August 25, 2009

NYT: "Sailer seemed to embody the pure mystique of skiing"

When I was lugging my backpack through Salzburg and Innsbruck in 1980, Austrians on the street would point hopefully to the "Sailer" I'd written on my backpack with a Marx-a-Lot. I was sorry to have to disappoint them by admitting that I wasn't closely related to Austria's national hero Toni Sailer, winner of three Alpine skiing gold medals at the 1956 Winter Olympics, nor was I even a very stylish skier.

Toni Sailer, RIP.

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

33 comments:

kudzu bob said...

You really are too honest for your own good. Think of all the beers that excited fans would have bought you, the girls you could have impressed, had you merely let everybody continue to think what they wanted to think. It would have been so easy.

And now here you are, still telling people the truth instead of making $25,000 per New Yorker article and getting ever bigger bucks for talks at corporate gatherings. Character really is destiny.

Steve Sailer said...

I'm just not very good at making stuff up. I mean, if I'd said, "Oh, you mean my Uncle Toni?" the Austrian fan might have responded happily, "Which of his three brothers is your father?"

"Uh, ... Hans? I mean, uh, Dieter! No, Gustav! Yes, Gustav Dieter Hans Sailer is my father!"

Anonymous said...

"Think of all the beers that excited fans would have bought you, the girls you could have impressed, had you merely let everybody continue to think what they wanted to think."

If only Roissy were around then, and you had learned 'Game', you would've cleaned up. Those Austrian babes would've been all over your wiener schnitzel.

Francochet said...

That was a handsome dude.

rast said...

Though it comes 40 years too late for mary jo kopechne, Kennedy has finally kicked the bucket.

"First, our cities will not be flooded with a million immigrants annually. Under the proposed bill, the present level of immigration remains substantially the same…. Secondly, the ethnic mix of this country will not be upset…. Contrary to the charges in some quarters, [the bill] will not inundate America with immigrants from any one country or area, or the most populated and deprived nations of Africa and Asia…"

Anonymous said...

Shocking news from everyone's favorite 'sand state', Arizona!

"SAT scores in Arizona on decline:
Rank still above U.S. average; more minorities taking test"

Anonymous said...

nyt sucks. you even have to register just to read their dreck for free

headache said...

Austria is such a lovely country. It's a mix of the old KuK and the lovely Alpine landscape. Not as PC-degraded as Germany. Austrians are elegant people as well. The women in places like Salzburg an Vienna dress elegantly. When they are good looking, they are stunning. Not as overloaded as wimmenz in the US, Germany, Britain or Eastern Europe.
Steve's been around somewhat but refrains from bragging about it. Good for him.

Anonymous said...

Interesting that he didn't get married until he was 40. Can't imagine what he would be doing during all those years... ;^)

Bill said...

So, as the NY Times suggests, is your surname actually pronounced "SIGH-ler?"

I always assumed it was pronounced "say-ler," but thought it might be "say-LAIR" due to the French Suisse origin. Or is it French?

Sorry, this is one of my hobbies.

Steve Sailer said...

"So, as the NY Times suggests, is your surname actually pronounced "SIGH-ler?""

Nah, we pronounce it "sail-er."

The family story is that the original spelling was "Seiler," which means "ropemaker," but an ancestor became mayor of the village of Wil in Switzerland, so he changed the spelling, much like a social climbing Englishman changing his name's spelling from "Smith" to "Smythe" or "Psmith."

I assume that the change in pronunciation was just to make the sound fit the spelling, perhaps done on arrival in America.

headache said...

Steve, this is just the sly NYT's (TM:ST) way of preparing your intro to the editorials. Maybe the NYT is secretly giving up on PC and preparing to ride the HBD wave. People like Sulzburger are businessmen first and ideologues a tight second.

Kingfisher said...

"The family story is that the original spelling was "Seiler," which means "ropemaker," but an ancestor became mayor of the village of Wil in Switzerland, so he changed the spelling, much like a social climbing Englishman changing his name's spelling from "Smith" to "Smythe" or "Psmith.""

Not to turn this into a Steve Sailer genealogy thread or anything, but some commenter at a HBD blog called "OneSTDV" said that you are half Jewish. I recall hearing that you had some partial Jewish ancestry, but not that you were half. I have no problem either way, but was hoping that you could clear this up.

Florida resident said...

To the best of my humble understanding, Tony Sailer was phonetically "Zailer" in Europe, just like Sommerfeld (great physicist) was pronounced as "Zommerfeld".
How about you, dear Steve ?
(I apologize for familiarity, not knowing how to express adoration otherwise.)

master_of_americans said...

Coming from our benighted friends in the MSM, I expected it to say something to the effect of "Sailer seemed to embody the pure mystique of racial insensitivity" ...

Steve Sailer said...

No, my father just pronounces "Sailer" the way the spelling suggests to English-speaking American. I'm sure Justice Sotomayor would be appalled at our lack of ethnic prickliness, but we have enough problems getting people just to spell the name right (it's "Sailer," not "Sailor," much less pronounce it like they do in the St. Gallen canton.

Larry Dudash said...

Yes, if only Steve had studied the Mystery Method he would've swooped those alpine snow queens. A playa doesn't need facts about Toni's life, he would've just Chauncy Gardnered those ski bunnies giggling all the way into the hot tub.

Smart, white and conservative are high risk factors for eternal "betadom" in today's Gaia world - just ask t99, whiskey, sillygirl, or whatever handles he uses.

Wade Nichols said...

"Austrians on the street would point hopefully to the "Sailer" I'd written on my backpack with a Marx-a-Lot."

Not to be TOO pedantic, but I believe you mean "Marks-A-Lot".

You might be thinking of that famous rapper from the former Soviet Union, Comrade Marx-A-Lot. I think his first name was Karl.

Anonymous said...

"Though it comes 40 years too late for mary jo kopechne, Kennedy has finally kicked the bucket"

Too late for Mary Jo, and too late for us Native White Americans, too, it seems.

Svigor said...

People like Sulzburger are businessmen first and ideologues a tight second.

It never makes sense when I think of it this way. E.g., would Mel have had his troubles if this hierarchy held in Hollywood? Would we have to wait fifty years between Christian films? I doubt it.

A way to think about it that works better for me is that every business man has categories of money that he doesn't want. For Jewish business men, this tends to include money made at the expense of "is it good for the Jews?" (e.g., criticizing Israel or Jewry, promoting or harboring Christianity, white ethnic identity or pride, HBD-awareness, social conservatism, critical thinking, etc.

Truth said...

"I'm just not very good at making stuff up. I mean, if I'd said, "Oh, you mean my Uncle Toni?" the Austrian fan might have responded happily, "Which of his three brothers is your father?"

Yes, and he would have asked in German.

By the way, you so deftly sidestepped the "Memeber of the Tribe?" question!

Buckaroo said...

Steve,

This seems as good an occasion as any to ask: have you ever visited St. Gallen and environs? As luck would have it, I was there just a couple of months ago. Of course went to see the Abbey Library (Stiftsbibliothek) there. It's an amazing place, first because of its unapologetic rococo exuberance and second because of the holdings. I saw manuscripts from the 8th (yes, eighth) century and an encyclopedia in-all-but-name from the 13th. My two main reactions were, a) we've got your "dark ages" right here, pal, and b) staying out of stupid wars that burn down your heritage is a really good idea.

The latter reflection stayed with me as I walked along the General Guisan Quai in Zurich.

Anonymous said...

much like a social climbing Englishman changing his name's spelling from "Smith" to "Smythe"

Well, if he were climbing down the ladder, from England, to Scotland.

But there's plenty of room here at the bottom, and we're a friendly lot.

Care for a nip o' the single malt?

headache said...

You ought to think of moving back to St. Gallen canton. That's one incredibly beautiful place.

Anonymous said...

Not only that, I didn't realize Sailer was an Austrian name: I thought it was Irish!

Anonymous said...

A: Knock knock.
Q: Who's there?
A: Green.
Q: Green who?

A: Knock knock.
Q: Who's there?
A: Green.
Q: Green who?

A: Knock knock.
Q: Who's there?
A: Green.
Q: Green who?

A: Knock knock.
Q: Who's there?
A: Green.
Q: Green who?

A: Knock knock.
Q: Who's there?
A: Green.
Q: Green who?

A: Knock knock.
Q: Who's there?
A: Green.
Q: Green who?

A: Knock knock.
Q: Who's there?
A: Orange.
Q: Orange who?
A: ORANGE you glad I didn't say Green?

Anonymous said...

Bob,

"And in any case Jews intermarried/converted with the local european population enough almost all whites have Jewish ancestors."

You're exaggerating just a tad. Parts of Germany and Eastern Europe - sure. But not much elsewhere. For example, Jews were expelled from Britain and kept out for hundreds of years. When they returned in the 19th century it wasn't in large numbers, and they were concentrated in London. Even in places like Germany where some intermarriage occured Jews were highly concentrated in urban areas and there wasn't that much large scale intermarriage throughout the country. Same deal in E. Europe. Jews were urban or in shtetls, and distinguished as a commercial/professional/middle class which included few gentiles, so not as much intermarriage as insinuated by some occurred.

Anonymous said...

It never makes sense when I think of it this way. E.g., would Mel have had his troubles if this hierarchy held in Hollywood? Would we have to wait fifty years between Christian films? I doubt it.



Youre right. Of course this applies to Christianity and white men. Shicksa's, I'm not so sure, especially when they have the goods.

Anonymous said...

Not to turn this into a Steve Sailer genealogy thread or anything, but some commenter at a HBD blog called "OneSTDV" said that you are half Jewish. I recall hearing that you had some partial Jewish ancestry, but not that you were half.

Steve in his own words:

"For an extreme example of how pro-Semitism can come about within an individual merely through genes alone, consider me. Although I'm Catholic, I became very pro-Semitic at the age of 13 when my powers of logic kicked in (and my hair turned curly). I quickly noticed that a high percentage of the thinkers I either agreed with (e.g., Milton Friedman) or whom I considered it a worthy challenge to argue against were Jewish. Since I was adopted, a few years later I concluded that it was likely that I was half-Jewish biologically, (which indeed appears to be the case based on evidence my wife dug up when I was 30)."

Bob said...

Anon, it wouldn't take much mixing back when the population of europe was less than 10% of its current size 20 generations ago to come to the result we all have a little Jew in us.

There were large Jewish populations at some time in not just Germany and eastern Europe, but also Spain, Italy, Greece, France, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium and Holland.

And gentiles and Jews have been mixing in North America for upwards of 300 years as well. Even during periods of persecution you have lots of well-off conversos keen on marrying gentiles.

Anonymous said...

Woody Allen once asked a girl: "Do you have a little Jew in you?"

The girl replied, no, she did not.

"Would you LIKE to have a little Jew in you?" asked Woody.

Btw, it has long been observed that many extreme anti-semites are at least a little bit Jewish themselves. This is how we know Steve is probably as goyish as they come.

The Lawd works in mysterious ways.

Anonymous said...

The other Sailer's work is mostly downhill.

Our Sailer's work, by contrast...

Anonymous said...

much like a social climbing Englishman changing his name's spelling from "Smith" to "Smythe"

"Well, if he were climbing down the ladder, from England, to Scotland."

Oh I dont know, when you start looking into the name thing you will notice just how much of the British/English aristocracy is actually of Scottish origin.