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.” ...
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Read MoreGod created the world in seven days, the Bible tells us.
It took President Donald Trump only 14 to destroy it.
“Destroy” may be too strong a word. “Disturb,” “disrupt” are better choices. In one of the greatest games men play, politics, he is the lord of misrule, tweeting and executive-ordering us into a new world that may or may not be brave; terrifying the already traumatized “huddled masses yearning to breathe free” and insulting world leaders – with the exception of boy crush Vladimir “Rootin’ Tootin’” Putin – in equal stead.
Australians, refugees, refugees in Australia – is there anyone who has not been blasted by Trumpet? ...
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Read MoreWhen he won the French Open last June – capping a long-held dream and holding all four Slams, the first man to do so in 47 years – the world was Novak Djokovic’s oyster.
That now seems like a long time ago. He won only one title, the Rogers Cup, during the second half of 2016 and lost his No. 1 ranking to Andy Murray. (Because he had won so many tournaments in 2015 and had to defend all those points under the ranking system, he actually lost points, nothing failing in tennis quite like success.)
At the Australian Open, he lost in the third round in a tournament that was won by the returning Roger Federer, who defeated Rafael Nadal. ...
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Read MoreDay three of President Donald J. Trump’s seven-nation immigrant ban, and things are getting curiouser and curiouser.
Trump supporters say he’s just following former President Barack Obama’s lead, then claim Obama did nothing to prevent terrorism. Well, which is it? It can’t be both.
Then The New York Times reports that since nature abhors a vacuum, the Chinese – hardly the paragon of democracy – are ready to step in and lead the free world in free trade, which is looking mighty good to the Europeans. So much for making America great again. ...
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Read MoreThe current political climate has broadened the mission of this blog and its title, The Games Men Play, deepening its commitment to culture and sex (gender), two of its themes. But in the meantime, I realize I have been neglecting sports. Time to get back in the saddle.
On Saturday, Jan. 28, Arrogate, the super gray colt, provided us with some much needed distraction by winning the world’s richest horse race, the $12 million Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park, defeating a retiring California Chrome. Previously, Arrogate beat Chrome in the Breeders’ Cup Classic while setting the fastest pace ever at the Travers Stakes against Exaggerator and Creator. Clearly, the 4-year-old, trained by Bob Baffert of American Pharoah fame, is the horse to beat. ...
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Read More“Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,” Robert Frost writes in “Mending Wall” – one of two Frost poems, the other being “The Tuft of Flowers,” that addresses the nature of human relationships. “That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it, and spills the upper boulders in the sun; and makes gaps even two can pass abreast.”
The poem ends with the neighbor telling the poet famously, “Good fences make good neighbors.”
Well, they certainly make resentful ones. This has been a week of walls, literal and metaphoric, courtesy of President Donald J. Trump. There is the actual, proposed wall between Mexico and the United States whose cost would be covered by a tariff on Mexican imports like avocados. (Oh, no, whither Cinco de Mayo?) To say that Mexico is not taking this well is the understatement of 10 lifetimes. El Presidente Enrique Peña Nieto – not exactly the most popular man south of the border – nonetheless got a boost at home after he cancelled his meeting with Trump, though the two have since spoken by phone. ...
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Read MoreMary Tyler Moore – who died Wednesday of cardiopulmonary arrest after pneumonia at age 80 – was the Jackie of TV. And like Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, she road the wave of feminism from chic wife and mother to career woman.
If Laura Petrie on “The Dick Van Dyke Show” was White House Jackie in Capri pants, Mary Richards on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” was Jackie O, the Doubleday and Viking editor, a sweater draped nattily over her shoulder. But Mary was not only a career woman, she was a certain kind of working woman, one who, unlike Jackie, had to go home and cook and face being alone. ...
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