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Sports
June 13, 2007
A Journalistic No-No
Justin Verlander of the Detroit Tigers threw a no-hitter last night, which sent sports scribes scrambling to do his gem journalistic justice. Of course, to properly convey the magnitude of the feat—only the second this year!—headline writers were forced to make puns out of every major word in the story: Detroit-Tigers-Justin-Verlander. And they're off!
Media
June 8, 2007
Forget the Polar Bears
Comedian Larry David is the first celebrity casualty of global warming. At least that’s how the tabloid press has been describing his separation from his wife of 14 years, prominent environmentalist Laurie David. Evidently, the couple is amicably divorcing because they’re having difficulty adjusting to Laurie's newfound fame as a champion of a hot cause and producer of the Oscar-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth. Let the climate-change metaphors begin!
Arts
June 5, 2007
Getting to the Bottom of 'Fanny'
There are a handful of ubiquitous classic rock songs from the '70s that always seem to pop up on the radio, in advertisements, and on movie soundtracks. In addition to a catchy chorus and lengthy duration, many of these songs share something else: a muddled meaning. We're not talking about the confusing lyrics that Kiss This Guy has teased out; we mean the near-scholarly debate that has emerged on the web about the significance of certain lyrics. Below, Gelf examines a few of the most contentious and popular songs, and considers the question, is "The Weight" really about getting the clap?
Media
June 5, 2007
Product Placement Everywhere
If advertisers had their way, here's what we'd be looking at: A newspaper column about television networks, sponsored by the TV network CW, whose new fall line-up will include five-second commercials and TV shows that thematically incorporate sponsors into its programming, including a sitcom about the Geico Auto Insurance caveman, which includes a heavy-browed character playing Dungeon Siege 2, a role-playing video game that itself has ads for other PlayStation titles within it.
Varsity Letters
June 4, 2007
Varsity Letters 6/6 Interviews
Three sports-book authors will be speaking at a free Gelf event in New York on Wednesday, June 6, at 8 p.m. Come by the Happy Ending Lounge to hear writers Rus Bradburd, Donald Evans, and Rick Reilly read from and discuss their writing. Plus, Bradburd will play the fiddle.
Media
June 1, 2007
How Ironical
Last year's National Spelling Bee winner Katharine Close spelled ursprache correctly to close out her competition. In its recap of the event, the New York Daily News could not match her feat. This year, Getty Images (and publications like Slate that use its pictures) couldn't even get Close's name spelled right. But if the media were instead covering a grammar bee, the irony would be even thicker.
Media
June 1, 2007
The Stink Factor
The website StinkyJournalism.org claims to offer a "unique forum for citizens to publish research on errors they encounter in the media." For the last few days, Rhonda Roland Shearer—who is the founder of the site (and widow of Stephen Jay Gould)—has been publishing story after story questioning the veracity of photos of the Monster Pig, supposedly killed by an 11-year old boy from Alabama. But Stinky Journalism has its own malodorous journalism. (This post has been updated; click through to read.)
Media
May 31, 2007
Flying Blind
"I'm here to shoot a pilot." That's what film director Mike Figgis supposedly told security screeners at LAX, and the double meaning of "pilot" (combined with the intransigence and stupidity of his questioner) resulted in his spending several hours in the airport's lockup. That's the story that got wide coverage online. But Figgis now says it's not true.
Media
May 30, 2007
What Storybooks are They Reading?
After the Duke men's lacrosse team lost by a goal in the finals of the national title game, Jason Whitlock captured the thoughts of sportswriters around the country, writing that team's sloppy play denied them "the storybook finish many of us wanted." Perhaps Gelf missed out on a demented sub-genre of the modern fairytale, but it seems like a story featuring inebriated strippers and bogus rape charges doesn't quite cut it as mythical fare.
Sports
May 21, 2007
When Adjectives Hold Hands in the Desert
Baseball writers are notorious for overly dramatic writing. Within a genre that routinely attributes mythic qualities to even the most routine 6-4-3 double plays, Marty Noble, beat writer for Mets.com, stands out for audacity and entertainment value. As Noble himself might write, this is a man who never met a cliché he didn't like. He recaps Mets games like a WWII veteran recapping the Battle of the Bulge. The Mets did not move into first place, they reclaimed it. Jose Reyes is "electrically charged danger" on the base paths, while a losing rookie pitcher nobly "throws himself on the sword." His opening lines are consistently histrionic, and his signature move is a snippy one-liner at the end. Below are a few of Gelf's favorite Noblisms from the 2007 season.
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