Against bad manners

February 11, 2018

On Oct. 25, 1995 – one day after the United Nations turned 50 – then New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani threw Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat out of a concert at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall that ironically featured Ludwig van Beethoven’s great ode to humanity, his Symphony No. 9. The Clinton Administration then criticized Giuliani for an egregious breach of international diplomacy, but Giuliani said he could never forgive Arafat’s terrorist past, even though at that point he had been praised by both the Americans and the Israelis for his role in the Middle East peace talks.

It’s an age-old problem. We have our values. Do we cast them aside in social situations? We do not. But neither do we make a mockery of our values by punctuating them with rudeness.

Impolite behavior seeks to ridicule and humiliate others. But it is really only a reflection of those who advocate it.

I thought of this while watching the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang as Vice President Mike Pence avoided contact with Kim Jong-un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, even though he was sitting right in front of her and the president of South Korea, Moon Jae-in, had shaken her hand. ...

Escaping for a day to Greenwich Polo

June 27, 2017

Two of the best Sunday afternoons I’ve spent recently found me taking a break from blogging and novel-writing to relish show jumping at Old Salem Farm in North Salem, N.Y. and polo at Connecticut’s Greenwich Polo Club. Both sports figure in the third planned novel in my series “The Games Men Play,” a tale of blood and bloodlines about rival horse families told in part from the viewpoint of a racehorse trying to become the first since Whirlaway to win the Triple Crown and the Travers at Saratoga. ...

Champions (of a cause)

February 20, 2017

“Should professional athletes be allowed to use their status to talk about things more important than the games they play?”

That is the question that Jay Caspian Kang asks in his most recent “On Sports” column for The New York Times Magazine.

It’s a rich, juicy question, because it goes to the heart of our ambivalence toward outspoken athletes, artists, entertainers and other public figures who are not public servants. ...

Too big to fail: Trump, Brady and Federer

February 6, 2017

The parade of successful egotists continues – President Donald J. Trump, all-time men’s Slam winner (and recent Australian Open champ) Roger Federer and, now, record five-time Super Bowl champ and record four-time Super Bowl MVP Tom Brady. He led the New England Patriots to a come-from-behind, overtime victory over the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI, 34-28.

These three hardly need more accolades to fan the flames of pride. And while Fed may be more elegant and Brady more circumspect about it, they both have a manner about them that says with Trump, “I’m a winner, and you’re not.” ...

The Rio Games and the summer of our discontent

August 23, 2016

Is it just me or were the Rio Games ultimately dispiriting? Yes, I’m glad as an American that the United States won 121 medals and as a woman that American woman won 61 of them. (Give it up for Title IX.)

And I thought the Christoph Waltz/Samsung Galaxy commercial – in which the two-time Academy Award winner manages to mock superior Eurotrash and over-accomplished, multitasking exceptional Americans at the same time through a series of character vignettes – was just terrific.

But too many athletes reminded me that time is the cruelest opponent. ...

The great Ryan Lochte Rio robbery caper

August 17, 2016

So which is it? Were 12-time Olympic swimming champion Ryan Lochte and three fellow swimmers robbed at gunpoint as they returned to the Olympic Village during the Rio Games? Or did they invent the story to cover up a drunken night on the town? Or are Rio officials trying to cover up an unsavory aspect of these summer games, the lawlessness of the host city?

It’s hard to know in a twisting tale that now has a Brazilian judge now seeking to detain Lochte, who has already left the country, and James Feigen. Often, though, the truth in a mystery lies between two viewpoints. ...

The greatest

August 17, 2016

When you title a blog post, you’re supposed to make it as specific as possible – unlike necessarily a print headline – to draw attention to it. But I figure few titles are more intriguing than “the greatest.” Who is “the greatest”? The title is associated with Muhammad Ali, but really fans in every sport like to argue over who is the GOAT (greatest of all time) in their discipline.

You could say Michael Phelps is the greatest swimmer of all time and the greatest Olympian of all time with 28 medals, 23 gold – six of them (five gold, one silver) in Rio alone. You could say the New York Yankees are the greatest baseball team of all time with 18 division titles, 40 American League pennants and 27 World Series titles. Both Phelps and the Yankees are so far ahead of their competitors that it’s hard to imagine anyone catching up. ...