Now THIS I believe

[Guest Dabeagle]

I can't stay up late enough to watch Craig Ferguson, though I do find him very funny. Apparently he had Jason Alexander on the other night and he made a joke about the game of Cricket being 'gay'. This apology he wrote isn't one of those throw away 'if anyone was offended' hack jobs, he gets it. You should definitely read this.

http://www.glaad.org/blog/actor-jason-alexander-apologizes-jokes-made-cbs-late-late-show

[blue]

I'm reading through the article now. I really, really wish site designers would think about the colors and sizes they use. Both the text and links are light, low-contrast, and hard to read for me, including the buttons with white text and a pale color. (And my vision is such, these days, that I am not entirely sure if that's pink or orange. I didn't used to have color issues and wasn't colorblind, but now, some colors are hard for me to distinguish.) Yes, I know it's not related to the article, but it is aggravating to have to highlight or use Firebug to get it readable. I do design web pages, or did. Grr.

Reading the article....

[Chris James]

Who understands cricket? For all I know it could be gay, but that is another argument. Jason Alexander needs to stop playing George and get on with his life.

I know that cricket is quite the popular sport on the other side of the world so someone must understand it. I have been told that it was the earliest form of what we call baseball so I decided to look up the rules. That was the big mistake, I didn't understand a thing.

American baseball is that thing you watch on television when you need a good excuse to nap...puts me to sleep every time. I am not much of a sports fan, there are other things far more important in my life. I did join the Capital Croquet Club in Washington, D.C. some decades ago, but the park service finally chased us off the National Mall.

Cricket is filled with these cute little terms for the equipment and the parts of the game. Here we eat hot dogs and drink beer at our sporting events. Somehow I don't think tea and crumpets will ever make cricket a popular sport here. But then the world is large enough for everyone to have their own favorite pastime even if they don't know what to call it. Football anyone?

[blue]

Wow, Jason Alexander is a class act. Thought so before, even more so now.

As one commenter noted, that is the way to apologize, to take responsibility, and to handle things. Not by putting down others, but by saying, you know, I screwed up, I did it, I've learned, I'll try to do better, and I'm truly sorry for what I did. As the one commenter said, other public figures, particularly politicians these days, should note that. It used to be that people would own up to their mistakes and genuinely apologize and try to make amends. It seems to be a lost art. I am very glad to see Jason Alexander knows how to handle it when he messes up. Good going.

His comments that he got made fun of for liking voice, dance, theater, acting, music, literature, in a town where manly men play sports...oh boy, how that rings true.

He did this without putting people down. Good job.

I didn't see the routine on Craig Ferguson's show, but I probably would've laughed, even as I also would've been a little irked.

More people should be that classy, to take the time to examine why people were offended, to think about it, and to see what the matter was, and then to respond in such a fine way.

[Paul_and_Paco]

HEY!!! Let us not malign baseball. As a famous guy once said, baseball is pastural. At least almost everyone can play baseball without being a hulking mass of muscles. As for Mr. Alexander... ah, Mr. Greenspan... yep, not PC. It was on latenight TV, not normally a time when kids might be watching. Has it come to the point we can not laugh at ourselves? Or, can only gay people make jokes about gays? He manned up to his perceived mistake, appologized with grace, intelligence and humility. Good show!

[Camy]

Bravo Mr. Alexander.

[Bruin Fisher]

Cricket is a religion for devotees.

There are eleven men on a team and they take it in turns to be in. When your team is in you go out to bat, and you take it in turns to bat the ball that the bowler throws at you (but he's not allowed to throw it, he has to bowl it) until you're out, when you go back in. You're out when the ball hits the wicket, and the fielders try to catch the ball that you've batted. The man nearest to you is called Silly Mid On. Then you go back in and the next batsman on your team goes out until he's out, and this keeps up until all but the last man are out, and that's the end of your innings. It's perfectly simple!

[Cole Parker]

Ah, now I understand! I understand that baseball makes infinitely more sense!

C

[DesDownunder]

I can understand people playing a game for the fun of it, but I can't see any fun in watching a dozen or two people running around with a ball, getting the exercise the fifty thousand (or more) people watching, need.

Still if it keeps people happy, who am I to object?

I'd rather watch the cat playing with a ball of string.

[The Pecman]

I worked on one of Jason Alexander's failed sitcoms (Bob Patterson), and he was a gracious and very funny man, totally professional all the time. And there were at least a dozen gay people working on the production, including myself.

I think this was just a case where he was trying to be outrageous for the camera, and went a little too far. I see his point: Cricket is a bizarre games for Americans to comprehend, but he expressed his confusion in a very bad way.