Dinner conversation tonight, in a group of all male colleagues at the conclusion of a sporting event, started naturally on the topic of sports. The status of the NBA playoffs. Who was overrated in the NFL. That sort of trivia.
I can hang in during a sports discussion, but just barely. It's not my thing.
Politics is my thing. The Senate filibuster fight is my playoffs. Conspiracy theories are my season. Elections are my Olympics. I can quote stats and dates, but on scandals in Washington D.C. and not from the ballpark. I can recite the history and timelines of events. I can connect the dots. I can make esoteric arguments about complicated policy issues. I can define the words liberal and conservative and libertarian without using a dictionary.
In the course of our dinner conversation the topic shifted from sports to politics, and I had the floor. I held court, with some degree of passion, on topics that I've written about here, such as the terrorist / Iraqi connections to the Oklahoma City Bombing. As we talked, it became clear to me that I probably study political topics more than most people do.
It reminded me of stumbling on a sports show on a sports network this week, whereby contestants match wits with a guy named "Schwab" on sports trivia questions like "name 4 Baltimore Orioles players who were named league MVP's" or whatever. I mentioned to my dinner companions that my thought, as I watched this trivia show in sports-speak that was almost a foreign language to me, was:
"Why would someone know these things?"
An ironic question, of course, as the laughter of my dinner companions confirmed.
So, thanks go out to my fellow political bloggers - who speak my language and share my passion for Cable News and CSPAN. And, of course, the blogosphere.
Now, if I can only figure out how to use this quirky hobby to become obscenely rich!
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