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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   2270 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for October 4, 2024

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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I love upsets. To the point that I sometimes have trouble rooting for the USA in the Olympics.

Reminds me of something the late great British sportswriter Hugh McIlvanney said a number of years ago: “You like giant killers. I like giants.”

Not from the USA, but I get this perspective. I admire sustained greatness, and am happy to role model it, but watching something that’s expected to happen doesn’t often set the pulse racing. Tennis over the past 15 years gave me the sports star I loved the most - Rafa Nadal. He was clearly putting in sustained greatness, but just happened to be playing at the same time as the two greatest ever, so he was often an underdog too. (Some of his matches v Federer and Djokovic at Wimbledon were like Shakespeare plays with rackets and balls.)

[In short, greatness is the left brain ideal. The emotion of a big upset is the right brain ideal.]

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