Scandal / Le divorcé
Président Nicolas Sarkozy et son épouse élégante mais énigmatique, Cécilia, ont divorcé après des mois des questions au sujet de leur rapport, un premier pour la France qui a heurté un coup profond et personnel à sa jeune présidence ... Er, I mean ... "President Nicolas Sarkozy and wife, Cecilia, have divorced after months of questions about their relationship ..."
Angela Charlton of the Associate Press
characterizes this as "a deep, personal blow to his young presidency". Compounding this personal issue, is the very public, nation-wide transportation strike that has "bus, train and subway service ... ground to a halt across France".
(photo: EFE)
Personally, I have mixed feelings about Le Président Français, though, honestly, I'm interested to see what his economic and social reforms end up looking like. I think mostly I just liked his opposition in the general election,
Ségolène Royal
, better. My politics are probably evenly between them; it must be my psuedo-puritanical American impulse to be slightly repulsed by a male leader who have
such (open & public) indiscretions
. (Note: that I do NOT make an exception for Bill Clinton, though I do not condone the
neoconservative attacks on his Presidency
...)
On an unrelated note, there seems to be some scandal about statement Manny Ramiréz made yesterday in Cleveland. Here's an excerpt from
Susan Slusser's San Francisco Chronicle article
about it:
"With his team on the brink of elimination, Boston outfielder Manny Ramirez was the focus Wednesday at Jacobs Field, both for his unusual comments during his first interview session of the ALCS and for his overly exuberant celebration after a solo homer the previous night.
Ramirez, in quintessential Manny-being-Manny mode, downplayed the Red Sox's plight, down three games to one with Game 5 tonight in Cleveland. "Why panic?" Ramirez said. "If we don't do it, we'll come back next year and try again." Ramirez reiterated the sentiment later, saying, "If it doesn't happen, who cares? There's always next year. It's not the end of the world."
In Game 4, Ramirez smacked the third of Boston's back-to-back-to-back shots, and after connecting, he raised his arms in triumph and stood at the plate so long that Cleveland catcher Kelly Shoppach had to tell him to get moving ... The sixth-inning blast was Ramirez's record 24th in postseason play, but he wasn't placing a lot of importance on that.
"If I knew I'd be in the World Series and didn't have the record, I'd take it," Ramirez said. "Who cares about the records? We just want to go out and win."
Remember '04: The rallying cry in the Boston clubhouse is obvious. Everyone knows that the Red Sox were down 0-3 to the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS, took the next four games, then went on to win the World Series for the first time since 1918.
"It just took one spark, and that's what we're looking for now," said backup catcher Doug Mirabelli, who was part of that 2004 team. "Experience always helps," catcher Jason Varitek said. "Having done something before, we believe in ourselves, we know what we're doing. ... The reality is that we're not done playing. It's not over."
Ramirez bucked the trend, saying, "We're not thinking about '04. Anything is possible. We're just thinking about Thursday. Let's see what the future is going to bring."
I fail to see what is new or offensive about any of this. Manny is, to quote a co-worker of mine, "in his own world" - we've all heard it, "Manny being Manny". Seneca, the Roman philosopher, talked about anger (and by extension, the act of being offended) as springing from our sense of surprise. He argued that we compound our anger by acting surprised by transgressions. If you're surprised by this, my feeling is you are simply not being honest with yourself, or your standards maybe either too high or slightly incongruous. Personally, I find the diversity of opinion/coping mechanisms coming from the Sox clubhouse perfectly fine. I also know that most commentators never had us getting this far & a lot of this is frosting to me. Remember, we've gone farther than all but two teams this year. If we happen to pull off a major upset, win three straight against Cleveland & get to the World Series, then defy the odds and beat what seems to be an unbeatable Colorado Rockies team, awesome - Missy and I will dance in the streets of Stamford, Connecticut. But if we fall short, as the French say, c'est la vie.
Posted by GM G AT 18 October, 2007 13:20
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Name: GM G
Location: Connecticut / NYC
Mason jars & brooklyn stars; Warm weather & beach house weekends; Cool weather & New england autumns; My partner & cul-de-sacs; Secular humanism & ethical culture; Science, skepticism & reason; the National pass-time, the Boston Red Sox & americana; the 'long now'/value the future on a timescale longer than your own [life]
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