Monday, March 18, 2024
March Maddening
Sunday, March 17, 2024
Pluck of the Irish
Only fitting on this day that we celebrate Ireland rugby's hard-fought 17-13 win over a game Scotland squad in Dublin yesterday. The win on the final matchday of the 2024 Six Nations gave the Irish back to back titles. The hard-luck Scots dropped all the way to fourth in the table.
So if you have occasion today, and I suspect you do, tip one back in honor of the lads in green.
Thursday, March 14, 2024
Annoying Words, Redux
Nearly 15 years ago, in a very different age, Whitney took to these interwebz to decry the use of the trite in most conversation and how it signals a lack of creativity. At least that's how I took it.
Among other things, he took aim at "it is what it is". He had no way of knowing at the time that my father would fall back on that phrase to deflect well-meaning concern from folks worried about the progress of the cancer that would eventually take him. Fucking cancer.
I digress.And I write what follows with some trepidation, because "it is what it is" became meaningful enough to me that a graphic variant of the phrase is tattooed on my arm. Let's hope nobody here has cause to claim "thank you for all that you do".
I don't love the ubiquitous "thank you for your service" many people offer to our military and veterans, but it's a damn sight better than how we treated uniformed service members early in my life, and it at least acknowledges a specific sacrifice made.
"Thank you for all that you do", on the other hand, is the absolute bare minimum one human can offer another. It requires no creativity, no active thought about what the received actually, y'know, does. It's the gratitudinal equivalent to saying "you are here".
In first encountered the phrase in question in a corporate setting, when some anodyne executive thanked a team by using it. I knew from the moment he said it that he didn't really know what the team did or how they contributed. Or if he did know, didn't care enough to take the 30 seconds to think about it and offer a tiny little customized grace note.
Once I started hearing it, I became attuned to it. Politicians say it as pablum to feed constituents. Parents say it to teachers - guarantee Dave has heard it (or at least had it directed to him - not sure Dave listens much to other people).Look, I know that cliches exist for a reason - they're a shorthand that can be helpful in certain situations. And I'm prone to my own verbal and written crutches (this sentence offers one such exhibit - I start way too many sentences with "and"- this is the second one in this short post). Dammit, though, when I'm trying to tell someone I appreciate them, I try really hard to be sincere, and at least offer an inflection that conveys I mean what I'm saying.
It's possible I'm becoming (even more) curmudgeonly as I age, and that I protest too much about an innocuous platitude. I can only offer my own testimony here. You may not share my opinion. If that's the case, I hope you have a great day, and thank you for all that you do.
Wednesday, March 13, 2024
Best of Enemies
Last Sunday, Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool tied Pep Guardiola's Manchester City, 1-1, in a cracker of a Premier League match at Liverpool's Anfield Stadium. The two teams are separated by one point in the league table with 10 matches to play. To make things even more potentially epic, Arsenal is tied with Liverpool and technically atop the table on point differential.
In late January, Klopp announced his intent to leave Liverpool at the end of the season after 8 and a half years with the club. During that span, Klopp won a Premier League title, a Champions League trophy, the FIFA Club World Cup, the FA Cup, the League Cup and the UEFA Super Cup. He will go down as one of the most beloved managers in club history, as much for his Teutonic Care Bear personality and rollicking, fast-paced, pressing football as for his results.
@meninblazers JURGEN KLOPP GIVES THE BEST HUGS. "It's very important that you're empathic. That you try to understand the people around you and give real support to the people around you." #LFC #Liverpool #Klopp ♬ original sound - Men in Blazers
While Liverpool fans revere Klopp, one imagines that they wonder what might have been if Guardiola hadn't been at City at the same time (and the Emirati-owned club hadn't spent prolifically - and allegedly illegally - on amassing exceptional talent). Guardiola has been in Manchester since 2016, and won five Premier League crowns, two FA Cups, four League Cups, a Champions League title, a UEFA Super Cup and a FIFA Club World Cup.
If the results on the field in England were tilted towards Guardiola, the two managers are actually evenly matched across their careers. Over the course of their careers, the pair have met 29 times (Before England, Klopp coached Borussia Dortmund in Germany against Guardiola's Bayern Munich). Klopp's teams have won 12, Guardiola's 11, with six draws. No manager in world football has beaten Guardiola more times than Klopp.
There are rare occasions in sport and, really, in any endeavor, where rivals compete intensely while maintaining great personal respect and in doing both, elevate their profession. Klopp and Guardiola have undeniably changed English football from a smashmouth war of attrition to an attractive, pressing, intense competition.
And the two know it and respect the others' contribution to the game. Klopp recently said of Guardiola, "I knew 3,000 players who were better than me but I still loved the game. It never frustrated me, he made me a better manager. I know I am not bad but he is the best."
For his part, Guardiola admitted, "Personally he has been my biggest rival from when he was at Dortmund and I was at Bayern Munich. He will be missed, personally I will miss. I am pleased because without him I will sleep a little bit better the night before we play against Liverpool! But I wish him all the best."
The two exchanged words and a warm embrace after Sunday's classic. We won't likely see a better rivalry any time soon.
Monday, March 11, 2024
We're a Joey Votto Fan Site Now
🇨🇦 @JoeyVotto 🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/7bxFn5EaFK
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) March 9, 2024
Friday, March 08, 2024
Gheorghe Explains: We Need to Talk About North Carolina
Thursday, March 07, 2024
RIP Steve Lawrence
Steve Lawrence passed away today at age 88. For you young folks (including me), he was a singer and actor known to our elders and Vegas-goers of a generation or two ago. You could look him up.
But I'd rather post Mike Myers' rendition of the man, as seen in one of my favorite SNL sketches.
Enjoy.