Ask Carroll

[Beanpole]

Well, seemed to make up for it in Round 2.

[steve shearer]

Poetry is often rich with the kind of one liners that people use to describe various shit. shearer used TS Eliot's epic Hollow Men line right here recently (though inaccurately but what the hell):

Beg yours? Andy hadn't showed up, Hatchy was grovelling around by himself in the half light of a damp and dank wintery day on the NB's. All the pomp and promise of the early exchanges had come to nought. A whimper.

It followed on beautifully from the earlier stanzas:
Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
Life is very long

Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow

Isn't that just what the whole online thing was and is about? Between the potency and the existence ....falls the shadow?

[Nick Carroll]

you said "this is how the world ends"

not "how". "the way". it's a bit of a difference. the syllables change the swing of the line; the repeated Ws, matched with the "the"s, reinforce that movement.

the meaning of the line is changed too. "how" is a word for a training manual. "the way" implies a lot about how Eliot wants us to see that killer final line. It also suggests movement, but an unresolved movement - the way where? The term also has a religious tone, isn't that what religions of all kinds, including Eliot's Catholic retreat, insist on showing us, "the way"? Don't look for an Apocalypse down this way, the four lines imply; just look for the kind of life Eliot describes in his other big poems, particularly "Prufrock": a life "measured out in coffee spoons", where his hero wonders, "Do I dare to eat a peach?"

but yeah there's a lot of whimpering online thats for god damn sure.

[steve shearer]

ok, you meant I butchered the actual quote, not used it incorrectly.

I stand corrected.

[Nick Carroll]

yeah I shoulda been clearer myself

[Little]

What about The Boy Stood On The Burning Deck?

[rmb]

Nick 2001 World Champion CJ Hobgood has announced he will retire from competition at the end of the year. CJ deserves to be a champion and is one of the best surfers to watch in solid barreling lefts like Chopes. As we all know the tour was cut short in 2001 due to the September 11th terrorist attacks and the European leg was skipped.

Occy came in runner up and this is what leads me to my bizarre questions.
1. Nick was the biggest Victim of the Sep 11 terrorist attacks Occy costing him the World Title?
2. Was this done by the CIA to hand the title to CJ at the expense of Occ?
3. Has the Trauma from these events caused Occy's personal struggles or at least contributed to them?
23. At which two Olympic games did swimmer Kieran Perkins win the 1500m freestyle?

[Nick Carroll]

1 Oh yeah of course. Occy's suffering at this imagined turn of events clearly outweighs that of the victims of the New York terrorist attacks, their families and friends, and all the other people around the world who have died horribly or otherwise suffered ghastly losses as a result of the cascade of events stemming from 9/11.

2 No

3 I couldn't give a fcuk. Nor would I hazard a guess. Occy's life is his business.

23 1992 and 1996. The 1996 win in Atlanta is justifiably considered to be one of the greatest swimming achievements in Games history.

[Cranked]

1 Oh yeah of course. Occy's suffering at this imagined turn of events clearly outweighs that of the victims of the New York terrorist attacks, their families and friends, and all the other people around the world who have died horribly or otherwise suffered ghastly losses as a result of the cascade of events stemming from 9/11.

Gees but its hard to keep up with modern language conventions, meaning can alter so dramatically nowadays according to whether a comment is meant to be taken in an ironic, post ironic or post post ironic sense!

Or all three at once.

[BA]

23. At which two Olympic games did swimmer Kieran Perkins win the 1500m freestyle?

That question was in the Good Weekend. Get your own questions.

[rmb]

BA I thought Nick would enjoy a bit of Trivia. Nick do you enjoy the quiz in the paper?

[Nick Carroll]

I don't do quizzes. They are Stupid. Why ask the question if you already know the answer.

[ctd]

Why ask the question if you already know the answer.

I think that is a good question

[8]

Why ask the question if you already know the answer.

I think that is a good question

Yes but what is the answer?

[Little]

Nick, as I'm now well into my 50's the only competitive sport I'm involved in is trying to keep expensive European imports from merging into my lane on Military Rd. Even though I drive a Hiace van (manual gearbox) I consider myself an Olympian in this event and have about an 80% win rate. Do you consider this an actual sport or just a pastime?

[Beanpole]

I'd call it a lifestyle choice.

[Nick Carroll]

Nick, as I'm now well into my 50's the only competitive sport I'm involved in is trying to keep expensive European imports from merging into my lane on Military Rd. Even though I drive a Hiace van (manual gearbox) I consider myself an Olympian in this event and have about an 80% win rate. Do you consider this an actual sport or just a pastime?

hmm that's a tricky one

I think you'd have to say "pastime" because you can't be sure the cnuts in the expensive cars are on the same page. Like a lot of the time they just do what they want without seeming to notice anyone else. So you're competing, but they're not.

But then again in the broader sense of the term, in which "sport" is basically active play, it might qualify as sport.

See if you can find soem other people who are into it, then you can form a club.

[bobjs]

well yes but we aren't really talking about "fat" here are we, we are talking about sorta tubby. A bit around the midsection. Jowly. Slumping muscle structure. Carries himself with brittle confidence but privately worries about his declining state. Women don't look at him much any more. His wife conceals her own anxieties about him, confining herself to bouts of upbeat "healthy" cooking and occasional nudges toward a checkup at their GP. Mentally he feels sharp and he knows he is a better and more reliable person than he was at 21, but he also knows he can't paddle as fast, and he still makes the same mistakes on takeoff and in the lip as he has always made, just makes them more slowly. He senses what that person wrote about a man's quiet desperation and looks for a solution in foam, fibreglass, and fin systems. This model? That model? What's my litrage? Can I find myself in a JS Whatever or a Mayhem Thingummy?

This really is a tremendous post

So what happens to a man’s surfing capability around 45 years old and can anything be done about it? I remember W Lynch saying in an interview that he thought his surfing kept getting better post 35, but at 45 things got more difficult. I have heard that elsewhere too.