High wire act

Reader question:

Please explain this headline, with “high wire act” in particular: Work-Life-School Balance Is High Wire Act For Low-Income Youth.

My comments:

Here, school life for youth from low-income families is likened to an acrobat walking a tightrope high.

The “wire” in “high wire act” refers to the thin wire or tightrope on which the acrobat balances himself. “High” indicates that it’s high up in the air. “Act” refers to the action, the balancing act itself.

So, school life for youth from low-income families is likened to an acrobat walking a tightrope.

Meaning?

Meaning that it’s not easy, as the balancing act on the tightrope is not easy. Not only is the “high wire act” of the acrobat not easy, it is a dangerous task too. Any small misstep may lead to a fall, which means failure for the acrobat even if he doesn’t get hurt in consequence.

So, for children from low-income families, work-life-school is a balancing act that is difficult to pull off.

Unlike kids from rich families, children from poor families cannot skip the odd part-time work the family finds for them. The family needs the money. And if they do all the work they have to do, there won’t be as much time left for study as there is for other kids.

Needless to say, there is even less time for play.

Hence, you see, school life can be very tough for children from poor families and, hence, much less fun.

It shouldn’t be that way, of course. For the moment, though, let’s focus on “high wire act” the idiom itself. Whenever something is described metaphorically as a high-wire act, it is a balancing act that is difficult and fraught with dangers and problems. Any small mistake may lead to big trouble or disaster.

Here are media examples:

1. Andrew Neil, who presents the live shows The Daily Politics and This Week for the BBC, says that, with experience, live is pretty easy – as long as all goes smoothly. “You earn your money when it doesn’t. I once had to open an edition of Despatch Box with the words, ‘Welcome to the programme. There’s no autocue, the studio lights are off, and none of the guests has arrived yet. Other than that, everything's going swimmingly.’”

Some people – Neil included – claim to far prefer live television to recorded. Sue Cook, late of Nationwide, Breakfast Time and Crimewatch, says live is “so much more fun. Difficult, yes, you're trying to listen and make sense with one part of your brain, and talk and make sense with another, but people do admire you for it when it hasn’t been a disaster ...”

Valerie Singleton, another legend, confesses to “absolutely adoring live. The tingle, the thrill of excitement you get when the little red light comes on. Perhaps I’m lucky because I trained as an actress; I once had to make up a whole speech in a play at Bromley Rep when someone didn’t come on. But maybe it’s not for everyone.”

The absolute worst, all agree, the single biggest error to avoid at all costs, the ultimate no-no, is to embarrass your audience. Which, sadly, is what Deley did, albeit only a bit, and certainly not entirely through his own fault. “Live TV is a high-wire act,” says Rageh Omaar, former BBC “Scud Stud”, now with Al Jazeera English. “There’s no middle ground. It’s either seamless, or it falls apart in spectacular fashion.”

Quite apart from “simply getting the mechanics right, which is hard enough”, and “doing your homework, or at least having a decent hinterland, for when the ‘rebel spokesman’ turns out to be someone else”; quite apart from “being able to blot out five conversations in your ear, and talk for ages when there’s nothing to talk about,” you really need to be ready, confident, prepared, on top of things.

“The transition from studio to live is very difficult,” he says. “The problem with Ortis is he was just dropped in at the deep end. He looked like a man on his own, with nowhere and no one at all to turn to. A man on the high wire, without a safety net.”

And that, concludes Lynam, is unforgivable. “They could have made life easier for him,” he says. “They could have given him an autocue for the main links to camera, so that at least was secure. They could have helped him by cutting away to cameras in the stadium when he was in trouble, so he could look at his script in peace. The direction really could have helped him. Honestly, I feel sorry for the guy.”

- Live television is ‘a high-wire act with no safety net’, TheGuardian.com, September 3, 2011.

2. Memo to Silicon Valley’s IPO candidates: If you’re looking for a sizable first day “pop” on your offering, you might want to tap Goldman Sachs as your the lead underwriter.

Of the tech IPOs that came to market in 2013 and the first quarter of 2017, the offerings Goldman Sachs’ bankers shepherded through the process have risen an average of almost 56% in their first day of trading. Goldman investment bankers have claimed the coveted “lead left” position on 17 tech IPOs over that period, including Aerohive Networks last Friday.

During that period, the average first-day “pop” on offerings Goldman led was tops amongst major underwriters. (We looked only at banks that at had least two tech IPOs that raised at least $30 million.)

Contrast that with the first-day performance of the eight tech IPOs led by JPMorgan Chase over the same period. JPMorgan served as lead underwriter on a batch of deals that haven’t been met with the most-glowing market reception. In November, Chegg—an online student textbook rental service—fell about 23% in its first day of trading. Violin Memory, which makes high-speed data storage systems, fell 22% its first day. Internet website publishing company Wix also slipped on day one. Just recently, King Digital Entertainment, the company behind the popular mobile game Candy Crush Saga arrived in the public markets with a resounding thud.

Both Goldman and JPMorgan Chase declined to comment, as did other underwriters we contacted for this story.

So is that an ironclad indication that one set of tech bankers is more skillful than another? Not exactly. To be sure, the size of the first-day pop isn’t the only measure of an underwriter’s success in handling a deal. For many firms, kicking off an IPO can be a high-wire act between balancing the expectations of the company trying to raise money by selling shares and the demands of the mutual funds, hedge funds and other institutional buyers, who scoop up the company’s equity on day one.

- Goldman Sachs’ tech IPOs have popped the most lately, and JP Morgan’s the least, QZ.com, April 02, 2017.

3. Marco Rubio’s personal finances appear to have been a high-wire act much of his adult life.

Until recently, the Florida senator and top-tier Republican presidential contender was paying off big student loans. At one point Senator Rubio owned three houses, including one he just sold at a loss. And he has acknowledged cashing out a $68,000 retirement account – a move financial planners strongly discourage – in preparation for his presidential run and to pay for household items.

What’s more, the buzzy New York Times article on Rubio’s finances revealed that after getting an $800,000 advance in 2017 to write a memoir, he made some big-ticket purchases, including an $80,000 boat.

“A review of the Rubio family’s finances — including many new documents — reveals a series of decisions over the past 15 years that experts called imprudent: significant debts; a penchant to spend heavily on luxury items like the boat and the lease of a $50,000 2017 Audi Q7; a strikingly low savings rate, even when Mr. Rubio was earning large sums; and inattentive accounting that led to years of unpaid local government fees,” the Times reported.

- Marco Rubio’s personal finances: Is he 'just like us' or not? CSMoniter.com, June 10, 2017.

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.