It’s finger-biting, tossing-and-turning-in-bed, stomach-churning time.
It’s a finger-biting, stomach-churning time: Can Harvard, 5-0 in the Ivies, defeat 4-1 Penn Friday night in Philadelphia? The nation awaits the result with bated breath. (Where, you ask, does the phrase “bated breath” come from? I asked the same question, and Google responded. It comes, like everything else, from Shakespeare: “Shall I bend low and in a bondman’s key,/With bated breath and whispering humbleness…” Shylock, in The Merchant of Venice, Act I, scene iii.)
But who cares anymore about football? As Geoffrey Norman has pointed out, pro football is in decline. As for college football, on Saturday, #1 ranked Alabama played #15 LSU; the game was scoreless through three quarters before Alabama limped to a 10-0 victory. Borrrring.
Whereas what can one say about baseball, and this year’s World Series? Well, Joseph Epstein actually does say it all (well, almost all) in this week’s cover story, “Joy in Mudville: A fair-weather fan’s notes.” (Rumors to the contrary notwithstanding, we’re not becoming THE SPORTS STANDARD. Yet.) What a seventh game! And really, what an excellent post-season in general. If you want to read a couple of other fine short pieces about aspects of the Series, I recommend Billy Witz, “Kris Bryant Takes Lessons from Ted Williams’s Batting Bible,” and David Leonhardt’s “Cubs, Nerds and ‘True Baseball.’ Both are from the New York Times, and are well-worth two of your ten free articles a month. (In fact, I tend to use all of mine on sports, with an occasional classical music or restaurant review.)
So, what about the competition among THE WEEKLY STANDARD’s readers to pick the World Series teams? Entries were submitted in two waves, in April and October. There was one clear winner, long-time subscriber Janis H. Evans, who not only correctly predicted a Cubs-Indians World Series way back on April 4, but predicted the Cubs would win in 7 games. Ms. Evans is a Cleveland area resident–indeed, she ran last year for Mayor of Chagrin Falls, a Cleveland suburb. And as my colleague Jim Swift, a loyal Clevelander, points out, it’s fitting that an Indians fan was such a fatalist as to pick them to lose rather than to win in seven.
In any case, Jim is assembling an appropriately impressive reward for Ms. Evans. I overheard him in the office last week negotiating for a discount on a gift card with the fine Cleveland area bar and wings chain, the Winking Lizard Tavern (much enjoyed by WEEKLY STANDARD folk during the GOP convention this year). In any case: Congratulations, Janis Evans, on your fantastic pick, and on vindicating the claim that WEEKLY STANDARD readers are not just perceptive but positively clairvoyant….
* * *
ADVERTISEMENT
* * *
As for the election….
Christopher Caldwell has an excellent piece in the new issue on the presidential election…in France.
But seriously, for election coverage and analysis, go to weeklystandard.com througho
Meanwhile, I’ll just reproduce emails from two good friends of the magazine.
One writes:
Or is that more of an Allen Drury-like ending? (Which reminds me, his gripping novels, which stand up awfully well today, are now available in attractive new editions here.)
And my other correspondent suggests this:
Clinton has a terrible first two years and GOP rebounds big in 2018.
Meanwhile Trump travels the country excoriating Clinton and actually developing a more polished approach. Becomes more comfortable with issues and arguments.
Media talks about his more serious and mature approach.
It’s 2019. GOP has Kasich, Cruz, Rubio, Walker, Cotton, Sasse, Scott, Haslam, Sandoval, Fiorina, Paul, Haley, and Thune all looking at the race, and maybe Paul Ryan.
Trump and Pence announce they will run as ticket again. Trump makes a one term pledge.
Does history repeat itself in 2020???????
A witty guy, my friend…with a somewhat sadistic sense of humor.
***
And…a Conversation
What to do tonight or tomorrow while you’re waiting for the voting to end and the returns to come in? What to do later in the week when the returns have come in and have been analyzed to a fare-thee-well? You might want to take a break from the day-to-day and look at the latest from the Foundation for Constitutional Government: a conversation with Steven F. Hayward.
TWS readers are familiar with Hayward, having recently been treated to his very interesting “Crisis of the Conservative House Divided.” Feel free to re-read that, but then listen to this conversation about Ronald Reagan, about whom Hayward is the author of a definitive biography, as well as a discussion of the study of statesmanship and of some important books and teachers that influenced him.
Speaking of Conversations, the preceding one, with Justice Clarence Thomas, has occasioned much discussion. I was personally struck by Thomas’s account of the influence the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, had on him as a young man. And then I happened to come across an interesting discussion of the book and its influence in the latest issue of the journal of the National Association of Scholars, Academic Questions. I particularly recommend the contribution of our friend, Peter Augustine Lawler. It captures something about the book that seemed to strike the young Clarence Thomas as well. (Academic Questions has a stringent paywall, but I would recommend treating yourself to a subscription for the holidays–as well as giving WEEKLY STANDARD gift subscriptions for your loved ones.)
***
A final thought, from the amusing Twitter account, DPRK News Service (@DPRK_News):
So let me wish you both good luck on surviving Election Day in good humor, and a premature Happy Thanksgiving.
***
Onward!
Bill Kristol
