Category: Everything Else

Yankee Stadium: 1923 – 2008

I’m a Mets fan, only rooting for the Yankees once the Mets have been knocked out of the running for the playoffs, but this is a bit of a bummer nonetheless:

What began with a Babe Ruth home run on an April afternoon in 1923 ended Sunday with Mariano Rivera retiring Brian Roberts on a grounder to first baseman Cody Ransom, completing a 7-3 victory over Baltimore on a warm September night ….. Appropriately enough, the final Yankees player to bat was Derek Jeter.

Farewell, Yankee Stadium. I went there a few times over the years; the first time on a field trip with my Hebrew school class to see the then brand-new team called the Blue Jays play, the last time a couple of years after college to keep my friend Shari company as she (brave girl) made the trek to the Brronx to root for the Red Sox.

Yes, I know, there’s going to be a shiny new Yankee Stadium and the Yankee tradition will continue, but there’s something not quite right about tearing down a ballpark that has been home to so much baseball history.

Cool News from London

This is kind of neat:

The theater where “The Merchant of Venice” and “Romeo and Juliet” likely debuted and where William Shakespeare himself may have trodden the boards has likely been discovered in east London, archaeologists at the Museum of London said Wednesday.

The Humanity of the Superhuman

Ezra Klein recently took a look at the resurgent genre of superhero movies and made a very interesting and IMO very accurate point: If you look at some of the better superhero movies out there (like “Batman Begins” or “Iron Man”), it’s pretty clearly the case that superior storytelling and character development, not the number or quality of their action sequences, are what sets them apart.

Or as he put it:

The climactic battle in Iron Man wasn’t half as gripping as watching Tony Stark fly for the first time.

Klein goes on to look at how the superhero genre allows us to look at issues of power and inequality in the world:

What superheroes allow you to do is personalize questions of power: We live in a world of massive countries with incredible militaries, where sociopaths can conceivably detonate cities and the rich inhabit lives so different from the poor that they may as well be genetically separate. It’s a hard world to face up to, frankly. And so, sometimes it’s easier to give it a supernatural gloss, to pretend it couldn’t happen here, even as it allows us to explore what is happening here.

He has a point, but he also might be giving Hollywood a little too much credit. This is also the industry that gives us an unending stream of crappy lowbrow comedy and slasher flicks.

Open To Growth

A thought-provoking article in the New York Times caught my eye today. There’s a new book out that’s pointing to an insight I’ve felt, but been unable to put words to, for some time now:

“Society is obsessed with the idea of talent and genius and people who are ‘naturals’ with innate ability,” says [Carol] Dweck, who is known for research that crosses the boundaries of personal, social and developmental psychology.

“People who believe in the power of talent tend not to fulfill their potential because they’re so concerned with looking smart and not making mistakes. But people who believe that talent can be developed are the ones who really push, stretch, confront their own mistakes and learn from them.”

In this case, nurture wins out over nature just about every time.

While some managers apply these principles every day, too many others instead believe that hiring the best and the brightest from top-flight schools guarantees corporate success.

The problem is that, having been identified as geniuses, the anointed become fearful of falling from grace. “It’s hard to move forward creatively and especially to foster teamwork if each person is trying to look like the biggest star in the constellation,” Ms. Dweck says.

So many people are afraid to say “I don’t know” or admit to a mistake. Especially people in leadership positions. And yet, the ability to learn from errors and grow from them is probably one of the most critical skills of all in maintaining your edge. So why do we, as a society, value infallibility so much?