Superb owl

...okay, I couldn't think of a snappy title for this post, so I imagined its topic as it would show up on a Korean hoodie, such as this one I saw in a store window:

"UNSTINTED FLAIR

You will step fourward one step to victory. I believe the thing that your happy day. 

And we will be able to put a wonderful life in the hand.

CORUSCATE

EAGERLY NECESSITY

You will step fourward one step to victory. I believe the thing that your happy day. 

And we will be able to put a wonderful life in the hand.

EVERY DAY STYLE"

Korean shirts' "English" text is legendary. It may be full of typos, it may make no sense at all, it may be unintentionally ironic (as in the text "H*A*S*H 4077th.", worn by a girl young enough she certainly never heard of M*A*S*H or knew it was set in the Korean War... and may not have been aware there was a Korean War.)

But I digress, and I haven't even started yet. This post is about the big football game that just happened.

In three and a half years in Korea, I'd never taken a day off except for illness. But my Giants upset their way all the way to the Superb Owl, a mere 48 years after I stood in line-- okay, first in line-- for Y.A. Tittle to sign my program at the Corner Book Store, God rest its soul, in Ithaca, New York. 

Yelverton Abraham Tittle.

I hadn't seen any of the Owls since I came here, but I wasn't going to miss this one.

So yesterday, I left home at 7:00 a.m. and caught the bus to the train to the train to Itaewon. I'd posted on the Harriers page on Facebook that I'd love it if anybody could join me at the Rocky Mountain Tavern, the Canadian-owned and -themed restaurant where many of our winter runs end up. To my delight, Choopa, Scared, and WTF made it and we settled in for some slobberknockin' football and camaraderie. (Oh... in proofreading, I notice that the "slobberknockin'" is meant to modify just the football, not the camaraderie. No slobber was knocked during our conversation.)

The game started at 8:30 our time and I'm not going to go into what happened; you either already know it well or don't care-- or both. But my guys beat New England-- again-- in the last minute. Tom Brady is to Elmer as Eli Manning is to Bugs. And there was much rejoicing. Poor Tom had to go home to his solid-platinum house and his wife Gisele Bundchen.

The RMT was perfectly populated, with just enough people to feel like a crowd but no sense of being packed in. (Virtually every bar in Itaewon was showing the game and the GI's at the Yongsan US Army base could watch it there.) The bar inexplicably wasn't serving brunch, as they always do on the weekends, so I missed out on the mushroom omelet and settled a delicious breakfast of coffee and Ore-Ida fries.

I was the only one in the bar in a team shirt, a cheap knockoff Lawrence Taylor jersey I'd bought Saturday, but just about everyone, including my friends because of me, was rooting for the Giants. So it was all very pleasant. It wasn't quite the same as sharing the Giants-Patsies Owl with my buddy Brian, the equally devoted Giants fan, four years ago, but it'll do very nicely.

In four hours, I had about five beers, which is at least three more than I usually have when I teach on Monday mornings. And then I went home for a nap, lamentably smoky and hoarse from the bar, slightly addled, and happy.

Did I mention that the Giants won? Even though Y.A. Tittle did not appear.