Re: Clyde bashing

["Katrina" <katrina@shoin.ac.jp>]

Well I have to side with Tommy on this one.  On a personal level, I like 
Clyde very much - in spite of having subscribed to Sumo World last year and
never receiving an issue, apart from those that Clyde apologetically put
into my hands last May, saying he couldn't understand why I hadn't received
them as he remembered sending them out.  The checks may have been in the
mail, or one of my neighbours may have been an early rising felonious sumo
fan, I don't know, but I certainly didn't begrudge Clyde that subscription
fee - though I didn't renew it the following year - and was always glad to
find a copy of Sumo World in the bookstore and disappointed when they were
sold out.

I have no idea why Clyde has been so evasive with regard to his situation
with his subscribers.  Why he has not responded to enquiries is mystifying,
and if he was in trouble he only had to ask and there would have been many
happy to come to his aid, myself included.  As a businessman he seems to be
lacking in acumen as well as a sense of responsibility, but I cannot believe
that he is deliberately felonious.   Clyde is a nice guy with a wry sense of
humor and love of sumo second to none.  He has always been charming and
friendly to me, so despite his failings I still like him and wish him well
in finding his way out of his troubles.  What a difference between Clyde the
man and Clyde the editor!

With regard to cutting my ties with Sumo World back in 1999, it had nothing
to do with Clyde.  I was far from a regular contributor.  I wrote reports on
the overseas tours I attended with the Sumo Association and a feature
article on Shin Sumo (women's sumo) when asked by Andy to do so.  I cannot
speak for the other former staff, but I was fed up with the bad editing.  My
reports were edited by someone and I was not given the chance to re-read
them before publication.  The errors and rewritten text were embarrassing to
say the least.  My report on the sumo in Vienna had the Viennese audience I
wrote about transported half the world away to become "the Vietnamese
audience".  My description of the items lost in the suspicious fire which
burned up the Sumo Kyokai's luggage in the warehouse at the airport in Paris
was submitted as, "The gyojis lost everything from shozoku (robes), gunbai
(fans), eboshi (hats) to tabi (socks) and zori (sandals.)"   I assumed that
those who were reading Sumo World would have a pretty good idea of what
those things were, but not so whoever did the "rewriting" at Sumo World.  In
the magazine it appeared as:  "The gyojis lost everything from shozoku
(robes), gunbai (lacquered wooden fans), eboshi (tall, black paper hats) to
tabi (three-toed shoe socks) and zori (sandals.)"   I ask you? "Tall, black
paper hats"?  Makes the gyojis sound like Halloween costumed witches.  And
"three-toed shoe socks"?  What does that mean?  Tabi are split to separate
the big toe from the rest.  Are the gyojis now shoe wearing three-toed
sloths?

The final straw was when I reported on the Canada Basho.  The main sponsors,
Canadian Airlines and various government tourism agencies appeared as
"Canadian airline and tourism firms".  It's not the same thing!  There was
some justifiable resentment on the Canadian side, and much apologizing on my
part for something that was not the way I had originally written it.  I'd
had enough.

The regular contributors also had their grievances and reasons for not
wanting to continue with Sumo World, and David Shapiro's magazine promised a
forum to  disseminate information about sumo in an accurate and exciting
way.  David was open to new ideas and was willing to include articles on our
special interests, amateur sumo and lower division rikishis, in my case.
Sounded like we could all work together to make the magazine that everyone
had wanted Sumo World to be.  Pity nothing came of it.

The bottom line is of course, that people want a magazine about sumo in
English.  Clyde, for all his likable qualities, doesn't seem able to do the
job, which results in a great loss for all of us.

Katrina