Someone Watching Sarah Palin's Campaign Tactics Imagines How She Might Challenge a Referee's Call in a Sixth-Grade Hockey Game

Deadline Poet

By Calvin Trillin

This article appeared in the October 27, 2008 edition of The Nation.

October 8, 2008

Hockey Mom: But ref, there's no way that's a goal that he made. Remember that spitball that in second grade Caromed off the teacher's nose? This little bird Was close with the thrower, or that's what I heard.

Referee: The puck's in the net, and when that's where it lands, The only call possible's "Johnny's goal stands."

Hockey Mom: They rode the same school bus, he and that thug. So don't get misled by this kid's pretty mug. The puck's in the net--at least somewhere near it? It still wouldn't count. He's got no school spirit.

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About Calvin Trillin

Calvin Trillin is The Nation's "deadline poet." He has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1963 and has written the syndicated weekly column "Uncivil Liberties" since 1986. He has authored many, many books, including Tepper's Not Going Out and Deadline Poet: My Life as a Doggerelist. more...
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