Blog

Naomi Osaka serving in June 2018. Photograph by Peter Menzel.

No love all in Osaka meeting the press

June 3, 2021

Every once and a while a story comes along that touches us neurotic journalists to our core. The latest chapter in the life of tennis star Naomi Osaka is such a story.

As you by now no doubt know, Osaka — the No. 2-ranked woman in tennis and the highest paid female athlete in the world, one who advocates for racial justice and expresses herself through fashion —was struggling through the clay court season when she hit a roadblock at the French Open in Paris. Osaka decided she would not attend the obligatory press conferences as questions about her poor clay court play were messing with her head. Being a 23-year-old, Osaka did what any 23-year-old would do: She made the announcement on social media. Tournament officials did what tournament officials do-do so well: They fined her.

Justify streaks home with the Belmont Stakes win and the Triple Crown in 2018. The Bob Baffert-trained beauty would later face a drug-doping charge that was dropped. Photograph by Mike Lizzi.

Horsing around with the truth

May 12, 2021

It’s Triple Crown season, and once again controversy is afoot — or rather, a-hoof.

After the gallant win of little Medina Spirit in the Kentucky Derby, news broke that the horse had tested positive for Betamethasone, a steroid used to treat inflammation but banned on race day. throwing a cloud of suspicion on trainer Bob Baffert. The trainer of TC winners American Pharoah (2015) and Justify (2018) — who was also involved in a banned substance charge that was ultimately dismissed — Baffert has denied the allegations, claiming foul play, sour grapes and “cancel culture” were behind them. (More on “cancel culture” in a bit.) Turns out the anti-inflammatory was in an antifungal ointment that was being used to treat Medina Spirit’s dermatitis. But what Baffert knew and when he knew it remains subject to question.

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (left), examines building models at the University of Salford in 1967. During a 70-year career as a working royal, he carried out more than 22,000 solo engagements in addition to being what Queen Elizabeth II called … — Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (left), examines building models at the University of Salford in 1967. During a 70-year career as a working royal, he carried out more than 22,000 solo engagements in addition to being what Queen Elizabeth II called her “strength and stay.” Courtesy the University of Salford Press Office.

Prince Philip -- the Queen's man

April 11, 2021

Among the photographs The New York Times used to commemorate Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh — who died on Friday, April 9, at Windsor Castle two months short of his 100th birthday and will be buried from there Saturday, April 17 — was a 2017 photo in which the natty duke faces the camera smiling amid a sea of red-garbed Canadian soldiers, who are virtually all facing right. It encapsulates Prince Philip, a part of and yet apart from the British monarchy, “the strength and stay” of Queen Elizabeth II (her words) through 73 years of marriage, the longest in British royal history, who served crown and country with a confounding mix of devotion, action, humility, crotchety humor and a patronizing snobbery that critics have called impolitic at best and prejudiced at worst.

The Huskies, the University of Connecticut’s winning women’s basketball team with President Barack Obama in 2013. Courtesy whitehouse.gov.

Women athletes as the main event

March 26, 2021

Self-professed feminist that I am, I must confess that I do not follow women’s sports.

I don’t know why. I support Title IX, which equalized sports opportunities in schools, the fruits of which have included higher medal counts for the United States at the Olympics, thanks to golden performances by our female athletes. I’m all for any civil rights initiative and am absolutely sick with worry about the Georgia Legislature’s most recent effort to restrict voting rights, especially for Black voters.

Still, I prefer to watch men….

The Senate Republicans — led by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, he of the closed-mouth smile — could rid themselves of former President Donald J. Trump, at his second impeachment trial. They won’t do it. Photograph courtesy United States Senate.

The Republicans and fear itself

February 7, 2021

Seven years ago when the Greenleaf Book Group was preparing to publish my novel “Water Music,” about the personal relationships and professional rivalries of four gay athletes, one of their estimable editors sent me a question that I think about to this day.

One of the story arcs that is ultimately woven into the other three concerns an Iraqi boy, Alí Iskandar, who is taken under the wing of an American contractor during the height of the Iraq War with the promise of mentorship in the United States. Instead the contractor abuses him, enabled by the man’s family. My editor wanted to know why the boy doesn’t at this point run away, call the police, try to get back to his family. By way of answer I told him the story of one of my boss’ West Highland terriers, all rescues. This particular little fellow was kept in a cage all his life. Often in the office, he sits under her desk or, in moments of high energy, retreats to a corner. Once in a space it is hard to coax him out of it. He’s free and yet he’s still in the cage of his mind.

I often think about this when I think about the Republicans. Of all the many questions raised by the last four years, few are more confounding than these two: Why has former President Donald J. Trump attracted such a cult following and why do the Republicans stick with him?

J.W. Waterhouse’s “Echo and Narcissus” (1903), oil on canvas. The myth of Narcissus, the youth who fell in love with his own reflection, lent its name to the narcissism we’re seeing today.

Klete Keller and America's narcissistic identity

January 25, 2021

In 2004, the United States and Australia — then swimming’s two powerhouses — faced off at the Summer Olympics in Athens. Four years earlier in Sydney, the American men had lost to the Australian men on their home field in one of the sport’s marquee events, the 4-x-200-meter freestyle relay, a race that the Australians, anchored by the legendary Ian Thorpe, had dominated for seven years.

In Athens, where the American men’s basketball Dream Team played to stunning mediocrity, the message to Team USA’s male swimmers was clear — shut down the Aussies and take back pride of place. The relay team would be led by Michael Phelps — on his way to six gold medals but not yet the supernova Phelps of the Beijing Games four years later — and his friendly rival, Ryan Lochte, who has the second most Olympic swimming medals of any man but at that time was even less of a known quantity. They were joined by Peter Vanderkaay and, swimming the last leg against Thorpe, Klete Keller.

President Donald J. Trump greets outgoing President Barack Obama on his inauguration day, Jan. 20, 2016, as former Vice President, now President-elect, Joe Biden and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer applaud politely. Thus far Trump has not shown… — President Donald J. Trump greets outgoing President Barack Obama on his inauguration day, Jan. 20, 2016, as former Vice President, now President-elect, Joe Biden and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer applaud politely. Thus far Trump has not shown Biden the same graciousness and cooperation Obama showed him. Photograph by Lance Cpl. Cristian Ricardo.

Trump and winning in loss

November 15, 2020

Recently, I went what seemed to be about 17 rounds with a publicist seeking to place an appeal for an arts organization who objected to my calling the organization small and struggling, even though it is. I shouldn’t have gotten testy about this. One of the casualties of the pandemic has been my minimal patience. But as a journalist, I always object to publicists trying to control the story, and I was particularly rankled by her waving the dictionary at me via e-mail, as if I were some recalcitrant schoolgirl.

In the end, we achieved a kind of detente, but only because I decided the story was more important than my ego. It always is. Still, I was this close to telling her she used another word incorrectly. Why? Because I wanted to score a point. I wanted to win.