The American Spectator

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Bring Back the Dixie Chicks

1.28.03 @ 12:01AM

THE BUCS STOP HERE
Re: Wlady Pleszczynski's Oakland at Bay:

Was so glad Mr. Pleszczynski mentioned the Dixie Chicks. Prior to their singing I made the comment that I hope they would have someone who would sing a decent rendition of our National Anthem. They did it!!!! I hope all those who despoil our anthem were watching and learned how it should be done.
-- Martha Craig

"Unspeakable grossness"? Baloney. It was a great half-time show. And I'm just saying that because I have a crush on Gwen Stefani, either. She's the best bump and grind rock goddess in decades. The Buccaneers were great, and it just isn't ABC's fault that the Raiders forgot it wasn't a regular season game they were throwing. Granted, last year's game was better. But, come on. Lighten up a little.
-- Ed Wolfe
Salt Lake City, UT

Yes, weren't the Dixie Chicks good (not to mention cute as three bugs' ears)? Unlike the folks who usually sing the National Anthem at sports events, the Chicks sounded like they had actually heard it before. (Most of the folks who do the anthem, don't so much sing it as they wrestle it to the ground.)

It's indeed a puzzle that Super Bowl halftime has become a venue for some of the worst wretched excess in the country. Wonder who first got the idea that what millions of football fans watching the game of the year wanted to see at halftime was 45 minutes of maggot-infested hairball rock "sung" by oddly-dressed creatures of indeterminate age and sex from a galaxy far away? (And another thing, how the hell do these people get by stadium security?) And have you noticed that the increasingly absurd performances usually create more smoke than the B-17s created at Dresden? (Hey, if you're looking for the real cause of global warming …)

The game, which I agree was over before halftime, shows us once again that good pitching stops good hitting. The Bucs defense was so dominating I don't believe the Raiders could have scored much more had they been allowed to bring large caliber handguns on the field with them.

As a Tampa native and long-time resident, I was delighted with the outcome. I remember when the only thing the Bucs ever led the NFL in was concussions. In the first year of the franchise the offensive line was so bad that when they appeared on "What's My Line?" in uniform, no one could guess what it is they did.

This was a long time coming. And the folks in Tampa are enjoying it. No matter how much of a monument to wretched excess Super Bowl the event has become.
-- Larry Thornberry
Tampa, FL

You were too kind, Wlady, to the Raiders, the Oakland "professional football team" worship of which allows a subhuman cult to exempt itself from civilized norms. They trash the streets when they win, they rampage when they lose. Let Mayor Jerry Brown deal with them. Of course, I say that as a Southern Californian (now transplanted to Redskinland) whose neighbors and fellow taxpayers were plundered by Raider management a few years ago. Yes, halftime underwhelmed in its excessive tackiness, allowing another Southern Californian, the unfortunately talentless Gwen Stefani (unless you consider Madonna-aping and navel-baring "talent"), to dazzle herself by performing next to the equally empty-headed Sting, though it did spare viewers yet another shot of Shania's belly button. The costly commercials, by which much of the world judges American capitalism, disappointed as well. The graphic dinner-on-the-windshield was obviously written by a Raiders fan. But the upside-down clown did force a laugh. A tad risqué, but funny. Like your piece on the Super Bowl.
-- K. E. Grubbs Jr.
Washington, D.C.

The four F-18's arrived on camera right at the end of the singing of the national anthem. About a second later the network went to commercial. I assumed, perhaps incorrectly, that this was how the network planned it.

The pre-game and half-time shows were less offensive, to me, than the shows of last year.
-- Bruce Demo
Carlsbad, CA

Enjoyed your review of the Super Bowl.

My only caveat: Wouldn't it have been more accurate in your closing paragraph to suggest that next year the Dixie Chicks be brought back to "lip synch to a pre-recorded National Anthem"?

Personally, I always have to avert my eyes when I see performers faking it like that, even when they are as attractive as the Dixie Chicks.
-- Jim Hunt

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