super days ahead

My second grade teacher had a habit of labeling most of the work I handed in with her signature smiley face and the word "Super!" or, on occasion, "Super Duper!" if I'd done a particularly good job. I'll be thinking of Mrs. Walsh these next few days as her exclamatory adjectives come to embody two of the most highly anticipated events of 2008: the Super Bowl, and Super Tuesday.

First, let's talk football. The NFL playoffs are really the only time I get "super excited" about professional football. The energy they come with is exactly what's missing from our tepid-by-comparison process for crowning the collegiate champion team. (See an earlier post for more of my thoughts on that.) This year, there's the added bonus of two equally compelling stories: the as-yet undefeated season of the New England Patriots and the inspirational story of the New York Giants, who went into the playoffs as heavy underdogs and have won three games in a row to get to their first Super Bowl in eight years. Of course, being a lifelong Giant fan, it's been fun listening to everyone get excited, especially our mayor, Mike Bloomberg, who's not only made a serious wager with the mayor of Boston, he's also symbolically renamed an Upper East Side bar, from "Brady's" to "Manning's." Anyway, it should be a good game, what with the Giants being the only team this season that really gave the Pats a run for their money. By the way, during halftime, skip Tom Petty and head on over to the Animal Planet channel, which will be airing their annual Puppy Bowl and Kitty Halftime Show.

The other half of the next few days' "super duo" is Super Tuesday, which holds intrigue of its own and, I dare say, may be a tad more important than the first "super" event. The Republican race is down to four candidates, although I'd be shocked if McCain and/or Romney don't force Huckabee and Paul out of the contest with strong showings. I think even Republicans would agree, though, that the more intriguing contest is the one on the Democractic side. I can't say I've ever remembered a primary quite as hotly contested as this one, so it'll be interesting to see whether Clinton or Obama will walk away with this thing this week or whether primary season will march on into the spring. I kind of hope things are settled relatively quickly, to be honest - I think the Dems are going to need to unite as quickly as possible in preparation for the upcoming battle in November. That said, the Annals of Spacetime blog proudly endorses Hillary Clinton for President! Don't worry, I won't be offended if we don't make it to the national endorsement lists...

Regardless of who wins in both contests, let's just hope the next three days live up to their "super" billings! It's funny, back in 2000 we had the same setup: the Giants were in the Super Bowl and Al Gore was later up for election against W. I remember thinking I'd be okay with the Giants losing the game as long as the Democrats won in November. Needless to say, my team ended up losing both contests...so hopefully we'll do a little better this time around! ∞