Sunday, February 6, 2011

The view from Team Cheetos

The Superbowl is on. I'm updating my children's lit blog.

But you don't have to be "into" sports to enjoy seeing how much fun people have with this event and others like it. Everyone's talking about a common story tonight. Facebook is full of much-liked posts about chips, salsa, and National Anthem lyrics. Art museums are putting paintings up for loan in a friendly wager.

It's the same spirit that led a co-worker, a customer, and me to chat about Glee at the register today. The same spirit that had us all sharing predictions when Deathly Hallows and Mockingjay came out, that sets off excited chatter when one Betsy-Tacy fan meets another, that had Dickens' American readers imploring his English ones, "Is Little Nell dead?"

No matter how heated the Team Gale/Team Peeta or Team Dickens/Team Why-Did-They-Pay-Him-By-the-Word rhetoric gets, it feels like jump-started friendliness. (I'm not talking about riots here. If literary riots ever become a thing, I will think they are as dumb as sports-related violence is.)

So people are going to talk obsessively about this game for a day or two? I believe the correct phrase is bring it on.

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