Something Else I Thought Of To Say Too Late

Having a blog to say these things in takes away some of the bitter regret. Better too late than never.

So this guy was talking about sports and the arts. Talking about them in the same breath, as if they were synonymous, which annoyed me already. It's good if artists are physically active and robust, but, obviously, it's not always the case. Then he started talking about how athletes and artists are pro-diversity, respectful and honest and how sports and arts are always so good for people. Which immediately made me think about how pro athletes tend to dress themselves when not in uniform (often in a painfully un-artistic manner), and about football hooligans, and huge riots perpetrated by sports fans after their team has won a championship, and about boxers and football players who get Parkinson's while young or die in the ring and on the field, and about steroids -- in short, I was thinking about reality, and about all the different ways this guy had managed to be wrong in the space of very few words. But I held my tongue about it and let him jabber on, because that's the kind of peace-loving gentle-natured guy I am. (Yes, that was sarcasm, not a lack of self-awareness. Bazinga.)

But then he said that certain people making some critical comments about religion were more than likely not athletes or artists. In retrospect, I could have praised him at that point for tacitly allowing, by saying "or" instead of "and," that someone could possibly be one and not the other. Instead, though, and quite understandably, my annoyance spilled over, and I said, “Nothing like jumping to conclusions about people's bios based on comments they make that you don't like.” In retrospect, however, I wish I had said, “Nothing like jumping to conclusions about people's bios based on comments they make that you don't like. From your remarks it's obvious that you are sexually impotent, and Belgian.”