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Sports
February 26, 2007
The Supernatural Demon Miracle Pitch
Does the gyroball—the mysterious Japanese pitch supposedly invented by physicists and perfected by hurlers such as Red Sox $103 million man Daisuke Matsuzaka—exist? Figuring that out sounds like it would make for a great story; indeed, major sports media companies ESPN and Sports Illustrated both ran features on the subject, as did the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Boston Globe. (With its multi-part investigation, Yahoo Sports probably did the best job of covering the story.)
Arts
February 24, 2007
Of Movies and Math Jokes
If you're thinking about seeing the new Jim Carrey flick The Number 23, you should check out the reviews first. They just might convince you to save yourself a Hamilton or two. This quasi-thriller is supposed to be about a man who becomes obsessed with how the number 23 presents itself in all areas of his life, but the plot never really comes together or makes any sense. Or, as over 30 different reviewers and their editors put it, the movie "doesn't add up." And there are plenty of other math clichés to throw at this crappy movie.
Internet
February 23, 2007
Burst Media
Dear Publisher: Thank you for your interest in Burst Media. In order to complete the evaluation of your application, we require verification of your association with the web property(s) on the application. Please post a copy of this entire e-mail...
Media
February 21, 2007
Salon Headlines? Oh, Yes!
When Salon's recent interview with Yoko Ono was published under the title "Ono? Oh, yes!" it reminded me that last year Salon's own King Kaufman had compiled a very funny list of similar headlines that several media outlets had used in the aftermath of US speedskater Apolo Anton Ohno's Olympic performance in Torino. (For example, the San Francisco Chronicle came up with "OHNO—OH YES! No need to Apolo-gize for gold-bronze finish.")
Varsity Letters
February 20, 2007
March 7: Varsity Letters Reading Series
New York's Varsity Letters sports reading series, the event for erudite sports fans and book lovers, returns on March 7 at 8 p.m. At this free monthly event at a hip Lower East Side bar, hosted by Gelf's Carl Bialik, writers from six top sports websites will read from and talk about their work, and take questions.
Arts
February 19, 2007
Youth Literature is Filled with Scrotums
Susan Patron won the Newberry Medal—the highest honor in children's literature—for her new book The Higher Power of Lucky. According to the New York Times, though, the fact that Patron uses the word "scrotum" on the first page of Lucky has aroused the ire of children's librarians the country over. Never mind that Patron is only describing where a rattlesnake bit a dog (ouch!), elementary school bookkeepers don't want to have that word in their libraries. (Patron's explanation in the Times—"The word is just so delicious"—probably doesn't endear her any further to the pro-censorship crowd.) But if we're going to ban Lucky, here are a few other scrotalicious books for tweens and below that must go:
Sports
February 19, 2007
Tim Hardaway Disappoints Former Coach
As an assistant coach at University of Texas-El Paso in the 1980s, Rus Bradburd discovered and recruited Tim Hardaway—which was a major coup for the young coach and affords him a unique perspective to evaluate his former dribbling student's homophobic comments last week. Hardaway, reacting to news that former NBA player John Amaechi had come out as gay, told a Miami radio station, "I hate gay people." Bradburd told Gelf, "It was a major disappointment to have our hero appear to be a mean-spirited bully." Here's more from Bradburd, author of Paddy on the Hardwood: A Journey in Irish Hoops and an English instructor at New Mexico State:
Arts
February 16, 2007
The King and Queen of Meeting Cute
If you can't bear to watch the new romantic comedy Music and Lyrics starring Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore, know this: The inevitable love story starts as the leads Meet Cute when (I'm not making this up) replacement plant-waterer Barrymore starts singing words (lyrics) to a melody (music) played by former pop star Grant, who is conveniently suffering from a tragic case of writer's block. I'm capitalizing the phrase "Meet Cute" because that's how its popularizer Roger Ebert does it. (Although, unlike him, I refuse to use it as a noun.)
Media
February 13, 2007
It's a Pity about 'Uppity'
A new Salon piece on Barack Obama details his ascendance from a mediocre—and "smug"—politician to a bona fide celebrity. But an early version of the front-page teaser didn't use the word "smug." Instead, Obama was characterized as "uppity" (check out the screenshot at Daily Kos.) Plenty of readers were upset by the description, Salon quickly changed it, and Salon managing editor Jeanne Carstensen apologized profusely for what she called a "gaffe" in the comments. What's all the fuss about the word?
Sports
February 8, 2007
ESPN Wants You to Type 'g.a.y.'
ESPN.com recently introduced a commenting feature, and readers have responded by showering some articles with hundreds of comments. Yet readers can't use certain words that aren't verboten to espn.com writers. LZ Granderson wrote the word "gay" 15 times in his column about former NBA player John Amaechi's announcement that he is gay. Granderson also employed "anti-gay," "gaydar," and "Gaytopia." Yet ESPN.com readers who used the word "gay" in their response to the column found it was being replaced by "####"—not even the right number of # signs—and instead had to write "g.a.y.," "g-a-y," "g@y," and other variations to avoid the dreaded hash-mark treatment.
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