So which of the Harry Potter threads on the first page should I read?

Yeah, and it's KIDS reading. I think CS Lewis and Tolkien is basically goofy shit, but they taught me "big words" when I was a young-un. That enabled me to understand all sorts of subversive shit when I was a teenager.

 

B-Dub, you rule. Are you really a White Sox fan though, or just a devotee of the pre-Ruthian epoch?

 

I'd choose the Sox over the Cubs, if it came down to that. You'd never catch me rooting for the Northsiders, that's for sure. But I'd never claim to be a Sox fan. I'm a Braves fan, and have been since I was 9. That's my team, although I tend to root more for individual players than anything else.

I am, however, a pre-Ruthian Pale Hose devotee. I probably have more knowledge about the 1912 Sox than any healthy person under the age of 80 ever should.

 

I grew up with the Rangers, watched the Red Sox in college, but my dad was Chicagoan...Cubs fan.

His dad was Cubs fan and these things are patri-lineal, as you know. Funny thing though, my old man was actually a South Sider. His folks moved from the country to the city when the depression hit. Dad was eight years old when he moved to an all-Irish neighborhood on the South Side that's all-African-American now. He was the ONLY Cubs fan in his school. So he took a lot of shit. This was the late 20s/early 30s, when the Cubs were good, so at least he had "scoreboard," to a point.

Nelson Algren, a South Sider, has some great short nonfiction narratives about the White Sox. One of them recounts his experience- kind of a mirror-image to my dad's. Algren's folks moved from the South Side to the North Side when he was about that same age. He had the same troubles of fitting in with the kids in the new neighborhood. This was right after the Black Sox scandal. Algren got lots of shit for how his boys "thrun" the World Series. Great reading.

 

Sorry Harry Potter, old-school Second-City baseball threadjack in full effect...

 

Some Northsiders are Sox fans, despite objections of family members.

 

It's a lot like the "Irish Question"...you can't stereotype people's loyalties based on geography or other factors. It all goes back to people's family and personal experience.

 

My dad, two oldest brothers and their kids (my nieces and nephews) are Cubs fans; my other two older brothers and myself are Sox fans. The three of us have talked a lot of shit the last couple years -- and enjoyed every minute of it. I'm currently reserving comment on the Cubbies lately; they're looking pretty damn good.

 

Ray Rayner had a custom-made, twin-billed faux batting helmet that was royal blue Cubs on one side, navy blue Sox on the other. Nuff said.

 

Nelson Algren and his famous girlfriend, Simone de Beauvoir.

He took her to Comiskey on a date.

Their romance ended bitterly. He wouldn't leave his beloved Chicago; she wouldn't leave Sartre and Paris. They fell out of touch and both of them carried a grudge.

But she insisted on being buried wearing the ring he gave her. And so she was.

 

Stealing bandwidth is a crime, buckdub. And what is the source of your hatred toward the Cubs? I could see the loathing coming from Cardinals fans and White Sox fans -- they're all trying to compensate for their mullets and small penises -- but the Braves weren't even in Atlanta the last time the Cubs were regular NL powers. Did Mark Grace bang your sainted aunt once upon a time? If so, he apologizes.

 

Just because...

Like sportschick with the GWB graphic, I have to post this gem every once in a while...