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With at least 51 people dead from the giant tornado that ripped through Oklahoma, the Wheeler family was relieved to know that their son was alive.
The tornado was at least a half-mile wide and had winds up to 200 mph.
After the giant tornado ripped through Moore, Oklahoma, Melissa Newton and city manager Steven Eddy talk about being in the middle of the destruction.
The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland has taken the first step toward allowing the ordination of openly gay men and women.
Amanda Berry, a woman missing for 10 years, and two other women were rescued on May 6 by Cleveland officers; watch their emotional recounting of the rescue.
Justin Cascio talks to T Cooper, author of Real Man Adventures, about writing, crying, and being a real man.
Malbec. Robert Mitchum. Blueberries. My wife’s laugh. Phoebe Cates. Diet Ginger Ale. My Bloody Valentine. Madrid. Diane Arbus. Mean Streets. Anne Sexton. The Replacements. Cezanne. Tossing around a football in bare feet … Sean Beaudoin has one hundred words on love.
This is a comment by Anonymous on the post “Should We Forgive Apologetic Bullies?”
This is a comment by Lars Fisher on the post “I’d Benefit From a Traditional Wife”.
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I’m not sure Budweiser is too psyched about this free advertising.
The label is covered, Jamie!
I was always confused, myself, about the stereotype that all men must be into sports by definition. I certainly never was. With age, I’ve learned to enjoy watching some sports–the rhythmic poetry of baseball, the fast-paced grace of basketball, the elegant simplicity of soccer–but it’s not something I go out of my way to do.
As for me, and I know I’m not a guy, but I’ve always preferred playing sports to watching them. I will always take you up on an offer for great seats at a Laker’s game, but I might skip the Dodgers… Would depend on the weather. But I’d always take you up for a game of softball or basketball.
But on TV? Nah.
Joanna, you obviously don’t drink enough beer; that’s clearly a Bud bottle.
Speaking of the King of Beers, the first time I tried beer was at one of my father’s Sunday softball games. I couldn’t have been more than six years old. Even now, whenever I have an icy cold Bud on a hot, sunny day, I think of that ball field.
I ignore sports coverage. I don’t care what professional athletes do, on or off the field: I just don’t have any interest. You may as well tell me what television executives, orthodontists, or Catholic cardinals do for work and play. I’ll read what other amateur enthusiasts do to challenge themselves, when I’m throwing myself into some new sport, but I want literary quality, not news.
I’ve always felt like I might one day have to renounce my American citizenship due to my general inability to watch team sports on TV for 5-10 hours a week like so many of my male (and female) friends. Sure, I’ll catch the Super Bowl, or the NBA Finals, or maybe the World Series (if the Sox are playing), but other than that, I take a pass. I don’t have a Fantasy Football League, I don’t “work up a bracket” for March Madness, none of that. And I half feel like my friends might disown me for not sharing their passion. But: I do love sports and watching them on TV–it’s just that my love is for individual sports; cycling, ski racing, tennis. Every July, I’ll give up 2 hrs a day for my daily surveillance of the Tour de France. And when there’s a World Cup downhill or Giant Slalom on, my Tivo is primed & ready. I get completely re-inspired by the feats of human performance in those sports. But beyond that, I can’t see giving up all the sheer hours out of the year to watching sports. A ton of Americans devote 1-2 hours a day to sports-watching. For me, that’s how much time I spend playing music every day. Would I rather have an arsenal of TV-watching memories, or an ability to play instruments, sing and write songs, entertain audiences and perform around the country? There are a lot of things you can accomplish with 1-2 hours/ day multiplied throughout your life–writing a novel, raising a kid, learning to paint, becoming a better cook, getting a Ph D… I’m all for leisure, but to me some forms of leisure are more fulfilling and long-lasting than others.
By that measure, I waste a good amount of time watching my favorite TV shows like Walking Dead, Happy Endings… and my favorite terrible shows like the new 90210 and Real Housewives of All Sorts of Horrible Places…
We all waste time on something.
Next you’re gonna tell me 2-3 hrs of Facebook a day is unhealthy or something crazy like that…
I never used to like sports. Then I watched the anime Slam Dunk and I understood why competitive sports are important. I recommend it.
I rooted for the teams my kids were playing on. I can’t get interested in sports in which I did not participate. Three very obscure sports, lax, judo, fencing. Lax has come along, but is pretty much non-existent on television except for the NCAA finals. The other two….
For the rest…rather nap.
As Seinfeld is said to have said, ultimately, you’re rooting for laundry.
Was at a wedding reception a couple of years ago. The Detroit Lions had a QB at the time who was known, for some reason, as “Joey”.
Standing in line at the bar. Some moron two places up suddenly turned around and said, angrily and passionately, “Why in hell did Joey come out of the pocket in the third quarter?” The guy in front of me murmured something i didn’t hear. Loudmouth is a sports fan.
Robert DeNiro starred in a sleeper called “The Fan”, with Wesley Snipes. He is so nuts that he murders the guy who is likely to beat Snipes’ character (for whom he is rooting) for home runs that year. At one point, they show him calling in to a sports talk show. The radio personality calls him out for sounding crazy. Thing is, he didn’t sound any different than half the guys who call in.
Laundry.
Ice hockey accounts for ~70% of my social life, if not more — playing, not watching, though I enjoy watching if my favorite team is in contention. As for playing, I’m a full-time dad with a not-very active social life or wide circle of friends, so hockey is my most consistent get-out-of-the-house activity, and one of the few that’s just for me. I play on a beer league team that loses a lot more than we win, but it’s a fun group of guys. I also play once or twice a week in casual pick-up games that are usually all familiar faces playing, but no score is kept so it’s more fun than competitive. My biggest challenge with team sports has always been playing with guys who take it too seriously, because I don’t. It took taking up hockey as an adult to have my first positive team sports experience.
At various times in my life I’ve considered myself a fan of other sports (mainly watching), but hockey’s the only one I much care about these days, and I care about playing a lot more than watching. I used to be a die hard fan, but my spare time and money are scarce enough now to not feel like spending either on watching any pro team have a crappy season, even if it’s my favorite team. I think sports occasionally have the potential to do or be something that transcends whatever game is being played, but I think it’s overall importance is routinely overblown. The importance of winning is definitely overblown, much to the detriment of things I consider more important, like sportsmanship, participation, exercise, effort, and fun.
I loved playing basketball, football, baseball, and skiing growing up. The older I get the more I watch and less I play but still love sports. It’s the entertainment I enjoy the most.
Is sports important? Of course not. Neither are TV shows, movies, plays, or any other form of entertainment. In reality, the list of imporant things is very short. But, I do enjoy watching sports.
Would LOVE to see a Manning vs. Manning Super Bowl.
Sports was fun, but when my local culture celebrated it above academic or scientific achievement, started calling them heroes, etc it felt a bit over-done. I dislike watching most sports, just bores me, but I can see it’s entertainment value. I prefer to play them though.
I was never a sporty person, I sailed a bit and played rugby for a while but I just didn’t get the idea of running around a field after and kicking balls (it probably didn’t help that I was very very bad at both).
Then I started playing jugger. Its a really oddball game from an Australian film written by David Webb Peoples (blade runner, 12 monkeys). Stars Rudger Hauer too. Its the bee’s knees
Lots of running around, hitting people with things, I’m so busy fun I don’t realise I’m excercising. Plus the company is great, its a weird mix of very sporty people and very not-sporty-at-all people. There’s also a fairly good gender mix which is helped by the amateur spirit of the thing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUHzQK1n8Ew
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhyCL-gYGI4
Also its the reason I go to Germany once a year, I owe alot to the dogskull.
watching sports now plays a minor role in my life, i only watch the big games.
i used to love watching football(soccer) and rugby union, but over the last 20yrs the skill level of both games has markedly decreased (the lost art of close control ball dribblers in footie, or twinkled toed backs in rugby union) and the emphasis on athletic physicality has increased, to the detriment of skill. i never really watched cricket, it’s a bit long. olympic sports ,winter and summer, i mostly watch during those times.
of the sports i used to watch, only men’s tennis equals or even exceeds the skill level of the mid80s.
Sports matter to those who love them. There’s no debating personal preferences. She likes chocolate, but he likes Neapolitan. Who says which is the best flavor? To each his own … but, unfortunately, this is not the attitude of some people when it comes to sports.
I’m now 61 years old. (Yes, my name in person is Bill.) I never had the slightest interest in any sport; but I have always respected the dedication and self-discipline that is involved in becoming proficient in a sport, just as I’ve also respected concert pianists (although I’d never be interested in going to any of their concerts, because that just isn’t an interest of mine).
Sport is part of the mosaic of human expression. Who would deny that? But why do we all have to be the same? Why must all boys and men be sports fans?
No one should look down on someone merely because he (or she) enjoys sport either as a participant or a spectator. I’ve never looked down on anyone for that reason. I would expect sports fans to show the same courtesy towards those of us who don’t share their enthusiasm, but that is hard to do in those communities or localities when one school sport or another has been turned into some kind of a religion.
More than a few sports fans seek to impose sports upon those who simply aren’t interested in them. For generations the most glaring example of this coercion has been the traditional approach of mandatory P.E. in the schools. When I was a boy, the policymakers claimed they were concerned about school children not being physically healthy in terms of fitness, just as many people today believe that overweight children should be forced to take sports-centric P.E. K/12. (For the record, I’ve never been overweight; so, please don’t make assumptions about my reason for speaking out on this issue — which, admittedly, is not as pressing an issue as the economy, etc.) But the truth is that the purpose of the “old P.E.” was to promote sports instead of physical fitness. Exercise programs and fitness classes were not provided for those who were the most in need of them. Incidentally, did you ever hear of “Remedial P.E.”?
In fact, the nonathletic kids (those who were the most in need) were frequently treated like dirt. At least that was my experience, as well as the experience of every other nonathletic guy whom I’ve asked over a period of [i]decades[/i]. There often wasn’t even any instruction in the sports themselves, and I didn’t get any exercise! The “old P.E.” was often hellish for nonathletic boys, especially for those who were scrawny or fat. They were often picked on relentlessly. I dreaded P.E. more than any other class in school. All I learned was to fear (and resent) coaches and athlete classmates.
There would have been no problem if the “old P.E.” had been [b]optional[/b] instead of mandatory. I have no problem with team sports in the schools, as long as students who excel nonathletically aren’t slighted in the process. School athletes should be held accountable by their coaches for the way they treat others off the playing field.
I repeat, the “old P.E.” should be retained as an option for athletic students and those who want to participate in sports. If a boy will feel better about himself by participating in a sport, then he should go for it. (Bodybuilding would have given me a great deal of self-confidence when I was a teenager, a time when I had none.) But that doesn’t give him the right to look down on his nonathletic classmates as if they’re sissies, wimps, or fags (especially since such stereotypes are demonstrably false).
If P.E. is to be mandatory, there should be a choice. Genuine exercise programs and fitness classes should be provided for nonathletic students — classes that would actually [i]benefit[/i] them — instead of the same old, same old. That is the best way to promote physical fitness. I know of what I speak because I’ve personally experienced in my own life what works and what [i]doesn’t[/i] work for nonathletic boys. For about four years I’ve hired a personal trainer at a local health club to work with me on a bodybuilding program — which I consider to be an exercise program, not a sport. I’ve benefited immensely. At the age of [i]61[/i] I’ve never been more muscular, and I’m a lot stronger physically than I’ve ever been. In contrast, in the years I had to endure “sports only” P.E. (4th grade through junior high), my body underwent no muscular development; and I didn’t become more fit physically. It was all a waste of time for me, as well as a humiliating experience. In fact, I get more exercise out of a single workout than I ever did in an entire [i]year[/i] of mandatory “sports only” P.E.
In communities where school sports are overemphasized (which, in my humble opinion, I would have to say is the greater part of the country), nonathletic boys who have no interest in sports are likely to be bullied. For example, the noted evangelical and child psychologist James Dobson claims that a boy who shows no interest in sports is quite likely to have homosexual tendencies!
(I guess he’s never heard of Esera Tuaolo, not to mention others who won’t come out of the closet.) If a young boy throws a baseball poorly, he’s said by many to “throw like a girl” (feminine = bad). Throwing a baseball is a physical skill that must be learned, not an inborn trait related to masculinity. A New York sociology professor named Patricia Cayo Sexton wrote a ludicrously hateful book decades ago entitled [i]The Feminized Male[/i] in which one of the characteristics of “feminized” boys was — yes, you guessed it! — a lack of interest in sports. Nonathletic boys frequently are considered to be wimps and worse. I witnessed this socialization as I was growing up and learned of it from other nonathletic guys’ own experiences as they were growing up. I dare say this pernicious stereotype is even worse than the “dumb jock” stereotype. By the way, I rejected the “dumb jock” stereotype decades ago; so, please don’t hassle me about that.
Actually, there’s a lot more I could say about the school sports culture; but this is more than enough. In short, I don’t begrudge sports fans their right to enjoy their form of recreation. But I must say is that respect is a two-way street.
I’m not convinced that people concerned about the trend of obese kids, increasingly sedentary lifestyles among youth, and things like juvenille diabetes would agree that gym class (P.E.) should be optional. They may feel that the good outweighs the bad.
However, an similar argument can be made that classes such as Art and Music, which are also mandatory, should be optional. How many people really benefit by being forced into those classes beyond the 3rd or 4th grade? If kids want to do art or play an instrument, let them; but why kids to waste their time in those classes if that’s not their interest. By the time they are close to the end of elementary school they know for sure if they like those things or not.
The kids who don’t like gym class can do art, music, or something else, and the kids who find art and music to be a waste of time can spend more time playing basketball, lifting weights, or doing some other sport can do that. Having the option is a great idea.
The point I want to emphasize is that the traditional mandatory P.E. of my generation (which, by the way, is still around in many school districts today) did not address the physical fitness needs of nonathletic kids. Playing an athletic game may be an enjoyable way for some to keep active physically and stay in shape; but the fact still remains that a sport is a physical contest, not an exercise program. In order to succeed as a participant in a sport, a certain level of physical fitness is a given; and certain skills (such as knowing how to throw a baseball or how to shoot a basketball) must be taught and developed by repetitive practice over a period of weeks or months. A good exercise program is based on the assumption that the participant is out of shape or wants to get into better shape. The one who is exercising is not in competition with others, but (in a sense) is competing with himself in stages or levels of exercising that are progressively more difficult.
I believe in physical fitness. But I know from my own personal experience and the experience of others with whom I’ve spoken over the years that the traditional “old P.E.” approach of forcing nonathletic boys to participate in team sports simply DOES NOT WORK. I favor programs that DO work instead of repeating the mistakes of the past. Imposing sports upon nonathletic kids will not force them to get into shape. They will only be discouraged from becoming physically active at all.
The “old P.E.” was never concerned about helping the nonathletic to become physically active. The only real purpose was to promote sports, but this could have been done without imposing sports upon the kids who were (and today are) uninterested in them. A coach who wants to have a winning team is not going to be very concerned, if at all, about the physical fitness needs of the nonathletic kids. Why would he? Coaching team sports and working with the physically inactive are two entirely different activities and should be recognized as such by the majority of the “physical education” establishment. (Indeed, some innovative P.E. coaches have recognized that the “old P.E.” shortchanged the nonathletes.)
Let’s take the example of an overweight student. (I might add there’s also the need for a medical doctor or a nutritionist to be involved in managing the student’s diet. This factor may be even more significant than exercise in bringing about weight loss.) Say, a fat boy is required to play baseball. Does he get much exercise just standing around in the field (not that I’m knocking the game of baseball)? The answer obviously is “No.” The best exercise for the obese is constant movement. Forcing this fat boy to play baseball is counterproductive and a waste of his time.
I never said to take team sports out of schools. Let the traditional “sports only” P.E. be retained as an option. Those who demand that all boys participate in team sports don’t have a single sound argument that stands the test of examination. Forcing all boys to participate in sports has as much logic as insisting that all teenage boys be required to take ballet lessons and two years of creative writing and participate in chess tournaments (not that I object to any of those activities).
If bodybuilding had been offered to nonathletic kids in mandatory P.E. as an alternative to sports, I would have thrived. Just as sports gives some kids a lot of self-confidence, so does bodybuilding. I even would have benefited from learning how to box — not for the purpose of competing in competitive matches, but for the purpose of self-defense against bullies. But as I said, nonathletic boys were nonpersons under the old system. The historical record of the way nonathletic boys were often mistreated in those P.E. classes is nothing the PhysEd establishment can be proud of today. And for what purpose?
Eric, I didn’t read your post for weeks because I was afraid you would get on my case. I will give you credit for being civil. Even though you’re a sports fan while I’m definitely not one, perhaps we agree more than we actually differ.