Hell Freezes Over

The Red Sox are nine outs away from winning
the World Series. Our emotions are strong, and mixed, and difficult to
describe. We have been a fanatic of the Sox through thick and thin, since
we moved to Cambridge in 1971, and we know, without a doubt, that a very
real and important part of our adult life is about to change forever.

A significant part of our psyche wants them to lose tonight;
to prolong the delicious anticipation of something so long awaited, to
bring the final games back to Fenway Park and a raucous local celebration,
to avoid an undefined but nagging sense of impending doom should a Sox
win upset some delicate cosmic balance and bring down some inestimal
disaster on the Hub.  Plus, if they sweep tonight, the victory parade
wiil be Friday morning, and we are planning to take our class to Salem
Mass that day for the cultural extravaganza which is Witch City two days
before Halloween.

We have tried to figure a way out of this trip, but the
checks have been cut and the tickets have been bought.  We considered
delaying the trip til Monday, but the day AFTER Halloween the streets
of Salem are a dirty ashtray full of empty candy wrappers and used condoms,
and even the ghosts of the ghosts are sleeping it off somewhere quiet
and safe.

So despite our heartfelt advice to our students to Stay
Away from Kenmore Square, where Victoria Snelgrove was shot dead by police last week after the ALCS-clinching game, if the Red Sox win the series, that is where
we are heading, if the hometown nine can nail these last 9 outs. Er,
8 now. If we can’t be part of the parade (they are talking about 5 million
people), then let us lose ourself tonight in a sea of fellow Sox sufferers,
released and redeemed for all time, beneath the light of a reappearing
moon.

7 outs to go. Stay tuned for a report from the Square