Category: Fourre-tout

Father Time is a sneaky old thief. Under a gentle grandfatherly demeanor, he robs you blind on a daily basis. He robs you surreptitiously of your physical and mental capabilities and like a heartless gold-digger, he leaves you emotionally and physically drained a few decades later.

You don’t notice his larceny right away because his daily thefts are small and subtle. Like a crafty swindler, he does not steal big, but he steals steadily. From day to day you won’t detect the loss of a few hairs, but one morning you wake up and blimey, you are bald.
The same goes for your skin. Wrinkles appear in the cover of the night and won’t leave in the morning. They found a nice smooth spot on your face and they are squatting on it… and as you know, it is difficult to evict a squatter. As somebody said:

“Time may be a great healer, but it’s a lousy beautician.”

When men work, they don’t pay too much attention to their physical appearance. They get up, shower, shave and out they go. They are too preoccupied with their line of work to notice the small indignities that Father Time is inflicting upon them.

When you are in the rat race, you cannot bother with details. You need to keep running and prevent the younger rats (those with a full head of hair) to gain on you. But after a few years (and a few extra pounds) you are not running as fast and as long as when you had hair. Like Samson, the loss of your mane seems to have affected your strength and you can not repulse the Philistines (the young rats) as well as when you have a full head of hair. A wig won’t do.

The only consolation for us mere mortals is that celebrities are not immune to Father Time’s larcenies. He robs them as well as us. It is always shocking (for me anyway) to discover during a TV appearance that the dashing young star that you knew is suddenly a puckered old man.
Do you remember the handsome young lad named Mickey Rooney? Do you remember hunky Marlon Brando? Father Time did a job on them.

But maturity has some advantages. When you are getting long in the teeth, you feel free to say whatever goes through your head. Nobody can hurt your career anymore. It is like kissing goodbye to the Senate; if you are Republican, you feel finally free to vote for a Democrat.

“Old age is an excellent time for outrage. My goal is to say or do at least one outrageous thing every week.” ~Maggie Kuhn

The best antidote to advancing age is laughter. Laugh at everything and everybody. Especially businessmen turned politicians. They are clowns and beg to be laughed at.

Alain

And if you’re not getting enough respect at home, maybe it’s time to travel overseas? In many parts of the world, age is revered. Bart Astor

Despite a fairly low tournament attendance, there was plenty of action yesterday at the Marin Pétanque court.

The field was extremely well groomed and we owe it in great part to indefatigable Charlie Davantes and Liv Kraft. On Saturday, they did a herculean job of removing at least 20 large bags of dead leaves from the field. My hat off to this likable hard working couple.

The format of yesterday’s tournament was “panaché” and I borrowed the following definition from the Oakhurst Pétanque Club.

Panaché Doublette: Two person teams. Individuals are placed in groups of pointers and shooters and assigned numbers by lottery. Teams are formed at the start of each game according to an officially sanctioned number sequence, pairing a shooter and a pointer. Each player plays with a different partner for each game. Individual scores are maintained to establish tournament winners.

Our organizers (Sandra Shirkey, Mark Shirkey and Liv Kraft) divided all the contestants into two groups: shooters and pointers, and they were as follows:

Shooters:
Mark Shirkey, Francois Moser, Noah Sonnet, Jacques Rattaire, Bob Crossley, Bleys Rose, J-C Etallaz, Evan Falcone, Brigitte Moran, Christine Cragg.

Pointers:
Larry Cragg, Gilbert Sonnet, Alain Efron, Tamara Efron, Liliane Sebban, Akira Okawa, Claudie Chourré, Genevieve Etallaz, Christine Morier, Charlie Davantes.

By the way, all the people who played as “shooters” were not necessarily the real article. Due to a lack of genuine shooters, some innocent people were shanghaied into acting as shooters… as a result, they struggled but they did pretty well.

Two games were played in the morning and three additional games in the afternoon.

The field was still partially wet, spongy and extremely challenging. This was the ideal terrain for “plombers” and “au fer” shooters. Pointers had to put some extra oomph in their throws to reach the cochonnet and many (myself included) missed the mark.

Due to almost 3 months of forced inactivity, I opted to play as a pointer and managed fairly well (3 wins out of 5), despite a persisting cold and a stubbornly stiff spine.
I had the pleasure to team up with young Noah Sonnet, Brigitte Davantes, Evan Falcone and Bleys Rose, who by the way has become an excellent shooter.
I also played with J-C Etallaz against mighty Jacques Rattaire and ? He demolished us in minutes with a score of 13/3. Curse you Red Baron!

Seeing my good friend Francois Moser and my wife Tamara on the winning podium was an added pleasure to an excellent day of pétanque and camaraderie.

I feel confident to say that a good time was had by all.

Final results:

1^st place: Christine Cragg & Gilbert Sonnet
2^nd place: Tamara Efron & Francois Moser
3^rd place: Evan Falcone & Charlie Davantes

Alain

To look at photos of this event, click on the “My Photos” link located on the right side of this page. For best viewing, go Full Screen.

 *The excellent group photo by the way, was taken by Tom Moran.

 

When there is a Yin, there is a Yang. That’s the way it is.
I know this first hand. My wife is always hot while I am usually cold. She likes it spicy, I like it mild. She is fond of shoot ‘em up movies, I prefer comedy.
Basically we are direct opposites. She is Yin and I am Yang. That’s probably why we are together. The chances are that she will deny it, but she needs my serene Yang to counterbalance her tumultuous Yin.

“The principle of Yin and Yang is a fundamental concept in Chinese philosophy and culture in general dating from the third century BCE or even earlier. This principle is that all things exist as inseparable and contradictory opposites, for example female-male, dark-light and old-young.”

 There is no such thing as a unilateral force. For each push, there is an opposing pull… and a consequence. That consequence can be immediate or belated, but just like a stretched rubber band, it will snap back.

The current frenzy about sexual harassment is a prime example of Yin and Yang. People who have been abused (even a long time ago) are finally hitting back at their tormentors, with devastating effect. Powerful, seemingly untouchable individuals are now tumbling down like bowling pins. It is a celestially improved version of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.

Even when you think that you got away with murder, the immutable forces of Yin and Yang dictate that some day you will be held accountable for it. Yin and Yang is a close cousin of Karma. Soon or later your misdeeds are going to catch up with you and lay waste to your life.

It is wise to remember that Yin and Yang is basically a give and take exercise.The underlying clause of the game is that you cannot have it all. You will win some and you will most definitely lose some. Deal with it!

Hubris is a bad counselor. The higher you climb, the heavier you fall.  

Alain