2008-02-04 - 5:17 p.m.
I went to a Super Bowl party at a very famous person�s palatial apartment, although they were not present. The party was hosted by a sibling with whom Nya and I are friends. I was a little conflicted on who to root for. Although I grew up in New York, the Giants never really took hold on me the way the Yankees or Knicks did. But I lived most of my adult life in New England and Patriots fever was pretty catchy. The whole Brady transition was pretty cool and the city of Boston threw a really nice parade for the Pats when they won in 2002. So I was hoping the Patriots would win and Nya said their loss served me right for going against my original hometown team. Ah well.
But I wanted to recount something funny that happened 13 years before, at a Super Bowl XXIX party. This was in 1995, at the Harvard dorm room of my sisters (Erin, Jeanne, and Jill). A girl who we knew had spent the whole fall semester in Africa, working for primatologist Jane Gooddall on a chimpanzee preserve. I have no idea what her living conditions were like (all I can envision is tree houses), but I very much doubt they had TV sets. It was the very beginning of the second semester and we hadn�t seen her yet. She came by the room and popped in to check out the festivities. At the very moment she walked in, corpulent actress Nell Carter was parading around, singing for some reason.
She stared at the screen, slackjawed.
�Hey, good to see you! How was Africa?�
Nell Carter wailed a high note.
�Oh my God. I�m having a little culture shock right now,� she said, pointing to the television. �I forget � is this kind of stuff on every day?�
�Only if you want it to be. And if you have enough channels.�
The screen showed a huge cohort of dancers starting to do kicks.
�Welcome back to America!�
� 2008 Geoff Gladstone
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