cliff

11 pm thought: unfortunately the sad but logical reality is that he is straight and just kind of a weird freak and also a misogynist but it's still beautiful how romantic his obsession with his best friend is and how its psychosexual nature haunts all his creative work

"what you have to understand about athletes is from age 15 onward they only talk to other people who play their sport" Well yes but that is more true in the nhl than it is in sports where buy-in is less expensive and starts at a different age, hockey is not unique or distinct but is remarkable for how small and ossified its youth pipeline is

"what you have to understand about athletes is they are fundamentally uncool and don't know how to be people" Well yes but that is more true in the nhl than in sports where the stars set the standard for what "cool" is and have massive commercial deals and marry extremely famous pop stars and sometimes even go on to have Hollywood careers, hockey is not unique or distinct but is remarkable for how many cultural qualms it has about spotlight-seeking and flamboyant personalities (and for its small-to-medium cultural impact compared to other team sports)

"what you have to understand about athletes is they are all secretly republicans or the local equivalent" Well yes but that is more true in the nhl than in sports where athletes organized wildcat strikes in support of Black Lives Matter or where athletes have about half the number of registered Republicans as hockey does or where a large percentage of the players are lesbians, hockey is not unique or distinct but is remarkable for its whiteness and homophobia and conservativism

and this is not like a knock on the nhl or a condescending "don't you understand you could be watching BETTER sports" thing, every sport's culture has its own particular and remarkable flaws