Friday, January 08, 2010

Bla[elb]e Canada

My mom told me about this little piece about the Expos. They mention a Newhart line about the logo: "is it an M or are they trying to spell out Expos?" I can relate to that. But only half of it. As a kid, I saw the logo as "elb." I can say in all seriousness that I never even thought of the possibility that it was an M. When I see "elb," I don't think, Hmm, is that an M? When I got older (and I mean much older) and found out it was an M, of course it made sense, what with their city starting with M. But that just wasn't an option to me, my brain first telling me it's clearly an "elb" and then working from there: "is elb short for elbos, which is Canadian for Expos?" "Is their owner named "Edward Lars Burleson?" "Is it just a fancy design that happens to look like three letters of the alphabet?" Maybe had it been shaped like a print M instead of a script M, kids under 7 would have picked up on it right away. But it wasn't. And that left me with a lot of theories. None of which involved M's.

Elbos, we salute you.

Comments:
I was told once that in addition to the "M" standing for Montreal, the "e.l.b." stood for something like "expos baseball club" in French. I have no idea if that was true or not. I don't know nearly enough French to confirm.
 
Oh yeah, like Expos le (baseball) or something. Sounds right too... I guess.
 
ha! i had the same 'elb' experience as a kid; no 'M' in sight.

by contrast to that incomprehensible logo, the brewers of that era were able to transform their 'M' and 'B' into a glove with a ball in the pocket!

the elbs weren't in the same ballpark as those guys.
 
Yeah, Brewers=one of the best ever. Pat and I used to refer to a ball caught in the center of the glove a "Brewers catch." Man, those hurt. But getting to think of that Brewers logo was the cure for the line drive that ailed us.
 
ah, you're right- the ball was in the palm, not the pocket. my mistake. i guess that explains why i didn't have a clever name for a poorly caught ball, only the pain.
 
Ha! I didn't even realize you said pocket--wasn't wasn't trying to one-up you on Brewers logoosophy.

I mean, it's supposed to be in the pocket, but I doubt the graphic designer on that job ever really played baseball....and/or he/she realized if the ball was any higher the b would look like....well it would end up in the Expos' mystery logo category.
 
I used to call them elbos, too. It's like one of those Escher drawings that can look either convex or concave - even after I figured out it was an M, I had to stare at it awhile before I could see it as anything other than "elbo".
 
Wow. I never noticed the M-B n the old Brewers logo before. Of course, it took me forever to realize the Yankees logo was an N-Y. I guess I'm just bad at that sort of thing.
 

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