What so proudly we watched???

[referee]

How pitiful. Really, is NFL seeding those gaffes on purpose? Bring me to sing the National Anthem in Superbowl XLVI, please. I'm not a celebrity, I'm not eye candy, My voice is deep (but not Barry White deep, so kinda ugly), my musical training is like nonexistant, and I'm not from the States and will sound accented.

But at least I know the lyrics.
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Jan 21st, 2008: The pillaging continues.
Mar 4th, 2008: Rest in Peace, Gary Gygax. May your dice always roll a natural 20 wherever you are.

Be the Ultimate Ninja! Play Billy Vs. SNAKEMAN today!

[Poisonium]

Yankee Doodle is the solution we need.
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I tried apt-get install lifebut it only returned E: Couldn't find package life

[Pablo]

What I find a bit odd is the fact that we sing the NATIONAL anthem at sporting events in the first place, and are expected to show "allegiance" to the flag and any other symbol of the country by standing, removing hats, and placing hands over hearts. What? It's a f*cking football game! Why the nationalistic propaganda? Why the military involvement? Soldiers marching around while fighter jets fly over.... WTF?

Bring back Roseanne Barr.
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All religions are the same - Guilt....just with different holidays.

[Chaz]

On a side note... seeing Rosanne get knocked on her ass in that Snickers commercial was pretty awesome.
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The enemy's base is down.

[LordKinbote]

My wife: Christina Aguilera really flubbed the lyrics to the National Anthem! And then, when she sang "And the rocket's red flare..."
Me: Umm, it's "and the rocket's red glare". You're gonna damage that glass house of yours with all the stone throwing.

My point being...it's extremely easy to judge someone else when we're not the ones singing in front of 150 million people. I bet if you took a poll, a large number of Americans don't know all the lyrics to the Star Spangled Banner when they're *not* under pressure to repeat them.

[Chaz]

We're also not professional singers who are expected to know that sort of thing. I bet (even under extreme Super Bowl level pressure) Aaron Rodge is still able to pass the ball. I don't think it's inappropriate for us to expect a professional to be able to do something even an amateur would (under normal circumstances) have little difficulty achieving.

I could declare a variable in my sleep.
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The enemy's base is down.

[raekuul]

As could I, but Kinbote's got a point, not many people know the correct words to the first verse of Star Spangled Banner, and it's extremely rare to find someone that can sing all the verses without flubbing while doing it for a crowd. All that says to me is that if you know you're gonna be singing the National Anthem, you'd better be practicing your lungs out.

As for the song itself... I know it's tradition, but why the censor did we pick such a censoring hard song to sing for our anthem?

[The Ragin' South Asian]

Being a professional whatever doesn't mean you do that thing perfectly all the time. And I'm sure that Christina Aguilera knows the lyrics. People draw blanks on things they know all the time - that's why there's an expression for it. In that circumstance, she reacted as well as she could - she put in something that fit the rhythm and moved on. Yes, not making mistakes is a part of professionalism, but recognizing that a some point at mistake will be made and reacting appropriately is a much bigger part.

[Thok*]

[Chaz]

[raekuul]

Really? I thought the difference between being an amateur and being a professional was a paycheck.

[LordKinbote]

[Death Mage]

The answer is simple.

We start singing it in school, before our first class, every day, so that for the next generation EVERYBODY practices it and knows the lyrics by heart.
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* These senseless ramblings brought to you by Insanity™. If you just can't figure the dang thing out, it must be Insanity™.
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[Chaz]

That's the point though.

I don't make millions of dollars to sing in front of millions of people.

I don't make millions of dollars to program for millions of people.

You can make damn sure that I wouldn't make any mistakes if I did (or I wouldn't be making millions of dollars for very long.)

If we're going to pay her crazy money to sing, then she better sing crazy perfect.
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The enemy's base is down.

[Jedo the Jedi]

The problem was she was so caught up putting her own (terrible) flare on the song that she forgot to think about the next line.
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Paragon Tally: 18 mafia, 3 SKs (1 twice), 1 cultist, numerous chat scum...and counting.

[LordKinbote]

[LordKinbote]

[Thok*]

[Chaz]

[Zag]

Just as there are software engineers who are paid extra to NOT make mistakes,* so is the singer at the most-watched sporting event of the year. She should have rehearsed until she couldn't make a mistake.

I'm speaking here of the people writing life-or-death stuff: Airplane control, medical equipment, etc. It isn't necessarily that they are paid so much for their time, but that they are given 40 times the amount of time to complete something than someone writing game software of equivalent complexity. (BTW, that 40 is probably low.) They are essentially paid 40 times as much per line of code. This is as it should be, and planes don't crash due to software problems.

Similarly, I'm sure that she was paid enough to compensate her for the 80+ hours of rehearsal it would have taken to be able to sing it correctly no matter what the conditions. And I'll bet she didn't do it -- umm, obviously.

[MatthewV]

The song is usually lip-synced instead of actually sung at the super bowl. She had to make extra effort to actually be singing live.

[L'lanmal]

I think a large percentage of Americans do not even know there are four verses.

Would it change anyone's opinion if she had sung and flubbed on the second verse? The common knowledge argument would fail, but professionalism would still count.

P.S. My favorite verse of America the Beautiful is the second.

[LordKinbote]

[Quailman]

[Zag]

[Samadhi]

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And he lived happily ever after. Except for the dieing at the end and the heartbreak in between.

[Ctorj]

....

What a great game, huh?

.....

[Thok]

[Samadhi]

That's what she said.
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And he lived happily ever after. Except for the dieing at the end and the heartbreak in between.

[Ctorj]