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Catching up
This evening, I went to our girls' basketball game to see one of my advisees and some of my students and former students play. While there, I got a chance to make up some of the ground I've lost to my best friend. You see, he's been on TV twice now, on Dateline and Nightline, while I have only ever been on TV once, on a Cleveland station's Academic Challenge (Quiz Bowl) competition. We were horrendous at best.
Tonight at the game, however, I got a chance at media-fueled redemption. There was a guy there filming for a local TV station's high school sports roundup, and for some reason someone at the station deemed it a good idea to ask some fans at the game for our opinion on the recent news that Texas will begin testing high school athletes for steroids. It was the first I'd heard of it.
Man, did I blow it! I mumble-stammered something about it being a shame that it had become necessary to test high school athletes for steroids, but that sports were getting so competitive even at that level that it was necessary. When asked about Rhode Island specifically, I said that as someone who has coached in RI, I thought the state did a very good job educating its coaches and athletes for good, clean, fair competition.
Except that I said it all even less eloquently than that.
Now, if I really wanted to get on TV--and who doesn't, right?--I should have said something to the effect of "I think the state of Texas and all the other states need to stop with the demonizing of steroids, which are a legitimate performance-enhancing supplement. Why are we penalizing athletes who are committed to excellence? Shouldn't we be rewarding them? I encourage all the athletes I coach or talk to in the weight room to get on steroids and do it sooner rather than later."
That would have gotten me on the news, guaranteed. It would also have gotten me fired, but isn't 15 seconds of local fame more important than a mere job? And something that outrageous would probably get picked up by national media, maybe even make it to YouTube. ::sigh:: I missed a golden opportunity there. Maybe I should be looking for a performance-enhancing drug that will help me think on my feet better....
That is hilarious! I've only had three hours of sleep the last two nights
and I must have missed:
Oh John, I thought we had a pact that we would never again mention our
appearance on Academic Challenge. Has Lauren seen the tape? I'm going to
cry myself to sleep tonight.
Ok, now it's 7 am (the next day) and I've had a good nights sleep. I'm
trying to calculate the difference in our ages because when the X and I
were living back in Lakewood, OH, Academic Challenge and Jeopardy were our
favorite shows. How freaky is that John Sherck??? We may have been
crossing paths for years and never realized it!