Article

2007-02-22 -Short Attention Span Theater-

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by Mike 2007-02-22 08:20|| || Front Page|| [7 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Famous last words: "Ahhh, they're losing. I'm going to bed".

Posted by SteveS 2007-02-22 09:51|| 2007-02-22 09:51|| Front Page Top

#2 Gosh I wonder why they (U.S.) didn't just quit when they had the star player thrown into the penalty box late in the 2nd quarter? I mean at that point it was starting to look like a quagmire? I never watched much Hockey but I watched on from the first puck drop and until the Medal ceremonies were concluded. I hate to admit it but I think I had something in my eye late in the fourth quarter when victory was certain.

Posted by Cyber Sarge 2007-02-22 11:59|| 2007-02-22 11:59|| Front Page Top

#3 I recall that evening with perfect clarity, even the time spent after my high school hockey team finished a half keg of beer watching the replay on ABC.

By now, everyone should've seen Disney's excellent Miracle but for the Rantburg crowd especially, I heartily recommend the HBO documentary Do You Believe In Miracles?

All the primary sources are interviewed (the Soviet Sportswriter is great) and the political dimensions are more fully explored. It's on sale at Amazon and I've used it in my US History classes to explain the Cold War and the rise of Reagan. The students love it.

Posted by JDB 2007-02-22 12:10|| 2007-02-22 12:10|| Front Page Top

#4 PS--#2 Cyber Sarge,

You wanna get another 'thing' in your eye?

In this film, Barry Rosen, held by Ahmedinnerjacket and his filthy friends for 444 days in our embassy describes his joy at learning of the US victory. It's a small but very telling moment that still chokes me up.

Posted by JDB 2007-02-22 12:21|| 2007-02-22 12:21|| Front Page Top

#5 The most exciting, tension-filled game of anything I've ever seen. That the good guys won only makes it better.

If I were the sort who believes in signs, portents, and prophecies, I could make a really good argument that The Miracle on Ice was one of two prophetic prefigurations of the Reagan Revolution, the other being Tom Petty's "Refugee."*

I plan to watch Miracle again tonight--at least, the USA-USSR game sequence.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

*Stop laughing, willya? Just pay attention to the lyrics:

We got somethin' we both know it, we dont talk too much about it
(Patriotism and national pride in decline?)
Aint no real big secret, all the same, somehow, we get around it
Listen, it dont really matter to me, Baby
You believe what you wanna believe

You see, you dont have to live like a refugee . . .
(Remember, too, just a few years before, we'd taken in a lot of boat people from Vietnam and Cambodia)

Somewhere, somehow, somebody must have kicked you around some
(Vietnam, the USSR, Jimmy Carter)
Tell me why you wanna lay there, revel in your abandon
(The 1970s weren't called "the Me Decade" for nothing)
Honey, it dont make no difference to me, baby
Everybody has to fight to be free

You see, you dont have to live like a refugee . . .

Baby, we aint the first
I'm sure a lot of other lovers been burned
(This isn't the first crisis in our history)
Right now this aint real to you
(Remember the Left lecturing us on "inordinate fear of communism?")
Its one of those things you got to feel to be true

Somewhere, somehow, somebody must have kicked you around some
Who knows, maybe you were kidnapped, tied-up, taken away, and held for ransom
(The embassy in Iran was attacked the year after this single charted)
Honey, it dont really matter to me, baby
Everybody has to fight to be free

You see, you dont have to live like a refugee . . .

Posted by Mike 2007-02-22 12:35|| 2007-02-22 12:35|| Front Page Top

#6 Remember it like it was yesterday.

It was a Friday night. Good neighborhood tavern. Maybe 40 -50 guys. Lots of cold beer. Decent television.

No one knew the outcome, or if they did they didn't dare breath a word.

When it was over grown men - and I do mean men - cried for joy. With no shame.

Greatest moment in sport history, bar none.

A great nation - down but not out - raised it's head, and stood up from the canvas.

Thanks for the reminder, Mike.

Posted by Mark Z">Mark Z 2007-02-22 15:46|| 2007-02-22 15:46|| Front Page Top

#7 As I remember it, I heard the score on the radio earlier, which was electric enough. The replay wasn't on until later that night. Still gut wrenching watching it.
And here's a personal anecdote. We're in a bar on Revere Beach the night after Thanksgiving, 1979. There's a guy passed out cold on the bar. So I ask the bartender what's up with him. And he says, "Oh, that's Mike Eruzione. He's captain of the US hockey team and he's home for a couple of days."
So it was a bigger miracle then most people think...

Posted by tu3031 2007-02-22 15:58|| 2007-02-22 15:58|| Front Page Top

#8 Do You Believe in Miracles ran on HBO w/in the past 2 weeks, I taped it.

It was great, I wish they'd update it to include 2002 Olympics and Coach's death.

--Ahmedinnerjacket -- I swear you can see shorty there.

Posted by anonymous2u 2007-02-22 17:55|| 2007-02-22 17:55|| Front Page Top

#9 I'd have bet you everything I owned that the Russkies were going to win that game. In retrospect, I think that was one of three things that turned us around. The others were the elections of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.
1973-1979 was a bad, bad time in the U.S. I didn't know if we were going to make it. Jimmah darned near did us in and, if he could have, he would. What a loser!

Posted by mac 2007-02-22 23:02|| 2007-02-22 23:02|| Front Page Top

23:42 C-Low
23:27 Grunter
23:08 JustAboutEnough
23:02 mac
23:01 JustAboutEnough
23:00 JustAboutEnough
22:55 DMFD
22:51 ryuge
22:47 DMFD
22:42 3dc
22:42 DMFD
22:42 phil_b
22:40 Silentbrick
22:37 Silentbrick
22:31 Moog Synth
22:26 3dc
21:53 Mrs. Davis
21:50 whatadeal
21:38 Seafarious
21:23 Flump Grinemp8767
21:19 Seafarious
21:18 Mrs. Davis
21:17 Mrs. Davis
21:16 Nimble Spemble