♫ Down in the Caribbean it's not a dream you're seein' When you get a glimpse of the lady with the charm But from miles away you can see her sway To the beat of the Cuban Conga line that forms
Apologies for coming in late and possibly beating a dead horse. But if I were a younger man and had a right-leaning disposition, I too would have been caught up in the lockerroom celebration. But at some point, between having a gold medal hung around my neck and walking into the SOTU, someone should have wised up and said "hey do you think we are being used as a prop?" EDIT: At no point did it dawn on them that they were getting played? Being used as a prop? Nothing was going to bite them in the a$s ? And they didn't think in the long-term of the optics. No one on the squad, even the coaches or public relations team even blinked hard when Trump made that remark about the women's hockey team. The Kash Patel thing I could chalk down to being caught up in the moment. At some point, someone should have listened to their spidey sense. There is at least a few decade of anecdotes of people aligning themselves with Trump, only to get burned. Also, I saw one of the apologies earlier this week. It reminded me when I was younger and my sister was sorry, but still smirking, knowing full well she was going through the motions. EDIT EDIT - sorry about the multiple edits. I got distracted by the video and lost my train of thought. With Trump inserting himself dead center of Chelsea's Club World Cup celebration last summer, I would be actually surprised if he only walked off stage with the Jules Rimet trophy in hand. That is how low of a bar I have for him. Looking back at it, it was actually funny, with Cole Palmer looking visibly confused as to why Trump was front and center and Infantino gently hinting for Trump to step back or out of the way. Meanwhile Trump is the college guy who showed up for the intro and final meeting for the group project, pretending he did something. I really want some newly minted winner of the WC to elbow him to the back. Preferably a Frenchman or some country who has universal healthcare.
I'm just confused because it feels like a national pastime in Panama. Oddly enough, I associate it with old Caribbean men, drinking Ting.
I was thinking about that. It was roughly 48 hours after winning an unexpected gold medal v. the biggest rival, being recognized by the President at the biggest political stage every year. On top of that, they had likely been congratulated by everybody for 48 hours, and were likely on some kind of high from victory and tiredness. On top of that, they laughed with the crowd. Bad look, and they should have done better. Saying that, I think it was kind of a human response and what matters is what they do in the days, weeks, and years to come.
I wanna out this up the flagpole and see if anyone salutes… There’s this new trend of athletes taking on Jr or Sr in their names. It strikes me as pretentious as hell. That should be reserved for cases where they’re both famous, like the George Bushes. When only one person is famous, like I said, the pretentiousness bugs me. Thoughts?
You must not follow American sportsball. There’s an ongoing, I dunno, trend, of athletes without famous dads going by the name John Smith Jr instead of John Smith. When I first saw these I’d rack my brain trying to figure out who John Smith Sr was, to no avail. Sillier still is calling yourself William Jones Sr because you have a 2 year old William Jones Jr at home. Until Junior is famous, dude, you’re just plain ol’ William Jones.
That's stupid af, dave. Anybody who wants to announce that they have a child named after themselves should be welcome to do so without raising negative thoughts in others. That includes women and daughters. Jane Doe, Jr. doesn't bother me. I'm not a Jr, nor do I have many in my extended family. If they're Jr.s when they get famous, they've probably been Jr.s all their lives. It's the Sr. part that's new. My mind immediately went to two guys, Steve Smith, Sr. and Ken Griffey, Jr. Steve? Never really liked that guy, maybe because he just seemed to be playing for a lout team, but he had game and heart. Shoulda been a Steeler with all that heart. I don't begrudge him adding "parent"("Sr.") to his legal name if that's what he wants to do. Ken's got the right to name a child after him, and the kid's got the right to wear Dad's name whether he becomes famous or not. Junior got famous anyhow.
If the player is William Jones, and their father is William Jones, the the player is William Jones, Jr., and the father is William Jones, Sr. Doesn't matter if either is famous or not. Doesn't even matter if either plays sports or not.
I get uncomfortable when people try to dictate how other people should be called, particularly since it doesn't impact them at all (this is an important topic to some in the LGBT+ community, particularly in the T group). If someone wants to include Jr as part of their name, because it is part of their name, how the hell does that impact me at all? If someone wants to be known as William instead of Bill, Will, Billy or Willy (I've known people who have used all of those variants), then that is what I will call them. It's not my place to tell them what name they should use.
It's important because while we think of sports as the ultimate meritocracy, even they are trying to sell something and having a reminder of a storied past is definitely a selling point. Maybe there's even some nominative determinism for the child's future. It smacks of manipulation.