I Am One of Those Melodramatic Fools
A few thoughts from George, not Peter, Vecsey on the whole Michael Phelps “Bong Hits for Jesus, Mark Spitz, South Carolina Gamecocks, the Baltimore Ravens, Beijing, Speedo, et al.” fiasco.
Like it or not, by winning eight gold medals, Phelps automatically became a role model by virtue of being sent out there as a highly paid spokesman for multinational corporations. We like our sporting heroes to be perfect, but it’s hard to be perfect in the 24-hour electronic buzz where everybody is a blogger and has a cellphone camera within reach.
Phelps wandered into a party and trusted that nothing bad could possibly happen to him among his new chums. What’s the penalty for being dopey? Not suspension, that’s for sure. The penalty should have been: go out there and swim, ya big lug ya. The chlorine is good for you.
Like it or not, by winning eight gold medals, Phelps automatically became a role model by virtue of being sent out there as a highly paid spokesman for multinational corporations. We like our sporting heroes to be perfect, but it’s hard to be perfect in the 24-hour electronic buzz where everybody is a blogger and has a cellphone camera within reach.
Phelps wandered into a party and trusted that nothing bad could possibly happen to him among his new chums. What’s the penalty for being dopey? Not suspension, that’s for sure. The penalty should have been: go out there and swim, ya big lug ya. The chlorine is good for you.
Labels: George Vecsey, Michael Phelps
posted by Justin @ 2/06/2009 10:49:00 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Haha great song choice. Very appropriate. Basket Case by Green Day.
I don't know, I'm not mad at the kid. If anything, I even more impressed. You can be a pot head AND be the greatest Olympian of all time? This is like Usain Bolt slowing up to mock his opponents. He could've gone faster, but his way is more fun. I don't know.
I don't condone smoking pot by the way. I just think doping is worse than dope for sports. I can't wait for the Eli Manning camera phone photos where he's passed out and covered in Double Stuff Oreos.
I agree with Joey, it's not an awesome thing that Phelps decided to get Rosetta stoned, but worse could have happened.
Luke
"he became a rather ordinary gangly American youth" Since when in the history of man kind has a 23-year-old been considered a youth? To estimates that I have heard, the Madonna had been mother of Christ for 6-7 years by the time she was 23 years-old. Wonder if she learned anything about responsibility or self-awareness by the youthful age of 23? This "American youth" is a seperate issue, but what if one of the most widely viewed electronic news sources upheld maturity at a young age? Am I to believe that the human facility can not handle mature decisions at a later age? I have to wait until I am 25 not to smoke pot/ convene with seedy types when I am the most famous and decorated olympic in the 100 years of modern olympic history? Have humans actually entered into retrograde? Darwin might disagree, but subscribers of the 2nd law of thermodynamics might agree-- let them fight it out.
Additionally, when is the NYtimes going to stop hiring socialist? "Senators Reach Accord on Stimulus Plan as Jobs Vanish." (as seen on the front page, 1st article 2-7-09.) Did jobs vanish in thin air like a chili induced fart? Perhaps not. Please tell me what kinds of jobs are being loosed? Cite the number crunchers at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Don't just scare me qith 600,000 lost jobs. Tell me how many of those got rehired. My initial estimation is that many of these jobs existed in support and service industries that received capital from a population of people who spent more money than they had. If I don't have money to pay someone else to change my oil and instead I change my own oil, must I be moved at the vanishing of these kinds of jobs? (Deconstruction, now construction...) My solution is to build houses out of adobe- labor intensive, endless supplies of sun and mud and it is a green solution to global warming. Voilá. I will be offering a seminar, free of charge, to anyone who would like to learn this lost craft in Long Beach on Feb. 5, 2009.
http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/bulletin/2006/financesurvey.pdf
1. I totally should've been a sports columnist for the NYT. I wouldn't have to worry about transitions or clarity.
2. So the guy got high. Big deal. The dick here is the one who sold the photo.
3. Also, if we really "like our sporting heroes to be perfect," shouldn't there be more uproar everytime superstars get arrested or shoot someone or beat their wives? I mean really, Phelps smoked out, he didn't take a gun to a strip club.
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