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Lazuli  1mo ago (text post)   544 thread views

Weekly NFL Thread: Week 5

Let's chat about the National Football League. This week's schedule (all times Eastern):

Sun 2024-10-06 9:30AM New York Jets @ Minnesota Vikings
Sun 2024-10-06 1:00PM Buffalo Bills @ Houston Texans
Sun 2024-10-06 1:00PM Carolina Panthers @ Chicago Bears
Sun 2024-10-06 1:00PM Cleveland Browns @ Washington Commanders
Sun 2024-10-06 1:00PM Indianapolis Colts @ Jacksonville Jaguars
Sun 2024-10-06 1:00PM Miami Dolphins @ New England Patriots
Sun 2024-10-06 1:00PM Baltimore Ravens @ Cincinnati Bengals
Sun 2024-10-06 4:05PM Arizona Cardinals @ San Francisco 49ers
Sun 2024-10-06 4:05PM Las Vegas Raiders @ Denver Broncos
Sun 2024-10-06 4:25PM Green Bay Packers @ Los Angeles Rams
Sun 2024-10-06 4:25PM New York Giants @ Seattle Seahawks
Sun 2024-10-06 8:20PM Dallas Cowboys @ Pittsburgh Steelers
Mon 2024-10-07 8:15PM New Orleans Saints @ Kansas City Chiefs
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That is from Plutarch 24:2. I find “public entertainment” in a 18th century translation but that is not the normal translation today. University of Chicago’s online Loeb portal reads

Characteristic of Solon also was his regulation of the practice of eating at the public table in the townhall, for which his word was "parasitein."The same person was not allowed to eat there often, but if one whose duty it was to eat there refused, he was punished. Solon thought the conduct of the first grasping; that of the second, contemptuous of the public interests.

This appears to be in reference to the “public dining-table in the prytaneum”. Regarding these meals:

The nearest approach that modern usage makes to the Prytaneum of a Greek state may be found in the town-hall or hôtel de ville; but the religious character attaching to it gave it a much higher significance, and it had also state purposes* which were peculiar to cities of Ancient Greece, being non-existent even at Rome, where, as will be pointed out, we have a near parallel on the religious side. The Prytaneum, so far as our evidence goes, was a requisite for every Greek state (Paus. 1.43; 5.15); but only in the capital, not in demes or villages attached to it. Its archaic history appears to be as follows. Every Greek tribal settlement of primitive times (and probably the same holds good for most nations of the world) had a common hearth in the chief's house, where the fire was scrupulously preserved, because of the difficulty in those days of procuring fire at all. To pursue this question further is unnecessary here: any book on the folk-lore and customs of almost any primitive nation will supply examples: numerous references are given in a paper on the Prytaneum by Mr. Frazer (Journal of Philology, 14.28, 1885). The perpetual maintenance of this fire was the duty of the chief, but delegated by him to daughters or slaves; in Rome, no doubt, to daughters, who reappear in history as the Vestals [VESTALES]. If the settlement was moved, the firebrand was taken carefully from the hearth and carried onward, a custom which Parkman has particularly noted in the Indian tribes of America; and similarly, if a swarm of colonists went out to settle elsewhere, they took fire with them.

All very interesting. I am very much in favor of town halls and discourse halls. Distracting commercial sports? This does not qualify as prytaneum usage.

I was born in 1991. My father likes football, my mother likes football, my maternal grandmother likes football, my maternal grandfather liked football, my paternal grandparents were Witnesses so a little off.

Then you guys should get together to play. Playing a game is a wonderful tradition. My extended family would play games in November. A wonderful song by Cayucas paints the scene well: “Came running down the stairs like clickety-clack You slipped and fell And landed on your back Playing tackle football covered up with mud Rutgers sweatshirt dirty, ripped and scuffed Old sport Oxford champ a pioneer”. Watching others play it with half the screen time as ads while you sit sedentary is terrible.

we would stop to buy a hoagie from on our way to catch an Eagles' game at the Vet. The Eagles are a living tradition within my family and my community.

How many yards down until you enter Wall-E world? Somewhere between utopia and Wall-E we have to eliminate bad cultural practices, like hot dogs and spectator sports. In one hundred years people will be defending Walmart scooters as American tradition, I swear.

Alienates the family I saw two Mondays ago, wearing their matching Section 105 season ticket holder hats?

They are alienated from culture and any good tradition, probably fat, and risk becoming gambling addicts.

Alienates the guys hanging out in the parking lot, drinking and grilling together

It is a severe tragedy that their communal meal is shitty carcinogenic meat, shitty alcohol, car exhaust and consumer merchandise. How far we have fallen. I want them at the Prytaneum. What Plutarch said! What you quoted! I want them to have their communal meals again, which every culture has, in a healthy and communal context

Medieval Christianity esteemed the Tournament, the pas d'armes.

But these were for knights to practice war. Today’s wars are not fought like knight tournaments. Today’s wars are economic and technological. Football, if anything, distracts from skills that enhance national security. Regarding the tournaments as mock war:

horsemanship was still a key military skill, and “chevaliers” valuable, even iconic soldiers. Anyone who could demonstrate “chivalry” was potentially a military asset. Indeed, kings and princes in the twelfth century gained prestige by allowing themselves to be dubbed knights. When Henry II of England, at age 18, wanted to show that he was worthy of the English crown, he had himself knighted by the King of Scots. When it came to educating his own son, King Henry gave the young man into the care of the most skilled horseman of his time, William Marshal. William Marshal progressed from this position as royal tutor to become an earl and, when civil war broke out in.

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