Category: Super Bowl

Wing It

2/23/2020

From our food editor, Verla Burrell-Bordelon:

WE POSTED THIS INFO A FEW WEEKS BACK ON SUPER BOWL SUNDAY:

Happy Super Bowl Sunday! Of course, we wouldn't have a Super Bowl with Emmett Lee Dickinson -- for details, click HERE (scroll down to the entry dated June 10). Much more information (and additional poems) about the Dickinson/Super Bowl connection is included in our plog (poetry blog), To access that information, click HERE.

In celebration of Super Bowl Sunday, we have posted Emmett Lee Dickinson's now-classic poem about the Super Bowl, "Of this this Day's composed," as one of our Featured Poems of the Week (below on the left). Dickinson's poem inspired third cousin Emily to pen her poem, "Of this is Day composed," our other featured poem (below on the right).

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:

Of this this Day’s composed
A first and second half
A Revelry unspeakable
And then a funny ad
The Teams advance each turn
With power and with drive
A Super Bowl of glory
Resplendently alive!

By Emily Dickinson:

Of this is Day composed
A morning and a noon
A Revelry unspeakable
And then a gay unknown
Whose Pomps allure and spurn
And dower and deprive
And penury for Glory
Remedilessly leave.

Of course, Emmett Lee Dickinson is also connected to the evolution of the Super Bowl buffet -- and what would a Super Bowl buffet be with out Buffalo wings (a favorite of Emily and Lavinia Dickinson)? Therefore, we thought we'd post an additional poem today, Emmett Lee Dickinson's "Ferocious as a Fan without a wing" (below on the right). This short poem inspired third cousin Emily to pen "Ferocious as a Bee without a wing" (below on the left).

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:

Ferocious as a Fan without a wing
One Dipped in Honey and one Dipped
in Sting*
So at the hour present the Dip to me

*Hot sauce

By Emily Dickinson:

Ferocious as a Bee without a wing
The Prince of Honey and the Prince
of Sting
So plain a flower present her Disk to thee

Bowled Over

2/4/2018

From our entertainment editor Qwerty Lee Dickinson:

We hope you have a super Super Bowl Sunday today -- and of course, if you're a fan of Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson's third cousin, twice removed -- at her request) then you know that were it not for Emmett Lee Dickinson there wouldn't even be a Super Bowl. We wrote about the history of how the game was named HERE. A Dickinson poem also inspired the creation of the Super Bowl ring -- we wrote about that HERE.

Emmett Lee Dickinson also invented…

The marching band
The half-time spectacle
The 16 ounce red cup for beer
The concession stand
The hotdog (and third cousin Emily Dickinson developed the first recipe for nachos)

We wrote about his influence on the half-time show HERE.

Other members of the Dickinson family have also influenced the sport of football. Emmett Lee Dickinson's Uncle Hobart -- a world-famous clown known as "Gurgles the Clown" -- introduced a spectacle that is now known as the "Puppy Bowl." Originally it was called "Gurgles the Clown presents the Marvelous Foot-Ball Dogs."

Also, Emmett Lee Dickinson's brother Darth invented the football helmet. He noticed the need for a helmet after watcihng a football game at Harvard Junior College in Washerst, PA.

Pictured below on the right: The original football helmet invented by Emmett Lee Dickinson's brother, Darth Dickinson.

Of course, Emmett Lee Dickinson also wrote many poems about football, and two of his works seem to have captured the excitement of Super Bowl LII, "Fly -- fly -- as Eagles fly" and "Where every Eagle's bold to go" (below on the left). His poems inspired third cousin Emily to pen her poems "Fly -- fly -- but as you fly" and "Where every bird is bold to go" (below on the right).

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:

Fly – fly – as Eagles fly –
Remember – the Pats might pass them by –
Both teams are pursuing the Championship
The Championship is set for Eternity –
Ah the Responsibility –
No wonder that the thirty-second ads
Cost such a frightening sum –

By Emily Dickinson:

Fly – fly – but as you fly –
Remember – the second pass you by –
The Second is pursuing the Century
The Century is chasing Eternity –
Ah the Responsibility –
No wonder that the little Second flee –
Out of its frightened way –

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:

Where every Eagle’s bold to go
And must abashless play
The Patriots before the World
Must strive to win today.

By Emily Dickinson:

Where every bird is bold to go
And bees abashless play,
The foreigner before he knocks
Must thrust the tears away.

Super Bowl? Or Super Bowel?

2/8/2016

If you watch the Super Bowl for the commercials, then surely you couldn't help but notice the ads about bodily functions that aired during yesterday's game. There were drug ads for opioid-induced constipation, and announcements for cures for irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea. The only thing missing from last night's game were public notices for over-active bladders.

Of course, it all makes perfect sense when you think about the normal fare served at Super Bowl parties: pizza, wings, queso, chunky quacamole, hot crab dip, nachos, 7-layer dip and more! As a mater of fact, we hosted a Super Bowl party last night and the one dish that went virtually untouched were the fresh cut vegetables.

Emmett Lee Dickinson wrote about Super-Bowl-type parties in his now classic poem " Four Servings had I than the rest" (below on the left). HIs poem inspired third cousin Emily to pen her poem "One Blessing had I than the rest" (below on the right).

Fortunately, if you are still suffering from the after-effects from your Super Bowl party, there is relief available: Dickinson's "Poo-Goo." Yes, besides being America's greatest poet, Emmett Lee Dickinson was also an inventor and scientist, and he invented a wide variety of drugs and medicines -- including "Poo-Goo," an all natural laxative guaranteed to clear a system that has gone sluggish.

Pictured at the left: A vintage ad for Dickinson's "Poo-Goo." (Click the image to enlarge.)

For more information on medicines invented by Emmett Lee Dickinson, click HERE.

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:

Four Servings had I than the rest
So larger were my Eyes
That I stopped gorging – satiated –
For my expanded size –

It was the limit of my Dream –
The focus of my Prayer –
A perfect – paralyzing Bliss –
Contented as a Bear –

I knew no more of Want – or Need –
Fantastic the was the meal
For I did Value all the Food –
Supremest was my Zeal –

The Hors-d'oeuvres were hot the
Hors-d’oeuvres were cold
Procured with relished Ado –
My Buffet Plate leant over – full –
My Judgment perished – too –

Why Bliss so readily concede –
Why Paradise defer –
Why Foods be snubbed by Us –
my Bowels –
I devastate some more –

By Emily Dickinson:

One Blessing had I than the rest
So larger to my Eyes
That I stopped gauging – satisfied –
For this enchanted size –

It was the limit of my Dream –
The focus of my Prayer –
A perfect – paralyzing Bliss –
Contented as Despair –

I knew no more of Want – or Cold –
Phantasms both become
For this new Value in the Soul –
Supremest Earthly Sum –

The Heaven below the Heaven above –
Obscured with ruddier Blue –
Life's Latitudes leant over – full –
The Judgment perished – too –

Why Bliss so scantily disburse –
Why Paradise defer –
Why Floods be served to Us –
in Bowls –
I speculate no more –

A Super Phenomenon

2/6/2016

Present-day football and the Super Bowl phenomenon are what they are thanks primarily to Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson’s third cousin, twice removed – at her request).

Dickinson invented…

The marching band
The half-time spectacle
The 16 ounce red cup for beer
The concession stand
The hotdog (and third cousin Emily Dickinson developed the first recipe for nachos)

To be honest, about the only thing about the Super Bowl that is not associated with America’s greatest poet is the presence of television commercials!

Pictured at the right: One of Emmett Lee Dickinson's more ispectacular half-time show extravaganzas was when he arranged to burn down the field house at the Princeton vs. Bryn Mawr homecoming game.

Below on the left: Emmett Lee Dickinson’s tribute to Super Bowl half-time shows.

Below on the right: Dickinson’s poem inspired third cousin Emily to write “The Day grew small, surrounded tight.”

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:

The Game grew small, surrounded right
By early, stooping Night –
The Super Bowl in Evening deep
Its Yellow halftime dropt –
The Songs went out their partial ways
The Lead did jam with stars –
Chris Martin jumped the famed Left Shark
On stage with Bruno Mars –

By Emily Dickinson:

The Day grew small, surrounded tight
By early, stooping Night –
The Afternoon in Evening deep
Its Yellow shortness dropt –
The Winds went out their martial ways
The Leaves obtained excuse –
November hung his Granite Hat
Upon a nail of Plush –

Super Bling

2/5/2016

Our post about the Super Bowl in 2014 begins, “The history of the Super Bowl starts with two things: the merging of the American Football League with the National Football League, and the great American poet Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson’s third cousin, twice removed – at her request).” That post can be found HERE. We also wrote about Super Bowl XLIX and deflategate in 2015 HERE.

Now we're just days away from Super Bowl 50, so we thought we’d post another of Dickinson’s many poems about football, “They feel no shame to be Alive” (below on the left) about the two teams that survive each season to face off in the Super Bowl.

Dickinson’s poem inspired the NFL to award rings to the winning teams (although for Super Bowl I, the champions received a ring on a metal keyring). His poem also inspired third cousin Emily to pen her poem, “It feels a shame to be Alive” (below on the right).

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:

They feel no shame to be Alive –
When Teams so brave – are tamed –
One envies the Distinguished Two –
Permitted – such a Game –

The Stats – that tell defending Whom
The Top Two put away
What little the others – possessed
In search – of Victory –

The price is great – Sublimely paid –
If one reserves – a Seat –
To view – then Dollars – must be paid
Before one can obtain!

As we then watch – sufficient worth –
For each Enormous Goal
And life – splendid be – for Us --
With Battle’s – Super Bowl!

It will be – a Renown – to view –
To see the Team that wins –
The unrestrained – Saviors –
Receive the Golden Rings –

By Emily Dickinson:

It feels a shame to be Alive –
When Men so brave – are dead –
One envies the Distinguished Dust –
Permitted – such a Head –

The Stone – that tells defending Whom
This Spartan put away
What little of Him we – possessed
In Pawn for Liberty –

The price is great – Sublimely paid –
Do we deserve – a Thing –
That lives – like Dollars – must be piled
Before we may obtain?

Are we that wait – sufficient worth –
That such Enormous Pearl
As life – dissolved be – for Us –
In Battle's – horrid Bowl?

It may be – a Renown to live –
I think the Man who die –
Those unsustained – Saviors –
Present Divinity –

Pumped Up about Deflategate

1/25/2015

Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson’s third cousin, twice removed – at her request) wrote many poems about football and football teams. He even penned several poems about a scandal in the late 1800s known as “deflate-gate” when Princeton used deflated footballs to defeat Bryn Mawr. An example of one of his Deflate-gate poems is below.

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:

That it may never come again
Is what makes the Super Bowl so sweet.
Achieving what we must achieve
The ball we must deflate.

That if it’s so, it be at best
A story of no weight –
For investigators with appetite
For a type of Gamer-Gate

Dickinson's poem inspired third cousin Emily Dickinson to write this:

That it will never come again
Is what make life so sweet.
Believing what we don't believe
Does not exhilarate.

That if it be, it be at best
An ablative estate –
This instigates an appetite
Precisely opposite

Now, more than 100 years later, we are faced once again with a Deflate-gate dispute. Super Bowl XLIV is one week away, and we anxiously await the NFL’s response to the controversy. The Board of Directors of the Dickinson Organization of Poetry Enthusiasts (DOPE) has a number of recommendations for the NFL in response to this hullabaloo:

* First, President Obama should appoint a Ball Czar. He recently appointed an Ebola Czar to manage a possible public health crisis, and Deflate-gate has certainly reached the point of being a national football crisis, so we need a Ball Czar to ensure that no quarterback at the Super Bowl has soft or tender balls.

* Next, we advocate for many and frequent ball checks during the game. This can be performed by the refs, the teams’ centers, or even the team doctors, but someone needs to complete frequent checks with the quarterbacks to ensure their balls are firm and hard.

* Third, the NFL should develop and distribute a required chart of acceptable prefixes to be used with the root word “flate,” the Welsh word for “pancake” which came to mean “flat” in English. At a minimum, the chart should include the following:

* Finally, the NFL should support deflation – but in relation to the cost of Super Bowl tickets. We checked the NFL Ticket Exchange last night for ticket availability to Super Bowl XLIV, and the site indicated that there were “713 ticket listings offered from $5015 $5015 to $15842 $15842 each.” Why, the price of one ticket alone is approaching the cost of a family of four to go to the movies! Flattened balls or not, the ridiculously inflated cost of Super Bowl admission is absurd.

The Super Bowl is almost synonymous with Emmett Lee Dickinson. The name “Super Bowl” itself is tied to Dickinson himself due to his creation of corn chowder. Dickinson also invented the marching band and half-time entertainment. Therefore, we are vitally interested in the presentation andoutcome of the game.

We hope the NFL – and President Obama – will take our recommendations under serious consideration. As the saying goes, “Deflaters are gonna deflate,” but if our proposals are implemented, perhaps we can all get pumped up for the game!

Poetry & Sports / Sports & Poetry

6/1/2014

Macaroni & cheese.
Peanut butter and jelly.
Ham and eggs.
Bowling and beer

Some things just go together naturally. Like poetry and sports. Yes, you read that right: Poetry and sports.

This month the Emmett Lee Dickinson Museum (above the coin-op Laundromat on Dickinson Boulevard in historic Washerst, Pennsylvania) will host a special exhibit on the extensive and wide-ranging connection between poetry and sports. From the use of poetic terms for team names (like “The Metaphors” – shortened to the “Mets” – and “The Ravens”) to poems about sporting events and sporting events that inspired poems (for example, Walt Whitman wrote “Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking” after watching a football game between Princeton and Bryn Mawr in 1858 that ended in a tie), this exhibit will feature a wide array of associations between athletics and poetry.

All hyperBALLe aside, we think this will be one of the greatest exhibits on all time! However, If your time and travels don’t allow you to visit the museum, you can always view our online exhibit featured right here on our website – just click HERE.

Then, try your hand at the customary word associations listed below. What word completes each common phrase?

Prison and …
Warts and …
Snickersnee and …
Fungus and …
Hammer toes and …

A Super Poet Names the Super Bowl

2/1/2014

The history of the Super Bowl starts with two things: the merging of the American Football League with the National Football League, and the great American poet Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson’s third cousin, twice removed – at her request).

The NFL – AFL World Championship Game was created as a piece of the merger agreement between the NFL and the AFL in 1966.

During the negotiations between the NFL and the AFL, Kansas City Chief owner Lamar Hunt mentioned that the Fighting Poets, the football team of the Emmett Lee Dickinson Community College in Washerst, Pennsylvania, had organized a community college championship game called the “Chowder Bowl,” to honor the poet’s invention of corn chowder – known in Washerst as the “Super Bowl of Soup!” Hunt only meant the name to be a stop-gap until the powers that be could think of something better.

The first championship game took place in 1967, and it was referred to as the “Chowder Bowl,” and fans in the stands were treated to steaming hot bowls of Dickinson’s recipe for corn chowder. By the third quarter the fans were chanting “Super Bowl! Super Bowl! Super Bowl!” and the governing board of the NFL – AFL merger realized they had the discovered the name for their championship game.

To this day, a steaming hot bowl of corn chowder is the official meal for Super Bowl fans!

Below: Two of Emmett Lee Dickinson's poems that foretold Super Bowl XLVIII (Seattle Seahawks vs. Denver Broncos) -- and the poems of Emily Dickinson's they inspired.

By Emily Dickinson:

The Spirit is the Conscious Ear.
We actually Hear
When We inspect – that's audible –
That is admitted – Here –

For other Services – as Sound –
There hangs a smaller Ear
Outside the Castle – that Contain –
The other – only – Hear –

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:

The Spirit is the Seahawk Cheer.
We actually Hear
When we inspect – what's audible –
They are committed – Here –

In other Stadiums – as Sound –
there hangs a smaller Cheer
Unlike Seattle – that Contains
The record – we all – Hear

By Emily Dickinson:

It rises – passes – on our South
Inscribes a simple Noon –
Cajoles a Moment with the Spires
And infinite is gone

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:

He rises – passes – toward the Goal
Propels a perfect Pass –
We cheer on Manning with his Spiral
And more records are set