Photo by Annie Leibowitz
Article:
http://www.mensvogue.com/business/politics/feature/articles/2007/06/john_edwards
Was running some errands last Thursday afternoon before we were scheduled to be hit with a so-called "wave" of rain that all of the local South Florida TV weather talking-heads had been predicting ominously for days, but which took its sweet time in showing up.
I stopped off at the Publix supermarket here in Hallandale Beach on Hallandale Beach Blvd., east of me towards the beach, a store that is so polyglot that even during the slow and steamy days of summer, they still carry the main 6-8 Montréal and Toronto daily newspapers, in English & French, along with their usual American cousin suspects.
I bought some of the Montréal papers last March, the day after #5, Bernie "Boom-Boom" Geoffrion of Les Habs died, when Le Journal de Montréal, had a beautiful color 8'' X 11'' glossy photo of the beloved Hall of Famer, the day after his jersey was to be raised to the rafters of the Belle Centre, which is, to say the least, no "Fabulous Forum."
In many ways, his wife Marlene tied together all the generations of Montréal hockey fans, because of her father, legendary Habs superstar Howie Morenz, her marriage to Bernie as well as her link to post-exapnsion NHL thru her son Danny, who was good enough to have been the Canadiens first round draft choice in 1978, at age 20, playing in the NHL for 3 years.
I was surprised -pleasantly so- to see that the best hockey story that I've read in years on hockey's neverending hold on Montréal was a story in le Journal, http://www2.canoe.com/jdem/abonnement/index.html/ by the player I most loved to watch and cheer for in the mid-to-late '70's, when his long hair flowed like the proverbial Stanley Cups a la Belle Province: The Flower, Guy LaFleur.
I can still recite that championship Habs roster as easily as I can roll off the Dolphins' Super Bowl championship teams, in part because so many of their players achieved such great success off-the-ice as head coaches and general managers with other teams, as well as the Canadiens.
I will try to find that article of his and run it in the future, because it was so insightful and heartfelt that I actually found myself getting teary-eyed reading it in the original French.
I will try to find that article of his and run it in the future, because it was so insightful and heartfelt that I actually found myself getting teary-eyed reading it in the original French.
I suppose that sounds a little crazy to read in print, but trust me, when you read it for yourself, you'll see exactly what I mean.
LaFleur's article gets to the heart of what it means to be both a French-speaking player and fan in Montréal.
If you're not already familiar with it, a really great hockey blog, with a Montréal Canadiens-orientation is called, not surprisingly, http://wwwrealitycheckeyesontheprize.blogspot.com/
It's written with a lot of insight and understanding in the ways of the Canadiens and their fans, who while not "long-suffering" like Cubs and Red Sox fans, still have an obvious anxious gene that is not found in quite so many of the devout fans of other hockey teams.
(It's sort of like how Dolphin fans felt in '75 and '76, wondering what had happened to the methodical planning and execution they'd become used to, suddenly seeing -more often than not- other teams doing that, namely the Steelers and Raiders, and seeing something unrecognizable in the aqua, ornage and white Dolphins: road losses to the Oilers and late
collapses against so-so teams that you're used to beating nine times out of ten.
That's when the anxious gene really kicks in!)
The blog also consistently has great photos and illustrations, and really speaks to someone who knows the history of the NHL and the Habs in particular.
(When I run the LaFleur story in the future, I'll also explain how and why it came to be that a guy growing up in North Miami Beach came to root for the Canadiens, have a subscription to The Hockey News and have a large classic Canadiens bumper sticker near his bedroom sports wall, right near the team photo of the undefeated 1972 Dolphins.
Part of this can be chalked up as simply another ripple of the Tracey Geffin Effect.
That was my nickname, once I got to IU, for the small but subtle ways that I noticed I'd changed for the better while at North Miami Beach Senior High School, NMBHS, as a result of all my time around Tracey Geffin, my cool, stylish and urbane not-to-mention adorably gorgeous friend and classmate from Montréal.
I sat next to Tracey everyday for two and a half years, at the same large desk in the front row of our home room class at NMBHS, which was always our French class, my favorite class.
That class room, with the passionate and enthusiastic Pearl Chiari at the helm, was one of the best learning experiences of my life, due in large part to the fact that, simply put, "Pearl" was one of the best teachers Dade County ever had.
This simple fact was proven by her being named Dade County "Teacher of the Year" once I was at IU, though it was hardly news to any of Pearl's past students, who were very motivated to do well in large part because of all the hard work they saw her put into making it easier for us to learn French and assimilate aspects of French culture.
While yours truly eagerly fled the state of Florida entirely and headed north to beautiful Bloomington, in search of a place where logic and reason held sway, Tracey went down to Coral Gables and the U-M, for both undergrad and law school, becoming a terrific attorney in South Florida like her talented and brilliant younger brother and sister who followed her, Alan & Samantha. More on Tracey & Pearl in the future.)
Obviously, because of the heavy NY/NJ/CT influence on this area, this particular Publix also receives more than the normal amount of copies of the New York Times, The New York Post and the New York Daily News -sometimes it seems like they have more than Ft. Lauderdale Airport- which is good for a newspaper junkie like me.
If only they got the Boston Globe, Baltimore Sun or Philadelphia Enquirer, but you can't have everything, I suppose.
Eventually I found my self over near the magazine area, and what do you know but I found "Mr. Two Americas" peering at me on the newstand from the cover of Mens Vogue, and not just anywhere on the newstand, but in a nice neighborhood there, too, situated right next to the Robb Report, "For the Luxury Lifestyle." Yes, even on newstands, John Edwards enjoys a bit of a charmed life.
But lest you think that he's going to wax rhapsodic, no, the headline assures us that -ironic in light of recent events- he's going to talk about yes, "his wife's battle with cancer, taking on the terrorists, and his surge in the polls."
But apparently not on why he can stand up to terrorists but NOT appear on FOX News.
Frankly, after seeing the magazine myself and perusing it, I wonder if seeing this at an airport newstand is what got under Ann Coulter's skin the other day, when she was blindsided by Elizabeth Edwards by the master manipulator Chris Matthews, who preposterously claimed something along the lines of ""we've got a caller to the show..."
Yeah, on a show that never has call-ins, guess who decided to place a "spontaneous" call and immediately got through. That's normal!
If you didn't already know from my earlier posts, I was a VERY early supporter of John Edwards in 2002, even before the WaPo's Style section immortalized him and his wife Elizabeth, with a front page story that hit you right in the gut and read like it had been written by edwards publicists.
I even voted for Edwards in the 2004 FL primary, just months after moving here from Arlington, because of my own personal experiences in Washington with John Kerry's wading pool shallowness, overwhelming smugness and faux glibness and intelligence.
In short, my Edwards vote stemmed as much from my great desire to keep Kerry as far away from real power as possible as for anything Edwards said or did, though he did have certain innate gifts and strengths that other Dem candidates didn't possess.
As some SBH readers know, after seeing him up close and personal many times and hearing
horror stories from two women I had dated who'd each previously worked for Kerry's senate office, we all ended up voting for Bush 43 in the general election, our first time voting Republican for president.
I've since turned on Edwards -with a vengeance!- but still receive the Edwards campaign's daily email because it's so unintentionally funny and reeks of desperation.
I'm a DLC-er, a longtime Bill Richardson supporter from 1990, but I also strongly support the war, despite Bush's poor execution of it, so... despite the fact that he's far from perfect, Fred Thompson is more likely to be getting my vote in 2008 unless something completely unexpected happens.
(Like Richardson finally becoming the smart, charming and persuasive candidate that I know he can be, complete with a Clintonian Sister Souljah moment of clarity where he rips into someone in a nano-second on policy grounds.)
But I'm not holding my breath.
http://www.mensvogue.com/business/politics/feature/articles/2007/06/john_edwards
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