yesterday marked 5 months till "election day". start making plans now.
recently i debated a former student over the definition of a sport. i have often had such debates in an effort to educate the younger populace of our country. . .and even at time members from an older generation (always in a humble spirit of course). there are numerous terms that can be used to describe the same thing with unique characteristics. in this case, their is much confusion between the following three terms: game, contest, and sport.
- game is the most generic of these terms. it can be used of things such as tag, hide-n-seek, solitaire, or monopoly. it is also fitting to speak of a basketball game.
- competition is a little less generic than game. it somewhat difficult to imagine a tag tournament, but one could posibly accept the idea of a monopoly tournament. at this point, monopoly, while remaining a game, has become a competition.
- sport is the least generic of these terms. monopoly just doesn't fit into this category (nor do tag, hide-n-seek, or solitaire). usually we associate a sport with some kind of physical exertion, but that is where most definitions stop and where the discussion starts to get dicey. if this is all that is involved, mowing lawns could be considered a sport.
so, some extra parameters must be supplied to distinguish non-sports from sports. i submit that a sport must involve offense and defense. this would leave golf and figure skating in the competition category. . .which usually gets someone upset. though both golf and figure skating involve a lot of effort, without the element of defense, it is hard to really classify them in the same category as football, basketball, and hockey.
while i know that i may have alienated myself from members of my base, the truth must be presented, not waffled about. send all flame to dave@daveandnic.com.
though some will resort to a dictionary definition to prove their side, let me remind all that our language is constantly in flux and there is no one perfect source for proper use of terminology. as sultan former professor dr. salter would say, "if the dictionary has a different definition than the one i give you, burn the dictionary."
wednesday evening i went to a play: "taming of the shrew" performed locally. it was certainly a different experience from other plays i have attended. a former student of mine did a great job with his character (though he didn't perform requests sent to him via fanmail). the only thing more entertaining was the talented bubble vendor that "performed" amongst the crowd while the stage was empty. slightly annoying (and crude to be sure) was a guy who called himself joe.
had an office cookout at the in-laws house. we all played house golf, which is more fun than it may sound. the wife and i tied for 3rd place. i almost got a hole in 1 on one of the more difficult holes (i know nobody believes me, but this is the only golf story i have) and ended up taking a 4 on it.
more later. . .
peace and java
