- Polo is typically a pretentious upper-crusty sport played
by wealthy people bored with their Maybachs and in need of some quality time
riding expensive horses while whacking small balls with wooden sticks. That was
not the case over the weekend in Thailand as 32 captive-born elephants participated in an
event known as the King’s Cup tournament. It is a competition where the real
aim isn't winning the game on the field, but rather shining a light on the
plight of Thailand’s often-abused working elephants. The elephants and 32
humans guiding them took to fields drenched by heavy and incessant rainy-season
downpours and played a very unusual brand of polo. Each team consisted of three
elephants guided by their keeper, or mahout. The players walked behind the
mahout, giving directions on where to go. In turn, the elephants trudged after
a small white ball that could easily have been crushed by their three-ton
bodies. The pace was slower than a normal polo match, but the action was still
exciting for participants who came from as far away as the United States. One
of the event’s organizers, the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation, is a
tireless crusader on behalf of the massive beasts of burden. “Domestic
elephants in Thailand are basically unemployed,” said Bill Heinecke, the
founder and host of the King’s Cup. “We give them medical treatment, we feed
them well and look after them.” Heinecke isn't really exaggerating, as the
estimated 2,700 domesticated elephants in Thailand often have little to do and
many literally beg on city streets. “Unfortunately, there are a lot of elephants
in Thailand with sorry stories,” said John Roberts, who heads the Golden
Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation. Now in its 13th year, the King’s Cup
tournament has raised nearly $1 million for shelters, elephant ambulances,
clinics and education programs in elephant conservation. It’s polo with a
purpose……..
- Big ups to the Minnesota
Timberwolves. They haven't made the playoffs in 10 years, have little chance of
doing so this season, just traded the face of their franchise and have no shot
to make any noise in a loaded Western Conference any time soon…and yet, they
have posted record-breaking ticket sales in the past week. After swapping
All-Star forward Kevin Love to Cleveland in a three-team trade that brought Andrew Wiggins, Anthony Bennett
and Thaddeus Young to Minnesota, the Timberwolves have sold more than 300 full
season-ticket packages. Getting rid of their best player for three dudes who
might help them be mediocre in the next few years somehow inspired fans to turn
out in droves and break the previous weekly ticket sales record set in 2001 when
Ricky Rubio announced that he was coming over from Spain to play for the team.
"The organization, from president-level on down has just been
re-energized," Timberwolves senior vice president and chief revenue
officer Ryan Tanke said. "Part of it is hope, and you have this great new
hope.” Hope is one thing, but plunking down in excess of $1,000 for the right
to watch a so-so team that will score a lot of points and give up even more is
something else entirely. Maybe some of the sudden surge owes to the fact that
the trade was on pause for a month due to NBA rules preventing the Cavaliers
from trading Wiggins within 30 days of him signing his rookie contract and fans
wanted to wait and see who would be on the Wolves’ roster before purchasing
their season ducats. Even with the uptick in sales, Minnesota’s season-ticket
base dropped from 7,400 for the 2013-14 season to fewer than 6,000 this summer.
Every professional sports franchise soaks its fans for ridiculous money to see
teams that rarely live up to expectations, but the Timberwolves have done an
especially nice job parlaying very little on-court success and talent into a
nice pool of new revenue………..
- Rick Perry isn't especially good at counting or short-term
memory tasks, but he might be better at both of those things than he is at
understanding Twitter. The embattled Texas governor had himself the sort of
moment that anyone who has ever used social media for more than a day experiences,
tweeting out a regrettable message that he quickly realized shouldn’t have gone
out. The offending tweet on Perry's verified account on Sunday night included a disparaging image
of the Democratic district attorney who is at the center of his criminal
indictment on charges of abuse of power and given the circumstances, it quickly
circulated online. It was deleted within a few hours and replaced with a second
tweet denouncing the original message. What Perry – or whichever public
relations flack runs the account – failed to realize is that the Internet is
chiseled in granite and once the message is out there, screen grabs, retweets
and the like will ensure that it lives on forever and ever. No deletion or
disavowal will make it go away and while Perry may not have thumbed out the
original tweet, if the account is verified in his name, then he owns a large
chunk of the responsibility for what is posted to that account. "A tweet
just went out from my account that was unauthorized. I do not condone the tweet
and I have taken it down," the second tweet read. Wait…you didn’t write
the first tweet that was over the line, but we’re all supposed to believe that
the real you wrote that second message? Nice try, Ricky. Next time, stick with
that unflattering mock image of Travis County District Attorney Rosemary
Lehmberg, who was convicted of drunken driving in April 2013, and own it. Perry’s
issues with Lehmberg are well-known and he vetoed funds to her office when she
refused to resign, which led to a grand jury in Austin this month indicting him.
The caption on first tweet reads: "I don't always drive drunk at 3x the
legal blood alcohol limit ... but when I do, I indict Gov. Perry for calling me
out about it. I am the most drunk Democrat in Texas." It was a bold play
and one clearly befitting a possible 2016 presidential candidate……….
- Speaking of the power of social media….world, meet Riff
Raff. Prior to last week, very few people had any idea who Riff Raff was. Now,
his name is out there in a big way and it’s not only because he was Katy Perry's
date for the MTV Video Music Awards on Aug. 24. Showing up as Perry’s arm candy
is always a good profile booster, but if that were the only attention grabber
for Riff Raff, then his 15 minutes would be over soon. Perhaps knowing that, he
found another avenue to get people talking about him and it centers on a
perceived sleight from British recording artist Sam Smith. Smith, best known
for his song “Stay With Me,” was at the show and took a group picture with
himself, Perry, Charli XCX and Riff Raff. However, when the photo showed up on
Smith’s Instagram account, Riff Raff was edited out. Because editing someone
out of your Instagram photo is clearly a reason to turn your rings around and
go, Riff Raff tweeted Smith and wrote: "Thanks for cutting me out of the
picture you chubby little f*ck factory. PS Your face is super huge."
Verrry mature and classy, Riff. While the nature of any relationship between the
two is unknown, it doesn’t sound like there is any sort of long-running feud
here. If there were, Riff Raff would have something meatier than a second-grade
crack back about Smith being pudgy and having a big face. Smith hasn’t yet
responded to the comments and since his adversary didn’t exactly deliver a
staggering verbal blow that seriously damaged his image, there really isn't a
need to do so……….
No comments:
Post a Comment