Is it something about getting older that you can’t bring yourself to hate anyone anymore? Is this the initial stages of some kind of benign senility?
Ronan Tynan used to bring out the inner demons in me. Just a light handful of years ago his big grinning face brought forth some kind of demonic hatred from the depths of my soul. Sightings on the television would lead to a spew of vitriolic acid the like normally reserved for ultra conservatives or Yankees players.
Ridiculous situation, no? Complete over reaction on the part of the Yankees, no? Well, now Tynan is pretty much on the run from his adopted city for a crime he simply did not commit.
Getting back to my initial fear, does this really happen as you get older, you find yourself unable to hate anyone? I mean, I really, really hated this guy. At first I just ranted to anyone close by as to how insufferable he was, eventually I started muting the TV when he took the mound to blare out ‘God save America’, same as ‘God save the Queen’ is always muted in my apartment. Now? I would be open to Tynan singing at a Red Sox game. I would be open to letting him know there is a feisty baseball scene in his homeland, Ireland. I would be open to having a pint with the guy and swapping baseball stories.
What is going on? I am finding it a little scary that my ability to 'dislike immensely', appears to be dissipating over time. Then again, I do hate whoever came up with this idea. So, I guess I still have the capacity to hate. Phew.
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Ronan Tynan used to bring out the inner demons in me. Just a light handful of years ago his big grinning face brought forth some kind of demonic hatred from the depths of my soul. Sightings on the television would lead to a spew of vitriolic acid the like normally reserved for ultra conservatives or Yankees players.
Now? I am interested in hearing his side of the story. I want to give him a chance. I want to find out if he is actually one of those interesting anti-hero types, like Batman, or Jason Bourne.
Will we back it up a second? Maybe you don’t know you Ronan Tynan is. He is an Irish tenor, who used to sing at Yankee games, until a simple joke he made was taken up the wrong way, and he has now been basically hounded out of New York, taking refuge in Ye Olde Towne, Boston.
The whole incident is completely over blown and a great example of how the mob mentality so often gets it wildly wrong. Here is what happened, as described by Kevin Cullen in the Boston Globe;
This is what happened in the apartment building on East 54th
Street in October: A realtor was showing the apartment next to Tynan’s and asked if Tynan would say hello to some prospective buyers. The realtor told Tynan the prospective buyers were “a couple of nice Jewish ladies.’’ Tynan warned the ladies he often sang in his apartment. “How’d you like living next to a loud tenor like me?’’ Tynan asked them, jokingly.
Turned out they wouldn’t, and they didn’t buy the apartment. A short time later, another person was looking at the apartment and Tynan was putting the key in his door when a different realtor came out from next door and said they had another prospective buyer.
“Don’t worry,’’ the realtor said, “they’re not Red Sox fans.’’
“As long as they’re not those Jewish ladies,’’ Tynan replied.
The woman looking at the apartment, Dr. Gabrielle Gold-von Simson, stepped into the hallway and asked Tynan to explain himself. Whatever he said, she didn’t buy it.
Gold-von Simson, who is Jewish, called the Yankees and asked how they could let an
anti-Semite sing “God Bless America.’’
The Yankees took her version of events and couldn’t be bothered to get Tynan’s. The team has declined to discuss the issue publicly, saying it’s an internal matter.
Ridiculous situation, no? Complete over reaction on the part of the Yankees, no? Well, now Tynan is pretty much on the run from his adopted city for a crime he simply did not commit.
Getting back to my initial fear, does this really happen as you get older, you find yourself unable to hate anyone? I mean, I really, really hated this guy. At first I just ranted to anyone close by as to how insufferable he was, eventually I started muting the TV when he took the mound to blare out ‘God save America’, same as ‘God save the Queen’ is always muted in my apartment. Now? I would be open to Tynan singing at a Red Sox game. I would be open to letting him know there is a feisty baseball scene in his homeland, Ireland. I would be open to having a pint with the guy and swapping baseball stories.
What is going on? I am finding it a little scary that my ability to 'dislike immensely', appears to be dissipating over time. Then again, I do hate whoever came up with this idea. So, I guess I still have the capacity to hate. Phew.
.
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