Assorted Thoughts

Here are some random thoughts that have been swirling about in my head the past couple of days, in no apparent order, but starting with the latest:

Baker left Prior in there too long and lost, Little left Pedro in there too long and lost; both got vilified for it. McKeon left Beckett in there and rode him for a complete game shutout to win the World Series and is being hailed as an unorthodox management genius. How much difference was there, really? Is this a case of knowing when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em, or was it gut instinct, or just a gamble that paid off?

***

I watched The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart the other day with The Girls (the 2002 Rhodes Scholars from Malaysia and Hong Kong- and together with this Singaporean, we're the only three Scholars from East Asia. As I sometimes joke, we're the Rhodes 2002 Council for East Asian Affairs). I love hanging out with them, they are two of the sweetest, funniest, smartest people I know, and I'm extremely lucky to know them. The Marriage of Figaro was fun and really good- for the first three acts. The third act contained the big climax, plot twists galore, and what seemed to be a happy ending- almost. It seemed as if Mozart at this point said to himself, "Let's see, everything is great, everyone's happy- oh, wait a moment! I forget to give the dastardly Count his comeuppance!" So he tacks on a fourth act, which is long, drawn out, and painfully suspenseful, all for the purpose of the Count learning his lesson- and then it ends rather abruptly.

***

Rich Morgan is a great guy. A true friend, loyal, and supportive. Really smart and hard working. Responsible. Thoughtful. Moral and highly principled. Great sense of humour. Wonderfully talented. Knows an incredible amount about music history and music composition. Has the support and respect of his peers. Has the admiration of countless people. Has a great way of telling funny stories. Comes up with terrific ideas. Has a wonderful family. I could go on and on, but you get the idea. To think of him as something simple, to reduce him to one word would be impossible and unfair, especially if the word were something negative. Absolutely unfair.

So just because at lunch the other day Rich suddenly exhaled sharply and exclaimed, "Thank goodness she's left!" before explaining to us puzzled friends that there was a girl across the Hall from him who was showing an inordinate amount of cleavage that he couldn't help but keep staring at- does that make him a pervert? No.

Not that he'll stop trying to deny it, of course.

***

The Tuesday Morning Quarterback, Gregg Easterbrook, recently was fired by ESPN for allegedly making anti-Semitic remarks on his blog. Many of his fellow journalists and writers have lept to his defence, saying he's not anti-Semitic (An excellent summary of the story is at the Washington Post). Having been a reader of Easterbrook's for quite a while, I can attest he's a writer of genuine wit and intelligence, and has never shown the slightest bit of bias (except against silly coaches who call bad plays, but that's a different story). What he is guilty of is writing poorly. He was writing about the violence in Kill Bill Vol. 1, and got overly passionate about it. The end result was that his writing came out jumbled and could easily be misconstrued as something anti-Semitic.

Lesson? Edit. Always edit. Re-read what you write and be careful. Anywhere, even on your blogs. Otherwise, what you write can easily be misconstrued.

I'm going to miss the TMQ. It was something I looked forward to every Tuesday morning, as much for the content as for Easterbrook's excellent writing and humour.

***

I had a dream two nights ago: Roger Clemens decided not to retire, but instead signed a one year contract with the Red Sox as a middle reliever.

Did I say dream? I meant nightmare!

On Meeting The Queen

The Good: I got to meet the Queen, shake her hand and do the whole neck-bow with "Good Evening, Ma'am" bit. I also got to meet HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and got to chat with him. He asked me where I came from and about the Rhodes Scholarship (which, surprisingly, he knew little about). It was quite interesting. Prince Philip is about my height. I also managed to see the Throne Room, where the Queen knights people, and talk to the Royal Nurse.

The Bad: I didn't get to meet Nelson Mandela, who arrived later and was circulating around with the help of an aide and a cane. Apparently he is more frail then the press reports.

The Ugly: Plenty of wine and orange juice- but no food. We left for Buckingham Palace at 2.30pm and returned at around 10pm, and weren't given anything to eat in between apart from some quite poor canapes. For goodness sake! Between the Rhodes Trust and the Monarchy, you'd think someone would have the money to give us some sandwiches!

All in all, though, an excellent experience, one I will remember fondly.

[By the way, if you called me at about 6.15pm, I was in line to meet the Queen and it would have been really bad if I had whipped out my phone. Whoever it was, drop me a line!]

All Things Just Keep Getting Better

When I was in Washington DC, I had the opportunity to watch a lot of TV- particularly when Hurrican Isabel hit and I was left in my apartment with nothing to do. Many shows I was familiar with, and to watch new (or new to me) episodes was exciting and fun. With some of them, it was a chance to revisit old friends; with others, it was a chance to catch up on what had happened on the show since I had left.

The shows that lept out at me, though, were two shows which I had not seen before: Star Trek: Enterprise, which debuted after I left, and Queer Eye For The Straight Guy, which was the summer hit on Bravo.

After watching the season premiere of Enterprise, I finally understood many of the gripes of Trekkies, including the non-traditional theme song, the action focus, and so on. While not being able to comment on previous seasons, I have to say I fully enjoyed the episodes of season three that I have seen so far, and approve of many of the changes and innovations made. I really like the theme song; it's inspirational, uplifting, and fully encompasses the pioneer spirit of the show. I loved how they interspersed clips of man's first attempts at exploration, flight, and space travel with 'clips' of early Federation vessels and space flight. After having seen the original Kitty Hawk, Spirit of St. Louis and so on in the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum, I had come to understand what they stood for the reawoken many of my own early dreams of space travel. Enterprise's opening was akin to that.

As for this season, I fully enjoy the story arc. I really love how the Xindi have three variants, I love the insectoid and piscatoral aliens who communicate by clicks and sonar, respectively. I particularly liked the episode about the species which was going extinct and created a virus to mutate others into the species in a last-ditch, desperate effort to save themselves, and Capt. Archer's decision not to destroy the virus. The exploration of the relationships between the various crew members are also fascinating. And that Ensign Sato? Rowwrrrrrr. They need to feature her more often.

Queer Eye For The Straight Guy, on the other hand, is sheer fun. The Fab 5 approach their tasks with both single-mindedness but also in the spirit of having a great time, and their exuberance bursts out onto the screen. It seems to me that it is a trifle unfair to criticise the stright guy sometimes, because they do pay for the entire makeover, after all, giving him a lifestyle he otherwise couldn't afford. Of course, some of these guys are such slobs that they really don't have a clue. I have gotten great ideas and tips from the show, and was pleased that some things which I had been doing were suggested. For example, Thom (interior design guru) spoke about painting the back of shelves to give them the appearance of depth- I had done something similar by hanging muslin on the wall behind the open shelves I had inherited in my dorm room this year. To top it off, a book that Carson (fashion guru) referred to in the show I also proudly own and refer to, which makes me feel pretty good- I'm definitely doing the right things!

On a more personal note, I'm very pleased that one of my oldest friends also enjoys the show. We swap emails discussing the episodes and inexplicably it all feels a little conspiratorial, but I'm enjoying bonding with her over this (very surprising) common interest.