Thursday, April 4, 2013

"A Tie Is Like Kissing Your Sister"

"A tie is like kissing your sister." - Eddie Erdelatz, Head Football Coach, U.S. Naval Academy, 1953.   This same coach also coined the expression, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going."

Anyway, this statement has been variously attributed to Bear Bryant, Duffy Daughtery, Woody Hayes, Darryl Royal, and other old timey football coaches from olden days when they still wore leather helmets.  Nowadays, football, basketball, and baseball are all played until someone wins.  However, it has been most definitely attributed to Erdelatz.

As a sister to two brothers, I'm somewhat confused about this concept.  Is sister-kissing a common practice among football players?  What about those who don't have sisters?  Should they be content to kiss their cousins?

[Here is a little example of possible superiority of French: it distinguishes cousin (M) from cousine (F), just like it distinguishes "copain" (male pal) from "copine" (female pal).]

There's a further permutation of the "sister-kissing simile" -- "If a tie is like kissing your sister, then losing is like kissing your brother." -- Lou Holtz

And, to the point, has this concept ever been tested experimentally?

I can imagine a hypothetical experiment, in which participants each kiss two persons: one of their sisters, and an approximately age-similar unrelated female.  After each osculation, they are to rate it as to its hedonic value (how pleasurable it is).  In the interests of good experimental design, half of the participants should kiss their sisters first; the other half kiss the unrelated female first.  This would tease out any possible order effect as a confounding factor.

But let's look at this from the feminine perspective, shall we?  With Title IX, numerous girls participate in sports, including soccer.  A feature of soccer is that matches sometimes do end in a tie.  Even a scoreless tie, to the acute disappointment to the score-addicted Americans.  Has any girl ever described that possible outcome as: "A tie is like kissing your brother?"  I think it is very apropos.

Hopefully, any brotherly kiss will be with little or no passion or body contact, like air-kissing is done in the uptown set.





8 comments:

Françoise said...

Hmmm.....

Un match où le score est le même est comme embrasser ta soeur

A new concept, sounds a little kinkee.

MarkD60 said...

The first thing I thought when I read the title was a necktie.
Then I started to get dizzy. Who thinks of this stuff?

TexWisGirl said...

i'll forego any experiments that involve kissing siblings, thanks.

Mike said...

Watching a soccer game is like watching football practice. Nothing much exciting happens and there is no score to worry about.

Duckbutt said...

I'll pass on sister-kissing and cousin-kissing too. Still, there's something to be said about a tie when you come back from behind by quite a score. A tie under those circumstances can galvinize a team.

Elvis Wearing a Bra on His Head said...

Duckbutt is right. Ties get a bad press.

Bilbo said...

You get ten bonus points just for using the word "osculation" in a sentence!

The Mistress of the Dark said...

I have to admit..I thought of the necktie too