Before getting into the meat of it, the acknowledgments: First, to my friends who recently graduated in '08: CONGRATULATIONS, and I promise I'll be joining the ranks of the cap-and-gown wearing, diploma-bearing, hood-sporting crowds pretty soon. Second, to everybody who wished me a Happy (34th) Birthday: THANKS! Also, thanks to everybody who keeps supporting me in my ongoing recovery. Finally, props to my girlfriend (that story will be the subject of another blog coming very soon)... it feels good to have you around!
There will be no updates about my nieces. I'm saving all of those for a longer blog coming in July. So, as Mills Lane would say, "Let's get it on!"
I Don't Mean to Go off on a Rant Here... But...
Those were the famous words of comedian Dennis Miller every time he would go off on a rant about something in today's society that bothered him. We all have pet peeves. That's part of human nature. I got a few here and there, like people who can't get their grammar straight and keep claiming that IM, Facebook status messages, and e-mail are some sort of grammar-free zone where "you're" is the same as "your" and "they're," "there," and "their" are actually interchangeable; where "then" is the form of choice for the comparative; and apostrophes can be placed willy-nilly. Of course, there is also the case of people who decide against my will that I have to eavesdrop their conversations while I'm trying to read the stuff for Chapter Two of my dissertation. And, how can we forget the occasional "movie color commentator," the person right behind you at the theatre who decides that they need to not only explain the plot, characters, settings, etc. of the movie to their date/partner/friend sitting next to them, but also feel the urge to warn the hero of every peril ahead of him/her.
However, this rant is not about them. They too will get their day in court. This is about the misuse of certain words that are becoming trivialized and losing their actual value. Again, with apologies to Dennis Miller (and no one else... in case you failed to read the title of my blog, the last word is "provocateur..." and I intend to live up to its bill this time around), I don't mean to go off on a rant here but...
However, this rant is not about them. They too will get their day in court. This is about the misuse of certain words that are becoming trivialized and losing their actual value. Again, with apologies to Dennis Miller (and no one else... in case you failed to read the title of my blog, the last word is "provocateur..." and I intend to live up to its bill this time around), I don't mean to go off on a rant here but...
Why do millionaire athletes claim they're "Hungry?"
Before the Bard starts rolling over on his grave, spare me the Shakespearian/"poetic license"/metaphor theory here. Some words should never be taken lightly, hungry being one of them. Yes, yes, I know that one of the definitions of "hungry," according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary (http://www.merriam-webster.com) is, "Strongly motivated (as by ambition)." But, there is a sense of irony here. Where there are people dying of actual hunger, I find it ironic that some people who've never really experienced hunger first-hand (and no, I haven't... my dad has though and he banned us from saying that we were starving or "dying of hunger" at home since we didn't really know what it was like to be in a jungle for one week feeding on leaves or the soles of your shoes... dad taught me and my sister well about not blowing things out of proportion) talk about how "hungry" they are. That just cheapens suffering when you use the same descriptor to explain your desire for a championship ring in the NBA and your desire for at least an onion ring somewhere in an impoverished village in Central Africa.
I mean, if there was a public outrage over an athlete saying that playing a rivalry game was like going to war for him, we should also put athletes on notice that they have no right to claim to be hungry, unless they themselves have dealt with it as they were growing up. Oh yes, I have read stories about athletes coming from Africa, Brazil, Colombia, and other developing countries, as well as minority athletes coming from impoverished areas in the U.S. who talk about their families' struggles to make ends meet. I just can assure you that none of them would be so trigger-happy to say they're "hungry" for a championship. You can hear that, however, from the mouths of the children of a former Roland Garros champion and two former NBA stars... if you're sports savvy, yes, I'm talking about three former Florida Gators, who could afford not to test the NBA waters and stick around for school one more year because they were "hungry" for another title. Enough said! So, seriously, let's watch out what we're really hungry for... some people can't even tell you they are because they're too weak to utter that sentence...
I mean, if there was a public outrage over an athlete saying that playing a rivalry game was like going to war for him, we should also put athletes on notice that they have no right to claim to be hungry, unless they themselves have dealt with it as they were growing up. Oh yes, I have read stories about athletes coming from Africa, Brazil, Colombia, and other developing countries, as well as minority athletes coming from impoverished areas in the U.S. who talk about their families' struggles to make ends meet. I just can assure you that none of them would be so trigger-happy to say they're "hungry" for a championship. You can hear that, however, from the mouths of the children of a former Roland Garros champion and two former NBA stars... if you're sports savvy, yes, I'm talking about three former Florida Gators, who could afford not to test the NBA waters and stick around for school one more year because they were "hungry" for another title. Enough said! So, seriously, let's watch out what we're really hungry for... some people can't even tell you they are because they're too weak to utter that sentence...
When Did "Survivor" Start Handing Diplomas?
My second rant of the blog has to do with the trivialization of the term "Alum," the reduced form of the term "Alumnus" or "Alumna" (by the way, "Alumni" is the PLURAL form of "Alumnus," so please refrain from say you are "An Alumni" from a school!). Let me provide this definition from Wikipedia, "As indicated in the American Heritage Dictionary, an alumnus or alumna is either someone who has attended the school (or a "former student of a school") or someone who has graduated from the school." Yes, by definition, An alum(nus/a) is someone who either went to school or preferably graduated. So, when exchange students write that they are "UIllinois Alum" in their profiles, that is very accurate. When I write that I am a "Fulbright Alumnus," it is accurate since I was given a scholarship to pursue my master's. Anybody who has attended an educational institution by extension can call him/herself an alum.
What really irks me is when you start referring to anyone who has been on a TV show (a la Saturday Night Live) or a reality TV show as "Alums" of that show. Really, I wonder what curriculum they had to pursue to earn the right to be alums of "Survivor College," "Flavor of Love Polytechnic," or "The Real World/Road Rules State University?" I mean, it is hard work to get a Bachelor's, for instance. I know that my friends who just graduated had to spend lots of hours at the library to get theirs. I know that my education students have to bust their chops every semester and keep a high GPA just to get, in some cases, their education MINORS (at this point, anyone who claims you don't have to study hard if you're in education doesn't want to know how far up your humanity you'll have to go to give me my walking cane back!). In order for me to be an "Alumnus" of The University of Illinois, I first had to write a thesis and now I have to write this 2000-lb gorilla otherwise known as my dissertation. So excuse me if I hurt a few sensitivities by being irked by a few reality-TV castaways who are so devoid of parental love and need to be called "Alums," sometimes to justify the fact that getting drunk on national TV and making "Girls Gone Wild" videos beats getting a decent education! At least there are bona-fide actors and directors who are Alumni/ae of schools around the U.S. (or at worst they attended the school long enough to be recognized as former students). I'm sorry, but I know how hard it is to get your education for someone to try to go the easy way out and simply diminish my (and my friends') accomplishments by using the same title that I have earned.
Does this make me an elitist? So what if it does? Getting your education is a big deal and it shouldn't be diminished. Just because I was an Army brat, it doesn't mean I am a "soldier," and being a fan of a team doesn't make me a member of a "Nation." We need to call a spade a spade, and be respectful of what it takes to earn a name. Although it is true, as the Bard once said, that if a rose were called something different it would smell the same, none of you would describe a pile of scum as a "rose."
And, in the words of that great cynic, Mr. Miller, "This is my opinion, but I could be wrong!"
That's it for now. Till my next blog, I bid farewell!
The Blogger, the Thinker, the Provocateur...
Raúl A. (El Patrón)
My second rant of the blog has to do with the trivialization of the term "Alum," the reduced form of the term "Alumnus" or "Alumna" (by the way, "Alumni" is the PLURAL form of "Alumnus," so please refrain from say you are "An Alumni" from a school!). Let me provide this definition from Wikipedia, "As indicated in the American Heritage Dictionary, an alumnus or alumna is either someone who has attended the school (or a "former student of a school") or someone who has graduated from the school." Yes, by definition, An alum(nus/a) is someone who either went to school or preferably graduated. So, when exchange students write that they are "UIllinois Alum" in their profiles, that is very accurate. When I write that I am a "Fulbright Alumnus," it is accurate since I was given a scholarship to pursue my master's. Anybody who has attended an educational institution by extension can call him/herself an alum.
What really irks me is when you start referring to anyone who has been on a TV show (a la Saturday Night Live) or a reality TV show as "Alums" of that show. Really, I wonder what curriculum they had to pursue to earn the right to be alums of "Survivor College," "Flavor of Love Polytechnic," or "The Real World/Road Rules State University?" I mean, it is hard work to get a Bachelor's, for instance. I know that my friends who just graduated had to spend lots of hours at the library to get theirs. I know that my education students have to bust their chops every semester and keep a high GPA just to get, in some cases, their education MINORS (at this point, anyone who claims you don't have to study hard if you're in education doesn't want to know how far up your humanity you'll have to go to give me my walking cane back!). In order for me to be an "Alumnus" of The University of Illinois, I first had to write a thesis and now I have to write this 2000-lb gorilla otherwise known as my dissertation. So excuse me if I hurt a few sensitivities by being irked by a few reality-TV castaways who are so devoid of parental love and need to be called "Alums," sometimes to justify the fact that getting drunk on national TV and making "Girls Gone Wild" videos beats getting a decent education! At least there are bona-fide actors and directors who are Alumni/ae of schools around the U.S. (or at worst they attended the school long enough to be recognized as former students). I'm sorry, but I know how hard it is to get your education for someone to try to go the easy way out and simply diminish my (and my friends') accomplishments by using the same title that I have earned.
Does this make me an elitist? So what if it does? Getting your education is a big deal and it shouldn't be diminished. Just because I was an Army brat, it doesn't mean I am a "soldier," and being a fan of a team doesn't make me a member of a "Nation." We need to call a spade a spade, and be respectful of what it takes to earn a name. Although it is true, as the Bard once said, that if a rose were called something different it would smell the same, none of you would describe a pile of scum as a "rose."
And, in the words of that great cynic, Mr. Miller, "This is my opinion, but I could be wrong!"
That's it for now. Till my next blog, I bid farewell!
The Blogger, the Thinker, the Provocateur...
Raúl A. (El Patrón)
No comments:
Post a Comment