Orel Family

I imagine a future conversation between myself and Elianna: Me: "Bruce Springsteen once signed a used ticket stub I handed him, and gave it back!" Elianna: "Bruce played his harmonica in concert and then gave it to me!" Me: "I talked to Bruce once." Elianna: "I sang with Bruce.  He told me I was awesome!" Me: "I shook Bruce's hand.  Firm handshake, and he looked me right in the eye." Elianna: "Bruce took me by the hand and danced with me, then he picked me up and I waved to the whole stadium full of cheering people!" In this episode of Close Encounters of the Bruce Kind,  I'm going to lose.  But I don't mind. Not even 30 hours before show time, we weren't even going to go to Toronto for Bruce Springsteen's show there.  I didn't have General Admission tickets, and after the kids were hooked on the GA experience in  Auburn Hills  and  Buffalo  in April, I didn't want to go to a big stadiu...

On January 24, 2010, I watched on TV as the New Orleans Saints hosted the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC Championship Game.  I was mildly rooting for the Vikings, just so that old man Brett Favre could get one last shot at a Super Bowl.  The Vikings dominated the game, but turnovers and penalties doomed them.  Favre was injured due to a questionable hit, so much so that he couldn't hobble for a fist down to set up a last minute winning field goal.  Instead, he threw an ill-considered pass that was intercepted, and the Saints eventually won the game in overtime. Cut forward to 2012.  On March 2, the NFL announced that the Saints may have been intentionally trying to injure Vikings players, including Fare, during that 2010 matchup, including paying bonuses for causing injury.  Of course, I was appalled.  Had the result of that game been unfairly influenced by a bunch of bounty-hunting thugs? It only got worse:  On April 5, filmmaker Sean Pamphilon...