Life is more than a cartoon, or even a musical genius

Believing it puts people off to catalog the achievements of prodigies like Robert Gupta, the twenty year old violinist who recently joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, I thought it relevant to emphasize that like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, (post 1/30/08), Gupta is a philosophical person. Yes, Gupta took a biology degree from Marist College in New York with an interest in neurobiology at age seventeen, and a Master's Degree in music from Yale University at age nineteen, but like Jabbar, who couldn't help being a great athlete in addition to standing seven feet two inches tall, Gupta couldn't help being born with musical genius. Note, geniuses must work hard to fulfill their potential; perhaps it's a philosophical aspect that separates a successful genius from a failed one.
What other quality do the two share besides their natural abilities provided at birth? Each is a reader, each is a philosophical person. Jabbar took a degree in history from UCLA and never stopped reading. He has also written two well-received books with historical themes. Gupta, who turned off cartoons as a youth preferring to watch New York Philharmonic concerts instead, said of himself to Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez,

Music is "exhilaration, joy, complete release." Interestingly, Gupta also believes that immersing himself in science, history, and philosophy makes him a better violinist. "To be an artist, you have to know something outside your instrument," he said. "You have to be a human." (emphasis mine)

In an age of specialization, these philosophical words seem well worth considering, not solely for the individual, but for the culture all individuals together create.


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Earth to all student athletes: "The NBA's all-time leading scorer loved his college English class"

At a time when collegiate sports departments look increasingly like business operations, a time in which only a couple percent of college football and basketball players move on to "the next level," student athletes should think carefully before taking the easy courses, those passing them through instead of educating them during their precious time on campus.

Although I believe Bill Russell is the greatest collegiate and professional player of all-time for reasons I shall not enumerate here, I must put Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in a nearby orbit. My point here, however, is to credit Jabbar for his writing career, the career he was able to pursue after a successful professional career because he was a legitimate student-athlete while at UCLA. Addul-Jabbar has to date written two well-received books. From Sports Editor Bill Dwyre's column in the Los Angeles Times quoting Abdul-Jabbar on his student days in UCLA:

"I loved school, loved UCLA," Abdul-Jabbar says. "I remember, in an English class taught by a Mr. Lindstrom, we were asked to do essays and he said he would read the best three to the entire class. He read the first two, then said he was going to read the best one, and it was mine. It was right then that I thought maybe I could do this, that maybe I had what it takes."

Dwyre: "He (Abdul-Jabbar) also played at UCLA for John Wooden, always more English teacher than coach."

Adbul-Jabbar: "We'd sit on the bus and talk about when to use a colon and when a semicolon," Abdul-Jabbar says. "We'd argue the difference between "like" and "as if."*

Particularly gratifying is the fact that Coach John Wooden was also English teacher John Wooden, and that Wooden combined the two aspects of himself successfully with his student-athletes. Coach Wooden was also presumably a prescriptivist concerning grammar and usage, someone who believes in a grammar code and its proper enforcement, no doubt accomplished by Wooden in a thoughtful, even humorous manner.

Regarding the old argument between Adbul-Jabbar and Wooden about using "as if" for "like," the Oxford English Dictionary disapproves, presumably siding with Wooden: "It is considered unacceptable in formal English to use like as a conjunction meaning ‘as if’ (as in he's behaving like he owns the place). Use as if or as though instead.

There is a conflict, however, and this is what I love about grammar. Looking further in the OED definitions below, you will see that like may be used as a conjunction meaning "similar to," "very closely resembling." Thus, "He's behaving in a manner like (closely resembling) an actual owner" now seems to work. This one appears to be a draw. You decide.

At any rate, kudos to Kareem for caring and for choosing a writing career!

The Oxford English Dictionary definitions of "as if" and "like":

* as if (or though): as would be the case if; conj: despite the fact that, although; adverb: however.

* like may be used in many ways, and depending upon its syntax (where it is located in the sentence and which words it most closely relates to) may serve as a different part of speech:

adj: having similar characteristics; conj: similar to, very closely resembling; as if;
prep: similar to, resembling; in a similar way; adv: nearly, approximately; probably (Slang); as if, such (Slang); v: enjoy; be fond of; want; prefer; n: person or thing which is similar or comparable; kind, type; things which are preferred or liked.
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Chefs cook, gourmets chew, and one chewed up metaphor

On one of the many culinary competitions produced on the Food Network guest epicure Julia Rutland, a pleasant enough judge who writes for Coastal Living Magazine in Birmingham, Alabama, may wish to regurgitate a metaphor.

The show Ms. Rutland appeared on was entitled "The Great American Seafood Cook-Off II." The specific dish Rutland was sampling apparently contained too many ingredients, themselves competing with one another while producing an unsavory result. Rutland's comment, "A lot of difficult elements (here)...they bit off more than they could chew." We are assuming that the antecedent for the pronoun "they" is not the "elements" in the dish; otherwise, you would have the ingredients of the dish cannibalizing themselves. Instead, the "they" Rutland was referring to are the chefs who had prepared the dish, though usually the competitions are head-to-head, one chef competing against another.

Though metaphors are figures of speech, they still must make some sense as used in context. In a cooking competition beamed out to a national audience, we would not expect to see or imagine a chef eating his or her own dish. Sample yes, eating no, and certainly not "biting off more than he or she could chew."

This, perhaps, is something to chew over.