Boston Red Sox fans don't like to hear this, because they're always obsessed with the Yankees, but growing up in the 70s and 80s (and really, for most of the 90s) the Red Sox Yankees rivalry took a back seat to other rivalries. The exception is August - October 2, 1978, but the next day we we're back to obsessing about the much more glamorous Dogers.

In the 80s, I hated no one more than George Brett. Forget Bucky Fucking Dent. George Fucking Brett was the bane of my ten year old existence. I distinctly remember being allowed to stay up to watch a close game which the Yankees lost as Brett hit three HRs. I remember -- not a little ashamedly -- actively rooting against him hitting .400 in 1980. Nonetheless, I have the honor of having been at the Pine Tar Game, although none of us in the stadium had any idea what had happened until we got to the car and got the radio on.

I second the question: when did the bullpen car go out of style? I don't think I had noticed they were gone until you mentioned it.

While I am convinced that no one can with the Knicks under the current ownership, Don Nelson wasn't even close. I seem to remember him coming to trouble for advocating the trading of Patrick Ewing so that the Knicks could pursue Shaq in the following off season. That might have helped, but by that off season, Nelly was gone and Van Gundy was in place.

On a personal note, Nelly came into the bar where I was bouncing at the time and happened to have his picture taken by the Daily News while he was there. From that day forward, the place was packed. so that's one good thing he did.

I would bet that if you conducted a poll of any educated group -- say, NPR listeners or people with PhDs in humanities -- not 1% of them would have heard of him and not 0.1% would have read him. Criticize Bush for legitimate reasons. Geesh.

Manhattanite,

So "Anyone with a passing knowledge of French literature" knows and has read Naguib Mahfouz? Sure, it rolls right off the tongue "Proust, Stendhal, Mahfouz...".

That is simply ludicrous. I have a passing knowledge of French literature. I've read Camus, Proust, Sartre, de Beauvoir, Robbe-Grillet, Aimé Césaire, Maryse Condé -- in French. When it was reported that Mahfouz died, I had a vague idea of who was, but I certainly hadn't read any of his work.

SO I guess that means I don't have a passing knowledge of French literature? Okay, if you say so, but it seems to me like that kind of comment is meant to make you feel superior rather than move the conversation along.

I read your other letters and see that you seem to specialize in short, one line, nominally cutting comments which add nothing to the conversation. Is that faux hipness or just a lack of anything constructive to say?

The point of my first post, I'll repeat it for you because I'm starting to think that you're not all that bright despite being well-read, is that of all the legitimate reasons to criticize the President, not knowing who Mahfouz is is not one of them. It reeks of the sort of faux elitism which turns off the entire country; plus it always seems to be a double standard, so not knowing who Mahfouz is is a sign of absolute ignorance and lack of spohistication, but not knowing, say, who is second in command in China (or even #1) or Indonesia is perfectly acceptable.

Several times, when I have met Francophiles bemoaning the lack of knowledge of France by Americans, I've asked them who the President of Indonesia is. I mean, this isn't an esoteric question. It is a big, sem-stable country of 200+ million people and the world's largest Muslim population. It probably has infinitely more impact on our lives that knowledge of French culture? They never know. Nor do they usually know who the President of China is. I do this not to make people feel stupid, but to point out that we all have blind spots and gaps in our knowledge base.

The world is a big place and knowledge is vast and unconquerable. Parading whatever little nuggets are important to you as universally important and the marker of an educated person is myopic, arrogant and counter-productive. We've all sat at the dinner party where the one person is loudly extolling his/her extensive knowledge of jazz, architecture, Shakespeare, whatever... and in the process showing everyone how smart s/he is, right? That person often subtly or unsubtly belittles someone who doesn't know as much as they do. Do you ever leave that party impressed? I never do.