Viral Vicissitudes

Paralympians, Tried and True: Divided by Category, United in Purpose. Allow me to introduce.... "Even though I was born with a disability and some of my teammates had an accident or inherited their disability in the middle of their lives, we just adapt and conquer"                                                                     -Evan Austin, Paralympic swimmer (classifications S7, SB6, SM7)                                                             "S7, SB6, and SM7 are disability swimming classifications used to categorizing swimmers based on          their level of disability...."              ...

Restrictions (no longer, "need not") Apply: Paralympians, Tried and True - Part 3    Barriers Seen, Unseen: "An unofficial but acknowledged barrier to advancement...especially experienced more by women and individuals affiliated with minority demographic groups..."   -Glass Ceilings   Braking Bad - Replete, Repeat: History, past and present, continues to provide us with plentiful lessons and dismaying imagery (now assisted by drones, harder for the 'bad guys' to hide) throughout the globe and closer to home, even in our own communities if we bother to cast more than a glance, of people who are either 'held out' or 'hemmed in' (i.e., "detained) against their will, due to a characteristic or trait assigned to them in utero, as opposed to a stand they are taking, which might be against the status quo. Not enough room in this post or the entire YTB span of this blog, to do the history of injustice justice. What I'll consider myself here,...

Paralympics - Tried, but not always True: Part 2 It's True, they're False! Fame to Shame:  At least they were , as it turns out. The Spanish basketball team from the 2000 Paralympic Games in Sydney, that was supposed to be composed entirely of intellectually challenged individuals was anything but, instead turned out to be more morally challenged, as a team member who apparently had a conscience informed the press and officials that the team were a bunch of posers...turns out that only a few of the gold medal team qualified as truly disabled, which eventuated in the team returning the medals, the sport being eliminated from further Paralympics, and this category of disability was also temporarily held out, but eventually let back in with a great deal of advocacy. "Shame on You!" translated across all languages...  Faking Bad, Secondary Gain: Why, do you ask, would anyone other than those lacking a conscience like the foregoing group, fake having a disability? Sometime...

Hal Moore, Where Art Thou? Ghastly Scenes from Kabul: Risk Management 👎👎   !!  "Women and Children First" Known to a lesser extent as the Birkenhead Drill (bet you don't schedule this on a weekly basis at home, nor at your neighborhood school), is a code of conduct dating back to 1852, whereby the lives of women and children were to be saved first, prioritized, in a life-threatening situation (e.g., abandoning ship...abandoning a country!). This has evolved and generalized to a DoD (Department of Defense) Evac procedure that cites, among other specific criteria and objectives, "The ordered or authorized departure of noncombatants from a specific area by Department of State, Department of Defense, or appropriate military commander". Traditionally, this involves military personnel providing protection (sometimes referred to as "safe haven")  for those they are evacuating, with the level or protection theoretically  proportionate to the level of risk or...

Pre-Para-Lympics - Tried and True: Part 1 Talk about Trials (and tribulations)! No, not the formal (rescheduled) Olympic trials that the aspiring Olympians had to pre-prepare for (twice, get it?) who were to be part of the contingent representing the United States in the Tokyo Summer Games, held from July 23rd to August 8th, who have since made the return trip home -- those who would eventually represent "US" in track and field (or, as they say in England, "athletics") traveled to Eugene, Oregon for this purpose, whereas the potential Team swimmers dove in the pool in Omaha, Nebraska. Meanwhile, para-llel to this, concurrently, most of the aspiring Paralympians traveled to Minneapolis, Minnesota. Such a parallel experience gives rise to the true meaning of "Paralympics" which derives from the Greek word "para", which means alongside. But, technically speaking, to accurately depict the actual timing of these Games, we would have to rename them som...

Risk management; managing risk(s); risky business...don't say I didn't warn you. RM: "...the identification , evaluation , and prioritization  of risks ...followed by coordination  of resources to minimize , mitigate , and/or control  the impact of unfortunate  events... OR,  on the other hand, to maximize  the realization of opportunities  ("one person's misfortunes is another's...", at least in the world of finances)...the ability to communicate   risk  so as to..." July 15, 2021: ("The Hill") "The Crisis at Our Southern Border is Real and Could Get Worse" August 9, 2021: "A strong leader identifies risk and effectively communicates this risk"                                                        -Interview with expert in "Infectious Diseases" on BBC August 18, 2021: (ABC News) Interviewer: " You said....

  Complicit CacophonUS: "It's getting noisy around here!!!" On the road again, to and fro, sights and sounds: "Where's everybody going...all at the same time...don't they know I've got somewhere to be...what's that awful, harsh noise that I haven't heard for a year or so?!" Sound familiar, any of these? Many others could be added to this list, I'm sure. Questions associated with the sudden awareness of what has actually been a gradual build-up, a gradual return to work and other activities (let alone school, the sound of buses, OMG!) that were either curtailed altogether or conducted more from home, the collective of which resulted in a reduction in millions of miles of annual driving within and between our "United" States. With a corresponding reduction in road   noise  as well as road   rage . Now these are both on the rise again and boy, are we noticing -- that it's "all of them" making the noise, despite the fa...

A Frosty Reception, A Mutual (Dis)Understanding Bubbling Over, From Tokyo: as in "eager with excitement, to be so full of emotion to the point one cannot resist expressing it...more often those of a favorable nature" Yes, we will certainly experience and witness a range of emotions expressed by both athletes and expert commentators--expertise and commentaries regarding the athletic performances shot live but witnessed by us more often through taped delay ("Taped LIVE"). But here, at this time and in this new zip code, what we'll see and hear most often in the context of "bubbles" will be more like what we've become accustomed to in this pandemic, the effects of which will surely still be in evidence as the 2022 Beijing Winter Games begin. That is, how certain activities, including major athletic events, are only able to commence due a 'bubble' like environment, restricting guests from entering, and participants from exiting. Like the NBA ac...

  "And let the (XXIV Winter) Games Beijing!" A frosty beginning; lots at play here...Part 1 Intro - depth, breadth, take a breath: So much to cover, comment, post, I had to start now, six months in advance (of the projected February 12th, 2022 start date), as hundreds of athletes sans their fans have just departed from Tokyo, and many others have yet to arrive, for the August 24-September5th Paralympics (which are now held consecutive to the traditional Olympic Games in most of the same venues, scheduled consecutively since the Seoul, Korea 1988 Summer Olympics). The range of actual athletic events which I anticipate with my usual degree of high enthusiasm, soaring expectations (as in the Yanqing mountain range, a venue which may only sport the average two inches of natural snow😟) is at this moment eclipsed by interest in what's happening 'in and around' the city and country that vied for these Games some time ago (beating out Almaty, Kazakhstan by four votes on ...

A New Set of Problems: The Elimination of Standards. Caveat Empty! Jeopardy Answer: "A new set of problems" Question: "What my math teacher gives me when I finish the first set of problems early" AYK?!  While school boards throughout the nation (worldwide, to mention the subject of geography at least in brief) have been grappling with when and how to bring students back into the school setting in the presence of the whatever chapter of the pandemic their state, region, nation is still experiencing, Governor Kate Brown and company, in the state where "The Ducks" reside (University of Oregon, that is, which has become the envy of other colleges not because of the best and the brightest, but the latest and greatest of college football uniforms, thanks largely to Nike -- Just Do it!), with one sweep of the pen, signed her name on legislation removing the requirement for high-school grads to show proficiency in 2/3 R's --writing and 'Rithmetic, that is....

"Come on back, it's going to be a really big shew"  (Commercial break.............)  1964: ( Tweener to mom): "Please, mom, let me stay up until the next commercial, the Beatles are next you know..."  (Uninformed Mom): "I don't care if it's Elvis himself; you have school tomorrow...well, OK, if you brush your teeth and get ready for bed during this commercial, I'll think about it..." Through the years, cheers, jeers: From "The Ed Sullivan Show" (formerly known as "The Toast of the Town" but renamed for its host, who came into prominence, for simply introducing acts without becoming one himself, whose phraseology and occasional mispronunciations became a focus of many toasts and roasts) forward...to the recent Olympic coverage, we have all become accustomed to tricks of the trade which first gain our attention, and then keep us coming back for more. If you're a "Boomer"  you, along with at least some of your...

Absolutely(ish)! I mean it! I mean...I'm just sayin'...   "I'm so @#&*?$ done with this; I'm not going to take it anymore!" (I'm tired, exhausted, frustrated...) "I'm so over you!" (I want to move on but my heart and mind haven't yet...) "I can't go on without you" (I don't want to; it's the last thing I want but...) "Gold medal or nothing!" (I'm gonna' do my best, hope for the best, after all this prep...) "You never, always, every time..." (Well, it sure seems like it due to how it affects me) "You're the best!" (How do you know; you hardly know me...placing a high bar so early...) Target Rich Environment: Especially during times of excitement as well as in moments of less favorable drama, times of duress, they swirl around us every  day, if we only listen closely. We all  make them, just not all  the time. Things we say, frequently ill advised, intended to have IMPACT,...

Game On! And the kids (inside of us) are alright... "Don't worry, it's just a game..."  So we've been told. So I was reminded just recently...by a grandchild! Lessons of life, embedded in call kinds of games, from learning on how to take turns, plan a move, be a good sport, etc., etc., etc...Well, we have experienced these as players, participants, as well as observers, especially the past ten days or so, watching "The Games", the viewing of which would suggest these are far from casual (so much for "It's just..."). Sure, there's been moments of laughter, many moments of incredible sportsmanship, both between team mates and across the great divide, but these have been outflanked by the before and after photos and interviews ("I put so much work  into getting to these Games "), which frequently depict great thrills as well as agony that seem disproportionate with kids playing. Maybe they listened too much to the announcers (...

Something   COVID, Something "MU"...Whatever the case, we need to keep pace -- LLI 2.0 WHO's on First, What's on... A lot going on here, from references, of course, to the ongoing, what-we-thought-we-were-almost-done-with pandemic due to CV-19 (in the form of an old tribute to a bride-to-be), to a shout out to WHO in the context of the famous Abbott and Costello comedy routines, to the current Olympic coverage (where several world records have fallen already, in case you're not keeping 'track'), and finally with a walk back to a previous post dedicated to the "Larry Lee Invitational" -- WOW!  Alphabet Soup, here's the scoop: From A-Z (well, actually "Lambda" so far) and from Wuhan to Peru, and on to Tokyo (where we have experienced "From the thrill of victory to..."), we have you covered, in any case. In cases of the original virus, to the new varmints, I mean variants, that have been responsible for the recent recurrence,...

Up Close and Impersonal: Meet more of your health care team...probably NOT! Gimme a break! Okay, I heard you, that you're a bit strained from all my Olympic coverage, capitalizing on the already numerous thrills as well as the spills just one week in, in demonstrating universally experienced emotions and other psychological dynamics  from the world of athletics, sports psychology or, as I've pointed out in many posts, more universally experienced as Performance   Psychology , the basic underlying elements of a successful performance in any domain, as well as when we have all come up a bit short. I'll return with additional posts featuring not only the performers themselves, but the other personnel who are part of the Olympic coverage team, ranging from the many commentators ("she's got the weight of the entire world on her shoulders..." NOT! GROSS exaggeration, hyperbole, discrediting the commentator, not the performer, when she/he might come up short of such ...