In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

WooHoo White Sox!

Jill

Only because my parents are from the South Side of Chicago. From my dad:

Difference between North and South Sides
— ——————

Thomas Condon

October 14, 2005

Chicago — Can everyone please stop all this nonsense about the White Sox being cursed? Lately pundits and sports writers have been trying to conjure up some kind of curse to explain the White Sox not winning the World Series for 88 years.

Get this straight once and for all: There is no White Sox curse.

I think all this curse nonsense started because so many sports writers are so accustomed to writing about the Cubs and their problems with curses, and misbehaving fans, and anything else they can blame their bumbling performance on.

On the North Side, it has always been “boo-hoo, that mean billy goat won’t let us win the World Series . . . it’s not our fault, we’re cursed . . . wahhhhhh!”

What a bunch of babies.

On the South Side, we don’t need to hide behind a curse. We take our lumps, make no excuses, claim no curses and show up and root for our team, win or lose.

This is an essential part of the difference between the North Side and the South Side. The North Side is home to the more “tender” Chicagoans, those latte-swilling, status-car-driving dandies who think that Lincoln Park is a tough neighborhood. Many are just enjoying their “urban experience” for a few years before moving back to Schaumburg and buying the inevitable minivan.

The South Side is where the real meat of Chicago resides. These are the people and neighborhoods who built America with steel mills, won World War II with manufacturing and continue to supply the real muscle for Chicago’s economic engine.

And we aren’t moving to Schaumburg. Ever.

The South Side has always been tougher, and always comes out on top. Want an example? Remember what happened on St. Valentine’s Day in 1929? That was a little dispute between Al Capone’s South Siders and Bugs Moran’s North Side gang. Guess who won? That’s right, the South Side.

So take that curse baloney and stuff it. We’ve been here through all the tough times, and stood by the White Sox without whining about a curse. So what if we haven’t won the World Series in a long time–you got a problem with that?

9 thoughts on WooHoo White Sox!

  4. I just love Chicago; North Side, South Side….it doesn’t matter. I’ve partied all over that town and had a great time every time.

    If I couldn’t be where I am now, I’d head for Chicago.

  5. i just got into Chicago yesterday and I’m gonna assume that Chicago drivers are not always drunken and insane. I’m gonna assume it was Series related. Right? Cuz otherwise I have to assume that three or four different drivers were TRYING to kill me…

  6. And we aren’t moving to Schaumburg. Ever.

    Is there something particularly awful about Schaumburg? Because it would be a little dumb to deny that a whole lot of Sox fans have moved to the suburbs.

    Anyway, I’m delighted that they won.

  7. Actually…North and South siders are pretty similar:

    When the Sox win, they talk about the Cubs. When the Cubs win (and they will win one day!), they will talk about the Cubs.

    Sox fans have an unhealthy obsession with the Cubs. Cubs fans have an unhealthy obsession with the Cubs.

  8. I thought it was the Red Sox that were cursed. Before *they* won, of course.

    The nice thing about such curses are that they inspire good writing. On the Travel Channel a couple years ago there was an ad for a Boston episode of some show or other, and the voiceover went, “The traffic is legendary, the baseball team may be cursed, and the locals . . . get a little crazy at tea parties.” OK, that was more the Boston Tea Party and the traffic system providing fodder for that, but when the Red Sox won things last year, the weekly update at WitchVox said ” (other event), (other event), the Boston Red Sox continue to crow “What curse?”, (other event) . . .”

    Certainly doesn’t make up for the negative aspects of any curse, but it’s something.

  9. “sox fans have an unhealthy obsession with the cubs” because we’ve played the younger sibling role for a long, long time, and we have the pathology to match. and yes we delight in the cubs not winning, but i think often times that “unhealthy obsession” is a result of the whole country reminding us that we’re second in town to them.

    all though at the moment, we are not second to anyone. not now.

    oh, and schaumburg is an awful place because it seems to consist solely of highways, shopping malls, and subdivisions. i’ve actually seen the first two, but not the third – i have literally never seen a sidewalk in schaumburg.

Comments are currently closed.