Oh Whattah Night!

Do you know the word "nemesis"? My kids do, thanks to a 7th grade basketball legend passed on by my husband (the protagonist) at our 2 hour dinner tonight. TOOOOONYYYYYYY MUUUURRRRRRPHYYYYY (must growl and scowl for proper pronunciation) menaced Josh's middle school basketball career with his evil antics. I'm not actually sure who came out on top of the rivalry [at the final showdown, Tony's (TOOOONNNNYYYYY's) team won....on his birthday, and Tony apparently put up pretty good numbers of his own] but Josiah and Olivia appropriately rally around their Dad and his Schwartzenegery "You're mine. I have not forgotten," Jedi speech during a key play in their much-lauded last matchup. We listed all the nemeses we could think of after Daddy's story (apparently Olivia has a nemesis in her kindergarten class....his name is EEEEEAAAAAASSSSSSTTTOOONNNN -- don't forget to squint and scowl.) --- Luke and Darth (or is it the emperor?), TMNTs and Shredder (or is it really Crang). We talked over the roots of the term in Greek mythology and then moved on to my stories of a cross country nemesis in high school. You know, cross country never drew the crowd that basketball did in my high school....or in any high school, I'd venture. And my kids' forced interest in my painfully dramatized story about KKKAAAARRAAA WIILLLLHEEELLLMMM only served to salt that wound. But we will likely be scowling about TOOOONNYY MUUURRPHHYY for years to come. And, although I'm confident that Tony has evolved into a kind man, probably a caring father and productive member of the workforce...I think we'll hang onto that 7th grade snapshot because it's pretty fun to have a family nemesis!