Our Best Stuff From a Revealing Election Week

Plus, Zalmay Khalilzad is blaming the Afghan government for the fallout from his terrible deal with the Taliban.

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Happy Sunday! I know, I know. I usually send these out on Saturday. But it wasn’t just a busy news week (Election Day, debates over spending packages in Congress, my victory over Steve in The Dispatch fantasy football league), it was a hectic one in the Ohio bureau. I made a quick trip to D.C. midweek to catch up with everyone and meet Jonah’s famous dogs, Zoe and Pippa. And then I woke up Saturday and drove to Indianapolis so our youngest could compete in his first travel swim meet since the pandemic began.  

If you’ve been reading this newsletter since the early days, you know I’ve sometimes gauged the state of the pandemic by looking at how normal or abnormal sports are for our kids. I think it’s because that’s what they lost first. Back in March 2020, our youngest had qualified for the age-group state championship meet and we had planned a big family weekend in Columbus around it. And then Tom Hanks announced he had COVID and the NBA shut down and everything started falling like dominoes—including that swim meet.

It was a gut punch for a lot of reasons, including the fact we had switched swim clubs just to give his brother and him a better chance to swim in meets like that, and it was a bigger investment in both time and money. But also … Wilson really likes out-of-town swim meets. There are always team dinners and a designated team hotel, so he can run around with his teammates being goofy. And, of course, the breakfast buffets where you make your own waffles.

The pandemic took away not only those, but pretty much anything that made swimming fun. You could barely even talk to your teammates at practice, and it was a painfully slow return to competition. The first “meets” were glorified practices with maybe 20 other kids, no spectators, and no other teams. It showed how isolation can be hard on those who really need social interaction (we saw the same thing with remote learning, though we were lucky to have mostly in-person school last year): It was hard to keep his interest, and his performances definitely suffered. 

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  1. Richard Kennedy

    Cool profile photo. I’m guessing your “littlest” jock? Hope he did well.

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    Show Jay Janney the 🚪!

    For a kid, swimming in the natatorium is a pretty big deal--that's the major leagues of swimming pools. I've been to diving events there (as a spectator)--its' beautiful. I hope he swam like a fish, and that no larger fish ate him. ;-)

    My oldest swam a year on the local swim club, age 7. He won most improved for the 50 meter backstroke. In his first race he had a tendency to veer into the lane marker, which caused him to straighten up, look around, get back on course and take off again. His first one was just shy of 3 minutes, but by the end of the season he did it without hitting the lane markets, and got it in at a decent time for a 7yo. He quit that team, but came back and swam in HS.

    Fun take: For HS basketball last year, the county/rural schools were pretty chill, but Oakwood HS chased everyone out of the gym between games, required masks during the games, limited the # of spectators, etc. They didn't even serve hot foods at the concession stand. But HS soccer was almost "totally normal". Not a mask in sight, other than on some bank robbers, the kids played hard, no one masked on the sidelines. Having crowds was fun, other than the Brookville soccer Mom who shrieks "𝑪𝑨𝑳𝑳 𝑰𝑻 𝑩𝑶𝑻𝑯 𝑾𝑨𝒀𝑺" about once every 4 minutes or so. I hope her son is a senior this year, but my luck, he has a younger brother who will come out next year...sigh!

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    David M

    Thanks Rachael.

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    Victor Clairmont

    Thank you for the round up~~~~

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    BikerChick

    I love hearing your swim team stories, takes me back to the swim team days with our girls. So many great memories! Matthew must be making the rounds, he's also on the Post Corona pod. I used to read a lot of his articles in the Weekly Standard but don't recall hearing any interviews, I'll check out The Remnant too.

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  6. Jaybrown

    I think Khalilzad represents the kind of incompetence and blame avoidance/shifting you get when the fringe zealots control the parties. Most of the really competent people who might otherwise serve in government are just turned off.

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    Bill B

    "While things have been relatively normal..."

    I fear that we may not return to normal and that our great-grand children will grow up in Hazmat suits.

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      SandyG

      Well it might curtail some unwanted pregnancies.

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        Show Jay Janney the 🚪!

        If eskimos can mate, then our grandkids will figure out hazmat suits and twue wuv

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        Bill B

        😆

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    DougAz

    Nice family news Rachel!

    A huge win for President Biden and Speaker Pelosi on the Infrastructure bill!

    There is a phenomenal discussion between Yascha Mounk of Persuasion and Noam Chomsky (I attended several during my staynin the early 70s).

    His take on "Cancel Culture" is both highly personal and illuminating. Obviously from the Left perspective as well.

    https://www.persuasion.community/p/chomsky

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      Mike Kupfer

      I just skimmed the discussion between Mounk and Chomsky, but yes, quite interesting. Thanks for the link.

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