Red Sox Nation

I was in "Red Sox Nation"this past weekend visiting family, and driving for the first time with my freshly minted new NY state plates (representing the arch nemesis of the Red Sox). The countless vanity plates extolling the virtues of the Red Sox have exalted the team to religious status. After the Red Sox won against Minneapolis, Sox fans stayed at Yankees lose on a TV screen to the Fenway to watch the Orioles on Friday night, a loss that clinched the Eastern division title for the Boston team. Baseball, that archaic, never ending game from the turn of the 19th century, is central to New England life. It unifies people, across social class, ethnicity, age and gender.

During my drive back through New Haven, I tried to unsuccessfully photograph a special message taped to a truck driver's window. It read: "Show your Hooters". Hmm. The "o"s had eyes, obviously signifying the graphics of a national restaurant chain. Do women flash their breasts at truckers for cheap kicks?

While stuck in slow traffic I observed the most bizarre occurrence: A male driver -ambiguously "Mediterranean"and middle aged in appearance - stopped his sports car on a ramp while his blond female passenger beat him. Later the driver nearly swerved into me because his passenger, whom I would describe as in her early 40s, was striking blows to his face and body. In fact I thought a police siren was passing but instead it was the woman screaming, crying and waving her arms. When she wasn't striking the driver, she was frantically searching the floor of the car for something that she dropped. Could it have been her prescription drugs? After all he was unresponsive, as was his twin brother seated in the back seat. Meanwhile, I briefly considered notifying the authorities but eventually lost sight of them.

The driving was aggressive all the way to NYC. My consumption of countless espressos gave me the will to drive through such traffic but left me wound up upon arrival.