Cops at the circus
Two out-of-town visitors found their way to the Pen & Pencil Club this evening, where one of the regulars warned them about the rough treatment fans of the Philadelphia Eagles football team sometimes hand out to supporters of visiting clubs."But I wouldn't worry about these two," the regular said, turning to us while indicating the visitors. "They're Chicago law enforcement."
Imagine my delight, then, when I read the following in the last chapter of Jim Tully's Circus Parade:
"Gorilla Haley's skull was fractured. He became insane. He later became a member of the Chicago police."© Peter Rozovsky 2011
Labels: Circus Parade, Jim Tully, Pen and Pencil Club
posted by Peter Rozovsky at 1:16 AM
10 Comments:
Nice little bit of synchronicity there.
Apparently, things don't change much.
As felicitous a bit of synchronicity as a fellow is likely to run into in a given week, yes. The P&P visitors seemed like pretty nice guys, though.
I wonder if I'd have shown them the passage had I read it on the way to the club instead of on the way back.
Might have started a whole new fan base for Tully.
On the other hand, one them might have been coulrophobic. Probably better to leave well enough alone...
Nah, they were nice guys. And even if I were inclined toward mischief, these guys had big shoulders. I would not have wanted to antagonize them.
On the other hand, if I'd offered a suitable preamble, perhaps they'd have got a kick out of the passage.
Funnily enough, Peter, having introduced myself as a visiting fan of bitter rivals Redskins fan to three, fortunately extremely civilised, Eagles fans outside the team's then Veteran Stadium, in October 1994, I was struck by how utterly charming, reasonable and welcoming they were when they sold their tickets, at face value, to me and my brother .
Is this a record?
A record, or a vision akin to St. Martin sharing his cloak with the poor man, I'd say.
St. Martin?
...not the 20th Century equivalent of the Saul/Paul Damascene conversion, then?
I chose to exmphasize the charitable rather than the arguably hallucinatory aspects of the encounter, but Saul/Paul would work, too.
Actually, if anyone fell off his ass on a road in Philadelphia, the likeliest response would be, "Yo, get the ---- off the street, you -------!"
I've always been surprised by the bad rap Eagles fans get: I was sitting among Eagles fans for that game and its not as if I camouflaged my allegiance.
Yet I exited the stadium without so much as one broken bone!
Is this a record???
Issues of class may be in play. It was Section 700, high in the stadium, that had the reputation for animalistic behavor.
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