"And It Is Not Opera"

There has been a discussion at The Sports Economist on whether NASCAR qualifies as "sport". Skip Sauer, the founder of The Sports Economist (where I am now a rare co-blogger) writes:

Regardless of what any of us might think, there are facts:
a) car racing is covered in the sports section of newspapers & in magazines like SI;
b) articles on motor sports appear in academic journals devoted to issues in "sport;"
c) spectators in large numbers pay big bucks to attend a motor race, legions watch it in beer soaked t-shirts in front of their TVs, and it is not opera;
d) car racing is an intense competition, requiring physical and mental endurance, coupled with the ability to listen to the radio and turn left.

So we can talk about the economics of Nascar here, especially since it is not opera.

Anyone who writes something as good as this belongs in the Philistine Liberation Organization!!