8/30/01

Softball: The Strain of the Familial

Dear People,

Congratz to all on last week’s spell-binding 20-19 won-on-the-last-hit paragon of pedagogical aerobic excellence. The fact that this particular game featured eight totally new and unknown faces---each more innocent and cherubic than the one before---proved yet again that when the slots are available, we are clearly the most inclusive unaffiliated-email- organized softball league West of the Sacramento River. Yes, I think we can all take pride in our community’s unabashed embracement of all races, genders and levels of general athletic ineptitude.

In any case, I am now writing you from my sister’s dark and dank Seattle basement, enduring the second Weschler family reunion in as many years. As you may recall, last summer I glibly wrote the following:

"I am currently amongst all of my sibs, nieces, nephews and sundry in-laws, and in all candor, I can honestly say that these people are the most disturbing concentration of genetically linked dysfunctional nut-cases I have ever encountered."

It’s now over a year later, and I truly would be delighted if I could honestly tell you that when I wrote those searing words, I was just being "cute," or perhaps cynically unfair. Alas, the harsh reality is that after just 48 hours of this latest familial powwow, I am more convinced than ever that my very own kin are an oddly surreal flesh-and-bones metaphor for a Norman Rockwell painting gone terribly, terribly wrong, and regardless, they are all incontestably out of their collective minds.

Unfortunately, the strategic foundations for my escape from this asylum will not be in place until next Monday, which happens to be Labor Day. Naturally, I had been assuming that I wouldn’t organize a game, but then I started thinking about the importance of softball to the working classes, particularly in those heady early days when everyone was trying to figure out what Engels was talking about when he kept on referring to dialectical athletic materialism. Regardless, I for one will not diss the lumpen proletariat in their time of theoretical resurgence, and therefore there will be a game at Codornices this MONDAY at 5PM, IF I get enough commits by this Friday noon….Ray

9/1/01

Softball: Jung

Dear People,

There will be a game at Codornices this MONDAY at 5:00, and as of now, there are still a few slots available. Please bring $2 for the field, which in honor of my latest family reunion, will include a lovingly presented post-match demonstration of primal-scream therapy…..Ray 845-7552

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