One explanation for Ben's counter-cyclicality...

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I grew up, as they said "in the shadow" of Yankee Staium and Polo Grounds, home of the then- NYGiants.

Yet, I was intensely loyal to the then-Brooklyn Dodgers (i.e "'Dem Bums'")

Most all of my friends were pro-Yankee: The plutocratic, smug team, and among the last to desegregate.

A few were loyal to the Giants.

Maybe one other pal was a Dodger fan (i.e the derivation comes from fanatic).

I got a lot of grief. And in an era of "two for for flinching," got bruised, too.

But I learned lessons:

I loved it when the big guys (the pin-striped Yankees) lost. Occasionally they did/do.

I learned that I could stick up for what I felt, and survive.

I learned about dissapoinments: When the Dodgers moved the L.A.

I learned about re-birth: The arrival of The Mets.

It happened later when rrrrrotten Bob Short hi-jacked the WashSenators to Texas.

Re-birth too: The arrival of the Washington Nationals.

There is a certain cyclicality to life.

As Yogi Berra said "It's deja vu, all over again."

Soit. (French for "So be it." I think.)

Ben