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9.19.2006
Sports!
I have two fantasy football teams, both of which are 2-0 and, I believe, have been the high scoring teams both weeks in their respective leagues. One of them is actually played for a monetary pittance, so I will attempt to put up enough points to score a dinner out with Sum (or, sigh, a credit card/car insurance/other payment).
The Eagles made me sad on Sunday. They looked so good for a long time, then just deconstructed. I suppose the obvious blame goes to the DBs, who (to be fair) were fairly decimated* by injuries, with one of the starters and the nickel both injured, and to the offense in general, which could not get the run going in the second half and failed to take advantage of the Giants playing the run--play action was working, but both Stallworth and L.J. dropped passes they should have had for first downs. Alas.
*I have never understood (at least not since I discovered its origin) why the word "decimate" has come to mean such utter devastation. Its most common use seems to be in situations mathematically worse than proper decimation--in this case, the Eagles had 4 cornerbacks on the roster on opening day. One got injured--25% (>10%). They brought in another one. Then a second one got injured--40% (>10%). Even extrapolating to the DBs as a whole, there are 9 DBs (5 corners, 4 safeties) of whom 2 are currently injured--22% (>10%). I suppose I'll have to concede that one could conceive of injury as worth only some fraction of death (decimate properly refers to the practice among Roman military commanders of killing every tenth member of a mutinous unit), but that aspect of a tenth (deci-) is right there in the word. Instead I suppose I should cede to my normal theory that grammar and etymology--"proper" aspects of language--are generally a step behind usage, which represents the true current state of the language. It's kind of like Customary International Law though--if one uses I in place of me or vice versa, that is still incorrect because the opinio iuris favors the "proper" grammatical rule. I sense this requires more explanation than it is worth, so I will quit for now. Phew.
With regard to the other football, I am playing for an IM soccer team. Our first game is this afternoon. We practiced on Sunday and it was loads of fun.
Classes continue to go well; I'm still trying to carve out an appropriately unique and powerful thesis for my Law Review paper by sifting through all the materials I can within my chosen topic; that is all for now.
The Eagles made me sad on Sunday. They looked so good for a long time, then just deconstructed. I suppose the obvious blame goes to the DBs, who (to be fair) were fairly decimated* by injuries, with one of the starters and the nickel both injured, and to the offense in general, which could not get the run going in the second half and failed to take advantage of the Giants playing the run--play action was working, but both Stallworth and L.J. dropped passes they should have had for first downs. Alas.
*I have never understood (at least not since I discovered its origin) why the word "decimate" has come to mean such utter devastation. Its most common use seems to be in situations mathematically worse than proper decimation--in this case, the Eagles had 4 cornerbacks on the roster on opening day. One got injured--25% (>10%). They brought in another one. Then a second one got injured--40% (>10%). Even extrapolating to the DBs as a whole, there are 9 DBs (5 corners, 4 safeties) of whom 2 are currently injured--22% (>10%). I suppose I'll have to concede that one could conceive of injury as worth only some fraction of death (decimate properly refers to the practice among Roman military commanders of killing every tenth member of a mutinous unit), but that aspect of a tenth (deci-) is right there in the word. Instead I suppose I should cede to my normal theory that grammar and etymology--"proper" aspects of language--are generally a step behind usage, which represents the true current state of the language. It's kind of like Customary International Law though--if one uses I in place of me or vice versa, that is still incorrect because the opinio iuris favors the "proper" grammatical rule. I sense this requires more explanation than it is worth, so I will quit for now. Phew.
With regard to the other football, I am playing for an IM soccer team. Our first game is this afternoon. We practiced on Sunday and it was loads of fun.
Classes continue to go well; I'm still trying to carve out an appropriately unique and powerful thesis for my Law Review paper by sifting through all the materials I can within my chosen topic; that is all for now.
posted by Max Greene at 9:23 AM
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1 Comments:
The Giants made me very very happy Sunday. I'm sorry, however, for your loss, and the loss of Kerse. Sad, too, that TO busted up his hand, but maybe there is divine justice for being an, well, an idiot. Our summer plans fell in beautifully and I thank you for your timely help. Good luck with your year, and hugs to Summer.
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