Lamentations and exultations, we’ve got a few, as we approach Valentine’s Day.
It grates when guys talk on their cell phone in public. A young man did this recently while in the hot tub at the athletic club. I’d been anticipating getting in the hot tub after my swim, but I chose not to, given the circumstances, and went to a nearby shower. Upon getting out of the shower, I could still hear that guy talking but he was no longer in the hot tub. He was continuing his conversation while in the shower nearest the hot tub!
Q. Who brings a phone in the shower?
A. A wet phony.
At the same club a few days later, a guy came in the locker room, a looked my way and said, “OK, you want to interview me?” Before I could answer or even snicker at the apparent sarcasm, he was off and running, talking into the air (or the I-Cloud or the You-cloud) while wearing earphones, about how he was a conservative comedian who liked to insert politics into his comedy. “So who are you with anyway?” he asked after saying far too much without knowing. I think he said he majored in “mass communications,” which he evidently was trying to practice before a handful of us by our lockers.
Thankfully, he at least kept the other person off speaker phone.
There have been other broadcast business calls, like one about a plumbing problem or some such, even though we did not want to hear all about it. My point is, too many people have lost their sense of public etiquette or common courtesy, or they don’t understand the world doesn’t revolve around them and their business or idiosyncrasies or problems or anxieties.
Perhaps it’s their subconscious way of reaching out because of a need to be heard or recognized, but there are better, more proven ways to do that kind of thing.
Countering that negative with a positive, I have been tickled to see outdoor activity in the neighborhood – fathers playing pitch-and-catch with sons or brothers going against brothers in a touch football game or basketball game. It’s the most I’ve seen since the pandemic forced folks to rediscover the outdoors. There were more people, especially children, than we’ve ever seen Sunday afternoon at Compton Park. Young and old. It didn’t seem to be a birthday celebration or some other event for a large group.
It was a gorgeous, unseasonably warm February day – the kind of day that triggers spring fever – but we’ve had other gorgeous days over the years that didn’t draw such a crowd.
Maybe it was something contagious about the good vibes emanating all week from a few hours south of here in New Orleans, which did a fantastic job as the host city – for a record-tying 11th time – of Super Bowl LIX. “The city (downtown, especially) is literally sparkling,” my brother, Peter, a lifelong resident of the Crescent City, said Sunday.
From the safety and security made possible by a strong presence of police and National Guard troops to the nightly creative light displays on the front of St. Louis Cathedral, New Orleans took its job of being a Super Bowl host to a superior level. The Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation, led by Jay Cicero, oversaw local operations leading up to the game, and that group deserves a world of credit, putting on dazzling shows, one after another. Kudos must go to the pregame show that saluted the city’s music and culture, highlighted by Trombone Shorty and Lauren Daigle’s rendition of “America the Beautiful,” and the poignant memorial, led by Saints star Cam Jordan, to the victims and first responders of the Bourbon Street terrorist attacks.
Oh, and then there was the game – a stunning 40-22 victory by the Philadelphia Eagles over the two-time defending champion Kansas City Chiefs that was more lopsided than the score indicated. And a record number of Super Bowl media credentials (6,414) were handed out.
“It was like nothing ever seen before at a Super Bowl,” could be an accurate statement, considering, too, another never-seen-before notable: President Trump being the first Commander-in-Chief to attend a Super Bowl.
It’s clear that New Orleans, which knows how to throw a party better than any other place in the world, needs to host the biggest party in America on a more regular basis.