by on

I know people who fear and condemn “socialism” in government and claim to be all for individual liberty and laissez-faire, yet who, in their role as sport enthusiasts, have no problem being infuriated at a “selfish” athlete who refuses to subordinate his own success to that of the team. Is that not socialism as well?

Most people who follow American football, for example, will tell you that a team full of “humble guys” who work well together can beat a team full of showboating superstars. Or at the very least, they will pull for that team to do so, even if their chance of success is low.

Is this a contradiction, or merely a legitimate difference between two completely different social activities? I have no clue.

by on

I’ve been re-reading one of my favorite books, George Plimpton‘s Paper Lion. It catalogs his amateur attempt, as a 36 year-old journalist, to play professional football. (I won’t tell you how that turns out, though you can find out if you read the Wikipedia page.)

Now, this may not sound like that interesting of a subject to you if you aren’t a sports fan, and I admit that my enjoyment of it is to some extent personal. I was never very good at sports, and the book captures very well the feeling of trying to play an athletic game that you really aren’t suited to very well against many people who are very good at it indeed. So, if you were good at sports, it might not be as funny to read.

But what really makes the book enjoyable for me is this: Plimpton had a remarkable gift for writing memorable endings to chapters that I don’t know if I’ve ever seen matched by any other writer. I can easily remember the closing sentence of most of the book’s chapters, and they’re all quite witty and often even insightful. (I won’t give examples; wouldn’t want to spoil it.)

And also, it’s good to read in this relatively bare time of year for sports.

by on

I know a lot of people complain about it, calling it things like “irrelevant” and “boring”, but I happen to enjoy watching it. Sure, some say it’s a waste of time. Well, no more so than watching any other sporting event.

Anyway, I’ll probably watch a bit of it today, if for no other reason than as an act of defiance to the fans who are always complaining about its very existence.

by on

Sometimes I feel like I don’t use this blog as intelligently as I could. I spent all last week informing everyone I know that New York would beat New England on Sunday. No one believed me, but I was, of course, vindicated.

But, as you can see, I did not post anything about it on here. So, there is, alas, no historical record of my powers of prediction for me to point to in future.

by on

Yesterday, in response to the postponement of a football game, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell said:

“I think we’ve become wussies. … We’ve become a nation of wusses. The Chinese are kicking our butt in everything. If this was in China do you think the Chinese would have called off the game? People would have been marching down to the stadium, they would have walked and they would have been doing calculus on the way down.”

Hmm. It’s pretty obvious he’s trying to score some political points here, although it’s hard to imagine why, seeing as how the elections were last month. Also: “you people suck, you should be more like ____” anything is bound to be a vote-loser.

Meanwhile, pundit Tucker Carlson says:

“I believe fervently in second chances… But Michael Vick killed dogs, and he did in a heartless and cruel way. And I think, personally, he should’ve been executed for that. He wasn’t, but the idea that the President of the United States would be getting behind someone who murdered dogs? Kind of beyond the pale.”

The first thought which sprang to my mind on hearing these stories was that I’d like to see Carlson and Rendell have a debate about the Chinese human and animal rights records. That could be interesting.

More seriously, though; it’s interesting to me that these two are actually trying to argue for semi-reasonable points: that they ought to have played the game on Sunday, and that people are too forgiving of Vick. And yet, they make these points in such an obnoxious and hyperbolic fashion that there’s really nothing to do but ridicule them for it.

by on

You know how athletes frequently thank God after good performances? Well, here’s the first instance I’ve ever heard of where an athlete seemingly got mad at God after a bad performance:

“Buffalo Bills wide receiver Stevie Johnson dropped a game-winning touchdown in the end zone Sunday in overtime against the Pittsburgh Steelers… After the game, Johnson’s twitter account filed this faithy [sic] tweet:

‘I PRAISE YOU 24/7!!!!!! AND THIS HOW YOU DO ME!!!!! YOU EXPECT ME TO LEARN FROM THIS??? HOW???!!! ILL NEVER FORGET THIS!! EVER!!! THX THO…'”

I always wondered when this would happen. Frankly, I’m surprised it took so long. Although, while most people assume the tweet is supposed to be directed at God, I am not so sure that that’s what the guy meant. It’s vague enough it could mean something else.

(Then again, almost everything on Twitter seems to me to be incomprehensible. I hate Twitter. Twitter = Newspeak, as far as I’m concerned. But that’s another post.)

by on

There are some artworks, pieces of literature and forms of entertainment that lend themselves to being enjoyed in particular seasons, weather conditions, or times of day. For example, the book The King in Yellow that I posted about the other day is, in my opinion, best read on a sunny, pleasant, late summer day. This is sort of unusual for a work of weird fiction, but the horror of the book is primarily psychological, and is sometimes offset by a a peaceful, pleasant setting.

Sometimes the natural environment most complementary to a story is obvious; Lovecraft’s The Haunter of the Dark must be read in a lightning storm because a lightning storm is central to the story. Others are less obvious; the movie Lawrence of Arabia is more fun to watch at night than on a hot summer day–though perhaps overheating is the reason.

As I’ve already pointed out on this blog, I find the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta The Sorcerer lends itself to being listened to on warm, gray days. (And Ruddigore, obviously, is a natural for Halloween.)

Then there are some things that lend themselves to various seasons. In my opinion, you haven’t read Harry Potter till you’ve read it while sitting outside on a cool October evening. And I’ve found that some video games–like both Mass Effects–are most fun to play on dark winter nights. (Though, of course, that could be because they require a big time investment, and there few distractions in winter.)

One of things that was great about the sport of football was how it used to be played on either a beautiful fall afternoon, a dreary November evening, or a cold, snowy day (or night). These are all memorable, dramatic settings; and much more enjoyable to watch, I think, than the sterile setting of a dome which we see more and more of.

On the other hand, of course, these are just my personal preferences and may not be shared by anyone else. I have no particular point in this post other than to set you thinking if there’s any particular work of art, piece of entertainment or sport that is best under certain natural conditions. It’s quite a fun thing to experiment with, in my opinion. But I’m weird that way.

by on

Allegedly, US senate candidate Sharron Angle once opposed a high school football team wearing black jerseys because black is an “evil color”.

I want to stress that I’m not sure that this story is true; it sounds like it could be made up. The main reason I bring it up is just to say that if some people really do think black is such an evil color, you’d think someone would have told these guys.