You Should Meet The Poor, They're Awfully Nice

It recently came to my attention, via this New York Time article, that most people involved in the "reform" of public schools didn't attend them. This is not the least bit surprising, illustrating as it does the relative lack of social mobility in the United States, but also the implicit suggestion that the people who make the rules (or rather their children) are necessarily those who have to live by them.

A more interesting question might be which of them actually send their progeny to the schools they're busy, "reforming" since even this unexceptionable gentleman appears unwilling to trust his children to a New York City public school that he's not managing personally. I suspect the number is that high, since even in the most elite of New York City public schools, class size are still close (or at times apparently in excess of) the contractual maximum of 34. As an educator, this is perhaps the most essential issue; no matter how smart and motivated students are, if you're teaching 5 classes with 34 students versus 4 classes of 15 students (the typical sizes for private and public schools in New York City), the amount of time you can devote to assisting them respectively will vary enormously. And as any parent, teacher, or child (or lover) would tell you, it's getting attention that matters most.

Franqui Not Tranqui

I once had a first (and last) date with a woman who claimed to support both Real Madrid and Barcelona. Such a statement is as ignorant and illogical as an Estadounidense evincing affection for both the Red Sox and Yankees would be apposite - if everyone in the world actually cared about baseball, and the teams were respectively associated with progressivism and Tea Partyism AND these loyalties were born out of a bitter Civil War followed by three and a half decades of oppression.

I'm not going to tell that whole story here when there's Phil Ball's Morbo to do the job more coherently. But suffice it to say, at least in the minds of their supporters, Real Madrid and Barcelona represent the centralizing illiberal tradition going back to Felipe II (at least) and more liberal decentralizing tendencies respectively. Of course it's really far more complex than that, since like the Yankees and Red Sox, the two sides are both more like one another than anyone else in their league, namely due to their vast resources gained both "legitimately" (via television deals that cement their duopoly) and through a dodgy web of loans that could run afoul of UEFA's much-anticipated Financial Fair Play rules.

Nevertheless, there are some differences between them, and not just because Barca has outperformed Los Merengues of late both domestically and even more so in Europe. The most compelling of these, to my mind, is that Madrid's Ultra Sur remains a cesspit of fascism, whereas Barca banned its own crazies, the Boixos Nois, a group most famously responsible for chucking a pig's head at Luis Figo. While I'm not a fan of exclusivist nationalism (if you're wondering, that's where the whole "Més que un club" line comes from, these are the same folks who'd prefer you to speak English as opposed to the language of Cervantes in Spain's second largest city), it's a damn sight better than fascism.

So while I'm not going to join a penya anytime soon, especially since Barca delights in putting my beloved Arsenal to the sword in the Champions League, not to mention making bedroom eyes towards Captain Cesc, I'd much prefer to see them win today than Mourinho's minions.

IPL vs. Test Cricket

I’ve been playing cricket for 17 years, yet explaining the game consistently turns into a difficult endeavor. Explaining the differences between my beloved IPL and the stodgy world of test cricket is quite simple. For you basketball lovers, test cricket is the NBA before the 3-point line was introduced. This is the clearest sports analogy I can dig out of my brain on a Monday morning.

The philosophical differences are as clear as the Caribbean water. Since an IPL match only lasts 20 overs (for each side), said side must obtain the highest amount of runs during their 20 overs. A test match does not last 20 overs – it can go on for as long as 5 days; hence patience is rewarded in test cricket. In the IPL patience it is spat upon, which is exactly why the IPL has become a 1 billion USD plus business and Test Cricket has been steadily losing fans and money over the years. The IPL is full of exciting plays (boundaries, run-outs, mid-wicket incidents, etc.). I would rather watch golf as opposed to test cricket and the only time I spend on a golf course I’m quite certainly intoxicated.

One must highlight 2 additional factors for the IPL’s exorbitant success. IPL stands for “India Premier League”. You’ve probably figured out by now that the league is based and held in India most of the time – a couple years back the IPL had to hightail it to South Africa for one season due to security concerns. Compare the fans in the Indian Peninsula and the West Indies to any other fans and you’ll see why players love plying their trade in such outposts as Rajastan. To say that Indians are enthusiastic about their cricket is about as mild an understatement as saying that Rush Limbaugh likes to talk in the mornings.

The last factor that explains the IPL’s superiority is a very, very American one indeed: money. Pure, glowing, unaduletered cheese. Some IPL players make 1 million USD for 6 weeks work. The greenbacks have attracted the World’s best players, who make this the best cricket I’ve ever seen.

I’ve never seen an IPL match or anything remotely related to it on the telly. I get my IPL fix from their own private youtube channel. The production value is so high that they fly a Spidey-Cam over the field NFL style.


This rant was brought to you degenerates by:

CHORI

Gifts From Google Ads

An ex of mine used to refer to Google Ads "pooping things up." It's stuck with me, since sometimes these ads, unobtrusive as they may be, feel a little like birdshit on your shirt. Kind of like when Facebook's lack of an irony detector suggests I like crazed right-wingers or football teams I despise.

Anyway, today regalo de armadillo was an ad for high end laundry. Their story is priceless, or maybe it's just my sense of humor.