Red-Letter Dough

Narrated vignette about the 'chess' of college-sports spirits and culture in the United States and ghostly 'imprints' of democracy.

A college-sports culture fable inspired loosely by The Program (James Caan). Thanks so much for reading (and enjoy!), 

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I prepared for the Arkansas college-football season as a Coronavirus-era pirate-fan of modern media-broadcast era sports, and I wanted to celebrate the social spirit of campus activity and Facebook-IQ.

The Arkansas team hoped to reach heights this season and hadn't claimed a national title since 1964 despite its longstanding rivalry with LSU/Texas which had both claimed titles in the new millennium!

The TV-era of college athletics is really a marvel for Saturday experiences in home-media entertainment and student-culture/campus exposure on Western/American platforms. It's true, and even in this post-9/11 era of commercial traffic security paranoia, there's an 'aura' of socialized cheer on campuses across the United States regarding the flair for sportsmanship and daring.

I've been a Facebook-blogger of Arkansas football since the Clinton-era, and I considered the downtown lights of the area in the West/America representative of great populism activity, and despite my 'mainstream Catholic' beliefs, I maintain an ongoing 'folk' attitude towards football (college) fanfare extending into the city streets at night-time.

I'm one of the pronounced network fans (Facebook-IQ) of the Arkansas chess club, and I think Governor Clinton himself was somehow tied to that organization through his wife's encouragements. I wonder what chess-stalemate dialogue will create for anthropologists evaluating how students study the shapes and quality of political density and why intelligence had become a hallmark of Earth discourse.

FAN: No one wants a puny stalemate with Texas this season, and we anticipate more fun ghost-tales of Arkansas checkmates.

While organizing a chess cyber-tourney during the Arkansas football-season on Facebook, I realized a new female 'face' in the crowd, Shelbye O'Hara, hoped to become an 'avid' participant in chess-modeling of recent rivalry-games in the fields with Texas.

ME: What's your interest in chess/video-games, Ms. O'Hara?
SHELBYE: I love the 'thrill' of women in the mix for rough social spirit in the United States, friend.

ME: Cool...let's shoot for that non-stalemate clause with Texas this year, eh?

SHELBYE: You bet!

I kept a small Danish flag-banner at my chess-presentation table during the Arkansas-Texas game for Facebook-IQ, and after declared stalemate with Shelbye O'Hara, commented on cyber-forums, "Texas is appreciating to Arkansas games."

Shelbye and I got married, and we visited the Arkansas library years later and thought we saw the ghost-specter of American chess-champion Bobby Fischer right before our pirate-eyes! We wondered if what we saw was 'real' he'd say about the Coronavirus-tribulation endurance on the Arkansas campus and during the media-sports seasons. I wondered if all this 'football-IQ' in the West/America highlighted some 'human' curiosity about ongoing distant storytelling.

"I think college football is a reflection of Middle America. You go into a college football town, and you will find three generations of a family sitting together. It's a rallying point for the university, the community, and the families" (Keith Jackson).

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"Money is everything" (Ecclesiastes)