Before the World Cup arrives in June, I would suggest a refresher course on the world’s sport.
Starting on Thursday, Hofstra University – my alma mater – is holding the academic conference, Soccer As the Beautiful Game: Football’s Artistry, Identity and Politics. It will run for three full days, including an appearance by Pelé on Friday, when he will receive an honorary doctorate. And on Sunday at Hofstra will be a clinic as well as a match by the new version of Pelé’s old team, the Cosmos. I will be on two panels Saturday and on Thursday will moderate a panel about the original Cosmos, still the most famous soccer club in the history of the United States. Right now, like any coach, I am sweating out the formation -- how to play Roger Allaway, the Soccer Hall of Fame historian, David Kilpatrick of Mercy College, Shep Messing, former Cosmos keeper and analyst for Red Bulls matches, and Leo Glickman of the Borough Boys. I will submit my lineup when the officials ask for it. The academics are coming from all over the world. I am hoping they will wear period costumes like the Germans and Greeks of the famous Monty Python skit, but maybe not. More to the point, they will expand our understanding of the sport. I spot one former men’s national player, Chris Armas, now the women’s coach at Adelphi, on a panel on Saturday. And I look forward to seeing – and hearing – friends and colleagues from around the soccer diaspora. For a full glimpse of the program and information about tickets (and some free events): http://www.hofstra.edu/community/culctr/culctr_events_soccer_conf.html
Mendel
4/10/2014 01:02:09 am
An international sport. Last night in Jerusalem, my family took a break from Passover preparations by staging a BBQ in Gan Sacher - the Central Park of our city. Two of my sons wandered off toward the concrete soccer court which was surprisingly empty. I later discovered them in a spirited contest with two young Arab boys. If only CNN was there to witness the playful coexistence.
George Vecsey
4/10/2014 11:05:55 am
Mendel: what a lovely moment, thank you. 4/11/2014 11:14:23 am
Mendel
Brian Savin
4/11/2014 01:49:47 pm
Blessings, Alan. I agree with your sentiments completely. Best for the Holiday (hard to say "happy," given its meaning) this is international football tournament due to World Football Federation (FIFA) held every four years for all the national football teams of FIFA member nations. Awards were first held in 1930, and was interrupted only twice in 1942 and 1946 due to the Second World War.! 5/4/2016 10:21:27 pm
Thanks for sharing. I hope it will be helpful for too many people that are searching for this topic. 5/4/2016 10:22:36 pm
Great! Thanks for sharing the information. That is very helpful for increasing my knowledge in this field 5/4/2016 10:23:08 pm
I love the background. to me its more interesting than the girl chillin there. she picked a great backdrop, lots of character in there. 5/11/2016 10:41:49 am
provide enlightenment and useful knowledge for the visitors always continue to make the article a reference we all 5/12/2016 10:39:32 pm
The first thing is to listen to the meaning of the article and the purpose of which here is very attractive thanks admin 5/13/2016 08:44:21 am
listen to every article published give a new experience for me thanks 5/13/2016 11:21:13 pm
sharing a new experience for us all by providing articles of interest thanks admin 5/14/2016 08:42:21 am
listen to the articles posted here is very interesting and gives the most experience for me thanks a visit back 5/15/2016 04:27:02 am
realy we can no longer deny each blog provide useful good news and useful for all who visit. visit back LOL 5/15/2016 05:29:40 am
add insight into a broad and obtain useful informations and I bookmarks thanks for admin nice sharing 5/15/2016 07:06:53 am
Her much information visit here to add insight to me then give useful for everyone. a visit back 5/15/2016 07:57:08 am
many places to add useful knowledge for me, such as a visit to this website thank you admin.. Comments are closed.
|
QUOTES
Measuring Covid Deaths, by David Leonhardt. July 17, 2023. NYT online. The United States has reached a milestone in the long struggle against Covid: The total number of Americans dying each day — from any cause — is no longer historically abnormal…. After three horrific years, in which Covid has killed more than one million Americans and transformed parts of daily life, the virus has turned into an ordinary illness. The progress stems mostly from three factors: First, about three-quarters of U.S. adults have received at least one vaccine shot. Second, more than three-quarters of Americans have been infected with Covid, providing natural immunity from future symptoms. (About 97 percent of adults fall into at least one of those first two categories.) Third, post-infection treatments like Paxlovid, which can reduce the severity of symptoms, became widely available last year. “Nearly every death is preventable,” Dr. Ashish Jha, who was until recently President Biden’s top Covid adviser, told me. “We are at a point where almost everybody who’s up to date on their vaccines and gets treated if they have Covid, they rarely end up in the hospital, they almost never die.” That is also true for most high-risk people, Jha pointed out, including older adults — like his parents, who are in their 80s — and people whose immune systems are compromised. “Even for most — not all but most —immuno-compromised people, vaccines are actually still quite effective at preventing against serious illness,” he said. “There has been a lot of bad information out there that somehow if you’re immuno-compromised that vaccines don’t work.” That excess deaths have fallen close to zero helps make this point: If Covid were still a dire threat to large numbers of people, that would show up in the data. One point of confusion, I think, has been the way that many Americans — including we in the media — have talked about the immuno-compromised. They are a more diverse group than casual discussion often imagines. Most immuno-compromised people are at little additional risk from Covid — even people with serious conditions, such as multiple sclerosis or a history of many cancers. A much smaller group, such as people who have received kidney transplants or are undergoing active chemotherapy, face higher risks. Covid’s toll, to be clear, has not fallen to zero. The C.D.C.’s main Covid webpage estimates that about 80 people per day have been dying from the virus in recent weeks, which is equal to about 1 percent of overall daily deaths. The official number is probably an exaggeration because it includes some people who had virus when they died even though it was not the underlying cause of death. Other C.D.C. data suggests that almost one-third of official recent Covid deaths have fallen into this category. A study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases came to similar conclusions. Dr. Shira Doron, the chief infection control officer at Tufts Medicine in Massachusetts, told me that “age is clearly the most substantial risk factor.” Covid’s victims are both older and disproportionately unvaccinated. Given the politics of vaccination, the recent victims are also disproportionately Republican and white. Each of these deaths is a tragedy. The deaths that were preventable — because somebody had not received available vaccines and treatments — seem particularly tragic. (Here’s a Times guide to help you think about when to get your next booster shot.) *** From the great Maureen Dowd: As I write this, I’m in a deserted newsroom in The Times’s D.C. office. After working at home for two years during Covid, I was elated to get back, so I could wander around and pick up the latest scoop. But in the last year, there has been only a smattering of people whenever I’m here, with row upon row of empty desks. Sometimes a larger group gets lured in for a meeting with a platter of bagels." --- Dowd writes about the lost world of journalists clustered in newsrooms at all hours, smoking, drinking, gossipping, making phone calls, typing, editing. *** "Putting out the paper," we called it. Much more than nostalgia. ---https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/29/opinion/journalism-newsroom.html |