‘Changing the Game Would Be the Sports Equivalent of New Coke’
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Version 0 of 1. Here are the top 10 comments of the week on our digital platforms, as selected by our readers and the journalists who moderate nearly every comment. 1. What we saw last night was an attempt to make the Oscars matter — and they really didn’t until the mix up over Best Picture. In those few seconds, we saw a producer, [Jordan] Horowitz, celebrate his win for La La Land, then be informed that the wrong movie had been announced, then work hard to get the right team on the stage to accept for Moonlight, including showing the correct card to the camera for proof — and then the best moment of the night, he said that he would wait to present the statue to his friend. That statement made my night — there we saw, from the depths of disappointment at not winning after all, the true human spirit of wanting to be the one to hand the award to his friend. Truly a great moment, better than any movie. — LuckyDog in New York, reacting to an article about the 89th Academy Awards telecast Sunday. 2. When the USA doesn’t welcome the most creative and talented people on Earth as well as the humans in need that need us most, we are in trouble. We are no longer living to the mission assigned to us by our Founding Fathers. — Dorothy Dunn on The Times’s Facebook page, responding to a video clip of the award for Best Foreign Language Film, awarded to the Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, who boycotted the Oscars ceremony, for his movie “The Salesman.” This comment received more than 1,900 likes. 3. I have never heard a true baseball fan complain that the game is too long. Do not alienate the old fans in the hopes of landing new fans. Changing the game would be the sports equivalent of New Coke. — Jose Libornio in Howell, N.J., reacting to an article about Major League Baseball looking to shorten the duration of its games. 4. The same story is unfolding all over the traditional landscape of Europe. In Italy, there are towns and small cities like Albi at every turn, especially but not uniquely in the south. Travel to once-vital regional centers in Britain and the signs of rapid decline are equally palpable. By contrast, Rome, Paris and greater London are expanding ever further into what were once rural hinterlands. There are compelling economic and social explanations for this trend. But ... none of them measures the incalculable damage that desertion inflicts on a nation’s soul and identity. — Frank Viviano in Barga, Italy, reacting to an article about small towns in France and elsewhere in Europe where the decline of a city center leads residents to worry about a loss of national identity. 5. The bar is so low for Trump that pundits and fans are cheering the fact that he didn’t eat live kittens on camera but instead managed to read the TelePrompter without losing his cool. — Arctos in Mimbres, N.M., reacting to an article about President Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress Tuesday. This comment received more than 1,100 reader recommendations. 6. I did not like the proposed health care legislation; I would like to see universal health care for every citizen, not vouchers or tax credits nor negotiating across state lines to get what might turn out to be insurance in name only. This Democrat was impressed with everything else that the president presented. It is my hope that after many decades of neglecting the working class that we can now focus of the well being of American citizens and our crumbling infrastructure as well as our schools and educating our people. — JRS in North Carolina. 7. Remember when Bill Clinton was impeached, and everyone said it wasn’t because he had an affair with a consenting adult, but because he lied? The Trump administration lies again and again to the American people. Why are they getting away with it? — Rose Kelleher on The Times’s Facebook page, responding to an article about Jeff Sessions, the attorney general, recusing himself from inquiries into Russia’s role in the 2016 election after it was revealed he had met with the Russian ambassador during the campaign. This comment received more than 200 likes. 8. There was absolutely nothing wrong with Sessions meeting with the ambassador. He is being faulted for not having mentioned those meetings during his Senate testimony where he indicated there were no meetings. — CHM in California. 9. When my mother was dying of cancer at age 44, she put together a list of eligible women for my father to consider as a future wife. She also wrote out menus for dinners and dinner parties for groups of varying sizes, something my parents had done throughout their adult lives together. It was, as is your article, permission to a beloved spouse both to grieve and to keep living. — David Olasov in New York, reacting to a Modern Love article about a woman hoping her husband finds love again after her imminent death. 10. Remember that for every person who commits an act of hatred, there will be a thousand people condemning it. — Brianna Michelle on The Times’s Facebook page, responding to an article about Muslim activists donating money in the wake of two attacks on Jewish cemeteries and threats to Jewish community centers across the country. |