The Major League Soccer All-Star Game is going to be held in Portland, Oregon* this year, and they've just released images of the jerseys the players will be wearing. Portland, OR being Zany Quirky Portland, OR (TM) (c), they stuck a bird on the inside of the shirt, a reference to the Put a Bird On It skit from the tv show Portlandia.
That's all well and good and Portlandians can check the "delightful irreverence" box that's probably required for anything officially done in Portlandia. But something sticks in my craw. The MLS release about the jerseys says that the bird on the jersey is a western meadowlark, the state bird of Oregon. Let's take a closer look.
You've got to be shitting me. That's not a meadowlark. It's blatantly not a meadowlark.
Why even bother? Does it cost more to print the silhouette of a meadowlark instead of that sparrow-type thing? If you want it to be a meadowlark, make it a meadowlark! If you don't care, then don't say it's a meadowlark! Lord. The stupidity of state birds is something I've discussed at length, but apparently my rantings have not changed anything. Screw you, Portland, Oregon, and go Sounders.
*In 1845, two dudes with two very-1845 names, Asa Lovejoy and Francis Pettygrove, wanted to name their new settlement on the Pacific coast after their respective hometowns. Lovejoy was from Boston, Massachusetts and Pettygrove was from Portland, Maine, also the beloved hometown of yours truly. They decided that the only way to fairly choose a name was a best-of-three coin flipping contest. Francis, using those strong Maine thumbs, flipped a winner, and proudly proclaimed this new site Portland, of the Oregon Territory! Fast forward to today, and everyone's all "Oh, I am going on vacation to Portland" or "Today, the weather in Portland is..." without clarifying that they're talking about the also-ran city in Oregon and not the original American city in Maine. It's bullshit and I hate it.
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