CURIOUS INDEX, 5/6/08
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Hey, we didn’t piss the shit out of him. Get your wonk on with our interview with Buzz Bissinger at the Sporting Blog. All pleasant, mind you: civil, polite, and discursive in that good way, which considering Buzz’s temper and our own tendency to be an irredeemable smartass is impressive, indeed. Ana Marie, just say you’re proud, lady, and we’ll stop sending all those letters. (We’re running out of our own blood to write them in, but how else will you know how much we care!?!?!?!)
LSU will make many top ten lists this offseason despite the loss of Ryan Perrilloux. Most of the publications have gone to press already, and fixing this would cost muh-nay like WHOA to fix. As fun as it is to put your chips on talent and let it ride, the list of losses for LSU is large, and that’s from a two-loss team, mind you: Glenn Dorsey, Perrilloux, Flynn, and the one that can be forgotten in all the hoopla over the Sixty Million Dollar man, their defensive coordinator Bo Pelini. It’s a transition year in Baton Rouge, even with the usual three-string deep mutant talent. Florida and Florida State both lose linebackers to “life:” Jerimy Finch for the Gators and Marcus Ball for FSU were both released from their scholarships on Monday and are free to transfer to other schools. Ball was one of the eight thousand Florida State players suspended from the Music City Bowl, so academic improprieties or sprained cerebrum may be a possibility. Finch also suffers from sprained cerebrum-type difficulties, but also has two kids back in his home state of Indiana, a likely school for his eventual landing. Fun note of happiness! FSU returns only one starting linebacker now. CAN YOU SAY PLAY-ACTION? SMQ sees Missouri and likes the fact that, for once, they have a defense and someone else besides a one-man extravaganza at quarterback. Chase Daniel, the 37 year old pizza deliveryman who made up the name in order to fulfill his dream of returning to college, ripping on the football field, and banging hot chicks, could not agree more. Pec’d! A pec injury to Nate Longshore means Kevin Riley may have nabbed the starting job at Cal, a move surprising exactly no one who watched Riley lead the Bears back against Air Force. We’re in Florida this week taking a working vacation, which rules because you still write and work and stuff, but you do it from hotels where you can throw your towels on the floor and order ten dollar hamburgers from room service. You can also get the St. Pete Times, America’s finest damn mid-sized newspaper, where actual reportage sits side by side with lists of the top ten worst beers ever. 1. Busch NA Non-alcoholic beers are bad by nature. Remove alcohol, remove flavor. But Busch NA seems to have gotten around the alcohol part of the beer by steeping corn husks in seltzer water to make a tea that Andrew Zimmern wouldn’t drink. They all wither at the awesome, wrath-of-god flavor profile of Taiwan Beer, a heady blend of green peas, formadehyde, and a hint of phenol in there. Throw in a lingering flatness and lack of froth or bubble, and it crosses the line from tear-inducing horror to grandeur. |
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25
@11
Katy, here ya go. Da nada.
http://www.everydayshouldbesaturday.com/2007/08/22/hero-for-our-time-marques-grand-marques-slocum/
Comment by hunglikehussain — May 6, 2008 @ 11:01 am
24
Actually, if they both flunked out, they could both be equally dumb.
Comment by now_a_hoo — May 6, 2008 @ 10:58 am
23
#18 - brain-fart of catastrophic proportions, but I’m willing to put it down to a rookie mistake in his first opportunity. Going forward, he’s still got to be better than Nate “Legs of Stone” Longshore.
and obviously…Yes. (Why couldn’t I have made a move when I was doing her tech support at National Geographic?)
Comment by Vandy J — May 6, 2008 @ 10:53 am
22
Reggie Ball! Yes, flunked out… once his eligibility expired. Coincidence?
Comment by UgasTexan — May 6, 2008 @ 10:28 am
21
Marcus Ball flunked out of FSU. His brother Reggie at least flunked out of GA Tech.
Therefore, and amazingly, Marcus is dumber than Reggie.
Comment by The Gentleman Masher — May 6, 2008 @ 10:20 am
20
Bissinger is a blowhard. Does he know that Spencer Hall, the respectful blogger he was talking to, is Orson Swindle who keeps a running tab on off-season violations of the law among college football players? Screw Buzz Bissinger. He’s angry because his little scam of job isn’t going to be viable moving forward. Leave the reporting to professionals, jackasses like him say. Yeah we did that and all we got was a vanilla media with a massive case of group-think and unbelievable bias. At least bloggers are honest about their biases.
He probably does have sex with horses. Mr. Bissinger, Secretariat is on line one, he says he can’t make it for dinner tonight.
Comment by Not Baghead — May 6, 2008 @ 10:17 am
19
Re #14: Right. But his opinion includes the view that others shouldn’t be allowed to express theirs without meeting some sort of standards set by . . . .
Well, that last part is unclear; it’s either the Columbia Journalism Review, Buzz, some government board, or David Hasselhoff, but what it is NOT is the “marketplace of ideas.”
Comment by DevilGrad — May 6, 2008 @ 10:06 am
18
Cal’s Kevin Riley…the same numb-nut that tried a 12 yard scramble to the endzone vs. OSU…with 14 seconds left…when you’re down by 3…with no timeouts.
Yep. Logical choice there.
Comment by Aerobab — May 6, 2008 @ 10:02 am
17
Ana Marie Cox-Hot enough for me to forget about the semi-shitty tattoos on her arms.
Comment by robert — May 6, 2008 @ 9:47 am
16
Last year we lost four 1st round draft picks (including Russell) and still won a NC. So although I am a bit concerned with losing the sixty million dollar man, we have enough talent around our Harvard transfer QB to make a little noise.
Comment by Tony the Tiger — May 6, 2008 @ 9:38 am
15
Wow. An entire interview about blogs and he didn’t scream “oh, come on my ass!” even once. I guess he HAS changed his viewpoint a little.
Comment by NativeSon — May 6, 2008 @ 9:37 am
14
Why for the love of Ron Paul does the First Amendment keep getting thrown into the fray? The government isn’t trying to censor anyone. While Bissinger comes accross as a prick, he’s only expressing his opinion in the marketplace of ideas.
Comment by JeffAU — May 6, 2008 @ 9:35 am
13
….also, in the middle there, I’m pretty sure he calls you Neely O’Hara.
Comment by Holly — May 6, 2008 @ 9:32 am
12
I’m missing something; who is Ana Marie?
Bissinger: sloping forehead, pronounced supraorbital ridges. Recent studies of mitochondiral dna show that neanderthal and homo sapiens populations mixed. How’s that for a nasty bloggish comment?
Comment by OhioDawg — May 6, 2008 @ 9:31 am
11
Hey - will somebody link me to the original “Fuck Lion” post? I gots somebody who wants to read it, and I’m too lazy to go look for it. Gracias.
Comment by Katy — May 6, 2008 @ 9:31 am
10
What DevilGrad said.
And while Bissinger certainly struck a more conciliatory, reasonable tone in your interview than he did with Will Leitch, he still doesn’t seem to grasp something very basic about living in American society: If he’s really “not interested in other people’s opinions,” as he claimed over and over, then a) he should just ignore them instead of getting worked up into an elitist lather over it, and b) he shouldn’t be surprised if other folks out there in the Great Unwashed aren’t interested in his opinions, either.
Comment by Doug — May 6, 2008 @ 9:02 am
9
Great interview. Bissinger appears to be a cross between condescending towards his potential readers. I wonder if he realized the intellectual superior who interviewed him. I have to agree with DevilGrad, his contrition is related to his agent telling him that he alienated his audience and future sales are in jeopardy. Luckily, like him, I think his opinion doesn’t matter.
Comment by Crabapple Buck — May 6, 2008 @ 9:00 am
8
Did I just spot a statement that the football mags “have gone to press” or something like that? Happy day!
When is Phil putting his badass 7-font type out? Get on that!
Comment by Heath — May 6, 2008 @ 8:54 am
7
More seriously, Bissinger seems to hold an incredibly romanticized view of newspapers. Your average, mid-market daily is unvarnished, unmitigated dreck — and has been so for at least the past 25 years. And many, many more people read Page Six in the New York Post than have ever picked up one of his investigative pieces, whether at the Inky or in Vanity Fair. People outsells the New Yorker by orders of magnitude — just as in the “good old days” millions more folks read Life than the serious journalistic or literary mags.
Will Leitch provides Page Six for the sports blogosphere, and lots of people like that. Bissinger’s real problem is that 95% of American readers aren’t as intellectual as he would like them to be, and the First Amendment protects stupid speech, too.
Comment by DevilGrad — May 6, 2008 @ 8:46 am
6
Your article on Buzz highlights your grace and intelligence. Buzz’s comments are thoughtful but at the end I think Buzz’s seriousness makes him rather frumpish. Your original point that your blog is a specious frolic with the societial value of adding wildflowers to the journey still stands. I see how you took me to that conclusion without asking him directly. Well done sir.
Comment by Pirate's Mate — May 6, 2008 @ 8:30 am
5
I gather that the Bissinger Blogosphere Contrition Tour is in full swing. (Motto: “Oh shit! I just pissed off all the people most likely to drop $29.95 on my next book.”)
Comment by DevilGrad — May 6, 2008 @ 8:26 am
4
Bissinger: “I guess I don’t get the humor in someone f*$#(@# a horse. Maybe I’m just to close to the subject matter. ”
Indeed, sir. Great interview, by the way.
Comment by RaginCajunRebel — May 6, 2008 @ 8:22 am
3
favicon.ico and wonk’esque wonktacularness? the curious index reeks of legitimacy this morning, what gives?
Comment by WorstFan — May 6, 2008 @ 8:12 am
2
The St. Pete Times really is a good newspaper for the size of the market, but when I was home last month I got a kick out of the ads in the newspaper…they take their retiree demographic very seriously. I’ve never seen so many ads for nursing homes, walkers, etc…
Comment by baconboy — May 6, 2008 @ 7:59 am
1
Ana Marie holds a truth in her eyes that speaks through my screen…I’m still trying to hear a positive comment, but hope springs eternal…
Losing Finch sucks…hard.
Comment by sb — May 6, 2008 @ 7:56 am