Sit this one out?

Reader question:

Please explain “sit this one out” in this: A word of caution: these jokes are not for the faint of heart, so if you’re easily offended, you might want to sit this one out.

My comments:

To paraphrase: We warn you that these jokes are not for the tender-hearted as they’re crude, vulgar and deeply offensive. And if you’re easily offended, you may want to skip it altogether.

In other words, don’t read these (dirty) jokes and do something else with your time.

I’m not mincing my words, as you can see. Maybe the situation is not so bad. Maybe the jokes were only mildly crude, just slightly vulgar or gently offensive. Maybe they’re not so dirty.

May be. But they must be pretty bad, otherwise they wouldn’t have needed to give you a word of caution in the first place.

Anyways, those jokes are considered offensive to some degree and you’re advised to “sit this one out” if you’re someone who’s easily offended.

Sit this one out?

That’s an expression that’s originally popular in sports circles. For example, players who are not playing are seen seated on a long stool outside the court. It’s called the bench. Players who are not playing sit on the bench. They’re either not good enough to play or are injured. A coach may say to a player, for example: “You’d better sit this one (game) out and give your bad ankle a little more rest. I don’t want you to risk it.”

Or, a player says to the coach: “I’ll sit this one out because I’m tired. I didn’t sleep a wink last night. I played video games all night.”

This player may not exist, not at the professional level at any rate. At the very least he or she may not be a professional player who plays for a living because they have no respect for the game.

Anyway, that’s “sit this one out” in the sports context. Outside of sports, this phrase is also widely used. As a matter of fact, any time anyone does not want to participate in an activity, any activity, they say: “I’ll sit this one out.”

They may have a good reason or give a bad excuse, but, at any rate, they don’t want to participate.

This is a common phrase, and let’s read a few media examples for greater context:

1. School districts that choose not to engage with artificial intelligence will leave their students unprepared for a future in which the technology is expected to dominate, a key U.S. Department of Education official said at a Nov. 14 event in Washington about AI.

“I’ve had conversations with some educators who have said, ‘Well, I don’t quite know what to make of AI. I’m not well prepared to really address it. So I’m gonna sit this one out, and we’ll see what comes next.’ And this is not one of those that you sit out,” said Roberto Rodríguez, the assistant secretary for planning, evaluation, and policy development at the Education Department during the event on AI in schools held at the American Enterprise Institute, a free-market think tank. “Your kids aren’t sitting [it] out. Their lives aren’t sitting [it] out. And, in fact, you’re going to disadvantage [students] and create greater inequities by trying to sit AI out.”

At the same time, he said, there need to be privacy safeguards when using any kind of technology in K-12 education, and teachers need to be the key decisionmakers about how AI is used to teach children. What’s more, developers creating learning tools that rely on AI need to work with educators to make sure that their products will help students learn.

“When you do that, building on the trust of educators and their lived experiences, you’re going to have a better result, you’re going to get a solution for learning that actually works in classrooms and works for students,” Rodríguez said.

AI has the potential to help teachers tailor instruction for individual students and improve outcomes for populations of students that have been harder for schools to help, Rodríguez said.

“I get excited about how we [can] support new approaches to delivering core content and personalizing that core content,” Rodríguez said. “Let’s think about what AI could bring to the challenge around accelerating English/language arts or math instruction, or science. Let’s think about what AI could bring to supporting more individualized and personalized learning experiences, what it could bring to students who are planning for their next career and for their college pathway.”

- Schools ‘Can’t Sit Out’ AI, Top U.S. Education Department Official Argues, EdWeek.org, November 14, 2023.

2. Former President Donald Trump had much to say about Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner that he did not attend.

President Joe Biden took aim at his predecessor, during his speech said, “I’m a grown man running against a six-year-old. Well, I feel great, I really feel great, I’m campaigning all over the country: Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, I’ve always done well in the original 13 colonies,” Biden said, according to HuffPost.

The Guardian reports, “The president also skewered Trump over a recent speech in which he described the civil war battle at Gettysburg as ‘interesting’, ‘vicious’, ‘horrible’ and ‘beautiful’. Biden said: ‘Speaking of history, did you hear what Donald just said about a major civil war battle? ‘Gettysburg – wow!’ Trump’s speech was so embarrassing, the statue of Robert E Lee surrendered again.’”

Furthermore, acknowledging those who criticize his age, the president added, “Age is the only thing we have in common,” referring to Trump. “My vice-president actually endorses me.”

Trump wrote, “The White House Correspondents’ Dinner was really bad. Colin Jost BOMBED, and crooked Joe was an absolute disaster! Doesn’t get much worse than this!”

Former Republican National Chair Michael Steele said, “Since you could never find a pair to attend the White House Correspondence Dinner, why don’t you just sit this one out. Again.”

Conservative lawyer George Conway wrote, “Has there ever been a whinier human being in American public life than Donald Trump?”

- ‘Why don’t you sit this one out’: Trump skewered over White House correspondents’ dinner criticism, AlterNet.org, April 28, 2024.

3. Mikel Arteta has made two changes to his starting line-up for today’s derby day against Tottenham, with Jorginho coming into the side as captain.

The Italian will start in the heart of midfield, with Declan Rice suspended and Martin Odegaard missing out due to the ankle injury he received while playing for Norway on Monday.

Riccardo Calafiori also returned from Italy duty with a calf injury and is out, with the same issue causing Oleksandr Zinchenko to sit this one out.

There is better news though in that Gabriel Jesus returns after a two-game absence to a bench that also includes deadline-day arrivals Raheem Sterling and Neto.

As for Spurs, Dominic Solanke and Micky van de Ven return to Tottenham’s starting line-up after missing the 2-1 loss at Newcastle United a fortnight ago through injury, while Brennan Johnson is also recalled.

Yves Bissouma though misses out after picking up an injury on duty for Mali, while Richarlison remains out.

- Team news: Jorginho one of two changes at Spurs, Arsenal.com, September 15, 2024.

本文仅代表作者本人观点，与本网立场无关。欢迎大家讨论学术问题，尊重他人，禁止人身攻击和发布一切违反国家现行法律法规的内容。

About the author:

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.

（作者：张欣）