FIVE YEARS AGO: May 24, 1994

Stunned at the Rangers' arrival at this point, a game away from elimination, I sit around playing Beatles records all day while my Mom and Dad are at work and my brother is at school. One in particular, "Let It Be," seems to hold a little resonance -- "There will be an answer, let it be." "And when the night is cloudy, there is still a light that shines on me/Shine on till tomorrow, let it be." I numbly rock in time. It's a little comforting at the darkest hour of the season, a weird little combination of hope and acceptance in the darkness, though Paul certainly wasn't thinking about a hockey game 25 years earlier. I reach this weird state of acceptance, this odd rationalization -- they've gotten deeper into the playoffs than they have in eight years, they've played well, they've come close, maybe there's next year.

I then get annoyed at myself, and remind myself there are two games to be played, dammit.

I obviously don't realize it at the time, wouldn't hear about it until that night, but sometime during that Beatles marathon, the captain of the New York Rangers says something about how the series will go back to the Garden for Game 7. The New York Post would turn it into a back-page guarantee on Wednesday, May 25, 1994: "We'll Win Tonight."

Meanwhile on May 24, the Canucks' Greg Adams scores 14 seconds into double overtime, giving Vancouver a 4-3 win and a 4-1 series win over Toronto. It's the Canucks' first trip to the finals since 1982. They await the Rangers-Devils winner.

On a completely different note -- timing is everything, the cliche goes, and sure enough, one week ago, Alan W. Pollack's fabulous "notes on" Beatles songs series hit the title track from the Beatles' last regularly-released album. If interested, get yourself to rec.music.beatles.moderated; with luck, "Notes on 'Let It Be' (LIB)" should still be there. If not, use

http://bobcat.bbn.com/bobcatftp/pub/beatles/noteson/lib

for a direct link through the web. The entire series is indexed at

http://bobcat.bbn.com/bobcatftp/pub/beatles/noteson.

Song titles are listed by initials with some exceptions. It's outstanding stuff.

And now back to your regularly scheduled hockey talk.

Mike (The movie version also says "there will be no sorrow," and that one in retrospect was the one that turned out right) Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com

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