Latest news with #ATaleofTwoCities'
Los Angeles Times
25-05-2025
- Sport
- Los Angeles Times
High school football will never be the same in era of transfers, NIL money
When Charles Dickens began his 1859 novel 'A Tale of Two Cities' with the legendary line, 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,' who knew that it would aptly describe the state of amateur football in 2025? From college athletics to high school athletics, if you're a parent, coach, athlete or fan, you have plenty of stories to tell. Take notes, because there's so much material you'll be able to write a book, launch a podcast or participate in court cases still to be decided. 'It's all crazy,' said future Hall of Fame football coach Matt Logan of Corona Centennial. Football isn't in a crisis but it is in a black hole with stakeholders seeking an escape path. With final rules still not adopted in how name, image and likeness is supposed to work and college programs not only paying their own athletes but high school recruits, too, everyone is adjusting on the fly. Parents trying to navigate the changes are hiring agents, who are showing up to high school camps trying to find clients. There's the college transfer portal and something similar in high school that saw more than 17,000 students switch schools in California last year. Until NIL rules are figured out, it's roll your eyes and don't be surprised at anything. Some elite high school players have been reclassifying their graduation years to take advantage of money opportunities. And that's after parents held them back entering high school to be bigger, stronger and faster as a 16-year-old freshman. It's all legal and even logical but the changing landscape is riddled with pros and cons and bad actors. One big concern in high school sports is that parents might be too focused on scholarships for their kids and earning NIL money while forgetting the real reason people play sports — for the love of the game. 'For me, the whole value in sports has been degenerated,' Logan said. 'You don't play sports to get a scholarship. You play to learn how to lead, how to take orders, how to be a good teammate, how to work together. This could be the only chance to have fun, play with their friends, have a great experience.' There have been football scandals in recent years — twice at Narbonne High, which had City Section championships taken away in 2019 and 2024 for using ineligible players. Now the football community is focused on what the Southern Section intends to do this fall about Bishop Montgomery, which supposedly has numerous transfer students (some from Narbonne) and is so confident it'll 'll be declared eligible that a trip to Hawaii and a nonleague game against powerful Mater Dei have been scheduled. Every week, coaches have to decide how to deal with players and parents who have little patience and many options. It's a balancing act, and for the elite of the elite, coaches can't even count on juniors returning as seniors because of opportunities to skip ahead to college. 'I understand why they are doing it. They have my full support,' said Sierra Canyon coach Jon Ellinghouse, who's losing star defensive lineman Richard Wesley to Oregon a year early after he reclassified to the class of 2026. Ellinghouse is embracing the idea his job is to 'put them into positions to have life-changing opportunities.' There are many different paths to success and failure. Remember how LaVar Ball didn't care that his youngest son, LaMelo, was 13 years old playing summer basketball as a freshman for Chino Hills. He threw him in against older players and the rest is history. He averaged 25.2 points this season for the Charlotte Hornets as a 23-year-old in his fifth NBA season. There are others who were 19-year-old seniors in high school, stopped developing, kept switching schools and will probably blame their coaches for not making the pros when the truth is it's difficult to become a professional athlete. It is the best of times with all kinds of money to be given out for being a good athlete. It is the worst of times because many of the treasured lessons from playing amateur sports no longer receive priority treatment. What happened to the importance of getting a college degree? It will take someone with magical ideas to return a balance to the amateur sports world.
Chicago Tribune
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Review: New adaptation of ‘Tale of Two Cities' at Shattered Globe leaves us sidelined from Dickens' story
Many of Charles Dickens novels — I am thinking 'David Copperfield,' 'Oliver Twist' and 'A Christmas Carol' — are beloved for their clarity, unity and timeless accessibility. 'A Tale of Two Cities' is not in that category. That Dickensian creation has, for my money, the greatest opening sentence ever. And one worth thinking about right now: 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way — in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insist on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.' But, otherwise, the story, set in both London and Paris, in and around the French Revolution, is not the easiest to follow. Hence, perhaps, Brendan Pelsue's new adaptation, first seen in Atlanta in 2024, now in its Chicago premiere at Shattered Globe Theatre and billed by the author as a 'new riff' on 'A Tale of Two Cities.' The riff factor is considerable in a meta, self-aware kind of way, designed I think to emphasize the novel's themes of social justice and draw out contemporary parallels. But this also suggests a certain insecurity with the complexities of the actual text: audiences aren't dumb and can figure out that history repeats itself without being hammered with that truth. As one example, audiences are asked to take part in the show, providing crowd reactions according to real-time instructions from members of the cast. 'Shock from the crowd, please,' is one example. This all sucks up time, especially when actors aren't satisfied with the quality of the audience's work. There are some talented actors in director Mikael Burke's Shattered Globe production, which features Demetra Dee, Daria Harper, Jazzma Pryor, Diego Vazquez Gomez, Glenn Obrero, Jeff Rodriguez, William Anthony Sebastian Rose II and Penelope Walker. And Burke is a creative and skilled director. But this show is just very slow, heavy going and, to be frank, the additional layers presented by the adaptation dispel rather than free up the narrative tension inherent in the Dickens novel. On the night I was there, heads were drooping. I've seen some effective stage adaptions that take this kind of tack, where everyone makes clear they are actors doing an adaptation of something old and stodgy (at the Neo-Futurists, most notably) but this one proceeds with insufficient clarity and coherence. Stakes never rise. As a result, empathy is squelched and the work of one of history's most compassionate novels is reduced to an alienating experience that does the opposite of draw you into the tale. Chris Jones is a Tribune critic. cjones5@ When: Through May 31 Where: Shattered Globe at Theater Wit, 1229 Belmont Ave. Running time: 2 hours, 25 minutes
Yahoo
15-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Letters: Republicans must exhibit principles; Don't be fooled
It will come as a surprise to my writerly lunch buddies that I read some of the classics. Granted, they were comic books (Classics Illustrated) but they made an impression on me and they kept me away from less desirable reading, which was my mother's goal. One that made an impression was 'A Tale of Two Cities' by Charles Dickens. And what made the impression was how one of the characters took the place of another on death row and what he said as he was marched off to the guillotine: 'It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.' As I watch the sycophants in the Republican party say nothing about Trump's reckless approach to governance, the quote comes to mind. Will no elected Republican stand on principle and speak up? Forget the possibility of losing the next election; rage against the chaos. It will be a far better thing that you do. R Thomas Berner, Benner Township President Trump's second term began with a whirlwind of activity, claiming increased efficiency and transparency. But that's not what's happening. Merriam-Webster defines transparency as 'free from pretense or deceit, readily understood, and characterized by visibility or accessibility of information, especially concerning business practices,' and defines efficiency as 'capable of producing desired results with little or no waste.' How's it efficient or transparent when: Civil servants are fired, rehired, and fired again; Justifications for firing are false, i.e., employees are claimed to lack skills after receiving outstanding performance reviews; Fired employees don't receive mandated information about filing for unemployment and maintaining health insurance; Employees are fired in agencies actively recruiting because they are short-staffed, including the Federal Aviation Administration and Centers for Disease Control; Costs of firings haven't considered costs to public safety and the federal budget, such as the increase in unemployment benefits; Claims about money saved from firings are sparse and inaccurate; Sources require anonymity to protect them from retaliation; White House, cabinet offices, and DOGE refuse to answer media requests for comments. Last month one-third of United States Digital Service technicians resigned rather than work for DOGE, refusing to compromise and dismantle core government systems and jeopardize Americans' personal data. Don't be fooled. We're getting unchecked power and cruelty, not efficiency and transparency. We're also being set up: the claimed 'spending cuts' are used to justify planned tax cuts for wealthy individuals and corporations. This doesn't Make America Great Again. Linda Barton, State College Words Matter. Centre Region Down Syndrome Society would like to encourage you to delete the R-word from your vocabulary. I know, I grew up in the '80s. It may be a habit, but it's a painful, slur that marginalizes people with disabilities, like hate language against any minority group. Instead, choose inclusion and respect. When my son entered kindergarten, the school psychologist sat with me and shared his testing results. She said, the state of Pennsylvania still required this language, 'your son is mentally retarded.' What if this happened to you? Now how would it make you feel to hear that word used in derogatory language, and by someone in the daily spotlight? The R-word continues to carry a significant stigma and is often used in a way that perpetuates negative stereotypes and discrimination against people with intellectual disabilities. Centre Region Down Syndrome Society's mission is to provide individuals with Down syndrome and their families with the tools, resources and support necessary to participate in, contribute to and achieve personal fulfillment. Don't know how to promote inclusion? Start with hello. Give a high-five or a fist bump. Smile. Acknowledge a person with a disability. Sit next to someone alone at lunch. Start a ripple effect that shows kindness, acceptance and empathy. People with disabilities want to belong, just like you. Remember, we're more alike than different. Make your pledge to end the word at Come meet us at the World Down Syndrome Day Dance on March 21. Jennifer Jewell, State College For the first time in my long life, America is no longer the leader of the free world, by the actions of our Great Mistake. Donald Trump and JD Vance have deliberately, with cold calculation, humiliated the victim of Russian aggression, President Zelenskyy, who quite properly rejected our rapacious demand for Ukraine's mineral rights. Yes, we have sided with Vlad the Poisoner Putin who without provocation invaded the eastern provinces of sovereign Ukraine in 2014 and then invaded the rest in 2022, only to be driven back by Ukrainian courage, with the help of our weapons. Now that help has been summarily withdrawn because Zelenskyy did not kowtow to Trump without a security guarantee that was denied. If in the near future a renewed Russian blitzkrieg succeeds, followed by horrors such as they left behind at Bucha the first time, we will know whom to blame: sadly, not just Donald J. Trump but the American voters who elected him knowing that he is a Putin puppet; a vicious, abusive narcissist who thinks everything in the world is about him; a radical fascist in conservative clothing; a destroyer of good government; a criminal out for revenge on the people who prosecuted him for his crimes; a bully to our friends and allies, and a coward before our enemies. We will endure, but we have lost our moral compass. Steven H. Smith, Houserville
