There's the scene in Annie Hall where Alvy and Annie sit on a bench for probably hours, watching people, making fun of their appearance and concocting embarrassing fantasy lives for passersby in a completely insecure, adolescent way, and falling for harder for one another all the while. It passes quietly, quickly, without seeming to advance the plot or even prove all that funny, but in retrospect, at the end of the film, proves to be the most perfect grace note in an otherwise turbulent, doomed affair. It is the kind of moment in this relationship, as in too many others, that arrives, indeed, in such small portions.
The scene is at once a little vicious yet ultimately very sweet, and SMQ offers it a lesson in hope this Valentine's Day for the little spat between the SEC and Big Ten. One worries they never see each other any more except for bowl games (and what, Vanderbilt? Is that what it's come to, seriously, you're counting Vanderbilt?). The other frets that a jealous drive to success at all costs threatens to tear at the core of values both have always claimed to hold sacred. Remember, SEC and Big Ten, that rocky times pass, and until then: there's always a nice bench available for ragging on those pass-happy hippies in the Pac Ten.
Tennessee really did run over Berkeley, didn't they?
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Happy Valentine's Day, you crazy kids.
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