Category: sports

Watching the Olympics on and off

I’ve been watching the Olympics occasionally, depending on when I catch it. I am feeling FOMO of not being in Paris, it looks like it’s the place to be this summer.

When I was a kid, I watched it all – from opening ceremony to closing ceremony. I knew every Olympians life story if it was reported on tv and I watched hours and hours of it. Of course we didn’t have 1000 tv channels back then, so since there weren’t many choices, I watched the main event for two weeks.

Ollie And Jacomo at the Olympics.


I did catch the men’s gymnastics and I stuck with it because one of the guys is the spitting image of one of my neighbors. He could be his brother. They look so much alike. I’ve seen still pictures of this Olympian online and he doesn’t look like my neighbor in still shots, but on tv, moving, he looks just like him.

I haven’t told my neighbor because I don’t know how he would take it, sometimes when people tell you that you look like someone it isn’t a compliment. My neighbor is much younger than me, more like a son, and I yelled at him one day, as a father would yell at a son, only he isn’t my son, and it caused bad feelings. He’s back talking to me, so I don’t want to be stupid by saying anything that might be stupid.

For years I’ve said things out loud that I think I am only thinking in my head. I’m not sure how or why that happens, but really, I think it and I think I am only thinking it, and I end up blurting it out.

I’ve been having fun with Ollie And Jacomo, setting them in Paris during the Olympic games. It’s given me lots of ideas and themes to work with.

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Media softball in the park

Cartoonist Jason Chatfield mentioned that there’s a summer softball league in NYC where The New Yorker magazine crew plays various other media outlets in Central Park. They play Rolling Stone magazine and the Financial Times, NY Review of Books, Slate, and NY Public Radio to name a few throughout the summer.

Cartoonist Roz Chast designed The New Yorker “uniform,” it’s a two sided t-shirt. I would love one of those but they are all sold out.

The New Yorker “unform” designed by Roz Chast.

I’m in NY for part of the summer, so I’d like to stop by to watch a game or two. I’d love to meet some of cartoonists and magazine people involved.

Along with The New Yorker league, there is another league called The New York Media Softball League (NYMSL) which consists of other NY-based media organizations. There are teams from Forbes, BuzzFeed, the Wall Street Journals, Axios, the Associated Press, etc. This is the 17th season for that league.

I remember some years back I watched a few games with different soap opera actors playing each other in Central Park. Different shows played each other.

The NYMSL plays at various parks including Central Park, East River Park, McCarren Park in Brooklyn, Riverside Park and a few others.

The schedule for this summer’s NYMSL games is here and Jason has The New Yorker games listed here.

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