On nature and human nature: American Pharoah and San Bernardino

December 3, 2015

Is it right to talk about Sports Illustrated’s controversial nomination of American Pharoah for Sportsman of the Year at a time when there are so many lost souls and unanswered questions amid the mass shooting of a facility for the disabled in San Bernardino, Calif.?

I think it’s relevant. We are divided from nature, of which we are apart, in part because we are divided in our own human nature.

There are two types of people who misunderstand nature. The first doesn’t care about it and ranges from those who toss the ice cream pop wrapper out the car window onto the highway to those who abuse animals. ...

The Pharoah, Djokovic up for Sportsman of the Year

November 12, 2015

The racing world is a-flutter – and so am I: American Pharoah is up for Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year. As is Novak Djokovic once again.

OK, Nole – who hasn’t lost a tournament since the Ice Age – is never going to win. I’m assuming that when posters say they haven’t heard of some of the nominees, they mean him. And when they point out the year fellow nominee Serena Williams had, I know they don’t know what they’re talking about. No disrespect to Serena, but she won three Slams, lost in the semifinals of the fourth and then basically retired for the rest of the season. ...

WWPMD?

December 23, 2013

This past weekend, I found myself wondering: What Would Peyton Manning Do?

The question was actually posed by A., the administrator and editor of this blog. We were out to lunch, and I was explaining that I was torn between visiting my family for Christmas (and winding up hopelessly behind in my work) or foregoing the visit to fulfill my deadlines. Somehow we got on the subject of how I consider myself to be the Peyton Manning of women, not because I’m so great but because I’m an intense person who believes in Alexandrian leadership (that is, leading from the front) and in what Louis Pasteur said: “Chance favors the prepared mind.”

So WWPMD? To answer that question I read the cover story of the Dec. 23 issue of Sports Illustrated, which has proclaimed Peyton Manning “Sportsman of the Year.” (Talk about fortuitous: Sunday, the Denver Broncos won the AFC West as Manning broke Tom Brady’s record for most touchdowns in a season, 50.)

The article contains things I knew and many I didn’t. Read more