Jerry, no one knew who you were until you identified yourself. Before you were the completely anonymous Jerry B. Here you've posted your full name and almost dared the weak minded to find you and yours.
You are identified in the main post only as Jerry B. -- anyone who wants to find your full name has to go back into the archives to find the original comments where they will have access to your full, unedited declarations that, I will note again, do not in any way diminish your pre-emptive sneering at "pussy men" who wear masks even though you don't know why they might be wearing masks. Exactly how or why you feel a fair reading of your remarks puts you and your wife "in jeopardy" I can't say, but for a guy who is quite chesty about his brave masculinity --
>>>>>I tell my wife that “cowardice” is not a moral failing. Rather it is a physiological state characterized by hyperventilation, rapid pulse, incontinence, etc. Thus this low-T guy is hardwired to be what he is..... can indeed “do macho” because I am indeed macho. Hard to really fake. Although I am now elderly –Eric claims in my dotage -- turning on the macho faucet is at times helpful. Helpful to shut up truly annoying fellows and to charm many ladies so that day to day interactions are more enjoyable.>>>>
--- you are awfully tremulous as you imagine the evil defenders of the "pussy men" hunting you down. I wish you well in dealing with the hyperventilation, rapid pulse and incontinence attending this apprehension, and in all things in the future.
Please, Jerry, compare this to how I excerpted the letter >>>Have I made the p-ssy men upset by posting these comments? For sure and that is my intention to do my part to get back to the old normal. The p-ssy men know who they are, and since I keep my mouth shut about this, no one who does need to wear a mask can be offended by thoughts that reside in my head towards the p-ssy men.<<<
I omitted >>And the guy wearing the mask because he is symptomatic with something -- covid, flue, the sniffles etc. knows he is not being a p-ssy. Neither is the guy with medical issues that might make him more vulnerable.>>> does not vitiate the main point of yours which is that your presumption is that a man -- not a woman -- a man wearing a mask is a pussy. Again, that's really not any different from "I presume that a Muslim is a terrorist or terrorist sympathizer, but I admit that he or she might not be." Which is an appalling prejudice.
Your caveats and qualifications to your "pussy" presumption are similarly weak. Which is my point.
To your list of pandemic-inspired changes I would add:
1. RIP the all-you-can-eat buffet. It was never, not once, at any time in my life, a good idea. NO.
2. A more flexible approach to work. My company is leaning hard into the idea of a hybrid schedule, with 2-3 days in the office and the remainder at home.
3. A shift to voting by mail. So many perks, including deciding the future of democracy from the comfort and privacy of your home.
4. The end of pressure for perfect attendance. People who are sick should stay home. We finally get it.
Last but not least, I think you have a good balance with the twice weekly schedule. The Tuesday issue is shorter, with a more casual tone, and includes pictures! A win-win. Today's even had a photo of my husband talking on the phone with AT & T.
Agree wholeheartedly with #3. I have been voting by mail for years. I like to take my time and research the candidates (especially judges) and referendums (referenda?). I can take my sweet time at home with my ballot. Also that photo is not your husband. It is me, calling comcast. or maybe blue cross. or aetna. or united airlines...
Think of hand sanitizer and sanitizing wipes as professional breeders of super germs of all types. We think of them as just killing the germs that are on our mind, but they are selecting the hardiest bugs of all varieties present every time we use them. I will bet that within 20 years they will be discouraged or outright banned for what they do to our microbial environment.
I have a good supply of free hand sanitizer from various sources, but even at the beginning of the pandemic, didn't use it much more often than normal. I have been washing my hands more often.
Accelerating the pace of baseball games depends on reducing the endless repetition of wasted time. For example:
1). The batter must move expeditiously from the on-deck circle to the batter’s box, get into the box with both feet and stay in the box with both feet. Assign each team a specific amount of time per inning for such maneuvers. On the umpire’s signal, the wasted-time clock begins when the batter leaves the on-deck circle; on the umpire’s signal, the clock stops when batter has both feet in the box. If the team’s allotted time expires, its half inning is over. Umpires can stop the clock when a batter is injured, steps out to avoid being hit, and so on. Each time a team scores, it could be credited with more time on its wasted-time clock, thus allowing a team in the midst of a big inning to continue its offensive attack. In this age of data and analysis, there must be people who could advise us on how much time each team should be permitted per inning.
2). Cut out lengthy delays when teams change positions between innings. Make the transition period, say, 90 seconds. This would speed up the game for the fans in attendance. Media could splice their commercials into their broadcast, making the game for fans watching at home the same length as it is now. (Of course those fans could record the game and fast-forward through the commercials just as they might be doing now).
Good thoughts. The need to shorten games is not just for young people or casual fans. Even older, intense baseball fans are often fed up with the modern pace of play. No more warm-up pitches, pitch clock and all of James's suggestions are a good start.
I agree that umpires should enforce the rules, including the strike zone as written. Not as enforced. De facto expansion of the zone would speed up at bats greatly when hitters know they can't squeeze the pitcher and counts won't always go to 3-2. Downside: it will decrease offense although it might get infielders more involved.
I should have added to my earlier comment that the greater problem in baseball seems to me to be the lack of action. Shortening the time of a game won’t make it more attractive, only perhaps less onerous. Even if we can find ways to speed up the game, so long as it produces mostly strikeouts, walks, and homers, the game will remain unattractive. How many of us have sat through whole innings that failed to yield even one batted ball in play? How long will we endure that while waiting for the home-run to break momentarily the tedium of endless inaction?
Re college sports: I share the feelings you express. One point, though. Where smaller colleges are concerned, sports help drive enrollment. I personally don't care whether the school has a golf team, or tennis team, or wrestling, or swimming, etc., but the dozen kids on those teams do care, and they often select a college where they will get to compete. This is an important recruiting tool for small colleges, where any given team might actually be 2% of the student body. For such schools, a sport is necessary to reach its enrollment goal. What matters then is the net between the cost of the sport and the real (non-discounted) tuition dollars gained. Of course, comparing sports at a small liberal arts college with the Big Ten is apples to oranges.
My daughter was one of of those whose choice of a small college was influenced by whether they had a swim team she could be part of. I don't know if the economics of the program benefitted the school, but being part of the swim team enriched her experience there.
In baseball, to add more drama to the approximately 7000 games played each season, they could turn the whole season into successive series, say 5-game series, where each team logs a win for each series they win. The basic idea is to mimmic playoff season drama throughout the whole year. They could allow only one extra inning in all games except those necessary to break a series tie. The main downside is that many scheduled games wouldn't happen, but this might be offset by the increased interest in potential clinching games where a lot more would be at stake.
I prefer normalizing, while not mandating, mask wearing in any public or private location, especially schools, going forward. The spread of viruses, including COVID, will continue and intensify during the winter months and this protection is proven to be most effective.
I know this new bigotry over mask wearing will continue, but I hope those responsible will keep their mouths shut as advised by our esteemed friend.
I am of two minds on this. I have found that the habit of putting on a mask is hard for me to break, just sort of automatic now. And many people in Japan wore masks in public before the pandemic. So, I can easily see it being a norm for many people. But I wasn't a germophobe before, and with the vaccine, I don't think I want to be now. Faces communicate a lot and I miss seeing them, especially with friends and family. I am also worried about elementary schools, where kids learn a lot about social interactions and get important visual cues from teachers and each other. But I am pretty sure that we are in an era when many will assess the risks and opt for a mask.
I agree with you that elementary children would be better off without masks, but the CDC says only 28% of ages 5 - 11 are fully vaccinated. The latest BA.2 variant is on the rise, so I hope we can still be careful while going mask optional in most schools. I'm an educator in a public high school and though we dropped the mask mandate a little over two weeks ago, most of our staff and students still mask up (about 75 to 80 percent).
Yeah, I am bummed by the slow uptake of vaccines for children, partly because it means that vaccinated parents are still worried about the vaccine for their kids. I hope that trust and confidence in the vaccines grows with time.
I'm confused. My wife, who dislikes card games, gave me a note saying this: "Marriage is like a deck of cards. In the beginning all you need are two hearts and a diamond. By the end, you wish for a club and a spade." I don't get it.
About your list of preferred changes after the pandemic:
I have always objected to the fist-bump as a substitute for a handshake. I think it originated in the sports world as a congratulation to a teammate. But no matter.
As a handshake substitute to reduce germ transmission, it's not the best. It brings people closer than 6' apart. It includes bare-skin physical contact. But it also is something that not everyone might be able to do, because of invisible physical difficulties. My mother, who left this world years before the pandemic (thankfully in a way, because she died in a nursing home), had a rotator cuff problem for some years. Surgery was not advised. She couldn't lift that arm high enough to do a fist-bump. I even made a blouse for her which she could put on and off without having to lift an arm beyond where she actually could.
My preferred and recommended substitute for a handshake is an Asian-style bow. Most people are already familiar with it. On the other hand, I had a hard time telling Ald. Harry Osterman before this year's Lunar New Year Parade on Argyle, why I was responding to his offer of a fist-bump with an Asian-style bow. You would think he'd get it, at this event. Geez!
A bow allows the people to maintain social distance, avoid physical contact, and not have to try to lift an arm higher than they physically can. If they can stand, they can bow.
It's very nice to be familiar with this bow when you are interacting with an actual visitor from an Asian country where this bow is standard. They can see that you "get it." It doesn't turn you into an Asian-cultured person, if you're not. You are just respecting and speaking their body language.
Yes. The Asian style bow is a best practice. Personally I would welcome a permanent move away from hugging as a wide spread practice but I realize this is controversial and some people are offended by the idea.
I worked in Japan and never got the nuances of bowing right. Particularly the acknowledgement of relative hierarchy or contrition, both of which I found less egalitarian than a handshake. Just skip it altogether. A nod, a greeting, with or without a smile, works if we have to lose the benefits of the handshake.
There might be videos online nowadays which will show Asian people bowing in various contexts. I've read that the depth of the bow shows the strength of the respect the person bowing has for the other. I understand the part about hierarchy, but most of the time, in the context of modern life, the respect shown is equal. Japan is past the era of shoguns and powerful emperors. And of course in the USA it's a different story.
A nod can be considered a partial bow. There tends to be more equality in a nod, because we have less leeway, physically, to nod a little or a lot. The distance difference is much less. So in my book of body language, a nod is a kind of bow.
1. Pitcher can only throw once to first base to catch a runner. A second throw and the base runner goes to second.
2. Creation of a designated runner who can go in and out of the game only to run the bases.
I expect more base stealing and action as a result.
3. Eliminate balks - stupid and I can never figure out what a balk is anyway.
4.Batter can call time out one time per game. an extra time out reults in a strike call.
5. Batter can leave the batter's box one time per at bat. A second time results in a strike.
6. Each side can use 3 pitchers per game - a 4th pitcher and they forfeit.
7. 6 foul balls and the batter is out.
8. And now a fun one - per WGN morning show - every team has to have a tree somewhere in its outfield for every home game. Crazy but fun - and hey we already have ivy in Wrigley and Fans love it.
I like the idea of limit on timeouts. They may have a good reason for a TO but if they are out of them, too bad. NFL has a limit on challenges and if there’s a bad call but you have no challenge, too bad.
I don't understand your wanting to get rid of the handshake. How else am I supposed to be sure that the medieval knight I just met doesn't have a sword in his hand or a knife up his sleeve? I mean, honestly, it's just a commonsense precaution.
Jerry, no one knew who you were until you identified yourself. Before you were the completely anonymous Jerry B. Here you've posted your full name and almost dared the weak minded to find you and yours.
I never saw the previous installment. Suggest you go with Jerry B going forward to minimize your identity exposure
You are identified in the main post only as Jerry B. -- anyone who wants to find your full name has to go back into the archives to find the original comments where they will have access to your full, unedited declarations that, I will note again, do not in any way diminish your pre-emptive sneering at "pussy men" who wear masks even though you don't know why they might be wearing masks. Exactly how or why you feel a fair reading of your remarks puts you and your wife "in jeopardy" I can't say, but for a guy who is quite chesty about his brave masculinity --
>>>>>I tell my wife that “cowardice” is not a moral failing. Rather it is a physiological state characterized by hyperventilation, rapid pulse, incontinence, etc. Thus this low-T guy is hardwired to be what he is..... can indeed “do macho” because I am indeed macho. Hard to really fake. Although I am now elderly –Eric claims in my dotage -- turning on the macho faucet is at times helpful. Helpful to shut up truly annoying fellows and to charm many ladies so that day to day interactions are more enjoyable.>>>>
--- you are awfully tremulous as you imagine the evil defenders of the "pussy men" hunting you down. I wish you well in dealing with the hyperventilation, rapid pulse and incontinence attending this apprehension, and in all things in the future.
Jerry - please give it a rest. Breath into a brown bag now and then. Spare us the effort of scrolling down through your posts. Thank you.
Not seeing anything different in the post Eric presented and today’s.
Please, Jerry, compare this to how I excerpted the letter >>>Have I made the p-ssy men upset by posting these comments? For sure and that is my intention to do my part to get back to the old normal. The p-ssy men know who they are, and since I keep my mouth shut about this, no one who does need to wear a mask can be offended by thoughts that reside in my head towards the p-ssy men.<<<
I omitted >>And the guy wearing the mask because he is symptomatic with something -- covid, flue, the sniffles etc. knows he is not being a p-ssy. Neither is the guy with medical issues that might make him more vulnerable.>>> does not vitiate the main point of yours which is that your presumption is that a man -- not a woman -- a man wearing a mask is a pussy. Again, that's really not any different from "I presume that a Muslim is a terrorist or terrorist sympathizer, but I admit that he or she might not be." Which is an appalling prejudice.
Your caveats and qualifications to your "pussy" presumption are similarly weak. Which is my point.
Whoa!
Bet Jerry B. stopped reading after the word “someone “.
To your list of pandemic-inspired changes I would add:
1. RIP the all-you-can-eat buffet. It was never, not once, at any time in my life, a good idea. NO.
2. A more flexible approach to work. My company is leaning hard into the idea of a hybrid schedule, with 2-3 days in the office and the remainder at home.
3. A shift to voting by mail. So many perks, including deciding the future of democracy from the comfort and privacy of your home.
4. The end of pressure for perfect attendance. People who are sick should stay home. We finally get it.
Last but not least, I think you have a good balance with the twice weekly schedule. The Tuesday issue is shorter, with a more casual tone, and includes pictures! A win-win. Today's even had a photo of my husband talking on the phone with AT & T.
Agree wholeheartedly with #3. I have been voting by mail for years. I like to take my time and research the candidates (especially judges) and referendums (referenda?). I can take my sweet time at home with my ballot. Also that photo is not your husband. It is me, calling comcast. or maybe blue cross. or aetna. or united airlines...
Think of hand sanitizer and sanitizing wipes as professional breeders of super germs of all types. We think of them as just killing the germs that are on our mind, but they are selecting the hardiest bugs of all varieties present every time we use them. I will bet that within 20 years they will be discouraged or outright banned for what they do to our microbial environment.
I have a good supply of free hand sanitizer from various sources, but even at the beginning of the pandemic, didn't use it much more often than normal. I have been washing my hands more often.
Accelerating the pace of baseball games depends on reducing the endless repetition of wasted time. For example:
1). The batter must move expeditiously from the on-deck circle to the batter’s box, get into the box with both feet and stay in the box with both feet. Assign each team a specific amount of time per inning for such maneuvers. On the umpire’s signal, the wasted-time clock begins when the batter leaves the on-deck circle; on the umpire’s signal, the clock stops when batter has both feet in the box. If the team’s allotted time expires, its half inning is over. Umpires can stop the clock when a batter is injured, steps out to avoid being hit, and so on. Each time a team scores, it could be credited with more time on its wasted-time clock, thus allowing a team in the midst of a big inning to continue its offensive attack. In this age of data and analysis, there must be people who could advise us on how much time each team should be permitted per inning.
2). Cut out lengthy delays when teams change positions between innings. Make the transition period, say, 90 seconds. This would speed up the game for the fans in attendance. Media could splice their commercials into their broadcast, making the game for fans watching at home the same length as it is now. (Of course those fans could record the game and fast-forward through the commercials just as they might be doing now).
3). Umpires must enforce the rules.
Good thoughts. The need to shorten games is not just for young people or casual fans. Even older, intense baseball fans are often fed up with the modern pace of play. No more warm-up pitches, pitch clock and all of James's suggestions are a good start.
I agree that umpires should enforce the rules, including the strike zone as written. Not as enforced. De facto expansion of the zone would speed up at bats greatly when hitters know they can't squeeze the pitcher and counts won't always go to 3-2. Downside: it will decrease offense although it might get infielders more involved.
I should have added to my earlier comment that the greater problem in baseball seems to me to be the lack of action. Shortening the time of a game won’t make it more attractive, only perhaps less onerous. Even if we can find ways to speed up the game, so long as it produces mostly strikeouts, walks, and homers, the game will remain unattractive. How many of us have sat through whole innings that failed to yield even one batted ball in play? How long will we endure that while waiting for the home-run to break momentarily the tedium of endless inaction?
Re college sports: I share the feelings you express. One point, though. Where smaller colleges are concerned, sports help drive enrollment. I personally don't care whether the school has a golf team, or tennis team, or wrestling, or swimming, etc., but the dozen kids on those teams do care, and they often select a college where they will get to compete. This is an important recruiting tool for small colleges, where any given team might actually be 2% of the student body. For such schools, a sport is necessary to reach its enrollment goal. What matters then is the net between the cost of the sport and the real (non-discounted) tuition dollars gained. Of course, comparing sports at a small liberal arts college with the Big Ten is apples to oranges.
My daughter was one of of those whose choice of a small college was influenced by whether they had a swim team she could be part of. I don't know if the economics of the program benefitted the school, but being part of the swim team enriched her experience there.
In baseball, to add more drama to the approximately 7000 games played each season, they could turn the whole season into successive series, say 5-game series, where each team logs a win for each series they win. The basic idea is to mimmic playoff season drama throughout the whole year. They could allow only one extra inning in all games except those necessary to break a series tie. The main downside is that many scheduled games wouldn't happen, but this might be offset by the increased interest in potential clinching games where a lot more would be at stake.
I like how this gives every three-game series added drama.
I prefer normalizing, while not mandating, mask wearing in any public or private location, especially schools, going forward. The spread of viruses, including COVID, will continue and intensify during the winter months and this protection is proven to be most effective.
I know this new bigotry over mask wearing will continue, but I hope those responsible will keep their mouths shut as advised by our esteemed friend.
I am of two minds on this. I have found that the habit of putting on a mask is hard for me to break, just sort of automatic now. And many people in Japan wore masks in public before the pandemic. So, I can easily see it being a norm for many people. But I wasn't a germophobe before, and with the vaccine, I don't think I want to be now. Faces communicate a lot and I miss seeing them, especially with friends and family. I am also worried about elementary schools, where kids learn a lot about social interactions and get important visual cues from teachers and each other. But I am pretty sure that we are in an era when many will assess the risks and opt for a mask.
I agree with you that elementary children would be better off without masks, but the CDC says only 28% of ages 5 - 11 are fully vaccinated. The latest BA.2 variant is on the rise, so I hope we can still be careful while going mask optional in most schools. I'm an educator in a public high school and though we dropped the mask mandate a little over two weeks ago, most of our staff and students still mask up (about 75 to 80 percent).
Yeah, I am bummed by the slow uptake of vaccines for children, partly because it means that vaccinated parents are still worried about the vaccine for their kids. I hope that trust and confidence in the vaccines grows with time.
I'm confused. My wife, who dislikes card games, gave me a note saying this: "Marriage is like a deck of cards. In the beginning all you need are two hearts and a diamond. By the end, you wish for a club and a spade." I don't get it.
Watch your back.
My first Zorn read and already I’m in, can’t wait for another. Great way to start the day. Thank you
About your list of preferred changes after the pandemic:
I have always objected to the fist-bump as a substitute for a handshake. I think it originated in the sports world as a congratulation to a teammate. But no matter.
As a handshake substitute to reduce germ transmission, it's not the best. It brings people closer than 6' apart. It includes bare-skin physical contact. But it also is something that not everyone might be able to do, because of invisible physical difficulties. My mother, who left this world years before the pandemic (thankfully in a way, because she died in a nursing home), had a rotator cuff problem for some years. Surgery was not advised. She couldn't lift that arm high enough to do a fist-bump. I even made a blouse for her which she could put on and off without having to lift an arm beyond where she actually could.
My preferred and recommended substitute for a handshake is an Asian-style bow. Most people are already familiar with it. On the other hand, I had a hard time telling Ald. Harry Osterman before this year's Lunar New Year Parade on Argyle, why I was responding to his offer of a fist-bump with an Asian-style bow. You would think he'd get it, at this event. Geez!
A bow allows the people to maintain social distance, avoid physical contact, and not have to try to lift an arm higher than they physically can. If they can stand, they can bow.
It's very nice to be familiar with this bow when you are interacting with an actual visitor from an Asian country where this bow is standard. They can see that you "get it." It doesn't turn you into an Asian-cultured person, if you're not. You are just respecting and speaking their body language.
Yes. The Asian style bow is a best practice. Personally I would welcome a permanent move away from hugging as a wide spread practice but I realize this is controversial and some people are offended by the idea.
Thanks. I didn't know that hugging was ever a substitute for the handshake in the USA. I guess in some other countries.
I worked in Japan and never got the nuances of bowing right. Particularly the acknowledgement of relative hierarchy or contrition, both of which I found less egalitarian than a handshake. Just skip it altogether. A nod, a greeting, with or without a smile, works if we have to lose the benefits of the handshake.
There might be videos online nowadays which will show Asian people bowing in various contexts. I've read that the depth of the bow shows the strength of the respect the person bowing has for the other. I understand the part about hierarchy, but most of the time, in the context of modern life, the respect shown is equal. Japan is past the era of shoguns and powerful emperors. And of course in the USA it's a different story.
A nod can be considered a partial bow. There tends to be more equality in a nod, because we have less leeway, physically, to nod a little or a lot. The distance difference is much less. So in my book of body language, a nod is a kind of bow.
I nod in agreement. :)
List of things to make baseball better.
1. Pitcher can only throw once to first base to catch a runner. A second throw and the base runner goes to second.
2. Creation of a designated runner who can go in and out of the game only to run the bases.
I expect more base stealing and action as a result.
3. Eliminate balks - stupid and I can never figure out what a balk is anyway.
4.Batter can call time out one time per game. an extra time out reults in a strike call.
5. Batter can leave the batter's box one time per at bat. A second time results in a strike.
6. Each side can use 3 pitchers per game - a 4th pitcher and they forfeit.
7. 6 foul balls and the batter is out.
8. And now a fun one - per WGN morning show - every team has to have a tree somewhere in its outfield for every home game. Crazy but fun - and hey we already have ivy in Wrigley and Fans love it.
I like the idea of limit on throws to first base.
I like the idea of limit on timeouts. They may have a good reason for a TO but if they are out of them, too bad. NFL has a limit on challenges and if there’s a bad call but you have no challenge, too bad.
I don't understand your wanting to get rid of the handshake. How else am I supposed to be sure that the medieval knight I just met doesn't have a sword in his hand or a knife up his sleeve? I mean, honestly, it's just a commonsense precaution.