New York
He’s oilier than Molière’s Tartuffe but gets away with more. His latest move involves the martial art of jiu-jitsu, where he managed to get a referee to reverse his decision. I’ve been competing in martial arts for close to 60 years now, and have rarely, in fact never, witnessed a ref reverse his or her decision. But I’m no bad loser like Zuckerberg.
Some of you old-timers may even remember something called fair play. Bad calls are inevitable in sport, and one is used to taking the bad ones with the good ones because in the end they all even out. Facebook’s honcho ended up a multibillionaire under a bit of a cloud, accused of having stolen the idea from twin brothers who could not have been overly smart to trust him in the first place.
Never mind. I find anyone who went to Harvard suspect – except for Michael Mailer, that is. But getting a referee to reverse his decision in jiu-jitsu takes the brazenness of Baron Munchausen combined with the false humility of Uriah Heep. If any of you missed it, the papers were full of pictures of the great martial artist wearing a yellow belt – the equivalent of second grade in school – competing against one wearing a white belt (kindergarten) and, after a brief conversation with the ref, getting him to alter his decision. This was followed by lots of pictures of the great warrior having won the gold medal.
Well, I don’t criticise lower belts but I’ve yet to see, after close to 60 years of competing, anyone appealing or even conferring with a ref. It simply isn’t done in martial contests, not by martial artists anyway.
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