Alexi Pappas Article--why is the NYT so dumb

What Conceivable wrote:

Letsruns posters find an awful lot of things to object to and an awful lot of reasons to resent people. I'm three times as old as most of you so I don't. Pappas doesn't bother me. She isn't boring. My general reaction to people who are good at promoting themselves is "let them."

Anyway, I'm happy for Baseball Kyle. I actually went to Dartmouth more than 30 years before Pappas. We had undistinguished distance runners but pretty amazing weight throw guys. One of my freshman classes included a pitcher from Florida who was chosen in the first round of the Major League Baseball draft but chose to attend Dartmouth instead. We were in awe of him, at least for a day. He eventually made it to the Majors and had a reasonably long if rather undistinguished career, Kyle's off to a better start. Good luck to him.

That kid in your class, his name wasn't Baseball Kyle Sr. was it?

No....Broberg

What Conceivable wrote:

Letsruns posters find an awful lot of things to object to and an awful lot of reasons to resent people. I'm three times as old as most of you so I don't. Pappas doesn't bother me. She isn't boring. My general reaction to people who are good at promoting themselves is "let them."

Anyway, I'm happy for Baseball Kyle. I actually went to Dartmouth more than 30 years before Pappas. We had undistinguished distance runners but pretty amazing weight throw guys. One of my freshman classes included a pitcher from Florida who was chosen in the first round of the Major League Baseball draft but chose to attend Dartmouth instead. We were in awe of him, at least for a day. He eventually made it to the Majors and had a reasonably long if rather undistinguished career, Kyle's off to a better start. Good luck to him.

Graduated from Dartmouth 45 years ago. No pro pitchers but 7 future Nobel Prize winners in my freshman literature class. We were in awe of them... for a day.

"Jamie the rower, who briefly flirted with professional crew..."

I didn't know that there *is* a professional rowing circuit, unless the meaning here is that Jamie flirted with the crew of, say, some billionaire's yacht...

Was that supposed to be clever?

Once, many years ago, I was wandering through a science museum and went into a room filled with giant posters that looked like some kid had scribbled on them with crayon. "Wow, this is a stupid exhibit," I said to my friend. She just laughed -- it turns out each of the posters was a test for a different kind of color-blindness. Since I'm color-blind (in many different ways, apparently), all I could see was the scribbles.

That's what threads like this remind me: people assuming that anything they can't see or appreciate must be stupid.

probably not worth it, but... wrote:

Once, many years ago, I was wandering through a science museum and went into a room filled with giant posters that looked like some kid had scribbled on them with crayon. "Wow, this is a stupid exhibit," I said to my friend. She just laughed -- it turns out each of the posters was a test for a different kind of color-blindness. Since I'm color-blind (in many different ways, apparently), all I could see was the scribbles.

That's what threads like this remind me: people assuming that anything they can't see or appreciate must be stupid.

So....you are comparing Alexi's "art" to crayon scribbles ? Sounds about right.

And I thought that the essay was going to be about the Cubs pitcher? Seemed a lot more about her.

A Pretentious, Bitter Shut-in wrote:

"Kyle Hendricks is a baseball player who went to my college. We called him Baseball Kyle because we already had a Hockey Kyle. College is fun and can shape the type of person you become."

You left out 2 very important parts of the essay:

1) Alexi Pappas is an Olympic runner. Alexi Pappas is a professional runner. Alexi Pappas. Alexi Pappas. Alexi Pappas.

2) Leaves and people are different.

True story:

In May of 2016 I kindly asked Alexi Pappas to write a poem for a Czech running magazine (https://www.instagram.com/b_running_mag/) and she said YES (no money asked). Months passed..I urged her many times and always got a reassuring reply. Then September comes, we were almost ready to go to print..so I wrote her one last time and this was her answer:

https://i.nahraj.to/f/1yRa.png

These are the facts. Form your own opinion.

Good grief. What a ditz.

mol21 wrote:

True story:

In May of 2016 I kindly asked Alexi Pappas to write a poem for a Czech running magazine (https://www.instagram.com/b_running_mag/) and she said YES (no money asked). Months passed..I urged her many times and always got a reassuring reply. Then September comes, we were almost ready to go to print..so I wrote her one last time and this was her answer:

https://i.nahraj.to/f/1yRa.png

These are the facts. Form your own opinion.

mol21 wrote:

True story:

In May of 2016 I kindly asked Alexi Pappas to write a poem for a Czech running magazine (https://www.instagram.com/b_running_mag/) and she said YES (no money asked). Months passed..I urged her many times and always got a reassuring reply. Then September comes, we were almost ready to go to print..so I wrote her one last time and this was her answer:

https://i.nahraj.to/f/1yRa.png

These are the facts. Form your own opinion.

OMG.

Please tell me you replied to her with a "fck you Alexi".

I think we should applaud the young lady. She has chosen a very difficult career, showing her art (film and writing) which won't be to everyone's taste, but she puts it out there, which very few of us could ever do. She is talented enough to get a literary agent, that in itself shows she has promise and no doubt will do bigger and better things in the writing world as she goes forward.

As for her talent, she did extremely well in difficult circumstances at the Olympics in Rio: 17th in 31:36 for a Greek National Record, finishing behind Infeld, Pavey- not too shabby?

How many fanboys here criticizing her art and running could even dream of getting an agent, writing for the NYT AND have even run 31:36 for 10k much less setting NR AND running in the OG? (And before anyone says it, I would guess that most of us would take the option to go run for another country if we had a parent from another country that was easier to qualify for the OG's).

As perhaps the only current college student in this thread, the first question that comes to mind is "Did they sleep together while at Dartmouth?" And I think it's a yes.

lrunner wrote:

mol21 wrote:

True story:

In May of 2016 I kindly asked Alexi Pappas to write a poem for a Czech running magazine (https://www.instagram.com/b_running_mag/) and she said YES (no money asked). Months passed..I urged her many times and always got a reassuring reply. Then September comes, we were almost ready to go to print..so I wrote her one last time and this was her answer:

https://i.nahraj.to/f/1yRa.png

These are the facts. Form your own opinion.

OMG.

Please tell me you replied to her with a "fck you Alexi".

Nope, but it made realize that her well-crafted public image is one big lie.

To expose your jealousy wrote:

The purpose is to to expose your childish jealousy of her.

^ Bwahahahahaaaaaa

True story: You are a lazy sod. Write your own poem. I kinda like Pappas. She certainly stands out among the dearth of 'personalities' we have (not) in Track & Field.

True story:

In May of 2016 I kindly asked Alexi Pappas to write a poem for a Czech running magazine (https://www.instagram.com/b_running_mag/) and she said YES (no money asked). Months passed..I urged her many times and always got a reassuring reply. Then September comes, we were almost ready to go to print..so I wrote her one last time and this was her answer:

https://i.nahraj.to/f/1yRa.png

These are the facts. Form your own opinion.[/quote]

OMG.

Please tell me you replied to her with a "fck you Alexi".[/quote]

Nope, but it made realize that her well-crafted public image is one big lie.[/quote]

____________

Getting an agent for literary purposes who says not to write unless paid is the same as her skipping the local 10k, now that she runs for Nike as a professional. Being a pro doesn't make her a bad person, she just has priorities. She really is a refreshing personality.

kmaclam wrote:

True story: You are a lazy sod. Write your own poem. I kinda like Pappas. She certainly stands out among the dearth of 'personalities' we have (not) in Track & Field.

"Promises are only as strong as the person who gives them."

Two of us would go on to become professional athletes: me, an Olympic runner, and Kyle Hendricks, who was the winning pitcher Saturday night as the Chicago Cubs beat the Los Angeles Dodgers to advance to their first World Series since 1945.

Bad in every way. Shame on the Times.