Sometimes I just don't know what the hell people are talking about. Occasionally, little phrases get stuck into the collective conscious, and it's as if people repeat them without thinking about what they're actually saying. I've thought of a few lately:

1. The 2007 championship: "this one's for us." I heard Tom Werner say this on the night we won, and I thought, Oh no, I think I'm gonna be hearing this one a lot. Was the '04 championship not for us? And is the '07 one not allowed to be celebrated by our very old family members, whether they be in the ethereal plain or just an ethereal armchair? They're still Red Sox fans after the drought, and we younger folks were fans before it. I say both championships are for all of us. (And, yes, I know exactly what they mean when they say this, I just don't agree with it.)

2. "Now that the 'idiots' are gone, the Red Sox are more business-like." Absolutely wrong. Manny, Papi, Papelbon, the musical bullpen...we're still one of the most fun teams in baseball.

3. "The '07 Red Sox stayed away from the media after they won, unlike the '04 team." Wrong again. There were just as many talk show appearances, hospital visits, White House trips, rumors, and as much overall interest in the team this off-season as there was in the '04 off-season. I thought it was funny how the team supposedly decided to have the Rolling Rally right away "because they had a long season and just wanted to go home," as Remy and others surmised. Once I heard that, I kept track of what players did right after. They didn't go home. Here's an admittedly rudimentary list I kept over the few weeks following the parade (sorry, it was in reverse, or blog-style, order):

Cora: Celts game, Wednesday, 11/14
Youkilis: Public shaving (that's public, with an L), Monday, 11/12
Francona: Celts game, Friday, 11/9
Lugo: Thing in Cambridge for flood victims, Friday, 11/9
Snyder: Some event Cyn went to, Sunday, 11/4
Timlin: Yawkey Way Store, Saturday, 11/3
Ramirez: Tonight Show, Friday, 11/2
Ortiz: Late Night, Regis, Friday, 11/2
Papelbon: Late Show, QVC, Wed, 10/31
Varitek: Sitting at Boston-area home giving out candy, Wednesday, 10/31
Mirabelli: QVC, Wednesday, 10/31

I also had jotted down a quote I heard in November: "Okajima expects to return to Japan in the middle of this month." So that would've given him about three weeks in this country after the parade. And then you've got all the other appearances that I left out. Plus the DVD release which a few players and coaches went to. I'm not saying any of this is bad or anything, I'm just saying, this wasn't, "Let's get the parade over with quickly so we can all hibernate and not be heard from until March." At all.