Interesting new angle on this at the weekend. Boris was taking me for my

daily walkies when, coming towards me, I saw three persons. Two of them

were “nodding neighbors” — I mean, we smile and greet each other, know each

other’s names, but have no other intercourse. The husband is a college

professor, the wife I don’t know. They are very “blue” and their car bumper

still sported a Kerry sticker last time I looked. The third member of their

party was a guy I do not know, but whose turn-out fairly screamed

“ACADEMIC!” Beard, long hair, open plaid shirt, fuzzy sweater, jeans

pitched at just the right level of college-teacher scruffiness, sneakers

ditto.

Well, as they came up to me the husband & wife both smiled & said “Hello!”

I chirped back: “Hello! Merry Christmas!”

Stony silence. Smiles vanished.

So apparently the blues are just as ticked of by the reds’ “Merry Christmas”

as the reds are by the blues’ “Happy Holidays.”

Two nations. Mars & Venus. Guelphs & Ghibellines. Mets and Yankees….

(These three, I am willing to bet, are Mets.)