BASEBALL

I haven't enjoyed watching baseball this much in years. I'm rooting for the Red Sox against the Yankees, which is pretty significant heresy for a born and bred New York boy, even one who hasn't been a serious follower of the game for a while. I went to college near Boston, and it was pretty tough going for a default Yankees fan whose childhood hero just happened to be Bucky Dent. Mentioning Dent's name in Red Sox company, which I of course did at every opportunity, is a bit like waving a Union Jack in an Irish Pub, or pinching an intern's bum at Ms. Magazine, or yelling "multilateralism works!" at a Bush rally, and so on and so forth. It tends to, shall we say, set people on edge.

Anyway, if/when the Red Sox do win the World Series, it will probably be worth jumping the next redeye to Boston to participate in the week long Mardi Gras that will occur. Or else take the first redeye out of Boston if massive quantities of beer, sexual perversity in the streets, and dumpsters set on fire aren't your thing.