Filter Coffee #046

On Monday-Morning Quarterbacks

Dear Readers, 🔗 FC #45 on Amanuensis evoked a lot of interest — thank you for sharing your views. Many readers were coming across this word for the first time, though they have been doing the job of an amanuensis! As promised, I consider it my duty to share a few of the nuggets shared by readers.

• Abraham Thomas cited the lawyer’s clerk as a real-life example of an amanuensis and also how he found himself filling up immigration forms for a person travelling to the Middle East. 

• Shahji says: “This FC I learned a new word amanuensis and now that I know what it means, I remember acting as an amanuensis to my father’s late eldest brother and writing letters for him.”

• Commenting on Hyderabadi Urdu, my friend Subahu informs me that this version of Urdu is known as Dakhini. Thank you Subahu.

• Shyam Mohan, a dear friend from Hyderabad, helped his friend write love letters to his girlfriend whom the friend eventually married. Those were true amanuensis moments for him.

• My friend Ashvin played Cupid and helped his sister write letters of endearment to her doctor fiancé Prakash in the army. When this amanuensis cover was blown, Prakash jocularly remarked to Ashvin “I didn't know it was you - I was in love with a man”. Now Ashvin, that’s a case of ‘a man u n sis’.

• MRK wondered why I did not mention ‘Mother’s Day’ which also fell on the 9th of May. I plead guilty. I suffer from a fossilised mindset. Though US President Woodrow Wilson made the first official announcement on May 9th, 1914 proclaiming Mother's Day as a national holiday that was to be held each year on the 2nd Sunday of May, I was oblivious of the significance of various such ‘Days’ other than Teacher’s Day. It was only from my Mumbai days that I became aware of these ‘Days’, thanks to my children. If you wish to know more about Mother’s Day, 🔗 here is the link.

On May 16, 1929, a historical event took place in the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood. This event was the inaugural edition of the Academy Awards. The most interesting aspect of this edition was that only silent movies were considered for the awards. The silent film "Wings" won the Best Picture award. Called “outstanding picture” in 1929, it was a story of two American airmen in love with the same woman. Interestingly the next silent movie ever to win the Best Picture award was ‘The Artist’ in 2011. 

Janet Gaynor, who had featured in three silent movies: 7th Heaven, Street Angel and Sunrise, got the Best Actress Award and she is the only one to have won that award for playing multiple roles. It was only in 1939 that the Academy Awards were named the Oscar Awards. If you are a movie history buff you can refer to 🔗 this link for more information.

Another very important scientific discovery was accomplished on May 16th 1960. This was the day when Theodore Maiman, an engineer and physicist successfully demonstrated the laser, the blue light that today is in every walk of our lives including art, culture and entertainment. If you are keen to know more about the laser, you can explore 🔗 this blog.

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🏈 Monday-Morning Quarterbacks

You may be wondering what this means. Please bear with me a bit.

I’m not an outdoor sports person. I have a passing interest in many of the sports. Cricket, of course, is a national obsession and I too am a cricket fan. My wife has no interest in cricket. She knows of a few famous cricketers like Dhoni, Virat and of course Prasanna 😄.

During the IPL, as a CSK fan I did ‘whistle podu’ on the eve of every CSK match. I am very relaxed when CSK is not playing. Like, a  match between RR and DC is sort of fun to watch though I root for that day’s losing side. If CSK is playing and if I get a sense that they are likely to lose I quietly switch off the TV and head to the bedroom. My wife looks up from the book she is reading and rubs it in by saying, “CSK is losing, eh?”. What to do? I am a poor loser.

Before you ask me ‘Cricket aur yeh quarterback ka kya rishta hai?’ let me show my bleeding heart, which bled profusely when that giant of a Pollard pulverised the bowling. With 47 runs needed in the last three overs, Pollard took 17 runs off the 18th over bowled by Thakur, 15 off the 19th over bowled by Sam Curran and 16 off the last over bowled by Lungi Ngidi to take MI over the line.

Now I shall co-relate my angst with the meaning of this hyphenated compound word ‘Monday-morning quarterback’. 

As you may know, a quarterback is an American football player who stands slightly behind the central line. He sort of calls the signals and directs the players who are in front to either go on the offensive or defensive. (Readers who are die-hard football fans please pardon me if my understanding is wrong). In that sense, the quarterback has a good view of things and can strategize.

‘Monday-morning quarterbacks’ are those football fans who discuss a match played on the previous Sunday night and criticise how the game was played and how the quarterback failed in his job. They go on to give gyaan on what he should have done. They try to rehash the football game strategy even if they are not players of the game.

Monday-morning quarterback (in short, quarterback), is no longer an expression exclusive to football. It extends to all those who criticize or question or second guess the decisions and actions of other people after the event, often unfairly. These quarterbacks analyse what decisions were made and what outcomes occurred and, with the benefit of hindsight, they revisit those decisions and how they would have achieved a better result.

I too became a quarterback when I criticised Vadhyar Dhoni for not letting Moeen Ali bowl the last couple of overs when he had bowled only one over, given only one run and taken one wicket. Moeen’s slow pace would have made it difficult for Pollard to score and CSK would have won! Cheche! 

At some time or the other, all of us have been quarterbacks — analysing a situation that we have witnessed, discussing post facto the mistakes that were made and commenting as to how the situation could have been handled better. This is more so when criticising an organisation or the administration. Opposition parties become quarterbacks when they ridicule how the government handled a situation.

As a matter of right, we tend to become armchair quarterbacks by critically analysing how a problem was handled even if we do not have expertise in that area. I have heard people shaking their head ruefully and saying ‘the economy is going to dogs’. I have two problems with this. Firstly, sometimes the person has no understanding of the economy beyond what Arnab told him the previous night. Secondly, why blame dogs? If one can think of a better connection, the economy has to be on a leash and not the dog!

Here are some more examples of quarterbacks:

• Consultants who come in and critically look at a situation and diplomatically say ‘you have got it all wrong’ and then ask you to do what you would have done in the first place and give you a report on how to do it differently.

  

• Analysts who comment on the business deal structure and how it is value depletive, etc. when it is published in the media. 

• Your colleagues can become quarterbacks when one of your business plans goes awry and they are quick to point out all things that went wrong and how it could have been avoided.

• There will be many quarterbacks when there is a failed marriage. One will say “I knew from the beginning, he was not for her” and others will chime in, “I told them to match the horoscope and they pooh-poohed the idea”.

• Academic quarterbacks are those who after someone has failed to pass engineering offer their sage wisdom that he should have studied law and not engineering.

• Not to be left behind, there are Twitter quarterbacks, WhatsApp quarterbacks and various other media quarterbacks who systematically demolish the reasons that were behind a particular incident or decision, all with the benefit of hindsight. 

Dear readers, there are many COVID-quarterbacks who rubbish others and give you their own version of symptoms and cure. It is better you seek professional advice. Vaccination is on hold. Please stay at home and avoid socialising. Recently twenty-odd people got together in an apartment to have a party and shortly thereafter many tested positive. When someone questioned the wisdom of holding the party, a quarterback among them shot back ‘nothing would have happened if they had held the party on the terrace!’

See you next week!

P.S: be a well-meaning quarterback and tell me if I could have written this edition better 😉