18:48 8 March 2015, Harrison, Arkansas by GS Jade Barrett Csbnews Correspondent
“Firmness in enduring and exertion is a character I always wish to possess. I have always despised the whining yelp of complaint and cowardly resolve” – Robert Burns
Having just suffered an ignominious defeat in the Fourth of six Swiss Team matches, our opponents arrived to begin the Fifth with our favorite most despised greeting:
“Why do we have to play you? This is just so unfair!”
Great. We had just received a horrific beating – mostly by our own hands, but the opponents had no issue with kicking us while we were down – and now we have to listen to somebody else’s whiny lamentations delivered in an increasingly annoying tone.
So why not speak the truth while answering the irritating query: “This is not our day”, or “Because we cannot follow suit”, or the ever popular American vernacular used in these special circumstances when no other adequate description of incompetence will suffice: “WE SUCK!” And even these forthright and humble phrases do not deter our adversaries from pressing their juvenile advantage.
One of my all-time favorites and a permanent fixture on the TOP TEN WHINES OF ALL TIME list was delivered in the final round of a Regional Swiss in San Diego, March 2012:
“I bet you lost just so you could destroy me now”. What could I say to adequately dispute this unjust accusation?
“On the contrary, Madam, we had intended to crush you after we lost the First Round, but our opponents refused to comply with our strategy”.
After all, even on our worst days, we tend to win at least one match.