I'm A...

I understand why people from Marshall University came up with the expression "We Are Marshall." It summed up the feelings of shared sorrow and mourning after 75 members and associates of their football team died in a plane crash in 1970. It's a nice motto, and it joins the bereaved and their friends and loved ones and the entire college community in a circle of sorrow. That's nice, and worthwhile, that they own their emotions and the balm that helped them heal.



Not so other schools, so when I saw a "We Are Penn State" bumper sticker the other day, I chortled at how crass it is to steal a slogan and re-purpose it for your own parochial use. And surely, Penn State is not the only school whose alumni or student government association ripped off the Marshall mantra.



But it seems like anyone can just apply any label to themselves these days. Singers do it all the time - when their pop music fans desert them, they just go country and claim that they've "always been country." Jewel is trying this image on for size now, and I understand Eddie Money is trying that path as well. It's Vince Vaughn in "Wedding Crashers": "I feel so tiny in your arms...I'm 6' 5" but I feel like I'm 4 feet." It's "I'm a Mac" vs. "I'm a PC." Claim to be tiny, claim to be one sort of computer or another, just say it often enough and maybe it'll come true.



Old McCain has taken to calling himself "The Original Maverick." That comes as news to the many who thought he was so inside the Washington power elite that he had been criticized for improper judgement in that whole stinky Keating Five Savings and Loan scandal. Maybe that was another John McCain?


His adherents demonstrate their mastery of spelling.



I had an original Maverick. A 1977 two-door model, it ran pretty well, didn't always want to start on cold, rainy mornings, and just as old McCain did when he dumped his first wife, I replaced it with a younger, better-looking model. One thing I remember about that car is that because of the odd slope of the rear window, you couldn't see what was going on behind you. Sometimes, it's best to look behind you and realize you should have stayed where you were. Wherever that car is now, I don't think it's of much use to anybody. You couldn't even drive a hockey team around in it. It had its day, performed its useful service.