Jane Macdougall: The Bookless Membership takes within the Tremendous Bowl

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So, what are you doing this Sunday?

Yeah, it’s that Sunday, Tremendous Bowl Sunday. I do know it’s thought-about, perhaps not ours, however America’s largest unofficial vacation, however you’ll be able to nonetheless rely on folks asking you about your plans for the massive day.

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Tremendous Bowl Sunday is taken into account “vacation spot viewing” but it surely’s simply not a vacation spot on my bucket checklist. Will I watch? I’ll most likely catch parts of the published as a result of, no matter one’s urge for food for soccer, the Tremendous Bowl continues to be a fairly attention-grabbing occasion.

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At Tremendous Bowl 58, Reba McIntyre will sing the American anthem and I’ll be curious to see if she places a private spin on it or sticks by the guide.

Usher is the halftime present. Halftime exhibits are designed to wow ‘em within the higher balconies so count on pyrotechnics, oceans of dancers shifting in unison, and possibly a novel entry to the stage — a whoosh in from above or a whoosh in from under.

The adverts are all the time price watching. Air time for one 30-second advert at present runs round $7 million on high of manufacturing prices. Tremendous Bowl adverts are advertising at its most interesting. These adverts are sometimes controversial, generally sensational, and all the time memorable. The annual conflict of the titans is a excessive stakes occasion for everybody concerned and the rewards are stupendous. How a lot money are we speaking about? The three large American networks take turns broadcasting the Tremendous Bowl, and advert income from this one occasion is anticipated to earn CBS one thing within the $600 million vary.

The trophy, in and of itself, is sort of attention-grabbing. It seems that, not like the Stanley Cup, there are dozens of Tremendous Bowl trophies — one for yearly because the inception of the Tremendous Bowl again in 1967. In American soccer, the successful workforce will get to maintain the trophy and every participant will get a miniature model.

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The shiny hunk of metallic being vied for this Sunday is named the Vince Lombardi Trophy. The fabled coach of Inexperienced Bay Packers, Lombardi continues to be thought-about the best soccer coach of all time. He died at age 57 when the Tremendous Bowl itself was simply three years outdated. The trophy — a regulation sized soccer on a truncated obelisk — is made by the well-known jeweller, Tiffany & Co.

Legend has it that Pete Rozelle, the storied commissioner of the NFL, met with the vice-president of Tiffany to debate the design of a Tremendous Bowl trophy. The VP, who had little concept about soccer having grown up in Switzerland, sketched one thing on a cocktail serviette and — voila! — that was the design that went into manufacturing. In reminiscence of the inspirational coach, the Tremendous Bowl Trophy could be renamed the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

The Vince Lombardi trophy is constructed from sterling silver and takes silversmiths 4 months to make. Its financial worth is round $50,000. The miniatures of the trophy that every participant will get to maintain are valued within the $1,500 vary. Tremendous Bowl rings, it seems, are a sort of in-house memento supplied by the workforce to its gamers and personnel. These should not made by Tiffany & Co. however by the identical firm that most likely made your college ring; an organization known as Jostens. These rings typically crop up in uncommon locations. There are total web sites dedicated to the sale of real Tremendous Bowl rings. Vladimir Putin has a New England Patriots Tremendous Bowl ring on show within the Kremlin. The story of the way it got here to Putin again in 2005 is contentious and riddled with political intrigue.

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Final 12 months’s viewers for Tremendous Bowl 57 was 114.2 million folks. These numbers are getting an enormous enhance this 12 months from one of the extremely coveted markets, females aged 18 to 34. This uptick is as a result of predicted presence of Taylor Swift on the large recreation. Ms. Swift will wrap up 4 nights of concert events on the Tokyo Dome in Japan on Saturday night time and is anticipated to fly on to Las Vegas to attend the Tremendous Bowl at Allegiant Stadium.

Possibilities of sighting of the world’s largest recording star is predicted to drive Tremendous Bowl viewership numbers as much as dizzying heights. Even when the sport itself isn’t sufficient of a draw, there are dozens of causes to tune into America’s “most watched cultural occasion”. And if all that wasn’t sufficient, now the Tremendous Bowl even encompasses a love story.

Jane Macdougall is a contract author and former Nationwide Submit columnist who lives in Vancouver. She will likely be writing on The Bookless Membership each Saturday on-line and in The Vancouver Solar. For extra of what Jane’s as much as, try her web site, janemacdougall.com

This week’s query for readers:

Query: Will you be glued to the sport this Sunday? In that case, why? If not, why not?

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Ship your solutions by electronic mail textual content, not an attachment, in 100 phrases or much less, alongside together with your full title to Jane at thebooklessclub@gmail.com. We are going to print some subsequent week on this area.

Final week’s query for readers:

Query: What are your ideas on disposable diapers?

• I used to be discussing your article concerning the ‘diaper industrial advanced’ with a pal who, as a retired doctor, is aware of a factor or two about infants. She instructed me her personal daughter was following the recommendation of some on-line child knowledgeable who insists that rest room coaching shouldn’t be launched till the age of two and a half. The doctor thought this was absurd so she Googled the ‘knowledgeable’ her daughter talked about. Seems the knowledgeable is on Pampers’ payroll. Diaper industrial advanced, certainly!

Cheryl Louie

• There are reusable, washable diapers related in design and ease of use to disposables, together with Gortex covers to maintain the outsides dry. We used these for our twins born in 1999. Laundry was carried out each two days. For thus many causes, disposable diapers are mistaken, but in addition pointless with good material merchandise obtainable. Once we have been completed with the fabric diapers, we handed them on to mates. It didn’t make our rest room coaching any earlier as we each labored so have been much less capable of be attentive to cues of child rest room urges.

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Jane Donaldson

• Within the early 90s, I acquired a brand new Bronco and determined to embark on a highway journey to Cabo San Lucas. There was a fantastic coastal freeway from Tijuana to Ensenada with signage each 50 toes which learn “Non basura” — no littering. I bear in mind pondering this was a bit obsessive. Once we acquired south of Ensenada, I used to be shocked. It appeared that we have been driving via the center of a rubbish dump with mountains and mountains of disposable diapers which stretched for miles. Completely disgusting!

Mike Ronnekleiv

• Having a baby is among the worst actions you’ll be able to take towards the atmosphere? It’s a lot worse than proudly owning a automobile, shopping for plastic gadgets and throwing out rubbish (Shopper Reviews, November, 1992), as a result of, “just about each youngster born right into a middle-class American household can sit up for a lifetime of consuming assets and power, and creating waste and air pollution, on a scale unmatched in human historical past.” And let’s not overlook that just about each child in developed international locations makes use of between 5,000 and eight,000 disposable diapers (Shopper Reviews, August, 1998). And that quantity is climbing even increased because the “potteracy price” continues to slide.

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Additionally, 1000’s of their toys will discover their approach to the landfills, together with garments, footwear, furnishings, computer systems, and so on. Hundreds of thousands of litres of gasoline will likely be burned driving every of these kids to and from college, sports activities actions, mates’ properties, and so on. And most of these kids will develop as much as be consuming polluters, identical to you and me.

Jerry Steinberg
Founding Non-Father Emeritus of NO KIDDING! (Est. 1984)
The worldwide social membership for childfree and childless {couples} and singles

• I used to be born throughout the housing scarcity created when development employees have been despatched off to the Second World Struggle. With no obtainable housing in Edmonton, Dad (an airframe builder for the conflict effort) used his abilities to construct a trailer, 8 by 15 toes outdoors dimensions. With all of the built-ins, the whole lot was inside arm’s attain, together with me! Mother would nurse me with a tea-cup-size potty between her legs, thus saving a diaper. If grunting in my dresser-drawer mattress, she’d once more cradle me above the potty and mimic my oof-oof sounds. By the point I used to be 9 months outdated, we have been each educated.

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Lorna (Krahulec) Blake

• My children, now of their mid-30s to mid-40s, have been all diapered in terry towel nappies ordered from Britain — no disposables for me. On a visit from Vancouver to Toronto, my bag of soiled nappies was misplaced. In all probability the one time I laughed over delayed baggage! It was delivered the following day, although I had little question that it might have been rapidly discovered.

Julie Halfnights

• When my first youngster was studying to stroll, a British nanny gave me the most effective recommendation: eliminate the Pampers throughout the day and use material as a result of until the kid experiences the discomfort of being moist there is no such thing as a incentive to make use of the potty.

However the most effective potty-training occurred serendipitously after a enjoyable day with my toddler the place we had been enjoying with plastic mixing bowls and pots and pans, which have been nonetheless all around the eating room flooring. Earlier than bathtub time it was routine for my child to run round the home with glee which we known as “bare child time”. That individual day, whereas she was operating via the eating room, she paused, squatted over a bowl, had a fast pee, after which saved operating. My husband mentioned that each one we needed to do was hold her bare and hold plastic bowls in each room of the home! Because it turned out, that was the “Aha!” second for her and she or he didn’t put on diapers within the daytime once more.

Denise Howell

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