a fan’s notes
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A FAN’S NOTES, THE RUMPUS SPORTS COLUMN #45: Postseason, Hooters
My friend Snake (he specifically requested this pseudonym) is an English professor, a Tennyson scholar, and a rabid New England Patriots fan.
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A FAN’S NOTES, THE RUMPUS SPORTS COLUMN #44: The Immortal Head-butt
What if one of your worst moments as a human being was sculpted into a 16-foot-tall bronze statue and displayed in front of a shopping mall? Or a Parisian art museum?
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A FAN’S NOTES, THE RUMPUS SPORTS COLUMN #43: Mohawk Mama
Perhaps you’ve seen the photograph of Italian striker Mario Balotelli embracing his mother after scoring two emphatic goals in Italy’s recent 2-1 Euro semifinal victory
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A FAN’S NOTES, The Rumpus Sports Column #42: The Miracle
A few weeks ago, I stayed in on a Friday night reading Hannah Arendt’s essay “What is Freedom?”
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A FAN’S NOTES, The Rumpus Sports Column #36: Manny Ramirez’s Final Performance
The biggest news of this young baseball season is that Manny Ramirez is hanging up his batting gloves and saying goodbye to the Major Leagues. This is sad because Ramirez was one of the game’s great natural hitters and because…
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A FAN’S NOTES, The Rumpus Sports Column #34: From Dallas to Eternity
The Pittsburgh Steelers are headed to the Super Bowl yet again. It’s their third trip to the championship game in six years, despite a season shadowed by controversy. During the regular season—before the season started, even—the Steelers seemed to be…
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The Last Book I Loved: Frederick Exley’s A Fan’s Notes
In the brief preface to his novel, Exley calls his book a work of fiction or fantasy, claiming that the events of the novel only bear a passing similarity to his life, an event he refers to as “that long…
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A FAN’S NOTES, The Rumpus Sports Column #30: The Football Hold
Hey Football Fans, Have you been watching a lot of NFL preseason games lately? Or have you, like me, mostly been watching breastfeeding?
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A FAN’S NOTES, The Rumpus Sports Column #22: The Army Awakened
On writing about war: This year, according to my careful calculations (or at least according to the bracket I just hastily filled out), Syracuse University will win the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.