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WanderingEng  ·  1106 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: March 17, 2021

There was a pro triathlon last Friday, and the local favorite took third! It was an extremely solid field, though one competitor tested COVID positive and couldn't compete. The field was a lot of the best of the best. Not only did she take third but was the fastest American, beating two other world-class Americans.

She started the run in eighth and ran down five women to get third. One does not simply run five pro triathletes into the ground without a fight. It's part of what's exciting about triathlon. One can be a great swimmer, good cyclist, and good runner leading going into the run, and a good swimmer, good cyclist, and great runner will run past you with nothing you can do.

A coworker sometimes uses the phrase "off the reservation" to mean "straying away from the company line." I finally said something to him yesterday, privately, pointing out it's probably an offensive term that refers to forcing Native Americans onto reservations. It's so easy to use offensive idioms, but not realizing it's bad doesn't make it ok. I found an article on NPR from a Native American (whose tribe is even in my company's service territory) who considers it offensive. While other terms are worse, like the Washington football team, he noted less offensive terms signal to people it's ok to use the more offensive ones.