Winter Heat

The Weekly Journal



Mild temperatures keeps this woodpile unused.





January 7, 2007

It's been so warm in Yaroslavi, a city about 150 miles northeast of Moscow, that Masha the bear, a resident of the city zoo, woke up last month from his hibernation after only a week.

And here in Westport, CT, I sit on my deck with bandana and shades, writing the weekly essay in mid-January. The low hanging grey-and-white clouds march eastward overhead. The sharp-angled sun breaks through and warms my face. It grows dark again, as if the curtains have been drawn. The wind kicks up. It feels like rain, and then those curtians open up and it's blue sky for as far as I can see. I swear it feels like summer.

The two cats are on the Jacuzzi cover, sunbathing too. I don’t know if this is global warming, but it hasn't been this mild in these parts, at this time of year, maybe ever.

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I’m playing in the open mic finals at the Towne Crier, a hip club about an hour from here. Top folkies often play there. Christine Lavin, Chris Smithers, and Leon Redbone are scheduled in the next month. I’m pumped, but it’s at the same time my beloved Eagles are playing the dreaded Giants in the first round of the playoffs. By the time you read this, the game will be over, and my gig will be done; but as I sit here in the hot sun on my deck, I’m hoping that I can get through the show without hearing the score. I’ll have the game taped and I'll watch it when I get home.

Chuck Morgan, the protagonist in my new novel, My Year as a Clown, is also a die-hard Eagle fan. I chronicle the 2003 Eagle season as Chuck tries to find his footing after his wife leaves for another man. The football narrative is about loyalty and commitment.

Claudia disliked sports and never understood why I stuck with the Eagles. “I don’t know anything about your American football," she’d say, "but I know they will lose."

She was right, but I stayed faithful.

"Why don't you support another team?" she had said when we lived in San Francisco while Joe Montana was tearing the league apart.

I tried to explain that it wasn't that easy.

"Just move on," she had said.


This has been one of the more unlikely Eagle seasons. After last year’s disaster where they failed to make the play-offs for the first time in five years, they got off to a tremendous start. Then they nosedived, losing five of six, with McNabb going down with a season-ending injury in week nine. At 5-6, it could look no worse, but somehow they turned it around, winning their last five games. They won the division, taking three on the road – Washington, New York, Dallas – and now they host the Giants in the playoffs.

No matter what happens Sunday night, the Eagles were entertaining this year, but I’d be lying if I said it I'd be okay with a loss to the Giants. The Eagles have hit their stride and are the hottest team in the league. It's this sort of unpredictable year that results in a trip to the Super Bowl.

Why not?

As a Philly fan, I know not to get too carried away. We haven't won a major championship since 1983. The Eagles last won it all in 1960...

But here I am again, thinking this will be our year...