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The Daily Dose/February 16, 2010
By Gaylon Kent
The Writer's Shack
Notes from around the Human Experience...
HISTORY'S GAME: Every now and then Fate gets off its duff and gets around to producing a day that is as memorable as it is profound. Fate doesn't get around to this too often, which is good, because we certainly don't want day's like this becoming routine because days like this are one of life's great prizes, and the last thing anyone needs is to start taking days like this for granted.
We Are Not Making This Up: The big news is this past Sunday circumstances combined so that we were able to see an Official Writer's Shack Fave play in person!
Write This Down: For the uninitiated Official Writer's Shack Fave states is conferred on entities - usually sports teams - that strike our fancy. Our fancy is usually struck because a given team wins a lot, but we are picky. Not every team that wins a lot ears Fave status.
For Example: Current Writer's Shack Faves include the Mount Union College football team, the USA men's volleyball team and the Norwegian women's team handball squad.
This Just In: Nor are we fickle fans once Fave status is conferred. For example, Mount Union lost in last year's Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl, the NCAA Division III national championship football game, but they are still Official Writer's Shack Faves because they've won ten titles in the past and there is no reason to think they won't win a lot more. Plus they have the two longest winning streaks in NCAA football history, and we like that.
Dry, Technical Matter: Official Writer's Shack Fave status has also been conferred on the All Blacks, the national rugby team of New Zealand. We became fans during the 2007 Rugby World Cup, where, tragically, the All Blacks lost in the semifinals to the effing French, a loss which still riles us from time to time.
Fast forward to this past Sunday. The USA Sevens rugby tournament, featuring 16 national teams, was being played in Las Vegas, home of Writer's Shack world headquarters.
As it happened, the All Blacks made it to the finals of the Cup bracket, the championship flight, and it was rather convenient to make the title match.
Dry, Technical Matter II: Technically, the term 'All Blacks' is reserved for the New Zealand national team that plays traditional, 15-man rugby. In fact, at no time during the tournament was the New Zealand sevens team referred to as the 'All Blacks'.
Big Wow: We don't care, though. They were a national rugby team from New Zealand. They were playing in a tournament sanctioned by the worldwide governing body of rugby, the International Rugby Board and, significantly, the were wearing all black uniforms. Plus the official All Blacks website carried news of the tournament. We'll take it. If this bothers you, feel free to log your complaint at the Official Writer's Shack message boards.
History Giveth, History Taketh Away: Unfortunately, the historic day was marred by the fact our All Blacks got their arses handed to them 33-12 by the goddamn Samoans.
The problem was our All Blacks kept giving the ball to the Samoans. Some guy with a lot vowels and an apostrophe in an utterly unpronounceable last name had two interceptions returned for tries, which we would call 'touchdowns' here in North America. They had turnovers returned for touchdowns so often you might have wondered if everyone wearing a black jersey had pooled their money and bet the weekend's meal money on Samoa to win the tournament.
Dry, Technical Matter III: The USA Sevens tournament is the midway point in the IRB's eight tournament Sevens World Series. The next tournament is set for Australia next month.
Despite the loss, New Zealand still the leads the World Series points standings, don't you worry about that. They received 20 points for their runner-up finish and have 84 total points. Samoa got 24 points for the win and move up to second place with 70 points.
USA! USA! Team USA didn't do half bad for a country where nobody really cares about rugby. After going 1-2 in pool play, they finished strong to win a consolation bracket. We gained no small amount of pleasure in that they beat the hated French 28-17 in their final.
FunFact: Rugby sevens is a derivative of traditional rugby. Sevens is played on a standard sized field with seven players on a side instead of the usual 15. Games are significantly shorter, too, with two seven-minutes halves replacing two forty-minute halves, which is how a 16-team tournament to be completed in two days.
Chalk Talk: The rules are fairly clear, although why they choose to reward a team that intentionally kicks the ball into the stands with a throw in was not immediately clear. Plus, where you attempt your conversion after a try is dependent on where the ball was grounded on your try.
You might think that sevens might be a recent invention, to accommodate a species with generally shorter attention spans or the whims of some tee vee network. You would be wrong. Sevens was invented by the Scots in 1883 as a fundraiser for a rugby club. The Rugby World Cup Sevens is held every four years, with Wales winning the last one, in Dubai in 2009. The site of the 2013 World Cup will be determined in May, and it is expected to be the last World Cup as long as sevens remains an Olympic sport.
In Other News: Rugby will be returning to the Olympics in 2016 after a 92-year absence. Regular rugby had been an Olympic sport at the 1900 and 1924 Paris Games, the 1908 London Games and the 1920 Antwerp Games.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: All the misfortunes of men derive from one single thing, which is their inability to be at ease in a room.- Blaise Pascal
GENTLEMEN, START YOUR HORSES: The Studebaker Wagon Company is established on this date in 1852. Originally producing wagons for both civilians and the military, Studebaker would branch out into automobiles at the turn of the 20th century. Declining sales in the early 1960's would lead to the company's ceasing production in 1966.
Holy Crap: Britain Howard Carter unseals the burial chamber to King Tutankhamen on this date in 1923. The tomb had been discovered the previous November and it would take ten years to remove all its artifacts.
Beauty, Eh: 80 years after its formation as a federal dominion within Great Britain, Canadians are granted Canadian citizenship on this date in 1947.
Couldn't They Have Just Beaten Them In A War Like We Did? It Would Have Sped Things Up: The conferring of Canadian citizenship came 16 years after Canada's parliament was given equality with the British parliament. The Canada Act of 1982 formally ended all Canadian dependence on Great Britain.
Old Habits Die Hard: Canada remains a member of the British Commonwealth and officially retains Queen Elizabeth as its Head of State.
4-1-1 FYI: The first 9-1-1 emergency telephone service is established in Haleyville, Alabama on this date in 1968. The first 9-1-1 call was a couple of Alabama politicians testing the system.
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: In the play Romeo and Juliet Juliet is 13-years-old. - Congratulations to one Antoine, who had the first correct answer on the official Writer's Shack message boards!
Today's Stumper: What nation has won the most Olympic rugby gold medals? - Answer next time!
Comments? Recipes? Complaints? Email the Writer's Shack here!
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