Tailgate Party

By | July 3, 2008

I’ve figured out how to retire young (or feed Africa for a year).  Just write one song.  It could be worth more than $500 millon.

When I started watching this video, I first thought that I had seen it before.  Then I thought that it was going to be lame.  I was wrong.  If you’re like me, you’ll laugh at loud at least once, even if you’re all by yourself.

For a long time, Obama ran a campaign against other Democratic candidates, distinguishing himself largely by grand rhetoric and positions more liberal than the rest.  Some of these ideas (like meeting with the U.S.’s enemies without preconditions and repealing NAFTA) made him look like a lunatic.  Now that Clinton has dropped out, Obama is reversing himself on some of these issues, and taking a more moderate stance, but suggesting that he is a liar (examples here and here; a black political scientist has more eloquently called him a “vacuous opportunist“).  In four months the people will have a chance to decide if this liar and lunatic should also be lord.  Let’s pray not.

What a day without news would be like.

Somebody please help this recent immigrant to Texas.  What is a “tailgate party”?  I can make a few guesses, but probably shouldn’t.  Is it ok to take my boys?  Are they supposed to be fun?

8 thoughts on “Tailgate Party

  1. Phil Anderson

    Hmmm….depends on the tailgate party. Usually its a pre-sports game party that happens on the tailgate of a pickup (or out of the trunk of somebody’s car). People will park at the stadium and eat, drink, and hang out behind somebody’s car before the game. Many times alcohol is consumed. They’re not inherently bad, but it just depends on the party.

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  2. Todd Bolen

    Phil – this is with a church group. But I don’t understand what’s so exciting about a tailgate. Where I lived before (in CA and Israel), we’d have parties at the beach or the park. A tailgate seems a poor substitute.

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  3. Craig Dunning

    “A tailgate seems a poor substitute.”

    I guess it depends on where that tailgate is parked?

    Reply
  4. Ruth

    it is ussually having to do with a sporting event and so you get great food (without the high prices inside the stadium) and a chance to hang out before everyone is focused on the game…i think, everyone should experience one…kinda like a drive in is different from a movie theater…not as good seats…much colder or hotter…different food, yet still a cool experience!

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  5. Ruth

    it does kinda sound redneck, now that i think of it in the way that you put it…it is a picnic in a parking lot :)

    Reply
  6. Brian

    Todd …

    You don’t know what a tailgate party is? Did you ever go to a Dodgers game when you were at TMC? Or to any sporting event at a professional park?

    Basically, with a tailgate party, you setup a BBQ grill behind your vehicle, along with the ice chest and a few chairs. You have a pre-game meal, while listing to/watching either an earlier game or pre-game festivities on the radio/portable TV. Or, just listen to music. Sometimes you bring along a football or something and play catch.

    As for alcohol, technically it is illegal at MOST tailgate parties, since open containers are prohibited outdoors just about everywhere. Not saying there isn’t alcohol (usually beers if it is there), but usually it’s just sodas and such. Some stadiums do have zones where you can have alcohol outside.

    And, Todd, people DO NOT have their pre-game parties at the beach in California. For example, the lineup to enter the Oakland Coliseum for a Raiders game begins at 5 a.m. for a 1 p.m. game, 11 a.m. for a night game. People typically arrive hours in advance for football games.

    In some places, tailgate parties are events in their own rights, often just as important as the game itself. There are Web sites that rate stadiums/teams on their tailgate parties. Indeed some places are duller than others.

    Is this tailgate at a Rangers game? Cowboys game? My guess is that a tailgate at a Cowboys game would be quite the event. I picture lots of Texas BBQ at an event like that. Mmmmm … brisket.

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  7. Todd Bolen

    Brian – no, and no, to your first questions. I’ve spent nearly all of my adult life taking people to Arbel and Machtesh Ramon.

    We’re going to a minor league baseball game, $10 a person, including a hat.

    All – thanks for the explanations. It still doesn’t sound fun. But I prefer grass, dirt, water, just about anything, to asphalt and tailpipes.

    Reply

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