Fans of “autophysiopsychic music,” which most of us call “jazz”, are mourning the loss of Yusef Lateef.
As a New York Giants fan, I agree with Antrel Rolle that “This probowl s___ is a joke.” Rolle had a great season, despite the poor play of most of his teammates.
Dan Savage tries to review Sarah Palin’s new book, Good Tidings and Great Joy: Protecting the Heart of Christmas, while baking Christmas cookies. He doesn’t make it past the introduction.
driftglass imagines a post-apocalyptic future in which virtually all evidence of our present era has been destroyed and historians debate whether or not David Brooks was a real person.
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal needs a court-ordered crash course in the meaning of the First Amendment. The future of the country depends upon it.
Four Americans were briefly held hostage in Libya by the Ministry of the Interior. I don’t think this is what we envisioned when we liberated the country from the tyranny of Moammar Gaddafi.
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Palin’s book is entitled “Good Tidings and Great Joy,” and yet the Bible verse (Luke 2:10) says the angel brought the shepherds “good tidings of great joy”. Why is Palin rewriting the Bible?
well, if you think about it, her title should have a typographical error. Right?
Good one, BooMan. Yes, Mooselini is a grammatical, cultural and historical illiterate, writing to the large marketplace of fellow illiterates. The publisher must have said “Perfect!” when they received the title pitch. Or, more likely, they asked the ghostwriter for that title and, just as perfectly, knew that their useful idiot ex-half-term Governor would say, “Great!”
Re. Rolle, yes, it’s been patently obvious for a while now that players performing at high levels are screwed over by the current method of selecting Pro Bowlers. But, hell, none of these awards are accurate signifiers of quality. It’s like complaining retrospectively about the Academy Award selections. Of course they don’t age well; there’s tone of anti-quality motivations baked into that selection cake as well.
I’m a big baseball fan, and I used to care quite a bit about the Baseball Hall of Fame. There is nothing less interesting to me now. How will the BBWAA and the Veteran’s Committee deal with the live ball/Steroid Era players of recent decades? Who gives an everloving shit? Do I believe the writers will treat Bonds fairly, since despite much circumstantial evidence he was never found to have failed a drug test? No, and why should they? Barry treated the writers with contempt most of the time, and now they can get their petty revenge. So the only hitter to rival Ruth in terms of statistical dominance of his era, one who was also a better fielder, much better baserunner and more durable player, won’t be in the Hall. Hard to respect or care about such an institution.
As a New York Giants fan, I agree with Antrel Rolle that “This probowl s___ is a joke.” Rolle had a great season, despite the poor play of most of his teammates.
Well, the pro bowl has always had the problem of more known players getting more votes than they deserve based on past performances. While this is a general problem in sports, it is especially troublesome for the NFL on the offensive line and all of the defense where players mostly work in anonymity. A great example of this was Larry Allen – a HoF OL for Dallas who was certainly a worthy all-pro in his early career but was still being voted to the pro bowl (11 times in all) long after he’d fallen way down the ranking list. Because, of course, everyone had heard his name so often in glowing terms. Hell, if you put Jim Otto’s name on the pro bowl ballot I bet he’d get a lot of votes because of his rep as a great center and the fame around his name – nevermind that he played 50 years ago.
This year the most obvious example may be Troy Polamaru, who once was great but is now at best average. But still getting votes due to his fame from his shampoo commercials and unique last name, which in turn help people remember his spectacular safety play of years past.
But while Polamaru shouldn’t have been there, and probably one or two other safeties, there are other guys who should have been there ahead of Rolle. In addition to other players having better overall performances, Rolle’s play was not special during the 0-6 losing streak at the start of the season – and that has to factor into any rational pro bowl decision.