Since we’re having another iteration of Cheap Cynicism Day, here’s Mother Jones‘ Tim Murphy reporting that “Even International Quidditch Has a Concussion Problem”:
… Nuckols is offering a tutorial in snitching in a back room at a convention center in downtown DC for the second day of the third annual QuidCon, the only convention focused on the nuts and bolts of starting or managing a Quidditch team. Conceived eight years ago by a small group of students at Middlebury College in Vermont, the International Quidditch Association now boasts 225 official teams in at least 13 countries, in addition to wheelchair Quidditch and several varieties of “kidditch.” Even as the Harry Potter books and movies that first popularized it fade from view, the sport has begun to find its legs.
But like angsty, teenage Harry Potter in book five, competitive Quidditch is finding that its new powers come with some growing pains—in the most literal sense. Muggle Quidditch has a concussion problem.
The problem stems from the often intense physicality of the sport that is still working out the kinks. Quidditch, by virtue of its origins, attracts a large number of people with minimal experience in contact sports. It also attracts a large number of people who think they know how to act in a contact sport. “A lot of our players come to us from football so they think that a tackle looks a certain way,” says IQA commissioner Alex Benepe.
But football form tackles are built for a game with padding and helmets, of which Quidditch has neither. The sport follows the rules outlined in the series, except instead of flying through the air on broomsticks, competitors run with broomsticks between their legs, and instead of magical snitches, people like Austin (under a controversial new rule) have to stay on the field and wrestle with seekers instead. The game is a frenetic mix of dodgeball, rugby, wrestling, and that Aztec game where everyone died at the end…
Full details at the link. I blame the Roberts court NFL.
(For the record, yes I am a religious Cynic — School of Eeyore — and I am as offended by the faddish resort to gimcrack everthing sukks badmouthing as a Jesuit is by the religio-legal contortions of Justices Roberts, Scalia, Alito & Thomas.)
***********
What’s on the agenda for the evening, cheaply cynical or otherwise?
WaterGirl
h/t to omnes for the phrase Cheap Cynicism Day. Sadly, I suspect that phrase will come in handy far too often.
raven
My niece spent the weekend at the Anime Expo 2014 in LA. Needless to say, I don get it.
trollhattan
We’re Number 8; we’re Number 8. Suck it, Russia!
http://www.sacbee.com/2014/07/07/6538711/california-has-worlds-8th-largest.html#storylink=cpy
No wonder Gov. Goodhair is thinking of moving here.
⚽️ Martin
I think that was called ‘Meet the Europeans’. It was played by many indigenous peoples.
MomSense
I went home for lunch today and found that my kids made awesome paninis for all of us. And now I just got home and found dinner cooking–including a kohlrabi au gratin that smells awesome. I had no idea what else to do with the stuff so they found a recipe online. We are also having a kale and white bean soup.
Either they are just really sweet or I am about to get asked for something big.
raven
@MomSense: or both
PurpleGirl
I’m not sure (head) concussions are the problem. Running while holding a broomstick between your legs… I’d think a certain other part of the body would be more at risk and should be a little bit padded. I was a SF convention goer and I know what some of those guys look like, beer bellies and all.
SatanicPanic
@⚽️ Martin: Nicely done.
PurpleGirl
@raven: What don’t you get… anime or conventions? Conventions are easy to understand: you’re a geek with maybe a few friends or not, but at the convention you’re among your tribe and people know what you mean when you talk.
ETA: And you can create a persona for yourself and enjoy being someone different. I spent one whole day as a Klingon on vacation on Earth. It was great.
raven
@⚽️ Martin: Put the ball in the hoop!
Baud
It starts earlier every year.
raven
@PurpleGirl: The whole thing I guess. She’s 14 and her parents seem comfortable letting her go so who am I to object? They have that Com Com thing in Atlanta and I know perfectly normal adults that dress up in stupid ass star wars shit and go. No comprende.
eta. No fair. you added that klingon thing.
Shana
Celebrating older daughter’s 24th birthday at a nice restaurant with her, boyfriend, and hubby. We got her a nice present when we were in Copenhagen recently.
raven
@Shana: Skol!
Corner Stone
@Shana:
Damn, that’s tight. You invite your boyfriend and husband to the same event?
MomSense
@raven:
I’ve already agreed to go camping for a week and hike Katahdin…what more could they want???
Corner Stone
@PurpleGirl: I like a good convention. Lots of vendors buying drinks and dinner.
Roger Moore
J.K. Rowling clearly anticipated that Quiddich would have a concussion problem. She specifically mentions Ludo Bagman being not entirely right upstais from having taken too man bludgers to the head.
Litlebritdifrnt
@raven:
I was just reading the post about the Federal Judge who told the Supremes to STFU. I also followed the link to his post about how female lawyers dress in court. I have to say, being someone who goes to court on a daily basis for my job I have to agree with him. I joked with the male lawyers last year during a brutal heat wave that they should get together and file a class action discrimination lawsuit against the court system, because they are required, no matter what the weather, to wear a suit and tie to court, or at the very least, dress pants and a sports coat with a shirt and tie. The females lawyers can pretty much get away with anything in court, a sun dress, a mini skirt, bare legs, sandals, a skimpy top and get away with it. We have one judge who will send defendants home to get changed if he does not think they are dressed appropriately yet he gives the female lawyers a pass.
We have one female lawyer here who comes to court in outfits that would make Ru Paul blush, and yet she gets a pass. I don’t understand it. Whenever I am in court I always try to dress appropriately, and when I am in Federal Court or in a State Court Jury trial I ALWAYS wear a suit, either a skirt suit with an appropriate length skirt (never above my knees) or a pants suit. I really don’t understand how this has not got more attention.
JGabriel
@Shana:
Wow, how’d you get it through customs?
Anne Laurie
@raven:
Humans, especially those in their prime mating years, will find excuses to get together for communal celebration of their favorite pastimes. Other humans will find ways to exploit this tendency, for money or for notoriety.
I spent twenty years going to sf/fantasy/comic conventions, and another fifteen going to AKC dog shows, and while the participants were different, the tales they told afterwards were very similar. I hear the same thing from committed attendees about college sports tailgating, vintage auto shows, model train mavens, and the MLA. People are status-conscious primates who want to get together and show off for/with each other!
Baud
@PurpleGirl:
That’s why I come here!
Corner Stone
@Anne Laurie:
I…uhhh…hmmm…
Amir Khalid
@Roger Moore:
JK Rowling would also probably point out that Muggles are not equipped to play Quidditch, a sport which requires athletes and their equipment to be magical.
Anne Laurie
@Corner Stone: Neither dogs nor vendors were permitted at the room parties, of course.
Violet
@raven: One of my friends’ daughters is a big gamer. She doesn’t care about anything my friend (her mom) wishes she cared about–dance, gymnastics, art, music, cooking, scouting, something else–all she wants to do is game. They go to all the local ComicCons they can and she participates in gaming tournaments. It’s a whole other world.
Anoniminous
Damn it.
Now I have to go into the attic, find my lantern, and that damn big-assed wine jar (a bitch to get down a ladder!) I frickin’ hate decorating for holidays.
Ruckus
@Violet:
Isn’t that parenting 101, always want them to do the opposite of your desires so that they will actually do what you really want?
Sort of like asking the President to ask people to drink some industrial potion. At least half the conservatives gone in 60 sec.
Corner Stone
@Anne Laurie: That’s what you say now.
gogol's wife
As a counter to Cheap Cynicism, here’s Judy Garland singing “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” after the assassination of JFK:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4Xz7WV_qJs
I just felt like throwing that out there.
JGabriel
That’s awkward, assuming it’s not a euphemism.
Just One More Canuck
@Baud: it seems like I just put the decorations away
Iowa Old Lady
I’m having fun catching up with you all. We had new carpeting installed in this room today so my internet was disconnected. It was boring. OTOH, I got a lot of work done.
KG
@Shana: had to read the first sentence twice because I missed the commas at the end. made for a very different sentence.
Kay
Wherever they go, people end up just wanting True the Vote to go back to Texas:
“Please, stop helping us so much! We’re fine, really!” :)
JGabriel
@Anne Laurie:
Are these stories all like that one time at band camp?
WaterGirl
@Baud: so you’re not clever and funny in rel life? That, sir, is a waste of talent!
Roger Moore
Another day ending in “y”, I take it.
raven
@Anne Laurie: I go to football to watch football.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
I was about to thank you for your kind words, but then I remembered it was Cheap Cynicism Day. Damn you, WaterGirl! Damn you to hell!
scav
My cynicism isn’t just cheap, it’s recycled. Reused even — failing utterly at reduced.
mrmike
A rule requiring the snitch to stay on the pitch is an abomination. That is all.
SiubhanDuinne
Tweety, what in the ever-loving blue-eyed FUCK are you going on about?
Edit: And you have as guests Ed Fucking Rendell and Harold Fucking Ford to help you make your point?
SatanicPanic
@scav: Sometimes I wish mine were inexhaustible, but then again maybe it’s better that it isn’t
yam
Soon, BillO will be screaming about the War on Cheap Cynicism Day.
NotMax
Where oh where did I put that Cynicus pole?
Mnemosyne
We are hosting lunch with a VVIP tomorrow and the commissary just reminded me that they don’t carry his iced tea, so now I get to run out and buy some after work today to bring to the luncheon tomorrow. It must be nice to be the king.
NotMax
@mrmike
Does the snitch on the pitch have to carry the vessel with the pestle?
Roger Moore
@NotMax:
Better watch out, or somebody else is going to shove it some place very unpleasant.
Villago Delenda Est
@Kay: This is because “True the Vote” means “Only a vote for a Republican can possibly be a true vote”.
Baud
@yam:
Keep the Cynic in Cheap Cynicism Day.
Baud
@Villago Delenda Est:
That’s unfair. I think they would recognize the three white Mississippians who would vote for the Democratic candidate.
Amir Khalid
I tend to disagree with this clause.
NotMax
@Roger Moore
Ah, so you’re intimately familiar with Cynicus holiday traditions, then. ;)
RSA
Just had to see that one more time.
Litlebritdifrnt
@gogol’s wife:
Her obvious emotion when she sings the words “he died to set us free” is countered by the absolute kick ass remainder of the song. That is incredibly powerful and I have never seen it before. Thanks for that.
Mnemosyne
@Amir Khalid:
They just built a huge new expansion of the Harry Potter areas at Universal Studios Florida, so I’m pretty sure you’re right.
Kay
@Villago Delenda Est:
Because they’re horrible, mean-spirited frauds who did some clever re-branding when they started to make money off the grift.
“It might as well be Harry Potter’s invisible Knight Bus, because no one can prove it exists.
The bus has been repeatedly cited by True the Vote, a national group focused on voter fraud. Catherine Engelbrecht, the group’s leader, told a gathering in July about buses carrying dozens of voters showing up at polling places during the recent Wisconsin recall election.
“Magically, all of them needed to register and vote at the same time,” Ms. Engelbrecht said. “Do you think maybe they registered falsely under false pretenses? Probably so.”
Weeks later, another True the Vote representative told a meeting of conservative women about a bus seen at a San Diego polling place in 2010 offloading people “who did not appear to be from this country.”
I have met people who say “white van”. I love the specificity of that. It’s always a “white van”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/17/us/politics/groups-like-true-the-vote-are-looking-very-closely-for-voter-fraud.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
MomSense
@Amir Khalid:
I agree. My youngest is just reading them now.
scav
@MomSense: My cousin’s, formerly non-reading, kid is devouring them despite having watched all the movies since forever. Won’t argue.
WereBear
@Mnemosyne: You get to save the day, though.
piratedan
@Kay: most likely the same bus that was used to transport illegals to vote in Benson, AZ these last few elections per GOP potential pols. When asked as to why didn’t anyone get a license plate or call border security (it’s not as if they aren’t a presence here in Southern AZ) no one could offer up an explanation other than those Democrats are “tricksy”.
srv
All Hail the REFORMICONS!
You people are in so much trouble.
Roger Moore
@Amir Khalid:
They’re going to fade from view about as much as Casablanca has. Harry Potter is one of the all time classics now. It may lose attention from time to time as newer books become popular, but it’s not going to fade away.
Baud
@piratedan:
We’re like hobbits that way.
Roger Moore
@srv:
They sound more like Decepticons. Oh, wait, the REFORMICONS are less than meets the eye, not more.
ETA: It’s hard to explain just how much I hate that picture at the top of the article. If you want a group portrait, take a group portrait. If you want a picture of them at work, get a picture of them working. But a group picture of them supposedly working but very obviously posed is just a perfect example of Republicans caring far more about image than reality.
Cacti
Sigh…
Neither the Mesoamerican ballgame, nor the accompanying human sacrifice of the losing team were inventions of the Aztecs.
Why can’t the Olmecs and Maya get any love in popular culture?
Baud
@srv:
Fixed.
satby
@SiubhanDuinne: Hey, OT, but I missed you in the thread yesterday. Thanks for the kind words about my Etsy shop!
PurpleGirl
@MomSense: I think the Harry Potter books will be like The Lord of the Rings. A must read for every kid at some point and then re-read in adulthood. They function on many levels and speak to everyone at those different levels. (Haven’t re-read Potter yet but I re-read LOTR.)
ETA: I realize it’s an awkward comparison because LOTR was not written with children/teens in mind. I think it works though.
SFAW
@Amir Khalid:
Amir, you never struck me as the “Debbie Does Dallas” fan-type.
scav
@Cacti: Poor old Toltecs too. Just weren’t sitting at the right soda fountain when the Movie Director strolled through.
Mnemosyne
@WereBear:
True. And the VVIP is actually very nice and always hugs me when I see him. Still, it’s a little extra stress I would have preferred not to have if possible.
(But it’s also WAY better than the alternative of having him say, “Is there any iced tea?” tomorrow afternoon.)
Iowa Old Lady
@Kay: Given the ubiquity of cell phones, the lack of even one picture is proof positive this is an urban legend.
Iowa Old Lady
@PurpleGirl: I’ve listened to Harry Potter in the car. Those books are great books to listen to while driving. They’re pacey enough to keep your interest but you don’t have to concentrate hard to follow them so you don’t ram a garbage truck.
SFAW
@raven:
Goddam commie.
MomSense
@scav:
The books are so much better than the movies!
Litlebritdifrnt
@Roger Moore:
I remember back in the day when after I had read the first volume, I absolutely devoured the next. While I did not attend midnight parties, I would absolutely buy the next book the day after it’s release and I would then take a whole day to myself to sit and read it, I would totally switch off, sit in my pool, couch or whatever and not let anything distract me while I read the book. I have never been so engaged in a book, other than the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe series when I was a kid. I would literally wait with baited breath for the next volume that my mother would buy for me.
One has to remember that an author who can excite a bunch of kids, who are totally connected to the digital world to turn to the printed word has basically turned the entire world upside down.
gogol's wife
@Litlebritdifrnt:
You’re welcome. I just happened upon it today — I’d never seen it either.
MomSense
@PurpleGirl:
I agree with you even though they are different books. Both create worlds in which the reader can fully immerse her/himself.
big ole hound
Just think back in the the 50s candidate JFK could never be elected because that meant the Pope would be running the country. Kinda strange that he now has the job.
SatanicPanic
@MomSense: I generally agree, but the scene in The Prisoner of Azkaban where they arrive in the shrieking shack and Remus Lupin out of nowhere gives Sirius Black a hug is so perfect I have to admit not even the book does it better. Best scene in the whole series.
Litlebritdifrnt
@PurpleGirl:
As a teen I remember reading the Lord of the Rings, I then moved on to The Simarillion, and it changed my life. I don’t mean that flippantly, I mean that seriously. It changed my life.
SatanicPanic
@Litlebritdifrnt: Ooh that makes me curious, how did that one change your life?
SFAW
@big ole hound:
If he actually were running the country, he’d be doing a better job than those treasonous motherfuckers. And he sure as shit wouldn’t pervert Jesus’s teachings the way they have.
And given that I’m a devout atheist, it took a lot for me to write that.
Pogonip
@PurpleGirl: So, what all is there to see on earth? And how’s the food?
Roger Moore
@Iowa Old Lady:
And Jim Dale is fantastic reading them.
@MomSense:
And the movies are a lot of fun in themselves. They’re surprisingly good adaptations. It’s very hard to condense a book as much as the Potter books needed to be condensed without losing the essence of what people like about them. Their massive success, compared to the miserable failure of so many other adaptations of popular children’s books, is a sign of how good a job they did.
Pogonip
@Anne Laurie: What do you think of the current state of AKC breeds? I’m appalled by the suffering of bulldogs but I hope things aren’t that bad with most breeds.
SFAW
@Litlebritdifrnt:
I used to read LotR annually, until my early 20s. Read it to my daughter (now 19) when she was about 6-7.
And then, yesterday, I turn on the tube, “Return of the King” is showing, and they’re at the scene where Elrond shows up and tells
StomperAragorn that Arwen is dying. Only thing missing was Galadriel sending Legolas a salami from Max’s Corner Deli.And that’s why I hate Peter Jackson.
ETA: And don’t get me started on Frodo riding Arwen’s horse to the Ford, being pursued by Nozdrul. Fucking amateurs.
Pogonip
@Roger Moore: Or make you run with it between your legs.
Kay
@srv:
I had to follow link after link, but I found the proposals!
Get rid of mandatory overtime, privatize public schools and destroy unions.
Barry Goldwater. This is Barry Goldwater.
The “flex time” thing is particularly amusing. “Working mothers” who are actually working class don’t want “flex time”. They want regular schedules and 40 hours a week. They have “flex time”. It means they work any and all hours of the day or night and never get overtime because they never crack 32 hours.
“Flex time” is an exclusively white collar worker thing. Feminists discovered this 15 years ago.
Iowa Old Lady
@Litlebritdifrnt: As someone who once wrote a literal (and not in the Joe Biden sense) million words of Tolkien fanfic, I hear ya.
Iowa Old Lady
@SFAW: And what about the Steward’s family? Sweet Eru, Denethor couldn’t even keep food in his mouth.
Roger Moore
@Kay:
That’s “get rid of mandatory overtime pay“. Once that happens, mandatory overtime work will be much more common.
Baud
@Kay:
Heh. Reminds me of this.
Kay
@Roger Moore:
Has Kelly Ayotte missed the entire decade-long discussion about low wage workers and not enough/chaotic hours?
Massive amounts of overtime for low wage “working mothers” is a problem that needs solving? Since when?
She should suggest telecommuting for waitresses or nail techs or retail employees or people who pick and pack in warehouses. . She’s heard that many busy moms are working from home! Voluntary, of course.
Kay
@Roger Moore:
I’m also sick to death of people (including some Democrats) drawing this fake distinction between “public sector” unions and “private sector” unions. They’re anti-labor, like Rand Paul. There’s not a dime’s worth of difference in this stupid, fake-wonkish distinction. If public sector unions go, private sector unions go right after them. Can we all just admit this now? Given the huge piles of evidence “on the ground”?
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Kay: The private sector unions know it. They were there in force at the protests in Madison.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Roger Moore:
I think it is deliberately posed to look like one of those “drafting the Constitution” paintings. Google-fu weak on tablet, but see here.
Kay
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
My son even “gets it” from a non-union perspective. The one and only reason he gets paid what he does is we still have unions here and his employer has to compete on those wages, not Wal Marts. He’s not even in a union and he knows he’s a free rider. He’s 20. Rand Paul made it to 50 without understanding how local labor markets work.
SFAW
@Iowa Old Lady:
I know.
Jackson seemed to take more and more “artistic license” with each succeeding film. Fellowship was the least “problematic,” but even then, there were some significant changes. And half an hour of Legolas fighting an oliphaunt? GMAFB. Yes, I realize that Jackson was trying to spice things up for the kids or whatever, but still…
I refuse to see “The Hobbit”: three parts? WTF?
I eagerly await Jackson’s remake of “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”: it’ll be a two-parter (not counting the prequel). Jackson also had to add an extra 45 minutes to Part Two, to show Farquhar and his wife living happily ever after.
ETA: Insert obligatory “You kids get offa my lawn!” at the appropriate location.
Mnemosyne
@Kay:
I’m assuming it’s supposed be the difference between “government leeches” and “hard-working Americans.” But it’s like the Republicans trying to tell Asian and other non-Latino immigrants that all of the anti-immigrant talk is only about those “bad” Mexican immigrants when they know what’s really going on.
SiubhanDuinne
@Anoniminous:
You can make it easier on yourself by putting the Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s LP album “Sacred Songs for Cheap Cynicism Day” on the Victrola, and pouring yourself a hefty flagon — or two! — of Cheap Cynicism Nog.* And then, you’ll be amazed at how quickly the Twelve Days of Cynicism just fly by!
*JeffreyW has a good recipe (with pictures!) IIRC, or you could check the Anne Laurie/TaMara Friday Recipe Exchange threads for more ideas. Good luck!
Roger Moore
@Kay:
I can kind of understand people being queasy about public sector unions directly lobbying; I’ve certainly been unhappy with the political influence of some of the public unions (especially the prison guard’s union) here in California. But other than that one point, I don’t see any reason public sector unions should be seen as problematic. I think the real problem is that people don’t like how much employees with some actual bargaining power cost, and they think they can save on the cost of government by attacking public sector unions.
Kay
@Mnemosyne:
It’s because private sector unions compete. That’s the rationale. But, I don’t know, they could look around and see what happens in state after state! They could try that! I don’t understand the devotion to theory after a certain point, I really don’t. Mitch Daniels and Rick Snyder don’t care about this “theory”. It means nothing to anyone except 150 theorists.
Kay
@Roger Moore:
But they must see what happens when they contract it out. The contractors just lobby. The lower level people get paid less and then we replace public sector union lobbyists with contractor lobbyists. Did we win that round?
I have no earthly idea how this benefits me if I am a “small business person”. All the money goes right up the chain! I need it further down! :)
Anne Laurie
@Pogonip: Well, I was only involved in the AKC’s version of the “talent” (obedience / agility trials) rather than the “swimsuit” (conformation) performances. I did come to know & respect many show breeders — including the lady who introduced us to our first three Papillons (an oversized puppy, then a not-quite-perfect adolescent, and finally a no-majors sweetie who just couldn’t break out of the chorus line), back in the days before the internet let unfussy people like us find rescues all across the country.
There are idiots & criminals producing genetic monstrosities for the show ring, alas. There are also lots of dedicated people who love their chosen breeds, who are more interested in their dogs’ health and temperament than in this year’s ring-fashion. I’m convinced that these people will outlast the faddists — although I’m not sure the AKC will.
It’s a situation not unlike the current NFL controversies, actually!
MomSense
@SatanicPanic:
Oh that is a great scene. I also love the scene in the Hogwarts common room where Hermione is telling Ron all the conflicting/confusing feelings that Cho Chang had after Harry tells them he kissed her–and then they all end up laughing.
MomSense
@Roger Moore:
The movies are fun! I admit that I’m a big fan. Of course the midnight book buying and movie going I only did because of the kids.
Anne Laurie
@MomSense:
Of course. And somewhere I still have a pinback button that says “Some people have kids as an excuse to buy toys — I prefer to cut out the middleman and buy my own toys!”
Shana
@KG: And I assumed you were just being funny.