Nationalisms

Really good piece at Deadspin about the attempts of some to make the Vancouver-Boston Stanley Cup Finals into a proxy U.S. vs. Canada war. I won't quote from it because the whole thing is quite good and useful. Click on o'er.

For my part, I've never understood cheering for some random city (in this case, Boston) just because it happens to be within the borders of this gargantuan country. People in Seattle and Portland have far more in common with Vancouverites than they do Bostonians, and when you consider the other side of North America, you can easily understand why London, Ontario's Rachel McAdams is cheering for Boston.

Speaking of Rachel McAdams, go see the new Woody Allen movie. It's delightful!

There's also the inconvenient fact that most NHL teams are a mongrel hodge-podge of different nationalities. Are the Canucks a "Canadian" team even though only one of their biggest stars is Canadian (the others being Swedish and American)? What about Boston, which is one prominent American goalie plus a load of Canadians (including at least two guys from British Columbia! Should Milan Lucic and Mark Recchi be rooting for Vancouver?) plus a Slovak space monster and a Czech who's risen to the occasion? Should Lionel Messi join the Spanish national team? Etc...