The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.
Shortest Books Ever Written
“12 Things You Need to Know About the New Queen of the Netherlands, Queen Máxima”–headline, Yahoo! Shine, May 1
Breaking News From 1957
“America is Forfeiting the Space Race”–headline, Commentary website, May 1
Breaking News From 1972
“Nixon, GOP Have Plan to Rent Office Space”–headline, Columbia (Mo.) Daily Tribune, May 1
Take Your Ball and Go Home
In response to our lead item yesterday, in which we quoted National Journal’s Ron Fournier using sports analogies to describe President Obama’s leadership (or lack thereof), reader Trevor Kneisly offers this very astute observation:
I’ve always been bothered by sports metaphors. I think because they’re not really metaphors so much as un-metaphors. Sports did not get invented in a complete vacuum, and then serendipitously turn out to have endless simplistic, accessible connections to real life. They were created to represent actual human struggles, drama and achievement without the high stakes and geographical/temporal inconveniences that make real life such a poor spectacle. All a sports metaphor accomplishes is unwrapping the obvious layers of metaphor surrounding a sporting enterprise and discovering its real-life inspiration within. Perhaps I’m alone in failing to find that kind of inexpensive counterabstraction rhetorically unappealing.
On the other hand, a reader sends along this piece by Yahoo! Sports’ Jason Cole on Geno Smith, the quarterback the New York Jets picked in the second round of the NFL draft:
“His biggest problem is that he doesn’t know what he doesn’t know,” said a league executive, who spent extensive time assessing Smith before the draft. “I’m not sure he knows how to take instruction because he pretty much wouldn’t listen or talk to our coaches . . . he’s talented. He can sling it, he can fit it into tight spots, he can do a lot of things and I think he wants to be good. But you can’t tell him anything right now. He’s tuned out because he thinks he’s got it all down.” . . .
“He doesn’t have much presence, not much of a leader,” said another league executive, who spent a great deal of time studying Smith before the draft. “I don’t think he’s a bad person, but that’s not enough to be a quarterback in this league.”
Two sources indicated that when Smith went on some visits to teams, rather than interact with coaches and front-office people, he would spend much of his time on his cell phone. Instead of being engaged with team officials, he would be texting friends or reading Twitter or a number of other distracting activities.
“All these other players who were in there were talking to the coaches, trying to get to know people and he was over there by himself,” one of the sources said. “That’s not what you want out of your quarterback.” . . .
“Right now, he’s blaming everybody but himself and he has some buddies around him who are telling him that same thing,” [a] source said.
Sometimes the analogies really are irresistible.
For more “Best of the Web” click here and look for the “Best of the Web Today” link in the middle column below “Today’s Columnists.
