Today’s prompt from Long and Short Reviews is…..WILL YOU WATCH THE SUPER BOWL? The Super Bowl is literally the only football game I watch all year, any year: ever since 2012, I have attended a friend’s Super Bowl Party. The fun thing is that of the 5-6 regular guests, only one of us cares about NFL football at all; another guest only cares about college football, and the rest of us don’t care at all. For us, it’s an occasion to eat, drink, and scream at the TV. Fun story: last year we had streaming issues and thought we found it streaming on youtube; when the Halftime Show arrived, we were confused to see last year’s singer again, and those who had planned on getting irate every time the cameras swooned over Taylor Swift and her boyfriend were confused and frustrated that she wasn’t showing up at all. They had so been looking forward to being angry! Then we realized: WE WERE REWATCHING LAST YEAR’S GAME! This caused a bit of a rift between the P’O’d guy (the only one who cares about the NFL) and the rest of us, who thought it was hilarious that the same teams playing had led us into effectively missing The Big Game. This year it’s Bahston vs Seattle, so we won’t get fooled again.
And now, WWW Wednesday!
WHAT have you finished reading recently? Badlands, CJ Box. Part of his Cassie Dewell series. Also, technically, the APLS Guidebook for Library Board Trustees. Riveting stuff, that.
WHAT are you reading now? I’m still pecking at With Malice Toward None, but as mentioned I’m taking this week off from serious reads to relax a little. I’m also reading Cory Doctorow’s latest, a book on why the internet has gotten markedly bad in the last 10-15 years. (I’m bad at relaxing from serious reads.)
WHAT are you reading next? More Box or Connelly, I think.
Reading Freely 
That’s funny, Stephen! 😂
That was the consesus — and I said we should watch 2025’s game next year. XD
When I saw my first live game I was a little bemused – especially by the CONSTANT stoppages – but I figured out *most* of what was going on. I had no real ‘skin in the game’ but was impressed by the Detroit Lions who I was rooting for…. The following year I was thrilled to see the Miami Dolphins play (they had been ‘my’ team in the late 1980’s) and SO *disappointed* by their performance!
The constant stops are the most frustrating thing about American football — they turn a game that’s officially 1.5 hours into 4 hour dramas. I think the closest I ever came to caring about the NFL was rooting for the Cowboys in their 1990s heyday; these days, fb has twigged on to my Boston fixation and now promotes the Patriots, Bruins, and Celtics — football, hockey, and basketball. I do like the Patriot name/logo/colors, which is more than I can say for the others. ‘Celtics’ is pronounced with an S for the team name and it drives me crazy.
I little while back I was wearing my Miami Dolphins baseball cap in my Indie bookshop. The girl on the till said she liked it and I said that I’d seen them at Wembley. Oh, she said…. Are they a band…..? [lol]
They did have a fun logo back in the day. Over the years logos have become largely lamer — like website logos! San serifs, flat, boring, but easily portable to mobile browsers. -_-
Oh, and as a complete aside….. I was at the Mall today (first dry day for ages so….) and I saw a sign out front which said: Armed Police Training.
Did my (book) shopping and not a cop to be seen….
On my way out they were there – two guys in full gear each with a H&K G36 Assault Rifle… [lol] So I (naturally) went over for a chat and the guy I spoke to explained the gun (I said that I’d previously seen the police with the MP7 machine-pistol) and asked I if they were going to be patrolling the Mall in future. If only, he said, it’d be easy duty!
Weird day….!
Curious as to what your malls are like — I’m guessing not the standalone, detached American ones in the ‘burbs that are now dying? Those were, for a few decades, social/cultural hubs, but that began changing when I was in high school and they’re almost all defunct now. Abandoned malls are a big thing on urban-exploring youtube.
Urban exploring of malls: this is the Montgomery Mall (now abandoned except for one anchor store which is a police/fire station), which I went to MANY times as a kid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt5ljL38wcI&
That story is hysterical!
The football fans I know were also annoyed by the attention paid to Taylor Swift last year.
Honestly, in fourteen years of watching with this group it’s the most entertaining thing that’s happened — even when Katy Perry rode a giant lion across the field when she was doing ROAR.
Not even the Patriots can get me to watch that much TV or that many ads.
But Super Bowl ads are a feature, instead of a bug!
I haven’t read any of these.
Last #book I finished: Moi Fadi le frère volé, by #RiadSattouf
Amreading: Guilt, by #KeigoHigashino
Amlistening to: That Hideous Strength, by #CSLewis
TBR Reading next: The Chinese Maze Murders, by #RobertVanGulik
That Hideous Strength was the first of the Space Trilogy I read — on accident, I suppose. I was led to it because it was supposedly ABOLITION OF MAN but in novel form.
Oh interesting. I think reading it after the two others does help put it in a broader perspective, even more scary I would say
That story is hilarious! 😀
I love football, college the most but also NFL, BUT … I haven’t watched a single game since getting married. We don’t have “normal” tv, just a handful of streaming subscriptions {that we barely use as is}, so … no football for me anymore, lol
That is a great story, Stephen! Poor P’O’d guy. Enjoy your reading.
https://thebookconnectionccm.blogspot.com/2026/02/wednesday-weekly-blogging-challenge.html