Vagobond

Books and Writing that Matter. Travel fiction, philosophy, memoir, and experimental work from the road.

Where Did Heckling Come From?

And why don’t they do more of it at the World Cup?

Yankees pitcher Randy Johnson was razzed on his home turf on Tuesday night as the team fumbled toward an embarrassing 14-3 loss to the Red Sox. The Yankee Stadium crowd booed Johnson as he left the game in the fourth inning. Where does booing come from?
The first written record comes from ancient Greece. At the annual Festival of Dionysia in Athens, playwrights competed to determine whose tragedy was the best. When the democratic reformer Cleisthenes came to power in the sixth century B.C., audience participation came to be regarded as a civic duty. The audience applauded to show its approval and shouted and whistled to show displeasure.
In ancient Rome, jeering was common at the gladiatorial games, where audience participation often determined whether a competitor lived or died. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the Latin verb explodere means “to drive out by clapping, hiss (a player) off the stage.”
http://www.slate.com/id/2141597/


I called most of this chaos years ago. America is still unraveling — and the next chapters are already written.

If you want to understand what’s really coming (and why), read Not My America: A Stranger in a Strange Land. Available on Amazon.

CD Damitio writes INDIGNIFIED — utopias and dystopias explored. Free to read.

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