BYCU
I saw this picture at Reddit. Based on what I've seen on the Internet, I think the sign is legit. If more sports venues were reasonable like this, I'd take my family to a lot more events.
The Master
I suspect that every person can concentrate on one particular area, develop a ridiculous amount of expertise in that area, then make a living/killing out of it. The trick is two-fold: (1) Finding an area that you can, indeed, master. If I, for instance, were to decide to master basketball, I would never play in the NBA, much less dominate it. The chosen area has to be within reach, so the selection requires a degree of self-awareness, which involves a measure of humility. (2) Dedicate a lot of time and energy to it, largely to the exclusion of other things you might rather be doing. This, too, requires a dose of humility: putting aside your own interests in pursuit of something else. "In the intellectual order," Simone Weil pointed out, "the virtue of humility is nothing more nor less than the power of attention.
With that in mind, I set out a year ago to master Albert Jay Nock. Now, to master Nock, I needed to master other things: the 1920s, the New Deal, WWI, U.S. history, anarchism. And on and on. So my "narrow" field of expertise kind of broadened, which was fine. Time consuming, but fine. The real problem, of course, is that I lack the necessary humility, so my studies into Nock have been derailed repeatedly over the past six months. footnote
But what glory might await a person who wisely selects his subject and sticks to it! Actually, I don't know what glories await such a man. My hunch is, ridicule awaits such a man: "Moron, you could've spent all that time on the golf course!" "Whatta loser; he could've been reading Tom Clancy." "What a waste of time."
No matter, we know that, at least some of the time, glory awaits such a man, in the next life if not this one.
Indeed, sometimes the glory takes on a twisted form: intense power, at least within one's little area of expertise, with a corresponding sadistic twist that taints that area of expertise . . . yet commands respect, even from the most saintly among us.
All these thoughts were triggered last weekend when a TDE reader sent me this marvelous article about the Martini Nazi of San Francisco. It's the best liquor piece of 2013 so far. Highly (highly) recommended, especially for Seinfeld fans who remember the "Soup Nazi." Excerpt:
Bruno was the Martini Nazi because he had a very particular set of rules that you learned through rumor, trial, and error. He made a great martini, but if you broke any of his rules, you were tossed out. That was the fun part. No, it's not fun to be tossed out. Rather, it's fun following the unwritten rules so you could stay and enjoy your two drink maximum. Ok, I'm lying. Actually watching other people get thrown out was the fun part.
Incidentally
If you're interested in Nock, the best book out there is Crunden's The Mind & Art of Albert Jay Nock. I think it's a minor masterpiece. I was surprised that you are able to buy the book so cheaply (a lot of those old, obscure books get pricey).
