S A T U R D A Y Night
- Michael Tringali
- Dec 21
- 3 min read
For years, on big Saturday nights, about two drinks in, I have turned to a friend, and gone "S A T U R D A Y Night!" I think one friend of the hundreds I've done it for knew I was talking and quoting a Bay City Rollers song from 1976.
On this Saturday night, December 20th, I went airplane mode at 7pm. I texted two friends at 6:52:
"Going airplane mode tonight to enjoy without being bothered by packer or general texts"
"Meet section 111 at half"
"Barfly meet up at half"
"Great barfly meet up last night"
"I will be outside section 111 the entire time at a reasonable vendor ish location."
Friend 1: "What section number will you be at? You're being a little vague"
Me again: "Section 111"
"1"
"1"
"1"
Airplane mode activated.
The walk to the Garden was marvelous, with Alex criticizing my slow pace and me going on a rant about the East Coast type A rushed mentality that I do not have. We arrived at the Garden, the exterior of which is no longer under construction and looked beautiful for Duke Texas Tech.
We got there early and Alex split for chicken tendies and fries and I got the all you can eat platter from Mighty Quinn's. It wasn't the all you can eat, but I basically said give me everything "but two cole slaws instead of cornbread." They got back to me minutes later that "we are unable to do extra cole slaw." What am I supposed to do?
We were somewhat in the Texas Tech section but it was a Duke dominated crowd so we'll call it even. The game was absolutely weird wild. Like buckwild but weirdwild. I was booing during every review (and during the bad pictures of the "selfie AI winterwonderland compilation"). The technical on Sarr was the worst T I have ever seen in my life. The crowd came to life because of how bad it was. De-Fence chats started in the first half which I have never seen for a Duke garden crowd.
The half-time meet up at section 111 was an 11/10. Friend 1 showed up with 4 others, and my old roomate Doag popped by for a stop and chat with me and Alex (and friend 1).
If you can't tell by my description of this, I was absolutely flying in airplane mode. Flying. Emotional. Intense. Didactic. Engaged. All the above and more. I loved every minute of it. The half-time and most of the game.
Duke actually lost 82-81 in a weird but then great atmosphere at the Garden. A woman from Tech told two rambonxious Tech dudes to sit down and be quiet two minutes in. A duke fan told another Duke fan to "not yell" in his face. As my wife said "weird energy in here." I won't use the weird word again but only to say that is the state of the fucking union right now.
Alex and I absolutely booked it out of there. Sprinting and getting a little dizzy down the steps, because who wants to use a non-running escalator shoulder to shoulder. We exited in two minutes from section 108. We criss-crossed through city streets and eventually hopped in a cab at 31st and 5th. I couldn't connect to "Curb" - the ride cab payment pairing system, because I was in airplane mode, but who gives a flying fuck? I inserted my credit card into the terminal as Alex called me a "boomer." She tailed off and didn't want to say it but when she did I said "boomers lived an amazing life." I took it as a compliment.
They were listening to the Bay City Rollers. S A T U R D A Y Night. The best. Just the best.
I am going to sell this Kobe card I have from middle school for 2 million dollars so I can live the rest of my life in airplane mode. That's what they say - live your best life right? Well, that's how you live it. Engaged in every second with every person. People are our best friends, just remember that.
Miles just yelled out a loud cry in the third paragraph of me writing this and I need to get him up in five hours to fly cross country to LA tomorrow. I cannot wait. I'm gonna bother every single person on the flight with our son but he's the cutest thing ever and gonna say "hi" to everybody so he'll win people over immediately. No rules with a kid.
Needles to say, I'll be in airplane mode.
P.S. The Kobe card I have is the Strawberry Jam card, it's prolly a PSA 8 condition and worth $1,500. But man, one can dream.