Teresa Heinz Kerry, Narnia, and revoltin’ Red Sox fans

SDG here with a fascinating (if necessarily indelicate) article on the bumpy history of a number of expressions that many people use without any awareness and sometimes even without knowledge of their discreditable origins.

The author knows her onions, to use an an idiom that I’m reasonably sure has no secret etiology in perversity, and effectively references relevant usages from Teresa Heinz Kerry to Lyndon B. Johnson [NOT Larouche as previously noted — I need more sleep!] to C.S. Lewis. If you want to see how the dots are connected, you’ll have to read the article (though again consider yourself duly warned that the article contains, not surprisingly, some explicit language).

Side note for Sox fans: Although I’ve never really been much of a sports fan at all, I was born and bred in the shadow of NYC, so I should mention that when I do follow baseball at all, I generally tend to root more for the Mets than the Yankees. I’ve never really been into the vindictive glee that many New Yorkers take in the long, sad history of the Curse of the Babe. It’d be a’ight with me if y’all won a World Series sometime. That said, though, the final anecdote in this article, about a Sox fandom T-shirt, is so revolting that I now officially have no sympathy for y’all, and it’d be a’ight with me if you never won a World Series either.

Get the story

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

4 thoughts on “Teresa Heinz Kerry, Narnia, and revoltin’ Red Sox fans”

  1. Athough a rabid life long Red Sox fan, I have never understood the whole “Yankees Suck” thing. I will freely admit to applying the phrase “that suchs” to such events as Buckey Dent’s/Arron Boone’s/(add next name here)’s hit/catch/(add improbible occurance here) that bring Red Sox Nation to the brink of fulfillment/disillusionment/(add personall psychosis here), but the Yankees do not suck.
    As a Boston Globe sports writer has observed, (which by the way is the ONLY redeaming purpose for the existance of the Boston Globe) the infantile chantings of some (which have also known to interupt Rock concerts, Patriots games and not a few wedding receptions) do not represent either Boston or Red Sox Nation.
    TK
    (PS. This is the year! TK)
    (PPS. Sorry, inspite on ongoing therapy I couln’t help my self. TK)

  2. Thanks, Tom. You’ve helped restore my faith in human nature in the Boston area. I hereby revert to my previous default view that Boston winning the Series would be a’ight with me.

  3. You may have the wrong Lyndon listed here: “relevant usages from Teresa Heinz Kerry to Lyndon Larouche to C.S. Lewis.”
    An interesting substitute for LBJ in an already remarkable trinity.

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