National Treasure

I'm not entirely sure why CNN chose to have Robert De Niro on its Sunday talker today, though that choice is a damn sight better than having some GOP talking head spout unopposed nonsense. But I am very much sure that De Niro has captured the zeitgeist.

—@BrianStelter asks Robert De Niro about criticism he gets from Fox for speaking out against Trump.

"Fuck em," De Niro replies. "Fuck em."

Stelter reminds him, "This is cable, so it's not an FCC violation, but it is still a Sunday morning." pic.twitter.com/9IOo1VvXCM

— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) September 29, 2019

Go ahead, Bobby.

Let It Go, Man

After one of the most potentially consequential weeks in recent American history, it's time for us to reflect on where we are, and prepare for what's to come.

Maybe it's time for that for some people. For us, it's Friday afternoon, and we found something that links together a lot of stuff that we like, so we're gonna share it.

Justin Trawick is a prolific DC-based musician and all-around good-natured performer. I've seen him play at my local joint a few times (shout out to the Tally Ho), and he never fails to give the audience their money's worth. He's the quintessential journeyman musician, fronting his band, The Common Good, hosting a podcast, playing solo shows, and relentlessly boosting the DMV's music scene.

Tim Kaine is the junior U.S. Senator from Virginia (and Lord in Heaven don't we wish he was the Vice President of the United States), a music fan, and an honest to Whitney FOGTB. (When I met Kaine last October during the Town of Leesburg Halloween parade, I told him of our mutual friendship with Whitney and his father, Harry. Senator Kaine offered warm regards for both, and confessed to actually liking them. Easy to believe about the father. Somewhat more surprising, the son. I'll leave out the part where I was dressed as Uncle Fester from The Addams Family when I made the Senator's acquaintance.)

Kaine is also an avid music fan who plays a mean harmonica, I'm told. Rolling Stone wrote in October 2016, "If elected, Tim Kaine will be the most music-savvy VP in American history." Fucking "if". Goddamn you, Rudyard Kipling.

That love of music is where this story gets interesting, from a Gheorghie perspective. 

Senator Kaine teamed up with Trawick and The Common Good as part of an event the former hosted celebrating live music. The song they chose is...interesting. Almost as much as the way Kaine described it. Enjoy.

Really wish that was our Vice President, folks. Really, really do.

Just a Quick Recap

Yesterday the White House released a memorandum summarizing a conversation between Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Soon thereafter, millions of pundits analyzed the document and pontificated as to whether or not the conversation amounted to a quid pro quo--a grant of military funding from the US to Ukraine in return for Ukraine initiating an investigation into Joe Biden's son. I think it's pretty clear that the conversation resulted in a bartered-for exchange:

Trump said "United States has been very very good to Ukraine. I wouldn't say that it's reciprocal necessarily because things are happening that are not good but the United States has been very very good to Ukraine."

Zelenskyy replied "Yes you are absolutely right .... I would also like to thank you for your great support in the area of defense. We are ready to continue to cooperate for the next steps specifically we are almost ready to buy more Javelins from the United States for defense purposes."

Trump immediately replied "I would like you to do us a favor ..." and asked for Ukraine to look into CrowdStrike.

Zelenskyy's next words were "Yes it is very important for me and everything that you just mentioned earlier. For me as a President, it is very important and we are open for any future cooperation." He then said he's looking forward to seeing Rudy Giuliani.

Trump rambles for a sentence or two and then says "The other thing, There's a lot of talk about Biden's son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it... It sounds horrible to me."

Zelenskyy responds that "the next prosecutor general will be 100% my person, my candidate, who will be approved, by the parliament and will start as a new prosecutor in September. He or she will look into the situation, specifically to the company that you mentioned in this issue."

Trump replies "I will have Mr. Giuliani give you a call and I am also going to have Attorney General Barr call and we will get to the bottom of it. I'm sure you will figure it out."

Zelenskyy notes that he stayed in the Trump Tower the last time he visited New York City and adds that he "would like to thank you very much for your support."

Satisfied, Trump wraps things up with "Good. Well, thank you very much and I appreciate that. I will tell Rudy and Attorney General Barr to call. Thank you."

These guys just did a deal, right? In a nutshell, the first guy told the second guy that the second guy takes but doesn't give; the second guy offered to make it up to the first guy by "coooperating" to buy some stuff from him; the first guy asked for a favor; the second guy said yes and noted that he's open to "future cooperation"; the first guy asked for another favor; the second guy said he'd put someone on it right away; the first guy said his boys Rudy and Bob would be in touch to discuss next steps; they both thanked each other.

How is this not a quid pro quo exchange? More importantly, WHO THE FUCK CARES IF THIS IS A QUID PRO QUO EXCHANGE!?!?!? THIS IS FUCKING COLLUSION OR CONSPIRACY OR COOPERATION OR WHATEVER ELSE YOU WANT TO CALL IT!!!

Robert Mueller and his team spend close to two years investigating Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election. He was not looking for "quid pro quo," he was looking for "coordination" between the Russian government and the Trump campaign. I know this because page 2 of the Mueller Report says "we addressed the factual question whether members of the Trump Campaign 'coordinat[ed]'—a term that appears in the appointment order—with Russian election interference activities." Page 2 of the Mueller Report notes that "[l]ike collusion, 'coordination' does not have a settled definition in federal criminal law. We understood coordination to require an agreement—tacit or express—between the Trump Campaign and the Russian government on election interference."

Isn't that exactly what Trump and Zelenskyy did? They tacitly agreed to interfere with the upcoming 2020 Presidential election, right? Why isn't anyone saying this? Why is everyone debating "quid pro quo"? You mean to tell me that if Mueller found a tape recording of a phone call between Trump and Putin saying what I outlined above, Mueller still would have concluded that there was no "cooperation" between Trump and Russia? If you're telling me that, please pass me whatever you're drinking.

The Mueller Report also analyzed the facts under the rubric of conspiracy, applying 18 U.S.C. § 371 and statutes with similar standards. Mueller Report at 181. The elements of conspiracy under 18 U.S.C. § 371 are:

(1) Two or more persons
(2) conspire (i.e., intentionally agree--you can't have a conspiracy between a criminal and an undercover cop because the cop doesn't really intend to commit the crime)
(3) to commit any offense against the United States, or to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose, and
(4) one or more of such persons do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy

Trump's call with Zelenskyy had two people. Element 1, check. They intentionally agreed to do something, namely to investigate CrowdStrike and Biden. Element 2, check. Trump hopes that investigating Biden will result in information adverse to his political rival, so he's asking a foreign government to provide information that will influence the next election. Element 3, check (see 52 U.S.C. § 30121(a)(1)(C); United States v. Renzi, 769 F.3d 731, 744 (9th Cir. 2014)). So long as Zelenskyy took a single step towards investigating Biden, we have element 4 and thus a conspiracy.

I just explained this in under 1000 words (987 to be exact) and I could definitely pare it down if I wasn't lazy. Why doesn't anyone else with a bigger platform point this out? Probably because DJ Trump Jedi mind tricked everyone again, and has us all talking about quids and pros. To paraphrase KRS-ONE, I encourage you to wake up, take the pillow from your head and put a book in it. Or at least a few statutes.

Stupid Human Tricks

Courtesy of the most accomplished rugger in the G:TB family (with apologies to Whitney and TR, if only to be polite), here's a bit of Rugby World Cup color*.



As the first comment below the video pithily notes, ook maar lekker dom ne.

* It's possible that this isn't from the 2019 Rugby World Cup. Nevertheless, our editors have deemed it representative.

The Old 49er

At some point this morning, probably not early, our man Whitney's gonna wake up and crank this tune:



All the best to our favorite Southsider. Hope you close out your 40s in style.

(We've hidden a sublime joke opportunity in this post. Let's see if our birthday boy notices.)

Official G:TB Rugby World Cup Preview

"There’s going to be some sort of drama that unfolds that changes whatever the popularly accepted narrative is about the winner or who’s going to be in the semifinals or who’s even going to be in the quarterfinals.”

Hightower takes the game very seriously.

So sayeth no less a sage than our own Brian Hightower on the eve of the 2019 Rugby World Cup. That may seem like anodyne stuff put out by NBC as part of the pre-tournament publicity package. But Hightower doesn't do anodyne. I think he's picking the USA Eagles to make a run to the Final Four. And I'm right beside him.

Though the Eagles are ranked a modest 13th in the world, they did win the Olympic gold medal. In 1924, but that's hardly relevant. Coach Gary Gold's squad recorded the US's first-ever tier 1 win last summer, knocking off Scotland, 30-29. The team followed that up with a win over Samoa. Most observers believe that the Americans find themselves in the World Cup's Group of Death, where they'll face France, Argentina, England, and Tonga. (As an aside, the Tonga Toast at Disney's Polynesian resort is absurdly good, especially accompanied by french press coffee, and has the added benefit of carrying enough calories to get you through an entire day.)

Those observers believe that the U.S.A. will be lucky to get one win out of the event, most likely against Tonga. I think we all know what Brian Hightower thinks of that conventional wisdom. The Eagles play England in Kobe on September 26 to kick off their tournament.

As for the rest of the entrants in the 20-team tournament, USA Eagle legend Dan Lyle frames it this way, "I call this the five-five-and-five. You’ve got five teams who can absolutely win it. You’ve got five teams who have beaten those five, and then you’ve got five more below that that have beaten those five."

That first five consists of the legendary All-Blacks of New Zealand, Ireland, England, South Africa, and Wales. A punter putting cash down on any of the other 15 sides is in it for a lark.

Your likely winners.

The tournament starts today, with hosts Japan taking on Russia in Tokyo. Ireland are actually the top-ranked side in the world rankings, narrowly ahead of New Zealand. The All-Blacks are the betting favorite at 6/4, having won the previous two World Cups. Ireland's fly half, Jonathan Sexton, was the 2018 world player of the year, but he's battled injuries recently. With him healthy, the Irish are dangerous. Without him, they may not get out of their group. Wales briefly occupied the top spot in the world rankings earlier this year, though they fell to Ireland, 22-17 just a few weeks ago.

Our fearless (and clueless) prognosticators have pooled their limited mental resources. Here's the official G:TB Rugby World Cup prediction:

Pool A: (Ireland, Scotland, Japan, Samoa, Russia)
Winner: Scotland
Runner-Up: Ireland
Faux-knowledgeable Commentary: The hosts are an up-and-comer, and could give the Scots and Irish a tumble, but there's too much quality from the traditional powers.

Pool B: (New Zealand, South Africa, Italy, Canada, Namibia)
Winner: South Africa
Runner-Up: New Zealand
Faux-knowledgeable Commentary: They really needn't bother play out all the matches in this one. The drop in quality from the top two teams to the rest is river deep and ocean wide. New Zealand will rest their best players against South Africa, which will give the Springboks a chance to take the group.

Pool C: (England, France, Argentina, USA, Tonga)
Winner: England
Runner-Up: France
Faux-knowledgeable Commentary: What was all that crap about the USA making the semi-finals? Turns out we've never won more than one match in a World Cup, but this year we're gonna beat Tonga and upset Argentina, so...progress! And Remember 1924!

Pool D: (Wales, Australia, Fiji, Georgia, Uruguay)
Winner: Wales
Runner-Up: Fiji
Faux-knowledgeable Commentary: We're going a little out on a limb here. The Fijians are playing (sort of) close to home, they're fast and creative, and we really feel bad about picking chalk in all the rest of the pools. Vei Lomani!

Quarterfinals:
England over Fiji
Ireland over South Africa
Wales over France
New Zealand over Scotland

Semifinals:
Ireland over England
New Zealand over Wales

Finals:
New Zealand over Ireland

And if the All-Blacks do lift their fourth Webb Ellis trophy, the guy second from left in the shot below won't be all that happy. Drunk, but not all that happy:

If you get Fairfax County Public Access television, you can watch Mr. KQ
wax knowledgeable about all things Rugby World Cup while wearing that hat.

In keeping with our tradition of finding the important things about sports, we'll also call your attention to a cool review of the kits worn by each of the teams. Rugby shirts sure have come a long way from when they were de rigueur for high school preppy kids. I had a few.

Follow this space for plenty of coverage from Japan. (Note: not likely to be plenty, and probably not from Japan, unless Zman or TR makes another trip there.) There will be plenty of Hightower references here over the next few weeks, though.

Time is a Flat, Lefthanded Circle

When I was a lad, my favorite professional athlete was Carl Yastrzemski. I practiced his pigeon-toed lefty stance, leaning forward just a bit, twirling my Wiffle bat towards the pitcher with my right hand before cocking it above my left ear. I was in Fenway Park on July 24, 1979 when he hit his 400th homer against Oakland's Mike Morgan.

So how cool do you think I found it when his grandson Mike, an outfielder for the San Francisco Giants, played his first big league game in Boston this evening? Or when he did this?



There are occasions in sport that are almost too good to be true. This one was both.

State of Play

From the desk of our OBX correspondent, a topic that hits close to home for several amongst the assembled Gheorghies, the role adults play in making youth sports more stressful and less fun than they should be and the associated consequences.

It’s a familiar sight. An athlete sits at a table behind a bank of microphones. He announces that he is retiring from competitive sports. The pressure has become too great at his age. He says that sports are no longer fun. He will miss his coaches and teammates, but it’s time to quit. Except that he is nine.



The commercial, which began running in August, was produced by the Aspen Institute as part of an initiative called “Don’t Retire, Kid.” The average child plays sports fewer than three years and quits by age 11, according to a recent study by the institute and Utah State University. In 2018, only 38 percent of kids age 6-to-12 played a sport, down from 45 percent a decade earlier, according to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association. The reason most often cited is that sports were no longer fun.

The Aspen Institute is a think tank known mostly for convening smart and influential people to discuss high-minded issues – business, education, the environment, justice, global affairs. It also contains a division devoted to Health and Sport. Within that is the Sport in Society program, which began in 2011 and whose mission is, in its words: to convene leaders, foster dialogue, and inspire solutions that help sport serve the public interest, with a focus on the development of healthy children and communities.

Impediments to that goal are rising costs and, far too often, the adults in charge. On average, parents spend almost $700 per year on one child’s sports participation, according to the institute’s 2019 State of Play report. Plenty of parents spend thousands per year, depending on the sport and level of competition, with travel accounting for the largest outlay.

The report is interesting reading, 32 pages of trends, problems, charts, recommendations, and initiatives both local and national. Among the report’s troubling findings were that fewer than 20 percent of youth coaches have been trained within the past three years in CPR, basic first aid, concussion management and injury prevention. Parents surveyed that their kids’ greatest source of pressure comes from coaches. Specialization causes early burnout and repetitive stress injuries in still-developing bodies. Some parents push their kids behind the idea of earning college scholarships and perhaps professional careers. Some parents who wish to dial back from increasingly competitive and costly situations fear they can’t because to do so would cut off outlets and opportunities for their kids.

Kobe Bryant, who the institute enlisted as a spokesman in its effort, says in a spot, “Sports used to be something that kids go out and do for fun. But now it’s become so regimented where parents start to inject their own experiences or past failures onto their children, and it just takes the fun out of it.”

Granted, sports aren’t for everybody. But studies show that being active and playing sports as a kid can have physical, social and psychological benefits. Kids who play sports are less likely to be overweight or develop Type 2 diabetes. They are less likely to suffer from stress and depression, and more likely to be academically successful and attend college. They are more likely to remain active as adults and at least sweat a little between beer sessions.

(Ed Note: The institute may be rethinking its choice of spokesperson after Bryant publicly chastised a sixth-grader on Instagram for missing a playoff hoops game in favor of a dance recital. Hear the message, disregard the messenger, or something.)

For me, the most disheartening trend is the widening gap between the haves and have-nots, and how it relates to youth sports. One-third of kids age 6-to-12 in households with less than $25,000 income were physically inactive in 2018, compared to fewer than 10 percent of kids in households with income greater than $100,000. In households with incomes between $25,000-50,000, almost one-fourth of kids (24.5 percent) did not participate in a sport. The most promising and gifted kids are always going to be helped and subsidized, but this is about the vast majority being systematically excluded.

The report’s first recommendation is: ask kids what they want. In surveys where kids are asked to rank different components of playing sports, having fun, hanging out with friends, and learning new skills rate very highly. Elite level competition is generally way down the list.

Other recommendations include: reintroduce free play, so that not all activity is regimented; encourage sport sampling, and cut back on specialization and overtraining; revitalize in-town leagues, so that activities are available for kids and families of modest means; train coaches in basic first aid practices, as well as age- and talent-appropriate methods and messages.

It’s kids and sports. How did we muck it up this badly?

People, Every Once in a Great While, Don't Suck

Arkansas State football coach Blake Anderson's wife Wendy passed on August 19, succumbing to cancer, that motherfucker. Anderson returned to coaching the Red Wolves last week, leading them to a 43-17 win over UNLV.

Today, in Athens, GA, Arkansas State is taking on the University of Georgia. The Bulldogs' colors are famously black and red.

And yet, a significant portion of the Sanford Stadium crowd is wearing pink in Wendy Anderson's honor.



That's a cool thing you've done, Bulldogs.

Life In Vain, Not So Much

Daniel Johnston died yesterday.

It's likely that at least some of you have heard of this enigmatic figure.  He was fascinating. Like can't-look-away fascinating.

Visual artist, musician, poet.

Manic depressive, bipolar, schizophrenic.

NPR called him a "troubled soul." This bit of information about sums him up, from Wikipedia:

In spite of Johnston being resident in a mental hospital at the time, there was a bidding war to sign him. He refused to sign a multi-album deal with Elektra Records because Metallica was on the label's roster and he was convinced that they were of Satan and would hurt him. Ultimately he signed with Atlantic Records in February 1994.

And the music... just wow. When he sings, your initial takeaway is... yeah, there's something wrong with Daniel. Your inner five-year-old voice is Daniel Johnston's outer persona, particularly when he sings. So... it sounds like a little kid with a disability singing super-simple lyrics over two chords of guitar? That must sound terrible, right?

Wrong. It's great. Well, by traditional aesthetics it may be unlistenable, and it's not for everyone, for sure, but if you can dig in, you'll definitely hear it in there.  The real beauty.

This is someone who was working at McDonald's in the early 1980's and would hand out his homemade cassettes with homemade cover art.

Kurt was a fan

Someone who sings about life -- and make no mistake, life was very difficult for Daniel Johnston -- in an unadulterated, wide-eyed way.
Someone who lived with his parents or in institutions for much of his life.
Someone who gained a cult following, defying all logic.
Someone who made his own brand of music and toured all over, playing his songs.
Someone who had a documentary made about him.
This is Daniel Johnston.

I could write more about him, but others have done it plenty, and done it way better than I could. His backstory in an article from the Austin paper, where he lived for a long time. Here's a recent NPR Tiny Desk recording. And you can just Google his name to find more than a few posthumous tributes. Here's the Austin rendition.

I mean, it's easy to shake your head when you read this.

In 1990, Johnston played at a music festival in Austin, Texas. On the way back to West Virginia on a private two-seater plane piloted by his father Bill, Johnston had a manic psychotic episode; believing he was Casper the Friendly Ghost, Johnston removed the key from the plane's ignition and threw it outside. His father, a former U.S. Air Force pilot, managed to successfully crash-land the plane, even though "there was nothing down there but trees". Although the plane was destroyed, Johnston and his father emerged with only minor injuries. As a result of this episode, Johnston was involuntarily committed to a mental hospital.

But then, watch this Austin City Limits rendition of one of my favorites of his, "Life in Vain." Judd Apatow says it "makes me cry every time."

His pièce de résistance is a song called "True Love Will Find You in the End."

The song is so simple. It's 1:48 long. It has a guitar quietly emanating a pair of chords in the far-off background. And the lyrics are just so simple. But they're really quite nice.

True Love Will Find You in the End

True love will find you in the end
You'll find out just who was your friend
Don't be sad, I know you will
But don't give up until
True love will find you in the end

This is a promise with a catch
Only if you're looking can it find you
'Cause true love is searching too
But how can it recognize you
If you don't step out into the light, the light

Don't be sad I know you will
Don't give up until
True love will find you in the end


And that voice.

Wilco, Beck, and many, many others have covered it. Decently. My favorite cover is by a band called Hey Marseilles.

But what any cover lacks is what makes Johnston's songs remarkable -- his plain, plaintive singing, the childlike quality that makes you not just hear it, not just listen to it, not just feel it, but it makes you think.

About what the fuck must be going on with that cat's head.
And his life.
And what it must have taken to throw himself out there like that.
And what odds he overcame in his life.
And how if he can do this, why can't I?
And lots of other things more specific and personal to you. That's the cool part of it.

People took to calling him "genius." Which bothered him, and which you don't need to do to someone suffering from those conditions. It's just a word in the end, and whether it bears truth or not when applied to Daniel Johnston, it doesn't matter. He created something that wasn't there, and his legacy is permanent. And it was, in its own way, really beautiful. Beauty does take some interesting shapes. 

Rest in peace, Daniel Johnston. In the end, it seemed that many people found their true love in your music and your art and your message. Here's hoping it found you.

"Don't be sad, I know you will."

Post

I have to remind myself that some birds aren't meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright. And when they fly away, the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up does rejoice. Still, the place you live in is that much more drab and empty that they're gone. I guess I just miss my friends.

In Praise of Badass Women

The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing white dudes that they were somehow superior to the rest of the human race. We'll pay for that original sin for the rest of our natural lives. And this stupid blog ain't gonna make any kind of real dent in the problem. So we'll do what we can.

Here's to some badass women doing amazing stuff this week.

G:TB fave Elena Delle Donne just finished one of the best seasons in WNBA history. It's impressive enough that she averaged 19.5 points and 8.3 rebounds for the Washington Mystics, who finished the regular season with the league's best record. But the way she did it was unprecedented. Delle Donne dropped the first 50/40/90 season in the WNBA's history, making 51.5% of her shots from the field, 43.0% of her three-pointers, and an absolutely absurd 97.4% of her free throws. She might be the best free-throw shooter on the planet right now, regardless of gender.

Staying in the sporting domain, I certainly hope you got to see the U.S. Open Women's Final between Serena Williams and Bianca Andreescu. Down 3-6, 1-5 and match point, Williams summoned Wyatt Earp crossing the river to gun down Curly Bill Brocious, going anything but gently into that good night. When she drew even at 5-5 in the second set, the Flushing Meadows crowd roared a collective cathartic yawp that should've overwhelmed the 19 year-old Andreescu.



When the young Canadian steeled herself and won the final two games of the second set to take her first major championship, she displayed a mental toughness that's hard to fathom.



Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby, Amanda Shires and Maren Morris are accomplished artists in their own rights. Now, as The Highwomen, they're a supergroup on paper, and a protest movement in reality, cloaked in amazing harmonies and killer tunes. "Highwomen", the eponymous tune that kicks off the group's debut album echoes The Highwaymen's similar song, but packs the haunting emotional punch of three centuries of women killed fighting for their power-threatening beliefs. As Vulture.com puts it, "...the message being that in spite of radical changes in the human experience, the main theme — people in power keeping other people out of power — endures. These women just wanted to live, love, and be loved, but the planet couldn’t handle that."



The Vulture.com review linked above celebrates The Highwomen and their continuation of a long legacy of strong women in country music. That's the easy part. The essay also pointedly remarks, "Most people believe in equality, but their numbers tend to thin when you ask what they’re willing to sacrifice to secure it."

That's a whole lot harder.

NFL Kickoff Open Thread

I don't watch much football these days, at least not the American kind. But lots of folks do, and we're all about inclusion at G:TB. So here's The Sundays singing about the summer. I definitely like Harriet Wheeler and summer.

I Don't Work There No More

Many of us endeavor to play at the games that brought us joy (and pain) as younger men. Mark plays basketball. I play soccer. Dave wears visors. Danimal swims, bikes, and runs. Increasingly, our bodies send us signals that question the wisdom of such efforts. I sprained my ankle badly enough playing soccer last November that it still hurt in February, for example.

I recently set a personal fitness goal, putting a stake in the ground and saying that I plan to be playing soccer when I turn 60. Ambitious, perhaps, but even if I'm successful, I've got nothing on Ryuichi Nagayama.

The 86 year-old Nagayama is a physician in Tokyo. More relevant to our topic today, he also plays lock for the Fuwaka Rugby Club, which is comprised of players aged 40 and above. Fuwaka RC was founded in 1948, and is one of about 150 clubs in Japan that field over-40 squads.

“You tackle and battle each other, but the gathering after the play is so enjoyable and fun,” says Nagayama, who knows his way around a rugby party, and according to legend, fucks up 'I Used to Work in Chicago' on purpose so he can shoot the boot for kicks. (Pun not intended, but it made me giggle so I left it in.)



As I type these words, I know for a near certainty that Whitney and Mr. KQ are feeling an itch that they can't quite explain. In Whitney's case, there's medication for that.

Here's to Dr. Nagayama and to never really growing up.

Gheorghasbord

Whittling some metaphorical sticks while avoiding grappling with the issues of our time. Here's what's rattling through the aging brain.

Watched a bit of Federer/Dimitrov last night, an evening after watching Nadal play Maren Cilic. I texted Zman on Monday wondering how Nadal's body doesn't simply explode from the force he applies to his strokes. Lots of HGH, according to our expert. Nadal is 33 years old, Federer a preposterous 38. The Swiss star looked every one of those years last night, fading badly over the final two sets to lose his quarterfinal match to the journeyman Bulgarian. The Flushing Meadows crowd was visibly upset at the champion's wilting. He's defied time for an amazingly long stretch. Perhaps time's caught up. Fed's always had a pretty good perspective on his career, and he seems to understand what's important, saying post-match, “I’m looking forward to family time and all that stuff. So life’s all right.”

Life's all right, indeed.

My dog, thinking deep
thoughts. Right before
rolling in dead fish guts.

All right for me and the fam, too, which is a blessing. We spent last weekend at friends' river house at the confluence of the Rappahannock River and the Chesapeake Bay. Many of you know that we adopted a puppy a few months ago. This weekend was her first chance to really cut loose off the leash. Between the various families at the house, there were a total of five dogs. It was bedlam from breakfast to bedtime. There's a little salt pond on one side of the house, and our puppy, JoJo, discovered how much she loves water. There may be no return. Hard to imagine how much we love this goofy spaz that only entered our life in June.

Speaking of goofy spazzes, check out Charlie Slowes' call of Kurt Suzuki's walkoff homer from last night's Mets/Nationals game. As Whit noted in the comments from the previous post, the Mets blew a 10-4, 9th inning lead, giving up seven runs in the bottom of the 9th to lose 11-10. Thomas Boswell says it's one of the 20 worst losses in the long history of Major League Baseball. Ouch, babe.

The radio call of Kurt Suzuki's #WALKOFF home run is the song of the summer.@CharlieSlowes // @DaveJageler pic.twitter.com/bOavak1BxI

— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) September 4, 2019

Moving along, please fasten your seatbelts, because the jarring disconnect between the last nugget and the next may cause injury.

I've been reading the New York Times' epic 1619 Project, which traces the history of slavery in America from its beginning to its undeniable impacts on our present day society. The project is comprised of a series of stories on a broad range of topics, from the actual mechanics of slavery, to enslaved people's impacts on music and art, to how slavery explains Atlanta's current fucked-up traffic patterns, among many things. It's unsparing, and it's hard to read. Predictably, elements of our intelligentsia call it leftist propaganda, probably without having read any of it. Regardless, it's important, and more of those of us who live comfortable lives free from ever having to personally confront what it's like to be the other should try to digest it. Slavery colors our world today, whether we try to deny it.

A little bit more whiplash to end these meanderings. Someone on Twitter posted yesterday that the President* stands like he's a centaur whose missing his hind legs and now I can't unsee that image. Here for your viewing pleasure.

In Solidarity with Mark and Danimal

While Team Gheorghe sends well wishes to our Florida brethren, and in a desperate need for more #content, this morning I give you a smattering of songs associated with liquid water in the form of droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then become heavy enough to fall under gravity. Please feel free to jump in the comments and tell me what I missed. In the immortal words of Ollie Williams, IT'S GON' RAIN!