Update: this is from last year, but holds true this year. Ignore the Shorty Awards bit…we won the most votes second year running. ~ ed.

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This is my weekly editor’s letter, an introduction to our Top 10 blogs of the week email newsletter—a great way to follow elephant without getting overwhelmed (as opposed to, say, twitter or Facebook, where we’re verrrrry active). ~ ed.

Why elephants love football.

I grew up playing, and loving, baseball and basketball.

I’d skipped a grade, which sounds nerdy (and is) and vaguely impressive but mostly just sucks—I was short and big boys picked on me and girls thought I was cute…in an uninteresting way, and teachers showed favor in seriously uncool ways and I was too slight to play varsity baseball but not allowed to play with those my own age.

Being a little guy, I didn’t focus on football. Being raised by a single mother who loved Winfield and Magic but regarded football as a brutish, inelegant gladiatorial event didn’t help.

But I watch the Super Bowl. I’m American, and American football is the epitome of a great part of this great nation. It’s corporate and sexist (even toward its own) and brutal—players don’t play long and die early—but it’s also full of the sort of stories and matchups of character and strategy that would incite a bard to tell of new epics.

We covered a bunch of Super Bowl stories last year, and the year before. You know: PETA’s sexy, rejected ad, or ways to host an eco-responsible house party. This year, thanks in good part to William Harryman, our interns Krystal and Joe, and a former NFL player, we’ve raised our coverage to a new level. Mostly. You can find all our coverage here.

So while I’ll watch The Game again, this year, I’ll miss out on the best part—the subtle and important things that you get when you follow a sport. But I’ll partake in the layman’s ritual of eating and drinking a bit much. I’ll do so at the HQ of a successful solar company, which happens to be called Namaste, and New Era, a non-profit that works to get young people involved in politics. I’m honored to serve on their board, and elephant has enjoyed working with their leader Steve Fenberg and his merry band on many events over the years. We’ll be live blogging and tweeting, (hashtag #elej as always).

Football may not be appreciated among feminist eco spiritual liberal types. But it should be. Because “our” America and “their” America are all just pieces to the puzzle of this one nation—a melting pot that, to this day, is big enough to tolerate dissent and diversity.

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Favor: The Shorty Awards announced they’re running through the 11th. We would have won, barely. Now we’ve got to hold on and widen our slim lead. Winning the Shorties—”Twitter’s Oscars”—will put us on the map in a way that our grassroots, independent enterprise can’t otherwise afford. Many, many of you have voted already, with my thanks. If you’re on twitter, and haven’t voted, please do so. Just copy, paste and tweet:

I nominate @elephantjournal 4 a Shorty Award in #green because…[then say WHY for it to count]

Yours in the Vision of Enlightened Society,