Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : Books, Movies, Food, Wine, and Whatever -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (5262)	10/23/2005 8:10:26 PM
From: Rambi	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 51721

I am choosing HERE to post this. It has absolutely no place anywhere else, but it was a really fun kind of thing that happened to me today. I've been reading St Dale, a novel about a fictitious Dale Earnhart Memorial Bus Trip by Sharyn McCrumb. Now a book about NASCAR racing may seem an unlikely match for me, but I like McCrumb's writing and I am from the Blue Ridge, where the county boys spent their weekends racing on dirt tracks, so I started it--- and loved it. Anyway, today as I finished up the chapter on Martinsville, Va, the grandaddy of tracks, I turned on tv and right there on one of the main channels was a NASCAR race in MARTINSVILLE, VA! There were all these names I had just been reading about-- family names- Petty, Bush, Earnhardt. NASCAR is a culture unto itself-- when I take the Zogby polls, one of the questions they ask- along with Did you vote for Bush, and are you a conservative, is are you a Nascar fan? I have always answered, with appropriate disdain and a certain puzzlement, NO. But after the book and the race, I am rethinking my elitist opinion. The book was about secular sanctification- something you and I have talked about before. Why do we ignore the death of Mother Teresa and beat our breasts over Princess Di? Why are there sightings of Elvis-- and not John Lennon? The topic fascinated McCrumb too. And when she saw the phenomenon occurring with Dale Earnhardt, she decided to write a book about it. Anyway, Dan called me from Phoenix where he is pitching this week in the Senior Men's World Series, and I told him I was watching a NASCAR race. He was impressed with my knowledge about pole positions and the problems with the Martinsville track, but especially when I said, "Rubbin' is racin' " and asked for a baseball cap with a winged #3 on it for Christmas. I was amazed at how much he knew about the sport. It's obviously something he hasn't shared with me for thirty years! You and I often read books (or watch movies) about other cultures and are intrigued and fascinated by what we learn. In a way, this was no less a venture into unknown territory. This is a huge chunk of middle America. It's a piece of who we are as a people, and so I recommend it.