FanGraphs Audio: Craig Robinson, Live from Mexico City
Episode 542
Craig Robinson is a native of Lincoln, England; resident of Mexico City; author of Flip Flop Fly Ball, a book of infographics on the topic of baseball; and, most importantly, owner-operator of the URL CraigRobinson.com. He’s also the guest on this edition of FanGraphs Audio, recorded at La Bipo, a cantina in the Coyoacán district of Mexico City.
Don’t hesitate to direct pod-related correspondence to @cistulli on Twitter.
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Audio after the jump. (Approximately 57 min play time.)
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Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.
In which an American and an Englishman expect native Mexicans to communicate with them in English.
I don’t understand why you’d make this comment, except out of spite. We both make the point at some length that we feel like intruders/impostors/idiots in another people’s home (although Craig lives there and speaks the language quite well). Any other conclusion is the result only of willful misunderstanding, i.e. the least appealing sort of misunderstanding. It’s not welcome here.
I was actually projecting my own ignorance of the Spanish language — and the ignorance of many in the English speaking world — onto the two of you. That many English speakers visit other nations and attempt to communicate only to myself.
I chuckled to myself because I know that you and Mr. Robinson are expressly not this sort, but during for a brief 15-second clip, one might assume (out of the larger context) that you were.
Like you say, you felt like an intruder into the lives of the locals, but many Americans might feel indignant if the locals didn’t cater to their Americanism.
Well, the first language of Carson and I is, obviously, English, talking to each other for an English language podcast for a, primarily, English speaking audience. Where that conversation took place is pretty much irrelevant given the above. My girlfriend speaks English, and when I asked her a question with the “tape” running, it felt pertinent to ask that question in English so that Carson and the listeners could understand her answer. This, of course, ignores the rest of our time together when we dragged our knuckles around Mexico yelling “BEER!” at waiters.
Well, the comments for this one certainly got off on the wrong foot. I thought it was an enjoyable episode. I would like to visit Ciudad de México.
I attempted an ill-constructed comedy joke, and for that I apologize. Lacking the context that exists in my dumb head, I understand it that comes off as an attack on the fine gentlemen featured in this very distinguished audio podcast.
What follows is a podcast, what follows is a podcast that a fangraphs commenter will just briefly listen to before jumping to comment. What precedes his comment is quite literally nothing, as he represents to have listened to the podcast, formed a dubiously reasoned interpretation of the aforementioned podcast, and proceeded to mash his fingers on a surface of jumbled letters in a manner that either jumbled the logical synapses of his brain organ into the jelly you spread with peanut butter on the eponymous sandwich or perfectly preserved the pensees of a perturbed peon, correction, peon is not what I, as humble commenter interpeting history as it unfolds, intended to convey, all in significantly less time than the approximately 57 minute play time of FanGraphs audio
I am a big fan of the background music in this episode. Great work on securing the rights to those songs! I particularly enjoyed the AFI and Green Day tracks. Carson, I am looking forward to your selections for Dave Cameron’s weekly appearance.
I kept this for a long car trip and it didn’t disappoint. Thank you!