...Portrait of an American (Hula Hooping) Family...

I saw that Annie Liebowitz took this photo of the president and his family, and at first I sorta was wondering why you had to have someone of such huge stature, and possibly of such a huge financial cost, to take what looks like, at first glance, a normal photograph of a family.

But I'm trying to have a new perspective on things like this, and I am going to assume that the Obama family and the administration didn't have to pay for Leibowitz's time...and that she, out of the goodness of her heart, paid for her own travel, food and room service. That kind of "in good faith" thinking takes all of my will to muster up - it really does.

So let's remove that aspect from the equation and look at this as a photograph, which I am clearly not trained to do, but I guess I am allowed to have an opinion of it, right?  

The picture really is incredible. My first thought was that his 2 kids are really cute kids. I don't think that very often - I mean, I recognize why people think their own children are astounding, and at times all children, some more than others, have moments of unbearable cuteness, but these kids are past that age. They are both at the age where things could get real dicey from "how cute are you" standpoint, and they both look very well put together, confident and exhuberant, but not showstealers. I really hope this is coming off as a compliment to them, b/c it is.

I love how they are all connected, through holding hands or draping arms over each other - sends a really cool message. And they are all fit, they are all healthy and fit people. The idea that the leading family of our country exemplifies health and fitness, I think it's pretty cool.  And keep in mind, this is going to be a "thing" going forward...this isn't going to go away. This type of activity, and activism, could be the next big movement this administration pushes for.

I think of Hilary Clinton during the 1990's, and she is, in my mind, synonymous with the Health Care debate.  I don't think its outside of the realm of possibility to look back at the 2008-2012 (?) Michelle Obama years as the time where she brought physical fitness and overall health, explicitly for children, to the forefront.  

But the real symbolism comes from the fact that you cannot help but be completely overwhelmed by the fact that this is the First Family.  The background doesn't suggest royalty.  It may suggest opulence sure, but there isn't an ounce of regality and/or pretension in the background. Pictures, chairs, fireplace, vase...its not like there is a big dumb golden eagle with firecrackers up its nostrils or anything, its just a big house, which we all know they live in. No need to hide it.

There were recent articles about Michelle Obama's lineage, her roots to slavery and also slave owners being in her blood, and you have to get some kind of chill when you think back, to right around 200 bones ago when DC was a swampy mudpit that slaves turned into our Nation's Capital. You gotta think back to when Adams first arrived at the White House with Abigail and how torn they were that slavery literally put the bricks in place for the building that would serve as the epicenter of decision-making and legislation in this Country.

And here they are...the Obamas.  The picture is powerful, it is compelling, and I go back to thinking about how maybe if this image did cost the taxpayers some dollars it may have been worth it. 

...as frozen as Ted's head...

September 29, 1954:

For any baseball fan, the 1954 World Series is known for 1 thing.  The series was a bit of a shocker - a 4 game sweep by the New York Giants over the Cleveland Indians, who had won 111 games that year for the league's best record and one of the highest win totals of all time (especially for 154 game season).

The one thing that everyone remembers is "The Catch", an over-the-shoulder full sprint marvel by Willie Mays off of a long drive by the Indians Vic Wertz.  The game was played at the Polo Grounds, an amazing spectacle of a park, nearly 500 feet to the center field wall and less than 300 down it's lines - the horseshoe shaped stadium will never have an equal, and it probably shouldn't given the ease by which the current batch of over-roided, over-lifted, over-blown ballplayers that exist now.

For a baseball fan, and speaking personally as someone who grew up watching every minute of baseball I could get my eyes on (yes, the Atlanta Braves on TBS provided a special treat for me, despite the fact that Ozzie Virgil and Co. could never produce runs the way their lone star, Dale Murphy, could), the amazing catch by Mays is something I can picture in my head with ease.

By memory, I can picture the 24 on Mays' back being the only thing that remains in focus as he is in a full sprint, and seeing the ball drop down from the top of the screen into his glove, as he turns and throws a mammoth cannon back into the infield, he falls, his hat hits the ground - and the crowd is amazed. I can also picture the 15 foot high wall with the fans leaning over it, and I remember the time of day. I can see the shadows in my minds eye, the late afternoon, late summer/early fall shadows that tell you that the season is winding down.

And that's where I get derailed.  My romanticism for baseball crashes headfirst into the reality of what the game has become - it is almost as if Mays didn't catch it, and in true Canseco fashion, the ball bounced off his head and caromed up over the wall for a Vic Wertz HR.   The World Series, an afternoon/early evening game played in a packed ballpark, broadcast over NBC TV and radio, in late September.  

We are a full month away from that at this point - the delay between the Divisional Series (Why, WHY IN THE WORLD, is it called the Divisional Series...by tne nature of the rules, you cannot play someone in your Division in this series. Can you imagine being in the room for this naming decision?) and the League Championship Series (Now that's a name, that's what I'm talking about!) is eternal. The Sox were swept on Sunday, the Yankees won on Monday - and game 1 isn't until Friday.

We aren't talking semantics here, think back to last weekend and how cold it was, and how cold it felt, and how new that cold felt, how we all felt ourselves cross the tipping point from summer to fall - we all know we aren't looking back at this point, the short sleeves and mesh shorts are long gone.  But for baseball, a sport meant to be played in fair, if not good, conditions, is putting the most important 8-14 games into a deep freeze.  A sport that plays nearly all of its games in cool to hot conditions, but mostly during amazing summer nights across this country, has chosen to refrigerate itself - games played into the wee hours of the morning on a frigid November night. Is that baseball? 

Sadly, to a new generation of fans, it is.  There is no romanticism in the cold, and without romanticism, baseball is just a bunch of frat boys playing the world's laziest sport.  World Series games during the day, in the shadows, are no more.  Mays may as well have let that thing drop.

...College Football is Backwards...

I have a big time problem with college football, and it came into focus for me yesterday.  I was on my drive home and I was listening to a sports talk radio station on Sirius XM, and it was a conversation with a Univ. of Florida beat writer about Tim Tebow, and whether or not he would play.  Let me be very clear, first and foremost, that guys like Tim Tebow are people who make sports bearable. If it was all Terrell Owens and Jerry Jones, sports wouldn't be fun. A "good guy" like Tebow is what makes sports interesting, and his dominance (and commitment) to College Football is really awesome.

But much like every mega-business in this country, that street is so one way it is insane.  We hear stories about how much Urban Meyer (Florida's Head Coach) loves Tebow, and I don't doubt it given Tebow's remarkable track record as a person, but you have to think that it really ends there.  The University of Florida, for example, would not stick their neck out for Tebow, neither would the Conference, the SEC, or the League in which they play, the NCAA.  Why do I say this? Well, they already show their true colors, all of those organizations, by the way the players are compensated.

I understand the theory behind not paying college athletes, but it is just a theory. It is also like the theory that children should be smacked by parents when they do something wrong - I can see why, on the surface, that sorta makes sense. i wouldn't do it, and I think science and study has shown it doesn't work, but I understand how someone can postulate that it would work. Bad behavior followed by negative reinforcement could end the behavior. Check. Well, again, Psychological studies have shown that to be wrong, and improper.  So back to college athletes, I can understand the notion that they should not be paid, that they are just college Amateurs, but the reality is, they are professional athletes being dragged along by their school.

Now the argument is that they recieve an eduction, which, I suppose is true. But the reality is, if Tim Tebow wanted to graduate with a degree in Psychology, his commitment to football would preclude him from a Research Assistant position, or a Teaching Assistant position - it would make his involvement in Social and Academic clubs, all integral parts to a Bachelor's Degree, nearly impossible.  Tebow cannot be a student and an athlete, the setup is impossible.  That is becoming even more true when we realize that most coaches flaunt and violate the rules around time allowed for practice each week, etc.

None of this is a revelation, and that isn't why I have a problem with college football.  They are a lead-in, however. 

College Sports have taken over colleges. Period.  I think back to when colleges meant something, academically.  John Quincy Adams was a hero at Harvard because he studied hard, made the most of his education, stayed out of trouble, and became an Academic, a Leader, and ultimately a President. Those were the standards.  The reason a lot of these major schools exist now is to function as a Home Field for their sports teams.  Much like every other ill we have in this country, we have elevated the Athletic over the Academic. Trust me, I love sports so much, and Sports were a huge part of my experience at UMass, but at the same time, I wish it lived side-by-side with Academics.

There is no interest by colleges like Florida to be known as an academic school - they may boast from time to time about a graduate who becomes an astronaut, but they are clearly an Athletic school, who hangs their hat, and their checkbook, by the wins and losses of their Football team.  

Again, none of that is a revelation - but I got a bit queezy in my car yesterday when I heard this reporter, whose only job was follow around college kids, critique their on-field play, dismantle their skills and talents and flaws, and try to predict how their 19 year old minds would be working this upcoming Saturday.  That kind of disection, I believe, should be compensated with pay. The fact that so many people (myself included, while at adidas), benefitted financially from the ups and downs of these kids, is what I really am starting to feel uneasy about. 

But, the real issue, the thing that drives me the craziest, is that all of this success, all of this money, all of this greed, all of this excess, all of the things I mentioned above, is dictated by an insanely uneducated, and unprepared mass, known as "the writers."

The reality is, you are nothing in college Football and Basketball unless you are a ranked team. Your ranking is all that matters, it rules all.  A writer in Louisville, KY, whose job is to critique kids just out of high school on their athletic prowess, will be part of the machinery that sits down and analyzes how good their hometown team is, but also is tasked to look at the macro level of things and determine how good the whole country is.  This process is copied hundreds of times around the country, where people culminate in a Pre-Season poll, based purely on conjecture.  "I think Univ. of Washington has a bad backfield, so they will be terrible. Notre Dame is on TV a lot, so they must be pretty good.  Florida has Tebow, he is the best, they are the best," etc.  

There is a science, in part, to this. But clearly, based on the number of "upsets" we have seen in College Football this far, with teams ranked in the top 5 losing to unranked opponents, the science of this all must be questioned.  BUT NOBODY IS QUESTIONING IT!!!! People are just saying, "wow, #5 Georgia lost to unranked Valdosta State, what an amazing upset!" as if the ranking is set in stone, or if it is based on any kind of scientific/numerical reasoning. It isn't. It is based on a windbag who sits in his house in Seattle, WA, spending one day writing about the Seahawks, the next talking to Ichiro about 250 hits, and then the next maybe heading over to the "U" to talk to the head football coach about the health of a 3rd string 18 year old Tight End from Lincoln, NE.

Writers cannot possibly be asked to understand, nor sift through, the vast fields of data that are required to accurately predict the outcome of a college football season.  Try to put this in Professional terms.  If there were rankings, the Denver Broncos would have entered this season in the low to mid 20's in the NFL. As of now, they are 4-0, and if the season ended today, they would not have a shot at the Championship by the college model. They'd be on the outside looking in, wondering what they did wrong.  The Championship would be the Giants and the Colts, which may be the right 2 teams, but don't we love sports because teams are allowed a shot at truly upsetting a team once or twice?

In the NFL, a 16 game season dictates seed, seed dictates home field or placement in the playoffs, the playoffs determine a winner.  It is a normal trajectory, a fair and accurate determination of a winner.  It is all backwards in College Football, specifically.  Before the season starts, teams are seeded. They play out the year, attempting to hold their seed or move up.  Seeds are based on speculation to start, then people have to negotiate the minefield of speculation v. actuality.  What do you do when the #3 team loses by 10 to an unranked opponent? What takes precedence? The unranked opponent or the #3 seed? Which part is more remarkable?

The fact that the system is so screwed up is one thing, but the fact that millions of dollars in Apparel, Tickets, Network contracts, Television, etc are based on this monumental flaw really gets at me. It irks me.  And what's worse, nobody cares. At all. This kind of thing effects me, it makes it hard for me to sit back and enjoy a game. I need context in sports. I cannot sit back and watch an individual event with pure enjoyment if I don't have a context.  I cannot turn on the TV and enjoy a ping pong championship without googling the players and seeing what their story is. I can't watch the Olympics and think, "Bolt, cool, don't care about him at all, next event, please."  I need a context, and when I dig deeper into the context of College Football, I am monumentally disappointed.

The best team in Sports, as measured by every kind of acceptable test, is the one that performs the best at the most critical moments.  That is not the case in College Football, the reality is the team that wins the championship is a 3 fold process, 2 of which are remarkably stupid:

1. Which team Markets itself the best to recieve a high pre-season ranking. Without a high preseason ranking, you may kiss your season goodbye

2. Maintain the rank, at all costs.  Only schedule a few hard games a year, tip the scales way in the favor of winnable games v. possible losses.  Remember, a 1 day mistake against a team that writers have deemed as bad, even if they aren't, may ruin your chances.

3. Win the last game of the year, whichever it may be. (This one makes sense). But the reality is, there is no playoff, and all a team like USC needs to do, based on the fact that they have the Marketing taken care of, is beat cupcakes all year, and win a few, not many, a few, hard(ish) games during the season. They will then get 45 days to prepare for the only game that counts, the BCS Championship, and if they win it they are done for the year.

So, what I am trying to say is when I think about it like this, it makes me not want to watch college - but I will, because I care how these guys will impact some of the NFL teams they will play on. That really is all that keeps me interested at this point.

...Save Brandeis Swimming...

Everyone loves sweatpants, right?

This is from Alison's cousin, who is a Junior at Brandeis and on the swimming team. He sent this to his family and friends, I am doing the same:

Dear friends and family,

I hope you are all well. I apologize for sending out this mass-letter, but this is a certain case in which I need your help. As you know, I am very involved on my swim team at Brandeis. Swimming has been a major passion of mine throughout my life, and the Brandeis team has been like a family to me for the past 4 years. I owe a great deal of who I am today to what I have learned from my coaches and teammates.

However, you are probably also aware that the team is in serious trouble. We don't have a working pool to train in and we are slated for suspension at the end of the 09-10 season. We have been working hard to raise money so that the team can continue. We recently got a deal with a fundraising company in which we could buy great quality clothes and sell them at an inexpensive price. If you take a look at the attachment, you'll probably find something you'll like, or can give as a gift to someone else. The directions to order are on the form, and the whole process takes about 2 minutes. The clothes will ship to you for free in about 3 weeks.

I am only asking this of you because I truly believe the Brandeis program is more than a college sport; it teaches student-athletes important values and produces outstanding citizens. It has been a tradition that has lived on for 42 years and affected the lives of hundreds.

After you do purchase something, please send me a quick email so I can write you a more personal thank-you. I really appreciate all of your help,

Jesse

That sounds like something I can get behind...doesn't it sound that way to you?
How do you help?

1. Go straight to this link to buy gear.
2. Once you are there, type in BRANUNSDMA into the organization code
3. Buy the gear.

Site is easy, for a good cause, and nobody hates sweatpants!

...broken link..

sorry, the NYTimes won't let me post the link about why China is creepy. Trust me, they are. They are forcing their citizens into weird positions for this 60th birthday, and making them all do funny things. Plus, its another excuse for them to demolish Tibetans, which they always revel in.

...i'm getting there...

I wrote the below post yesterday afternoon between 2 meetings. I wish I had time to really go over my thoughts and clean it up, but I don't.  I am writing this pre-note b/c I am proud of myself. After reading today's NYTimes at lunch, I realized how close I am to thinking, in this case, along the lines of an intelligent critical thinker.  Although I think it can be argued that most writers for major papers are drowning in political ideology to the point where they can't separate the truth and honesty from their own ideals. However, I can't either I guess.  My point is that I am close to what was written in today's OpEd. Read that first, or this first, doesn't matter.

Obama is coming under fairly heavy fire for his decision to go to Copehagen to lobby for the Olympics. Republicans cite that he is "wasting time" and has "More important" things to worry about, which is obviously fake and stupid and meaningless. Time doesn't exist to the President, at least not in the sense we think of time. If we go to Florida for 2 days, things will pile up, but we will recover. We spend 6-7 hours on an airplane away from most communication, we have to worry about luggage, bags, transportation, then we take part in whatever activity we do and those days are essentially lost.

But let's get real, the President travels on a flying skyscraper - he doesn't lose time in the floating office, he probably can be more productive without having to field constant visitors and phone calls in the Oval office. The fact that Obama is flying 1/4 way across the earth to lobby for the Chicago Olympics shouldn't offend people in the, "I can't believe he is doing this now" type of way. The offense comes in the waste of it all, the grandeur and arrogance of it.

Let's get completely real and honest, the Olympics are not what they used to be. They are a television event now, really nothing more. Especially one that would take place in the United States, the coverage of US Athletes would feel compelling for 2 weeks, then it would pass. 3 things will be remembered in the 2008 Olympic games from China.

1. The Opening ceremonies were incredible, unstoppable, and now we are learning, a bit friggen creepy.

2. Usain Bolt was an incredible athlete, whose dominance seems to just be starting. He was a pleasure to watch, a once-in-a-lifetime athlete whose records may be broken, but they were remarkable when they took place. 

3. Like every other Olympics since the dawn of man, they are a complete financial drain, and this is the part that should offend us.

These are not the times to be trying to recover confidence, recover votes, or build American momentum by dragging in a behemoth of an event like the Olympics. Nobody is considering that this is a lose-lose situation, and possibly lose-lose-lose.

Lose 1: If we get the Olympics, we waste millions, scar the city of Chicago forever in the aesthetic sense by tearing down buildings and building up new useless ones, and bring an undue financial stress to the whole state of Illinois. Who, by the way, is still recovering from the Blagojevich scandal as well as the fact that their State University is in the middle of a financial scandal of its own, nevermind the fact that they are one of the states that simply refuses to admit that Native American logo usage for sports teams is something you just need to walk away from, end of story.

Lose 2: If we don't get the Olympics, Obama's trip will truly be a monumental waste of time, and the entire international community can take a look at the power/pull that Obama has. If this won't be a sign of the draining of the power of the American Brand, I don't know what would be.

Lose 3: This one is just political bullcrap, but it holds water...the GOP will honestly be able to demolish him during the 2012 election as the President who stood in the face of the Olympic Committee and couldn't even get the games over the likes of Madrid, Tokyo and Rio. Do we really need Obama with a chink this significant in his armor? Is it worth that risk? Do we really want to set the GOP up?