#591 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Thursday February 23)
Good morning,
ROM-COMS AND LEGAL MOVIES
A couple of weeks ago I shared my favorites in Andrea’s favorite two genres. Howard Kroll suggests I missed a few classics:
“I think you missed a number of “for old time’s sake” rom-coms, like Bringing Up Baby, Sabrina, Born Yesterday, Some Like It Hot, The Philadelphia Story, The Lady Eve and The More The Merrier.
Also you missed some classic legal movies, like Witness For The Prosecution, Anatomy Of A Murder, Inherit The Wind and Legally Blond.”
CALLING OUT PEOPLE
A while back, I indicated that we have descended into a “gotcha” culture, whereby each and every foot-fault in each and every conversation is called out, ostensibly to “educate” the group. Often, however, it simply humiliates the speaker. Bradley Tabach-Bank questions this:
“I disagree with your statement that ‘(t)here is too much education being done in a manner that may make the person doing the correcting feel noble, while being abusive or humiliating—in a small way—toward the speaker (a not-so-micro-aggression…).’ Sometimes you just cannot let a lie or a racist remark or an inappropriate slur pass without speaking up and calling it out. Too bad if it’s humiliating. If you don’t call it out the speaker will take silence as agreement and support. It’s like the difference between merely not being a racist and being anti-racist.”
I agree with Bradley that racist slurs, antisemitic jokes and the likes should be called out. No question about it. I question, however, the value of calling out people for saying “committed suicide” instead of “victim of suicide” or “handicapped” instead of “person with a disability.” I still believe the best “education” in matters such as these is done in private. I’m guided by the adage, “praise in public; scold in private.” As to racism, have at it and be public!
BASEBALL IS BACK!
Spring Training games begin in just a couple of days. I’m so excited.
Thank you, Mark Greenfield, for highlighting a remarkable day in baseball back in 1962. In that game, San Francisco beat Milwaukee 1-0 in 16 innings. How many pitchers did each team use? The answer is one each. Juan Marichal threw 227 pitches to Spahn’s 201. Willie Mays won it on a homer in the 16th. In today’s baseball, these pitchers pitched the equivalent of close to three games apiece that night.
THEN THERE’S COLLEGE FOOTBALL
A number of people wrote that I was too kind to USC coming off an 11-3 season. Among the observations is the weakness of the schedule, the closeness of victories in what should have been easy walkovers, and my wanting to give the Defensive Coordinator the benefit of the doubt. Mark DiMaria’s observations on the latter point are consistent with several others:
“I think that you have been unduly charitable to the coaching of USC's defense. Two things jumped out about the defense. First, was that their tackling was terrible. This meant that the defensive player(s) had reached the offensive player who had the ball, but lacked the proper technique to bring the latter to the ground. We both have seen enough games to know that even body size, while it helps, is not necessary to tackle, but rather technique. Typically, and in our games, broken tackles are the result of bad defensive technique (go to the mid-section or lower and wrap up the legs). Second, the positioning and angles of approach of the defensive backfield players were poor, so that, even though always starting with an advantage of location on the field, the defenders either were out of position or running in the wrong direction or behind any player who reached the backfield.
Both of these flaws are coachable. In fact, the ability to tackle and to approach a runner from the correct position and angle are the direct byproduct of proper coaching. You or I could do it if we were fast enough to reach the ball carrier. And these guys all are fast enough. It is not hard to see that the team needs more attention to defense from the head coach, who has a history of stunning offensive production, and (if you'll pardon the expression) offensive defensive failures. And if that means bringing in a stellar defensive coach to assume the responsibility on that side, so be it.”
Have a great day,
Glenn
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