don’t do that to be American, I do that because I am American. Pitchers and catchers in a week! My Mets lost out on Bauer but should sign one more pitcher. I vote for James Paxton.
I have set a new record for myself. I already know who I am going to feature on Gord’s Gold a week from Wednesday. Yesterday I got the files for the new Dagmar album unwinding, so that’s what I’ll talk about. Here’s the test, will I record it before this week’s edition airs on Wednesday? Can I get more than a week ahead? If I find the apartment very quiet I’ll try. I know what I’m going to say, that’s the point of writing about what has me currently excited. I don’t have to get in the mood. This Wednesday’s featured artist is The Ladles.
Wise Madness 