Random Musings
Next week will be more book reviews as I write up 'The Status Game' and the fifth book in Peter Ackroyd's history of England, "Dominion", but this week is just going to be some disjointed thoughts.
If you don’t like sports, a spoiler that this will be mostly Celtics/Bruins talk.
Non-Sports thoughts:
I don’t think people really appreciate the absolutely vast volume of defense support the US and its allies are providing to Ukraine. It looks likely that $40 billion in aid will be passed this week. Of this amount, at least $25 billion is going towards military assistance. That would bring total US assistance to something in the ballpark of $30 billion. Europe has given roughly $8 billion so far per the Kiel Institute for the World Economy Ukraine Support Tracker. It’s unclear exactly what Ukraine’s spending is, but it was approximately $6 billion in 2021 and has probably doubled this year. For the sake of argument, if we peg Ukraine’s internal spending at $10 billion, the total value of Ukraine spending in 2022 combining US aid, European aid and internal spending is probably in the ballpark of $47 billion. For comparison purposes, France’s defense spending is something in the range of $57 billion. So long as Ukraine can hold on for a few more months, it will most certainly have the resources to defend itself for quite some time.
Sports thoughts:
So since moving to DC, my ability to follow Boston sports as closely as I was used to has been lessened - I can follow scores on the ESPN app and watch games when they’re nationally broadcast, but I’ll admit the rhythm of the seasons - especially for longer ones like basketball, hockey, and baseball - is not the same. I definitely miss the ability to throw on NESN any night and watch the Sox/Celtics/Bruins (or highlights). That makes the playoffs a bit more fun because I’m able to follow things. I’ve watched most of three out of four of each of the Celtics/Bruins games this round and was able to watch most of the Celtics’ first-round sweep (I’m 41, I have a job, a three-year-old and I enjoy getting 7 hours of sleep so watching every minute of every game is not an aspiration for me anymore). I have not watched much of the Red Sox, so far this year, but from everything I’ve read so far I’m not missing much. That being said, some totally unqualified thoughts on the Cs and Bs.
Patrice Bergeron is really phenomenal. This is not news, as he’s been doing this for years, but to play with the intensity and focus he does at his age cannot be easy. I’ve always thought hockey was one of the most demanding of the big sports and at 36 he’s somehow still able to dominate the ice for significant stretches. It’s all sorts of positioning, really wonderful hand-eye coordination, and understanding of the game but it’s really neat to watch.
The Bruins are going to have to do something really incredible if they want to win a Stanley Cup with their current goaltenders. Maybe Swayman stands on his head, but so far neither he nor Ullmark looks like the caliber of keeper you need to win in the playoffs. Swayman may be there someday, but that’s a lot to ask of a rookie.
The Celtics in this calendar year are almost unrecognizable from what they were at the start of the season. I watched a number of games in the fall/winter and they looked disjointed and lacked commitment. Now, they seem to be incredibly resilient and fully bought in. There have been plenty of better write-ups about how Ime Udoka managed this (see here, here and I particularly liked this one by the Athletic), but it’s been an amazing transition. I have no idea how he was only 4th in coach of the year.