Rant of the Week

Standard of Living

 

So you have this athlete.

He's born with a gift: he can hit baseballs really, really well, and he can run and jump and catch.  And when he gets to be about 18, he is descended upon by agents, lawyers, scouts, recruiters, and everyone imaginable-- who might want one of the golden eggs.

And he signs a contract and buys his mother a Buick and takes his friends out to party does some drugs and hires a couple of body guards.   And the babes flow like ripened orchids spraying down a verdant valley...

Who knows why he chose Lisa.  He saw her at a Lakers' game.  They met.  They did who knows what.  Somehow she, alone of all the babes, persuaded him to make a commitment, though anyone who knows anything about professional athletes and money and waste can hardly conceive of the phrase in such a context.  But that's what they say, made a commitment.

They marry.  Where does she come from?   Nowhere, really.  She's not an athlete.  She's not rich.  She's not the daughter of the head of a multi-billion dollar corporation.  She is Lisa Strawberry and that's enough, thank you.

And we know about Darryl.  In one of the Simpsons' most prescient episodes, Mr. Burns hires bunch of professional ball players to be ringers on the plant team so he can beat a hated rival.  As "Darryl Strawberry" stands in the outfield, the crowd, as they did in real life, chants "Dar----ryl, Dar---ryl".  Bart joins in.  Lisa says, Bart, it's not nice to make fun of a ball-player and Bart replies that professional athletes are used to it, it's no big deal.  And then a close-up of Darryl Strawberry's face as a big, fat tear drops from his eye.

From the news: To back up her petition of $50,000 per month in spousal support, which was granted, Lisa filed papers with the Superior Court of California saying that she had been spending $20,000 a month for clothes, $5,000 a month for shoes and an average of $7,000 for each purchase of jewelry, "which I have been free to indulge myself in as desired." 
"How am I the culprit?" she asks at breakfast. "They wanted to know what was my standard of living. And that's what it was."

Well, if she doesn't get it, we know where it's going to go instead.   Strawberry was arrested last year for trying to buy drugs and propositioning an undercover police officer.  Is Lisa's $20,000 a month on clothes different, really?  He's addicted to cocaine, she's addicted to clothes.  He's a fool and she's an idiot.  They deserve each other. 

The judge should order them to remain married for as long as they both are fools.

 

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 2001 All Rights Reserved