gelflog

Coonass Controversy

David Goldenberg — 2007-02-02T08:46:03-05:00

As you may have heard by now, new Alabama football coach Nick Saban has gotten himself into a little bit of trouble after using the word "coonass" to refer to a man of Cajun heritage in an off-the-record but still-taped chat with Miami media (Deadspin). One of the reasons that the incident has aroused attention—even though the word appears to be on the lighter end of the slur spectrum— is because it (intentionally or not [Wikipedia]) combines the words "coon," which is a pretty derogatory term for black people, with "ass," which can also be a somewhat mean word. Confusion over the nature of the term has led to two separate government incidents in which a black person complained after misconstruing the nature of the insult.

In 1997, a jury awarded $120,000 to a black Department of Energy employee based in DC who brought a racial harassment suit against a Cajun DOE employee who gave her (and other white employees) an "Honorary Coon Ass" certificate to commemorate a training session he hosted in Texas. (You can read more about it here.)

In 1992, chief of Seattle's ferry system was docked two days pay after a black co-worker complained that he used the term "a real coon's ass" in a conversation. The chief was describing a Cajun friend from Louisiana.

While many Cajuns find the term to be derogatory, others have claimed it as their own. As James Carville said once on Crossfire, "I am not a redneck, I am a coon-ass. And damn proud to be a coon-ass."

The Sopranos' Wisdom About Barbaro

Carl Bialik — 2007-02-01T15:19:43-05:00

If you're inclined to react cynically to the grieving over the late Kentucky Derby champion Barbaro, you won't have much trouble. We eat meat, wear leather, use animal-tested health and beauty products—and mourn a horse? T. J. Simers said as much in the Los Angeles Times; so, too, did Barbaro, in a manner of speaking, as channeled by the Mighty MJD. But one oracle preceded them all: A late, fictional mobster.

The scene: The home of Ralph Cifaretto, a captain in Tony Soprano's crime organization. A horse they co-owned has died in a suspicious stable fire, and Tony is accusing Ralphie of setting the fire to cash in on a recently purchased insurance policy. Ralphie—in an episode that premiered three and a half years before Barbaro broke his leg at the Preakness—denies the charge but also says, basically, so what if I did?

Ralphie: "It's a fucking animal. It's a hundred grand apiece. My kid's in the fucking hospital. I don't hear you complaining when I bring you a nice fat envelope. You don't care where that comes from!" (It comes, of course, from human suffering, the mob's currency.) And more: "What are you, a vegetarian? You eat beef and sausage by the fucking carload." Tony, as if anticipating a popular line of Barbaro-lovers, retorts, "She was a beautiful, innocent creature. What'd she ever do to you?" He makes that retort as he's strangling Ralphie, so you might call it a rhetorical question. The boss, as always, gets the last word.

(Thanks to the tireless recappers at Television Without Pity for the quotes.)

Related in Gelf

•Frank DeFord would be very angry if Barabaro were eaten.

Grappling with Headlines

David Goldenberg — 2007-01-30T22:56:45-05:00

On the ESPN.com home page, there's a link to an Associated Press story about the Minnesota State High School League's decision to ban wrestling competitions and practices indefinitely after athletes from 10 different teams came down with herpes simplex Type 1, the type of herpes that is caused by skin-to-skin contact and causes cold sores. It's a bold move calculated to prevent infections that could lead to blindness, but it was ESPN's headline—"Grappling with Herpes"—that aroused the mirth of several message board posters and bloggers. ESPN isn't the first publication with a sense of humor about herpes and wrestling headlines.

Back in 1988, a study in the American Journal of Sports Medicine sported the same title and noted that 7.6% of college wrestlers tested positive for the disease. In a February 2004 article in Skin & Allergy News entitled "Grappling with herpes gladiatorum in wrestlers," Bruce Jancin wrote that the prophylactic use of valacyclovir could greatly reduce herpes outbreaks at intensive summer wrestling camps. A brief 2003 story in Pediatrics for Parents seconded the valacyclovir notion, but could only come up with the lame title, "Wrestling with Herpes."

Saving Silverman's Joke

Carl Bialik — 2007-01-30T20:04:35-05:00

With Sarah Silverman's Comedy Central show debuting Thursday, the PC-puncturing comic is getting shout-outs all over, including in a Slate article refuting Christopher Hitchens by asserting that women can, indeed, be funny. Slate author Laura Kipnis also demonstrated that women can bungle punchlines as well as men.

Paul Antonson

Kipnis initially wrote, "When Silverman takes on female abjection—most famously, 'I was raped by a doctor. Which is such a poignant experience for a Jewish girl'—the clichés are demolished, not upheld; the world as it was is turned on its ear." But Slate later ran a correction saying the article had quoted the joke "imprecisely," and changed it to "I was raped by a doctor. Which is so bittersweet for a Jewish girl."

That makes a lot more sense. Silverman's point—while perhaps not world-ear-turning—is to deflate the stereotype that Jewish women love male doctors by reducing it to absurdity. "Bittersweet" expresses the absurd ambiguity much better than "poignant" does. But even the corrected joke isn't yet in ideal form. "Bittersweet" is the surprise, and so it should be the last word, making the line end with its punch. A better version runs like this: "I was raped by my doctor, which for a Jewish girl is so bittersweet."

There are several different versions of the joke online, perhaps because Silverman doesn't always deliver it precisely the same way. (Her most-quoted delivery came in the film, Jesus Is Magic.) Each variation brings subtle differences, though none Gelf could find uses the word "poignant." A version of the joke on Gay.com —"I was raped by my doctor. Which is bittersweet for a Jewish girl"—lacks "so," which lessens the punch. The version in The Stranger—"I was raped by a doctor. Which is so bittersweet for a Jewish girl"—fails to specify that the doc was hers, which makes the act less shocking, and the denouement less funny.

The lesson here is that no single joke has just one version, and it often mutates in the act of repetition. And a further lesson of this exercise is that the surest way to ruin a joke is to explain it. (Naturally, there are many different versions of that old chestnut, too.)

Related in Gelf

•David Goldenberg on the resilience of jokes.

Between I-raq and a Hard Place

David Goldenberg — 2007-01-25T16:14:03-05:00

The next comedian to speak at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner in April has a hard act to follow. Last year, Stephen Colbert mocked the president to his face as many of the press in the audience sat stunned. (Whether Colbert "spoke truth to power" was the subject of a Gelf investigation.) This year's speaker is 69-year old impressionist Rich Little, who tells the New Yorker that his favorite young comedian is Robin Williams and that he won't even mention Iraq in his routine. But, he adds, he does have a biting laugh line about the war ready for other occasions: "George W. Bush here. I tell you, I'm between I-raq and a hard place."

Between Iraq and a Hard Place: A Brief History

In 1980, The Economist used the phrase for the title of a piece on the Iran-Iraq War's impact on the possible closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

In 1987, a prescient piece in Time of the same title warns that if Kuwait were invaded, it might be relying on the US to bail it out.

In 1990, the San Francisco Chronicle ran a similarly titled column from a distraught aunt as her nephew was shipped off to the Persian Gulf.

In 1998, a New York Post editorial of the same name blamed the Clinton administration for allowing Saddam to kick out weapons inspectors. Of the possibility of the use of American force in the future, the Post writes, "It's inevitable. Let's just hope it happens before Saddam is in a position to do injury to Americans."

In 2002, the Washington Post runs a piece by political satirist Art Buchwald (who died last week) that imagines a conversation between hawks and doves about the possibility of an American invasion. Here's a sample:

Doves: Suppose Saddam agrees to U.N. inspections. Do we still invade?
Hawks: That's up to the president. He still thinks his father should have done the dirty work during Desert Storm.
Doves: Why doesn't he say so?
Hawks: He can't because he plays golf with his father.

In 2003, The Capitol Steps use it for the title of one of their comedy albums.

In 2006, it becomes the title of a Martin Sheen-narrated documentary about the impact of the war on American troops.

It's a Man's World

David Goldenberg — 2007-01-24T16:38:07-05:00

Twelve years ago, Cosmo Kramer and Frank Costanza debated the relative merits of the terms "bro" and "manssiere" for a new male chest-support garment. While neither word wins out in that Seinfeld episode, these days manssiere would crush its competition. That's because "man" has become the in prefix for the hip crowd.

In The 40-Year Old Virgin, Paul Rudd manages to squeeze in the terms "mantastic" and "man o' lantern" into one unforgettable waxing scene. In this AOL clip, Jon Favreau claims that Vince Vaughn invented the term "mancation" for his post-Jennifer Aniston recovery in the movie The Break-Up. The term, which appears to be the new way to describe all-male vacations, has gone on to garner mentions in the Associated Press and USA Today. It has gone so far as to earn the wrath of the February issue of Maxim, which in a separate section describes the "mandal," which seems to be any sort of Birkenstock-type footwear worn with socks, as the lamest thing in the world.

Looking for more evidence that "man" is taking over our lexicon? Check out the newest McDonald's ad, which for some reason features a grown-up version of Ben Seaver of Growing Pains and describes a girl's group of guy friends as her "mantourage." Or simply take a stroll down the incredibly long "m" section of urbandictionary.com, where you'll learn definitions of everything from manstruation through manopause.

How mannoying.

Understanding Parity in the NFL

David Goldenberg — 2007-01-23T16:36:02-05:00

Gregg Easterbrook's Tuesday Morning Quarterback column over at ESPN.com tries to define parity, and fails miserably. He claims that the current idea of parity in the NFL is a myth because "supposedly parity is proven by an outbreak of close games." He goes on to show that there are no more close games now in the NFL than there ever have been. "Some earthshaking trend," he writes. But all that Easterbrook has done is to knock down a straw man of his own creation.

Easterbrook's main ammunition for his claim is a paragraph quoting Dick Vermeil in a recent New York Times article on field-goal kicking. Vermeil is quoted as saying, "with parity the win margins are closer than ever before" and Easterbrook uses that as the launching point for his diatribe. If he had read the rest of the article, though, he would have seen that the Times actually describes parity as something else entirely.

Here's the full Vermeil quote, with the writer's follow-up points:

“With parity, the win margins, the loss margins, are closer than ever before,” Vermeil said after rattling off an encyclopedia’s worth of kicking statistics. “The importance on the kicks is bigger than ever before.” Actually, that may just be the best argument against changing the rules. The age of parity may have had the effect of allowing bad teams to become good quickly, but, oddly, it has not made games closer. The average margin of victory since 1983 has ranged from 12.7 points in 1985 to 10.5 points in 1994, and there has been no perceptible trend, according to data from Aaron Schatz of footballoutsiders.com. In 2006, the typical game was decided by 11.4 points, he said.

In other words, Easterbrook takes credit for discrediting an already discredited argument, and then blames the original discreditor for giving merit to that same argument. (Got it?) But in his quest to show parity to be a myth, Easterbrook hardly acknowledges the article's most important point about parity—that it allows bad teams to become good quickly. Hence, for instance, the rapidly changing fortunes of the Saints, Ravens, Redskins, and Buccaneers from last season to this one.

When Easterbrook finally does get around to conceding that far fewer teams make the playoffs in successive seasons these days, he offers this rather unpersuasive comment: "More regular season games played and more wild-card slots offered should pretty neatly account for increased variation in who reaches the postseason, leaving the parity myth just that—a myth."

(If you're less interested in defining parity than seeing the definitive parody of TMQ, check out this piece at the hilarious blog Kissing Suzy Kolber.)

February 7: Varsity Letters Reading Series

Carl Bialik — 2007-01-22T15:10:00-05:00

New York's Varsity Letters sports reading series, the event for erudite sports fans and book lovers, returns on February 7. At this free monthly event at a hip Lower East Side bar, hosted by Gelf's Carl Bialik, three writers will read from their works, talk about them, and take questions.

Jack Cavanaugh will discuss his new biography of Gene Tunney, the brainy boxing champ whose intellect served him well both in and out of the boxing ring; Sports Illustrated's S.L. Price will talk about his book on baseball in Cuba, and his profile of Sportstman of the Year Dwyane Wade; and Katie Hnida, the first female player in major college football, will discuss her new autobiography. Gelf's David Goldenberg recently interviewed Hnida about her book, and Gelf plans to publish interviews with Cavanaugh and Price before the event, as well, so check back here to read more about next month's authors.

Admission is FREE. Please spread the word to sports fans and book lovers. Event details below.

This month's authors:

Jack Cavanaugh, author of Tunney: Boxing's Brainiest Champ and His Upset of the Great Jack Dempsey [Amazon]

Katie Hnida, author of Still Kicking: My Dramatic Journey As the First Woman to Play Division One College Football [Amazon]

S.L. Price, author of Pitching Around Fidel: A Journey into the Heart of Cuban Sports [Amazon] and dozens of articles for Sports Illustrated, including the article last December naming Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade the magazine's Sportsman of the Year.

Event Details:

Happy Ending Lounge (official site, CitySearch, MySpace)
302 Broome St.
(between Forsyth and Eldridge)
212-334-9676
J/M/Z/F to Delancey
B/D to Grand Street
Look for the hot-pink awning with the words "Health Club" on it.

Doors open at 7:30.
Readings start at 8 sharp.
FREE!

Copies of the books will be available for sale, courtesy Mobile Libris.

Questions? Suggestions for future readings? Email varsityletters@gmail.com

Also, see interviews with the authors from our Jan. 3 reading. And save March 7 on your calendar. Online Writers, Offline: Bloggers Henry Abbott (True Hoop), Jason Fry & Greg Prince (Faith and Fear in Flushing), Will Leitch (Deadspin), Dan Shanoff, and Matt Ufford (With Leather).

Varsity Letters is on MySpace.

Are You Ready For Some Football ... Columns?

David Goldenberg — 2007-01-19T19:44:58-05:00

This weekend, the Colts and the Patriots are playing for a spot in the Super Bowl, and the game has been discussed to such an extent that not only has Manning-Brady fatigue set in, but there's been enough time for ESPN.com's Sports Guy to whine about that fatigue. He might well be most upset with a mocking fill-in-the-blank column penned by fellow ESPNer Patrick Hruby, who calls out fellow journalists (including Simmons) for their predictable hyperbole when it comes to this particular matchup.

The best part of Hruby's fake article, though, is the footnote to his first sentence ("Are you ready for some football?") In the related footnote, he writes, "In the industry, this is known as a lede, a short, attention-grabbing phrase intended to pull readers into a story—much like Britney Spears exiting a limo, sans underpants. Asking a question is a simple, time-honored and exceedingly lazy way of engaging readers with a lede; the specific question in hand is also a pop-culture reference (see footnote 34) and a catchphrase, (see footnote 34) as well as a cross-promotion for 'Monday Night Football,' now an ESPN broadcast property."

In spite of this (or perhaps as a result of it), the Bocephus-inspired phrase has also graced the start of several recent, real articles. A sampling:

The Desert Sun, Jan. 13
Are you ready for some football? This is the best weekend of the year with NFL playoff doubleheaders on both Saturday and Sunday. There are no surprises in the lineup. These are the real heavyweights clashing for the right to move on. There may be an upset of two, but I seriously doubt there will be any boring games.

The Gainesville Sun, Jan. 7
Are you ready for some football? Or how about some hard-core lobbying? For University of Florida President Bernie Machen, this week will bring a touch of both. Machen will be cavorting with a host of lawmakers, including none other than U.S. Sen. John McCain, during his stay here for the BCS National Championship.

Promo Magazine, Jan. 1
Are you ready for some football? Brand marketers have been for months, but they're no longer thinking only of Super Bowl Sunday. Many have expanded from one-time stunts to season-long promotions.

Going Grade School

David Goldenberg — 2007-01-17T13:42:08-05:00

With less than half a quarter to play, the Patriots were in a jam. Down by eight points and sitting at fourth and five, their normally unflappable quarterback Tom Brady threw his third pick of the day, this time to Chargers safety Marlon McCree. But a great hit by Patriots receiver-and-sometimes-defensive-back Troy Brown jarred the ball loose, and the Patriots recovered the fumble and got a new set of downs. They went on to win, and sportswriters around the country got to talk about elementary strategy.

In particular, the strategy they got to discuss is that on fourth down, defensive players should never try to intercept a pass, but instead bat it down. Once the ball hits the turf, possession switches anyway, and without the inherent dangers of a live play and a defensive player in the unfamiliar position of holding the ball. As many writers put it, this is common knowledge in all levels of the sport:

Lawrence Eagle-Tribune
Only McCree didn’t listen to every coach presumably he’s ever had. He intercepted the pass instead of just knocking it down.

King Kaufman at Salon
The Chargers dropped passes, muffed punts, took incredibly inane, drive-sustaining 15-yard penalties and, finally, killingly, fumbled away an interception—of a fourth-down pass! That's right, a pass that should have been knocked down. Dropped intentionally. Kids playing pickup games know this.

TMQ at ESPN.com
In fact, in the fourth quarter Schottenheimer forgot something important that youth-league coaches reliably remember!…On fourth down it is the responsibility of the coaching staff to remind defenders not to intercept!

MIT Tech
A member of a Pee Wee team knows that on a fourth-down play, you knock the ball down rather than risk a fumble.

Village Soup
Defensive players are coached, at the peewee level, to knock down a fourth-down pass unless a sure touchdown is the only other option. By knocking the ball down you ensure the offense doesn’t catch the pass, and you guarantee your own team possession of the football.

McCree still insists that his decision to intercept was the right one. "I was trying to make a play, and any time I get the ball, I'm going to try to score," he said in the postgame press conference. But it seems that the outcome of that particular play will provide even more ammo for the proverbial Pee Wee coach and the journalists who write about him.

Come See the Film That Rocked the Box Office Despite Bad Reviews

Carl Bialik — 2007-01-14T19:33:27-05:00

In this week's edition of Blurb Racket—the Gelf feature in which we take a close look at those critic blurbs that are a fixture of ads for movies—see breakdowns of blurbs for Notes on a Scandal, Freedom Writers, Children of Men, and more. This week's Bogus Blurb of the Week comes in an ad for Night at the Museum:

Los Angeles Times: "A bona fide blockbuster!"
That's a line from a news article about Museum's box-office success. Kevin Crust's Times review offered little reason why the Ben Stiller vehicle should be a blockbuster. Crust says the "tedious family comedy" is composed mainly of a "series of sight gags and set pieces that wreak much havoc but little else." For passing off a box-office news article as a rave, this wins Gelf's Bogus Blurb of the Week award.

Kyle Williams, Loyal (and Distraught) Reader of Blogs

Carl Bialik — 2007-01-09T20:11:02-05:00

There's something about the contestants in last week's Rose Bowl that brings out the nastiest of imaginary blogging. After USC's rout, TV commentators predicted those mythical men of the typing machines would start calling for the ouster of Michigan coach Lloyd Carr (an overblown fear, as Deadspin pointed out). Now another questionable premise has gelled into media factiness, this one about USC offensive tackle Kyle Williams. Supposedly, the devoted blog reader was so devastated by the online writers' devastating critiques of his performance in UCLA's upset of the Trojans (three false starts) that he temporarily quit the team.

Chicago Sun-Times: [Williams] was so humiliated by bloggers and fans ripping him for jumping offside in the regular-season-ending loss to UCLA that he quit the team for a spell…

Los Angeles Times: Kyle Williams had heard enough from the nasty bloggers

Sports Illustrated: [Williams] was so crushed by his mistakes—and the criticism he received from bloggers and fans—that he abruptly left the team for a day.

Ventura County Star: Bloggers berated him. Fans jeered him. Students glared at him.

Putting aside for the moment whether any reporter attempted to determine whether Williams is a blog aficionado (what's his favorite RSS reader? What's his commenter handle on Deadspin?), Gelf failed to unearth any nasty blog posts. Somewhat ugly words were directed online at Williams—from the mainstream media:

ESPN.com: For as long as Trojans offensive tackles Sam Baker and Kyle Williams play, they will recall how they never imposed their will on Hickman and his fellow defensive end Bruce Davis.

Orange County Register: USC had so little faith in right tackle Kyle Williams, its first seven run plays went to the left side.

If only Williams had his own blog, he could tell us why he took that leave.

OSU Gets Meyer-ed in Gator Raid

David Goldenberg — 2007-01-09T18:47:01-05:00

Florida soundly beat Ohio State in the BCS title game, and it was up to the nation's legions of editors to turn the blowout into interesting copy for their sports-hungry readers. Since Gelf couldn't find anyone who went for the easy "Fall of Troy (Smith)" headline, perhaps feeling sorry for the latest Heisman winner-turned-goat, Gelf did some light reading to see what they did come up with:

Florida won. Its mascot is an alligator, thus so is the team:

Paul Antonson

Chompions
New York Daily News, Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, Knoxville News-Sentinel

or even better:

National Chomps
Denver Post, Fort Worth Star-Tribune

That Florida quarterback had a pretty good game. What was his name again? Leak. Right. Let's see what we can do with that:

Buckeyes 'D' springs Leak
Lake County News-Sun

Leak springs out quickly
Kansas City Star

Buckeyes spring a Leak
San Gabriel Valley Tribune

That Florida coach must have come up with a pretty sweet game plan. And he's got a name we can work with, too:

Urban Renewal
Slate, Los Angeles Daily News, New York Post, Philadelphia Daily News

Urban Legend
Kansas City Star, Miami Herald, Courier News
(What, no Urban Planning or Urban Sprawl?)

Cool. What else is Florida famous for? A sports drink:

Gator Raid
Houston Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Orange County Register, San Jose Mercury News, Sports Illustrated

Biting Dogs

David Goldenberg — 2007-01-03T15:52:09-05:00

On the same day that the St. Paul Pioneer Press came out with a strong defense of the mainstream media, the San Antonio Express-News was forced to explain that the most recent plagiarism scandal to hit that same group came from a journalist copying from Wikipedia, the user-generated, decentralized online encyclopedia which has its own troubles policing plagiarism in its online pages (Associated Press). It's what those in the business call a classic "man bites dog" story (a phrase Gelf didn't plagiarize from the Wikipedia entry).

The Pioneer Press states that as members of the mainstream media, "We must show readers our work—where our information comes from, so readers can evaluate it as we have. We should happily correct our mistakes and admit our failings and do better the next day."

Too bad that the Express-News acted like other publications have done when finding plagiarism or falsehoods in their pages: The paper did its best to expunge the evidence by deleting any copies of the offending articles on its site (here's the blank page where the column in question used to be). Luckily, Google cache is not subject to such embarrassment. Here's a look at the similarities between Wikipedia's Christmas entry and the article that cost Jacqueline Gonzalez her job at the Express-News.

Wikipedia: The prominence of Christmas Day increased gradually, only after Charlemagne was crowned on Christmas Day in 800.
Watchdog: The prominence of Christmas Day increased gradually after Charlemagne was crowned on Christmas Day in 800.

Wikipedia: The identification of the birthdate of Jesus did not at first inspire feasting or celebration.
Watchdog: The identification of the birth date of Jesus did not at first inspire feasting or celebration.

Wikipedia: A winter festival was traditionally the most popular festival of the year in many cultures, in part because there was less agricultural work to be done during the winter.
Watchdog: A winter festival was traditionally the most popular one of the year in many cultures.

Wikipedia: The prominence of Christmas in modern times may reflect the continuing influence of the winter festival tradition, including the following festivals: [Wikipedia goes on to list Saturnalia, Natalis Solis Invicti, and Yule]
Watchdog: The prominence of Christmas in modern times may reflect the continuing influence of the winter festival traditions, including the Romans' Saturnalia and Dies Natalis Solis Invicti and the Pagan Yule festival.

Wikipedia: Christmas was promoted in the east as part of the revival of Catholicism following the death of the pro-Arian Emperor Valens at the Battle of Adrianople in 378.
Watchdog: After the death of Emperor Valens at the Battle of Adrianople in 378, Christmas was promoted in the east as part of the revival of Catholicism.

Wikipedia: In her 1850 book "The First Christmas in New England", Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote a character who complained that the true meaning of Christmas was being lost in a shopping spree.
Watchdog: In her book "The First Christmas in New England," Harriet Beecher Stowe created a character who complained that the true meaning of Christmas was being lost in a shopping spree.

Wikipedia: Charles Dickens' book A Christmas Carol, published in 1843, played a major role in reinventing Christmas as a holiday emphasizing family, goodwill, and compassion over communal celebration and hedonistic excess.
Watchdog: Charles Dickens' book "A Christmas Carol," published in 1843, played a major role in reinventing Christmas as a holiday emphasizing family, good will and compassion over communal celebration and hedonistic excess.

Wikipedia: The importance of the economic impact of Christmas was reinforced in the 1930s when President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed moving the Thanksgiving holiday date to extend the Christmas shopping season and boost the economy during the Great Depression.
Watchdog: President Franklin D. Roosevelt reinforced the economic impact of Christmas in the 1930s when he proposed moving the Thanksgiving holiday to extend the Christmas shopping season and boost the economy during the Great Depression.

Wikipedia: Religious leaders protested this move, with a 1931 New York Times roundup of Christmas sermons showing the most common theme as the dangers of an increasingly commercial Christmas
Watchdog: Also in the 1930s, the New York Times listed a roundup of Christmas sermons mostly protesting the dangers of an increasingly commercial Christmas.

Gonzalez at least did a nice job in several places tightening the Wikipedia prose; she might want to spend her time off editing articles on the site.

Related in Gelf

•It can be ugly to see the journalism sausage get made.

Related on the web

•Wikipedia plagiarism ended another journalist's career a year ago, as mentioned on Slashdot.

Old Balls, New Coke

David Goldenberg — 2007-01-02T15:05:19-05:00

The NBA's foray into synthetic basketballs is over. The old leather ball is back. "There will be some initial getting used to," Grant Hill told the Washington Post, "but in two months, it will be old news, just like New Coke is old news." Hill—perhaps showing that he has a future in sportswriting—is onto something. The New Coke analogy pervaded many types of articles about the switch:

One-Liners

Associated Press
"The NBA's version of New Coke"

Adam Hofstetter on SI.com
"Basketball's version of New Coke"

USA Today
"The New Coke of athletic equipment"

Deseret Morning News
"Welcome to the sports equivalent of New Coke."

Los Angeles Times
"Will Spalding's ill-fated new NBA composite ball be remembered as this decade's New Coke?"

Comedians: Several articles mused on other short-lived or poorly-received products.

Fort Worth Star Telegram
"The NBA's much-maligned 'new' basketball…will follow the Edsel, the pet rock and New Coke into oblivion on New Year's Day."

Toronto Star
"[The new ball] apparently was the worst invention since New Coke or the Edsel."

Southern Utah Daily Spectrum
"Open up the storage closet where they put all the failed attempts at improving on the original and make room for the NBA synthetic ball that was introduced at the beginning of this season. While you're in there, move over that six-pack of 'New Coke.' Move the DVD of The Year Without a Santa Claus to a different shelf. Go ahead and put it with the CD of the band Queen touring with a new lead singer after Freddie Mercury died. What's this that fell off the shelf? Yo Adrienne, it's the collection of Rocky II through whatever number it's up to now."

Pooh-Poohers: Some focused on how both the new ball and New Coke could be considered huge flops.

The Globe & Mail
"The New Ball may not be the colossal blunder of the New Coke, but marketing experts predict it will nevertheless hurt sales for Spalding, and linger as a cautionary tale for others."

Boston Herald
"The controversy is not unlike when New Coke's introduction met with resistance, said Rich Krezwick, managing director of the Massachusetts Sports & Entertainment Commission and former CEO of TD Banknorth Garden. New Coke went down as one of the great product flops of all times."

Conspiracy Theorists: Most interestingly, some writers think that New Coke helped Coca-Cola in the long run—and the failed ball could do the same for the NBA or Spalding—by increasing demand for the original.

Fort Worth Star Telegram
"Like New Coke, however, the new ball has created much publicity for the NBA, so in a sense, it has been successful. When Coke Classic returned, it was more popular than ever. The same will be true for the leather ball, and that should help the NBA."

Fort Wayne Journal Gazette
"The final result was a positive one for Coca-Cola: The public believed that it had compelled the company’s management to reverse a bad decision, thereby generating a sense that Coca-Cola was responsive to its customers. More important, sales of the original Coca-Cola beverage increased because of all the positive publicity about its presumably wonderful taste. Ultimately, Spaulding [sic] may find that sales of its leather basketballs will increase because NBA players have voiced their preference for this product."

Vail Daily
"Does this remind anybody of 'New Coke?' Coca-Cola rolls out a new formula for its soft drink which makes everybody gag. Then the company brings out 'Coke Classic,' ditching the 'New Coke,' and Pepsi is left in the dust. It was brilliant marketing. Now the old, er, new basketball is better than ever, and everyone likes it. The NBA starts selling the 'classic' ball like crazy. David Stern is not dumb.

Related in Gelf

•Gelf talks to Mark Cuban about media coverage of the ball.