European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 21, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse Write this Way but Frame it the right Way by Jack Rosenthal the new York times listeners bring different frameworks of understanding to the same words. In his study Frame analysis the sociologist Erv ing Goffman related an incident at the Nursery school of a 3-year-old whose Grandfather owned a baseball team. What s one and one his teacher asked.,. A Ball and ," the boy replied. Comedians know that meaning depends on con text jokes Art funny because they oper ate in one Frame while the listener expects another. In animal crackers Groucho Marx says one morning i shot an elephant in my pyjamas. How he got in my pyjamas i la never Mel Brooks offers what May be the classic exam ple of framing humor in his movie Young Frankenstein. Marty Feldman is sent to bring Gene Wilder into the spooky Castle. Walk this Way he says limping heavily. Wilder does limping heavily. Frame misunderstandings occur in everyday life. A Cost conscious executive asked her Secretary to find out the difference Between first class and coach for a flight to los Angeles. The Secretary reported the seats Are wider and the drinks Are when h e was informed of the Watts riot in 1965, then California gov. Pat Brown supposedly said Why this is the worst disaster since my totally incredible falsity has Mariy faces. One arising frequently in political controversies involves negative discourse in which an effusion can be read to mean its opposite. When an official declares something false chances Are it is. When he or she says it is absolutely false chances arc it is True. Cornered politicians now routinely Loose adverbial arrows like totally mistaken. Wholly uncalled for and completely unjustified. The overemphasis Sticks out like pinocchio s nose. Early last year George step Haropoulos offered up two memorable democratic examples. Was vice president Al Gore s stature diminishing absolutely How could president Clinton deny that he had said Saddam Hussein could find redemption when the words were on tape because the presi Dent inadvertently Jack Rosenthal is the editor of the now York times Magazine William satire has been of vacation. Who s having a Ball not baseball fans Tony Kornheiser this week s topic is How to Cope wit the baseball d like to begin by talking to the women in the audience relax the pressure s off. The next time you go to a dinner party and you notice a group of men huddled together engaged in animated conversation about Bonds you no longer have to panic and worry is it Long term Short term or Barry Bonds they re talking about there s Al ways the horror when you overhear someone men Tion Kirby Puckett and you Start singing Young girl get out of my mind my love for you is Way out of line and the room gets suddenly still and someone hisses not Gary t can be so frustrating when men talk of nothing but baseball from March through october. To get a word in edgewise a woman either has to spew George will Ian psycho babble about How baseball is played on an Emerald chessboard with a timeless poetic elegiac Grace and symmetry that resonates with the pastoral rhythms of America which trans lates loosely As congratulations to me i be made baseball seem like an intellectual game even though most conversations i be had with ballplayers consist of the words hum you babe or scratch her private parts in full View of the neighbors then spit tobacco juice on the carpet or they could cry. Like Jane Fonda. Did you see where the former proletariat Loving Fonda began crying because the hotel serv ice in St. Petersburg was so slow Well she should have gone to Miami Buh duh Bing a Little Good will games humor for Yoxall women have to do to keep up with men now is Point to Richard Ravitch and Donald Fehr on to and dryly say look dear the Siskel and Ebert of the baseball seriously Ravitch and Fehr Are getting so much to air time Gabe Kaplan is think ing of coming Back As a third baseman. But while women Benefit from a baseball strike men Are in disarray. It s be difficult to convince them that a baseball strike is a Blessing might try by building this Case it s a Long drive to the game once strike you get there it s hard to Park it costs a lot of Money to get in it s terribly crowded you find food under the seats the people around you never shut up it seems there Are always indians or braves involved it goes on interminably it could t be any More Boring if it were on a Span it s just like going to a Kevin Costner movie except there s no air conditioning. As social critic Lewis Grossberger once observed about getting fired a baseball strike voids a Large fill in men s lives. Men now have huge amounts of time on their hands More than half their adult lives in fact that they used to fill with their feet up on a Couch and a bag of doritos in their Lap watching the cubs on the super station. After dec Ades of this they have not Only come to believe Harry Caray sounds Good they think he looks Good and on a Good Day Harry Caray looks like a wombat playing in a polka band. What do men do now i especially fear for those men who Are in rotisserie leagues the Geeky ones who pore Over the Box scores every Day and update the statistics on their personal computers. What Beans Are they going to count to feed their habit will they switch from esp to Cnoc from jocks to stocks from dizzy Dean to Dan Dorfman will we see them wandering aimlessly on the streets counting cracks in the Side walks will they sit in the subway with spreadsheets at their feet holding signs that say will compute slugging percentage for Foo please Don t say that men should go to garage sales. Because that s not As much fun As watching a Euy like Albert Belle who stuffs his Bat with so much " Cork that he does t need a batting coach he needs a wine Steward. I Don t get garage sales at All. For example what possesses a person who wants to sell his old clothes to display them by laying them on the ground what they think you re going to be cruising by and you la screech your car to a dead Stop because you just spotted a hand sewn italian suit that normally costs $400 in a store but stretched out Here on a bed of crabgrass you can get three for five Bucks yeah right. And please Don t suggest that men should do fam ily things like pile everyone in the car and go to an amusement Park because during baseball season men tend to lose track of their family. April to octo Ber is a Long time a lot can happen a Man might miss.-. ". .-., he of let s go. Jonathan and Kate arc waiting in the car. She where s Andrew / he Andrew let me simplify the strike think of baseball As a big fat Rich pie. The players Are already getting More than half the pie and they want More. The owners Are saying this is our pie. Let them eat i m amused by people debating which Side is right the atm the machine squeals tilt it s like whom would you Root for in a War Between Union Carbide and Dupont since after it was Over every body would be covered with Shmutz creators Syndicate. August 21, 1994 sunday Page 23
