Monday, September 05, 2005

i'm taking these dumb paper lanterns down

In the wake of the ado/adieu discussion the other day, I stumbled upon something that made me laugh. Really hard. First I laughed, then I felt actual pity. Okay... I'll explain. It'll take me a while to get to the point, but the point is that I stumbled upon someone writing a phrase the wrong way, and in a way that was "breathtakingly bad".

As you well know, I'm into hockey, and I've been spending WAY too much time reading up about all the free agency moves and rumors and the like. I spend lots of time following stories about players on teams that I hate. Example: The Detroit Red Wings are having a lot of trouble getting one of their star players signed. The rising star Pavel Datsyuk (DAT-sook) is threatening to stay in his home country of Russia if the Wings cannot satisfy his contract needs. No surprise there, but his agent gave the Red Wings a deadline of today (September 5) to work out a deal. That's a little odd, but there's a growing trend of players making ultimatums (or is it ultimati? Ultimata? Ultimatae?) and otherwise dictating the terms of negotiations.
Anyway, I've been following this because it's kind of a big story. I was reading about it on tsn.ca, and I went to one of the bulletin boards to see what other fans are thinking and writing.

One guy lamented Datsyuk's demands, and he said "it's Pre-Modona crap and selfish". Um. Wow. Obviously, he meant "prima donna" What exactly does he mean by "Pre-Modona"? Maybe he meant "pre-Madonna". I also saw someone else write that Marian Hossa, of the Atlanta Thrashers, is a "Pre-Madonna". I'm actually trying to make sense of this, and this is what I get:
    pre-madonna
    before Madonna
    before the Virgin Mary
    more important than the Virgin Mary

This might be their line of thinking for calling someone a pre-Madonna, but it just doesn't make sense.

It's much simpler. In opera, the leading lady (prima donna) is sometimes a bear to work with because of her unreasonable demands in the dressing room and on the stage, her overinflated sense of self-worth, and her general attitude. There's where the derisive term "prima donna" came from.

For the record, I do think that Datsyuk is a prima donna. I think that Hossa doesn't get enough respect, but he still comes off as a bit of a prima donna in my book.

now playing:
The New Pornographers -- Electric Version
The New Pornographers Electric Version

4 comments:

Brushback said...

Hey, "Electric Version"-- great CD. Funny post, too. Nice blog you've got.

Kevin said...

this is much adieu about nothing. you're just a bonified dork. it's rediculous.

greatwhitebear said...

ah, blogger spam catches you too!

For months I have been telling anybody who would listen that Datsyuk would be a fool to give up the tax free money in Russia. He's no fool. He signed with Avangard Omsk for $6 mil (tax free) for one year.

he had a spectacular year in Europe last year. If he has another one like it this year, he'll be the hottest commodity in amongst next years unrestricted free agents.

wish I had his agent working for me!

d-lee said...

Mark, we're going to have to agree to disagree. Datsyuk is a very good player. I'm not arguing that point. Please go over to my other place and read my post about why I believe that he isn't the player he thinks he is.
I'm not saying that his season with the Dynamo was less than "quite good", but I have to take issue with the adjective "spectacular". 32 points in 47 games doesn't quite qualify as "spectacular" in my book. In fact, if you convert that to .68 points per game, and multiply that by 82, it would be like having 56 points in an NHL season. If you forgot, he had 68 points for the wings in 2003-04. Of course this is comparint lemons to limes, but I think you see what I'm getting at.
If you look at the rest of the Dynamo team from that season, Maxim Afinogenov had slightly better POINTS/GAME numbers than did Datsyuk. Afinogenov's numbers would translate into 57 points over 82 games. You don't see him whining about how he deserves $6.66M the way Datsyuk did. You know why? Because he knows it's silly to go running your mouth after one good NHL season, and a good season abroad. Maybe the Mafia ... er, sorry ... Russian Elite Leagues will pay him $7M, and he should take it. But even outside the reference of a new CBA and salary cap, you can't go comparing yourself to Joe Thornton after you've had ONE thirty goal season. I know he's your boy, but that's just plain stupid. I think even you have to see the folly in that quote of his.