Got this great e-mail just now from Texas reader Leif Olson:
Went to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo last night to watch Alabama (I think the wife went to watch the cowboys, but I can’t be sure). The two loudest cheers of the night:
1) After the rodeo finals and before the concert, they have a parade of sponsors, luminaries, and Rodeo bigshots. President George H.W. Bush, whom no one in the audience knew would be there, got a standing ovation from the whole crowd as he entered. The applause and wild cheering revolved around the stadium as the horse-drawn wagon he was riding in rode around the perimiter of the Reliant Stadium field.
2) After singing God Bless America, Alabama proclaimed they were proud to be in Texas, the home of President George W. Bush. Yowza. I’d been fine, volume-wise, all night, but I had to put the ear-plugs in after that.
The loudest boos? Between the parade and Alabama, the big monitors hanging over the stadium showed an ad for “Country Weekly” magazine. The ad consisted of old covers of the magazine running across the screen.
When an old Dixie Chicks shot came on the monitor, I thought the jeering was going to take the roof off. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard 60,000 people boo at once, but it’s quite striking.