Super Bowl XLV: Here We Go Again

The Lemming isn't all that much of a sports fan. Growing up in America, though, it's well-nigh impossible to miss the approach of the Super Bowl: that penultimate pennant play, plentifully purveying platitudinous explication of pellucid points of play.

The National Football League isn't shy about discussing the 40th Super Bowl. (www.nfl.com) Looks like it will be "Twitter-Fueled." That's hardly surprising. A year or so from now, and the Lemming thinks it's likely that an online community being involved in a sports event will be as unremarkable as reporters using cameras and telephones are now.

The Super Bowls are a major cultural event here in America - and an unofficial one. More about that, from a distinct point of view:

• "How the NFL turned the Super Bowl into a phenomenon"
  Joe Flint, Los Angeles Times (February 4, 2011) (No, really: they date-stamped it for tomorrow: maybe they're on UTC)

The Lemming thinks that Mr. Flint has a point: some of the Super Bowl's popularity probably has to do with NFL marketing.

On the other hand, it occurs to the Lemming that the Super Bowl is popular - because a great many Americans who don't work for the Los Angeles Times like football, at least to watch. "Football" in the American sense of the word - as distinct from soccer. You know: the game played by guys about the size and weight of refrigerators, chasing a ball that's longer than it's wide or tall.

The Super Bowl game is this Sunday - and the local Soo Bahk Do class is meeting early, so folks can get home in time to watch the game.

Soo Bahk Do? It's a sort of Karate - except the martial art developed in Korea. Which is why members of the Lemming's family are learning to read and speak Korean. (March 14, 2010, in passing)