Windsurfing Kerry
I was stuck in a traffic jam this afternoon, so I turned to the local Evil Right-Wing Talk Radio station to get the traffic report (which, in hindsight, is kind of like turning on the Weather Channel after a tornado has wrecked your double-wide, but that’s another story altogether). Unfortunately, my local ERWTR station has Sean Hannity on during my evening commute.
Now, on a normal day, I don’t much care for Hannity. For one thing, his voice is Yankeely annoying. And from what I’ve managed to glean from listening to him, it strikes me as if he were trying to do Rush Limbaugh’s schtick, without Rush Limbaugh’s talent* (maybe Hannity ought to ask God for a loan…).
But I digress. During the little bit I caught, he was talking about how John Kerry was into windsurfing and how this somehow reinforces the image that he’s not In Touch With The Common Man. Hannity started mimicking Kerry asking his butler to make him a PBJ sandwich or something. Now, in my younger, less-busy bachelor days, I was an avid board-sailor. I guess that means I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth, too?
Now, I’ll admit that board-sailing (which is the correct generic term for the activity; as Xerox is to photocopying, so Windsurfer is to board-sailing) is not the most popular of recreations. However, it is definitely not something restricted to the elite. Sure, it costs a couple grand to own your own equipment, but how does that compare with a good set of golf clubs, or, heck, a motorcycle? A low-end Harley will set you back quite a bit more than top-notch board-sailing gear, and I don’t see anybody suggesting that Harley fans are some kind of Elite East-Coast Establishment types.
Nosir, from my experience, board-sailors are just like everybody else. Except we have more fun!
* Dollars to donuts this remark gets more comments than the rest of the post combined.
August 16th, 2004 at 9:55 pm
It never occured to me that “board-sailing” was an elitist activity.
August 16th, 2004 at 10:11 pm
Well, some stuff Hannity comes up with is just “air junk”, and that was one example.
Kerry owns a sailboat. I own a sailboat. Doesn’t stop me from thinking he’s the biggest scumbag to run for office since Bill Clinton…
August 16th, 2004 at 10:35 pm
Board sailing may be common (I know it’s huge in the Columbia River Gorge), but how “common man” is flying your haridresser from DC to Portland, OR for a touch up?
See Drudge for headline; story in tomorrow’s NY Daily News.
August 16th, 2004 at 11:55 pm
Board sailing? I have never heard it that way. Out here on the West coast it is a sail board, and you go sail boarding. Must be like the Best Foods/Hellman’s mayo thing. It is the exact same thing, just the name changes once you hit the Rockies.
August 17th, 2004 at 12:25 am
East Coast represent-in’, y’all.
I dunno, Robert. I call it a sail board, too, but to me “sail boarding” sounds like letting a bunch of sails rent a room 🙂
August 17th, 2004 at 12:56 am
I hear “sale boarding” and think cheap lumber.
To me it isn’t an elite sport, but it is a fribble’s sport. If I could get away with showing up for work once every few weeks, I might take it up.
I’m inclined to agree with you about Hannity compared to Rush. I don’t care for either of them but it is clear who is the master of the form.
August 17th, 2004 at 1:58 am
Both candidates are not like you and me. I didn’t get into Harvard and Yale because of my daddy, who could set me up in a bunch of businesses. You didn’t marry into gazillions of dollars. However, both sides try to make the other look like they are different from the rest of us. All 4 candidates are multi-millionaires and none of them did it the old fashion way either.
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