My friend AJ is not a trained calypso judge, the only ones able, according to now nine-time Calypso Monarch Chalkdust, to judge the annual calypso competition fairly. So I really don’t know if AJ’s view that “Chalkdust should be somewhere in the middle of the field”—shared with us on our …
Read More »Darren and the IPL: Best examines links between Bravo, Pooran, Lara… and the media
It brought Garry Sobers to the verge of public tears in Sri Lanka in 2015. Wherever Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh and Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards are in the world, it is almost certain to bring them to private tears. And it will make cricketing knights Frank Worrell and …
Read More »Dimanche not so gras! Best casts critical eye; says why he preferred Karene to Chalkie
Not to take anything away from the 2017 winner, Dr Hollis “Chalkdust” Liverpool, the now record nine-time champion, the results of last night’s Calypso Monarch competition simply do not add up. And as the dissatisfaction with the organisers and complaints about the quality of the show multiply—as they are almost …
Read More »Sing, Valentino, sing: Earl Best’s send off to departing Trinidad Guardian sport editor
I can see it still in my mind’s eye. “Life is a stage / and we are the actors; / Everybody have a part to play. / Like a never-ending movie / with all different characters, / each of us have a role to portray.” It is the mid-to-late 1970’s. …
Read More »If Pelé could play, who is Pappy? Best ‘oohs’ about Shiva Boys wonder goal in South final
In last week’s South Zone Intercol final, an SSFL midfield general scored a last-gasp “jaw-dropping” goal so audacious that for me it invited a comparison with the peerless Pelé. And this from a commentator who, in his most recent Wired868 offering, lamented the absence of genuine quality in the SSFL …
Read More »Shooting blanks: Best bemoans lacklustre SSFL, recounts past glories
Wired868 editor-in-chief and CEO Lasana Liburd is a conman and, if he’s not careful, he may end up in jail. Or, if Dame Fortune smiles on him, in the UNC. I say that because I have been reading the stories that appear here about the Secondary Schools’ Football League (SSFL). …
Read More »Bard women; fickle goddesses: Best considers dynamics of Calypso and her women
It is 2016. Do you know where Jean and Dinah are? And why? It says a lot for the Mighty Sparrow that sexagenarians and teenagers alike—and all the age-groups in between—often answer that question in the affirmative. Round de corner posing; bet yuh life is something dey selling… In Calypso …
Read More »Big Talk from the Birdie: Best looks at Sparrow’s bravado, conquests and fragile masculinity
“Not a woman ever complain yet with me. Ah eh boastin’ but ah know ah got true ability/durability. And if a woman ever say that I ever leave her dissatisfy, she lie, she lie, she lie, she blasted lie.” And there is a fairly long list of women who may …
Read More »Forged from the love of language: Best has another go at literary sloppiness in the media
Above a headline proclaiming “Forged from the love of liberty” on page 25 of the edition of Tuesday August 6, we are told by the Trinidad Express that language matters. But on Page One of the edition of Sunday September 4, the caption says that “Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley address the …
Read More »Learning from Rio: Earl Best takes some literary lessons from the 31st Olympiad
Javelin thrower Keshorn Walcott, writes Kwame Lawrence in the Trinidad Express of Monday August 22, “is threatening to become an all-time great in the event.” So whether or not you think it is a celebration of “mediocrity,” no one can reasonably find fault with the Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs’ …
Read More »Strait is the GATE: Is T&T suffering from false sense of entitlement?
Are we having the wrong discussion about GATE? Should the conversation be whether the government should sponsor tertiary-level education at all? “Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” Matthew 7:14, King James Version. My 14-year-old grandson …
Read More »… And the media keep right on media-ing: How to bring the WICB to heel
Columnist Earl Best calls on the regional media to sign a hands-off, ‘non-corporation’ pact to bring WICB president Dave Cameron and company to heel: What know they of cricket, CLR James asked almost five and a half decades ago, who only cricket know? What know they of West Indies cricket, …
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