Got this from Ms. Gnome – I have to make a list of 10 things I love based on a letter from the alphabet she gave me. I am awarded the letter R:
(oh, before we get there –most people so far have voted they don’t have a problem with spiders. I stand alone. what’s the matter with you people! are you all even human? look at those 8-legged, multi-eyed things, sneaking all about the place, especially the ceiling above you, just waiting for your back to turn so they can JUMP RIGHT ON TOP OF YOU! How can you not be freaked out!?!?)
1) Rugby
duh. why do I like this sport? I really don’t know, it appeals to me is all. Maybe it’s the legitimized violence. The codified brutality. The resulting camaraderie. The opportunity to be a prick hurling insults at other folk in public, stomp on their toes, fingers and balls, in public. And you get cheered for doing so. Oh, right, there’s also skill, finesse, athleticism, the opportunity to excel and push yourself to your limits. It’s rugby, I grew up with it. Every white boy in SA grows up with rugby, like boerewors and beer and mother’s milk and biltong. We do not question the why thereof, we only know it’s good and pure (or our dads will know the reason why not).
2) Rain
I prefer cold to heat. Cloudy days to sunny ones. Rain most of all. Even the wild, lashing ones, the kind of hell-unleashed storms we can get here on the Highveld. I love it. Especially if I’m indoors, snug in my bed with a cup of coffee. My moods synch easily with rain, relaxing and calming and the world just feels rejuvenated afterwards.
3) St Louis Rams
people ask my why did you choose the Rams as your NFL team? well, how did an SA boy become a fan of NFL to begin with? you find a sport, you like it, inevitably you’ll have favourites. There’s little actual reason as to why, it just kind of happens. But ok, here’s an attempt to explain why I chose the Rams as my team — I love the way it rolls off the tongue, Saint Loo-whis Rams, much better than it’s previous unfortunately named Lah Rams. I like the colors, the blue and gold, I like the (once upon a time) high-powered, explosive offense. For someone who didn’t grow up with the game and doesn’t have the insight of genuine expertise into game mechanics, an exciting offense is a logical pick. The Rams history boasts inventions brought to the game, and uniqueness — the only woman owner; the first black player; the first team to use the 3-4 defense. But mostly? It’s because I’m a fan of the underdog. And I adore faerytales.
Georgia Frontiere lived a life that most editors would reject as implausible. A life made for a Hollywood movie. There are controversies there, but here’s what we know: she left St Louis a teenager, married to her sweetheart who got killed in the war, she became a dancer and returned to St. Louis many years later.She didn’t return empty-handed –with her, she brought the Rams. (small town, broken-homed child leaves hometown to find fortune and glory armed with naught but determination, anyone?) At the time, the Rams were a pathetic joke of a team (wow! history is repeating itself..) They were owned by a woman to boot. They won the Superbowl in 1999, under leadership of #@$% Vermeil. If you’ve seen Invincible, then you know #@$% Vermeil — he is the underdog coach that makes faery tales come true.
Kurt Warner was one of the oldest starting “rookie” quarterbacks in NFL history. He was undrafted (the draft, is 7 rounds where NFL teams pick the elite football players when they leave college. conventional wisdom states the most talented and best will go highest. Players not drafted are given a chance to compete for different teams rosters. Undrafted players seldom make the team. See where I’m going with this?) Warner tried at Green Bay but didn’t make the team. For most, that’s it, game over forever. Took him years to get a second chance and then bad luck ruined that chance. Eventually, he got signed as a back-up at St. Louis. Back-up. He wasn’t expected to play. Disaster struck (injuries; lord, this is too familiar…), and the Rams had no choice but to play Warner. Warner ignited the offense, and the team, leading one of the most spectacular turnarounds in the NFL to take a suck-ass team and win the Superbowl.
The Rams right now are eerily similar to those days leading up to Warner and I suppose this is why many fans keep hoping, against reason and odds.
And that’s why the Rams for me, cause I love underdogs and I dig faerytales. Stories about people who don’t quit, who pick themselves up and eventually, no matter how many times and how many years they get beaten down, they succeed.
4) Rivers
I don’t know, but I love rivers. Not rivers and brooks themselves but rather being near them and how the world feels and smells when you’re sitting close.
5) Ravens
not because of the poem which, to be honest never came alive for me until I heard it as read by Homer Simpson. No, the bird itself is fascinating, intelligent. Has a bad rep, sadly, mostly due to the abundance of one-dimensional portrayals it receives in fiction. But, to me, this is the only bird where the name itself has magic and mystery. And, wow, would the raven ever make a kick-ass trope for a were story!
6) Ramble
my favourite online pastime. sometimes real life pastime too.
7) Radio
Video killed the Radio Star
I’m a kid of the 80’s and early 90’s, spending hours and hours of nighttime listening to the radio and tuning and fiddling to discover those new, kick-ass stations that flourished too, too briefly. This is hard to explain, one of those genuine “you had to be there to understand it” kind of things. I don’t listen to radio now; I miss radio as it was then. Lots of nostalgia in this idea.
8) Pork Ribs
Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! Mine, all mine!
9) Revision
wel…no. Let’s call this entry the Positive Power of Wishful Thinking.
10) Reading
oh, come now. is there anything I enjoy doing more? not really.
and that’s me. If anyone would like to play (who hasn’t yet), drop a comment and I’ll assign you a letter.
on 
on 