Happy St. Crispian's Day!

"This is good stuff." - Ned Gallagher, Shakespeare and the Death of Kings, Spring 2011

Enter the KING

WESTMORELAND. O that we now had here
    But one ten thousand of those men in England
    That do no work to-day!
 
KING. What's he that wishes so?
    My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin;
    If we are mark'd to die, we are enow
    To do our country loss; and if to live,
    The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
    God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
    By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
    Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
    It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
    Such outward things dwell not in my desires.
    But if it be a sin to covet honour,
    I am the most offending soul alive.
    No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England.
    God's peace! I would not lose so great an honour
    As one man more methinks would share from me
    For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
    Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
    That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
    Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
    And crowns for convoy put into his purse;
    We would not die in that man's company
    That fears his fellowship to die with us.
    This day is call'd the feast of Crispian.
    He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
    Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,
    And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
    He that shall live this day, and see old age,
    Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
    And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian.'
    Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
    And say 'These wounds I had on Crispian's day.'
    Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
    But he'll remember, with advantages,
    What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
    Familiar in his mouth as household words-
    Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
    Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester-
    Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red.
    This story shall the good man teach his son;
    And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
    From this day to the ending of the world,
    But we in it shall be remembered-
    We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
    For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
    Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
    This day shall gentle his condition;
    And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
    Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
    And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
    That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

A lovely weekend in Boston!

Photo courtesy of Gail

Armed with a driver's license, I headed to Boston to see the Head of the Charles. I was lucky enough to stay with Gail, my Mom's best friend from childhood. Gail met me at Back Bay, and we quickly went to Cambridge. For some reason, I expected to see 1000s of people; it seemed there were less (contrary to what the pictures suggest). However, Gail and I headed to the Reunion Village, hoping to see some Choate friends and faculty. Gail can attest; for the tuition, the Choate tent proved profoundly disappointing. Even Deerfield offered Dunkin! The Charles itself was spectacular. Reunion Village lies between the Weeks and Andersen Bridges, the most precarious straight of the course. You may remember that a Chinese boat crashed and sank at that point last year. We witnessed some world class crew, and I've been inspired to try intramural rowing next Fall. Alex Brake, my Latin buddy, joined us for a while, before Gail and I left to work out. That night, we ate at a great Japanese restaurant called FuGakYu (chuckle, chuckle). Exhausted and exposed, Gail and I hit the hay pretty early. The next morning, Gail and I had breakfast and shopped, after which we bid farewell, and I took the lonely ride home.

The experience was great; but I'm with Gail on Boston. I've checked it off of my "to live" list, ever mindful that it has an incredibly unfavorable tax structure.

Photo courtesy of Gail

Am I supposed to care?

Nice try, I'm still paying attention to the unemployment numbers:

Reflections on tryouts, 10/15/11-10/16/11

The tryouts this weekend were exhausting, including eight sessions, each an hour long! All the kids were super enthusiastic and responsive. Please read this blurb I wrote for our website:

"We held a very successful second round of tryouts for 30 Thompson Middle School students this weekend. With enthusiastic and skilled help from Coaches Bill DiMarco, Guillaume de Ramel, Scott Lebrun, Jennie Freiman, and Zach Kagan, each RhodySquasher enjoyed an hour of squash. Over the course of two days and eight different sessions, the kids learned straight forehand rails, boasts, and cross courts. In addition, the “fitness” portion of our tryouts, which included pyramids, court sprints, and relay races, drew much support (after some initial woe)! Having selected 13 successful and talented students, we’re ready to forge ahead with our unique program of squash, academic tutoring, community service, and mentoring. We’d like to thank Principal Crowley of Thompson Middle School, whose commitment to RhodySquash allowed for a successful 2011-2012 tryout."

If playing college admissions officer is a truly an unpleasant job, then temporary role was even worse and equally fickle. Whereas a college admissions officer works in the abstract -- figures, applications, bulls**t essays, etc. -- I had to meet each family, work with each kid for an hour, and then inform them late Sunday evening there child did not make the cut. Never doing that again.

This weekend and OWS

For the next two days, we're hosting tryouts for 30 returning kids; That's 8 hours of squash in one weekend! Rejection in the abstract is easy; selecting only eight students will be difficult. But after this weekend, I'll finally get to work with some kids and abandon the abstract. A detailed description of a day in the life will follow soon.

WARNING ... Political hyper-conservative rant below (Maddox beware)

Assuming a massive economic paradigm shift comes in the following years, I'd like to go on record before s**t hits the fan. To begin, I think the Occupy Wall Street protests are lame. Joblessness is a consequence of the individual. Since when did the state become responsible for creating opportunity and prosperity? Not only does the government claim to know what's best for my life, said government achieves that vision through the use of force. Politics is all cost-benefit analysis. Take the Romney/Perry exchanges. Mitt slams Rick over child healthcare. In Massachusetts, he says, <1% of children are uninsured but in big ol' Texas >20% are uninsured. True to character, Perry stands there like a dunce and rambles. How about saying Massachusetts is in fiscal shambles on the verge of bankruptcy while Texas stands with comparatively stable footing. Socially optimal outcomes would be great if only we could afford them. But back to OWS. Once again, the liberal media establishment paints a romantic picture of this organic, non-partisan movement. Ya right! We have a liberal tea party on our hands, defaming public property, displaying anti-Semitic signs, etc. At least the Tea Party got 50+ members elected to Congress. OWS will go nowhere.

Hiring woes

Everything re: RhodySquash was coasting. Over 30 kids signed up for a second round of tryouts, funding continued/s to stream, and we had an article published in Newport This Week, a welcome and first form of press. Muphy's law wound not take hold; it couldn't. But because I'm an 18 year old male working with 5th-7th grade students, many of whom are young girls, it is a liability for me to work with kids alone (there was no way to make this sentence not sound slightly creepy). RhodySquash is a still young organization. We have volunteers, but not a volunteer infrastructure that can reliably provide a second person to aid me at practice every day we need them. We collectively decided to hire a part time "Academic Adviser," who would be compelled to show because his/her modest salary (a volunteer is only compelled by his/her conscious). We advertised on Craigslist, interviewed the candidates, and reviewed their qualification. I thought I had found the perfect "Academic Adviser" to learn that a week before practices start, she won't return my calls or emails. She was so gung-ho. What happened? So we're at square one. Updates will follow; expect a link to our site with the bio of the person we eventually hire.

I tried to make polenta with mushroom ragu for dinner. It was literally inedible. After having made pork belly, multiple ragus, shepherd's pie, and caponata, I think I'll heed my Dad's advice and start cooking simple items. Roast chicken sounds good.

We purchased a Prius today!

Thought you'd might like to know.

Tryouts 05 October 2011

Thanks to the enthusiastic Principal Jaime Crowley, RhodySquash tryouts at Thompson Middle School were wildly successful; 54 5th and 6th graders and a reporter showed. Admittedly, I was extremely nervous. "Would these kids like me?" "Would anybody actually come to the tryouts?" To say we were unprepared for the turnout is an understatement. Two gym teachers, however, were extremely helpful while Molly (a volunteer) and I frantically tried to get contact info. 50+ kids, 30 minutes ... pretty efficient if I do say so myself.

Witness ... performance anxiety

Looking forward, I've been contacting every kid who signed up, trying to schedule a more formal tryout at the RhodySquash clubhouse. Now we're looking for serious commitment and innate squash facility (maybe this is a good time to formally give a shout out to the late Jim Phelan, my squash coach; without him, none of this would be possible). Again, the response has been overwhelming. Over 30 students scheduled a second tryout. In some sick/twisted way, I'm like a college admissions officer. With the advice of others, we have to choose 8 kids out of 40. More than anything, I feel bad about being not being able to offer each and every one of them the opportunity. That's the nature of life though; unlimited needs with limited resources. Now that I mention it, someone should relay that message to Democrats...

Let it also be known that this has been the first week I've regretted taking Latin; fluency in Spanish would have been extremely helpful. Live and learn, I guess.

If you have Facebook, please "like" our page.

Farewell Steve Jobs, you were a visionary and changed the world for the better.

Court/Real Tennis

When we have match'd our rackets to these balls,

We will in France, by God's grace, play a set,

Shall strike his father's crown into the hazard.

Tell him he hath made a match with such a wrangler

That all the courts in France will be disturb'd with chases!

(Act II: Henry V) - William Shakespeare

The court at the Tennis Hall of Fame, Newport, RI

Last weekend, Gabe came to visit. Having had a superb time in Costa Rica, I felt the need to impress. What better way than with something TOTALLY unique. We've sampled all the restaurants (including the world famous and profoundly overrated Flo's Clam Shack), visited the sites, talked the talk, etc. But -- and I'll admit selfishly -- I've always wanted to try court tennis and thought Gabe, a rackets man himself, would be a great partner. Essentially, court tennis (aka real tennis) is an 800 year old racket sport invented for British royalty. As Henry ? (not sure which one) got older and fatter, he morphed the rules to favor his corpulent physique. What's resulted centuries later was an esoteric sport, played in a polygon, with arcane rules, from which all other more logical -- and should I add prolific -- racket sports blossomed. Looking forward, as I am on my gap year, I've decided to take 2 free lessons per week? After all, this year is about experimentation. Now you may ask, "why are they free?" Coincidentally, Rhode Island court tennis is supremely well endowed. And when I mean well endowed, I mean like full access to world class courts and coaching for 200 dollars per year. The irony for me is that I'm a serious squash player. We have a crappy courts and no real pro; for court tennis, I benefit from one of the world's nicest courts, at no cost, with two top 50 ranked pros. Go figure ...

For a brief history of court tennis, please visit this Wikipedia page. In other news, I made a Marco Pierre White "Belly Pork" recipe; It was absolutely delicious but a little fatty. My dad even took an extra Lipitor to compensate.