Insult Upon Injury

Yesterday, accompanied by Dr. P.J. Sinestro, a chiropractor with obscure
mob connections buried deeply in his past, the Dowbrigade took in a Boston University Men’s Varsity
Basketball joust with local rival Northeastern. College sports is one
of the last remaining bastions of pure competition for competition’s
sake on the American sporting scene, and is often overlooked in a 4-sport
Pro town like Boston (6 if you count Soccer and Lacrosse).

It was also our first chance to get a look at BU’s new state-of-the-art
venue, the Agganis Arena. We had seen it once on television, and it looked
small for a major college arena, but in person it was quite impressive,
Jumbotron, ribbon video panels around the balcony, tricked-out lights
and sound. Upcoming events include Widespread Panic, Wrestlemania and
Stars on Ice.

Anyway, as we settled into our courtside seats, we were reminded – again
– that Norma Yvonne is right when she chides that we should make an appointment
to get our hearing checked.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," came the very young and enthusiastic voice of
the booming public address system, "Please stand for the National Anthem."

We stood, slowly, still sore from three sets of tennis, but what we
heard next over the PA shocked us.

"Move your ass!"

"Did you just hear what I heard?" we shouted, astonished, to a puzzled
Dr. Sinestro. "How dare he tell us to move our ass?!" We figured some
overly enthusiastic undergrad, overwhelmed by the magnificence of the
facility, had momentarily lost his head.

"What are you talking about?" The Doctor couldn’t decide if he should
worry about our hearing or our sanity. "He just said REMOVE YOUR HATS!"

We stand corrected.  Northeastern won the game 63-48.