Bill Simmons joins Twitter
After mocking it for a while Bill Simmons has broken down and joined Twitter. Man’s going all out too, 73 tweets and counting in only a couple days. Sportsguy33, follow the man.
Oh well. Whatever. Nevermind.
Microsoft Encarta no more
On the end of Microsoft Encarta. I remember this was a big deal to have when I was a kid. Pretty amazing to read about the pricing debates in a world with Wikipedia.
Cokie Roberts is worthless
Are there actually any people who find Cokie Roberts insightful? I’d love to meet them. Hard to have any sympathy for NPR’s budget woes considering they are paying this woman money.
Ferris Bueller as Fight Club
Well this theory (via) just about blew up my world:
My favorite thought-piece about Ferris Bueller is the “Fight Club” theory, in which Ferris Bueller, the person, is just a figment of Cameron’s imagination, like Tyler Durden, and Sloane is the girl Cameron secretly loves.
One day while he’s lying sick in bed, Cameron lets “Ferris” steal his father’s car and take the day off, and as Cameron wanders around the city, all of his interactions with Ferris and Sloane, and all the impossible hijinks, are all just played out in his head. This is part of the reason why the “three” characters can see so much of Chicago in less than one day — Cameron is alone, just imagining it all.
It isn’t until he destroys the front of the car in a fugue state does he finally get a grip and decide to confront his father, after which he imagines a final, impossible escape for Ferris and a storybook happy ending for Sloane (”He’s gonna marry me!”), the girl that Cameron knows he can never have.
Wow. Think about that for a little bit. There’s a PhD thesis in there some where.
Bill Simmons’ Trade Values
Having recently found myself with a lot of free time on my hands I thought I’d pump out a quick little research project. Inspired by the Wizards dismal season and thoughts of potential trades to shakeup the team (Jamison and our pick, if not first overall, for Bosh?) I thought I’d go back and make a pretty little spreadsheet showing Bill Simmons’ trade values from his annual column. I’m a Simmons fan and have always enjoyed the Trade Value column in particular so this was as much a labor of love as it was of boredom. In all 125 different players made the column at one point or another.
A couple of procedural notes:
- The spreadsheet covers all the Trade Value columns Bill has written while at ESPN, starting in 2001. Previous columns, written for his old site, I couldn’t find (other then 2 mentions in the 2001 edition) despite combing through the Wayback Machine (though I did snag the lovely photo at the top). Love to add those to the spreadsheet if anyone has a copy.
- The “Honorable Mentions” (marked in yellow) on the chart are the people Bill lists as “toughest to omit” at the start of each column.
- The “retired” notations are some what subjective. Some guys hadn’t officially retired but didn’t play again.
- The 2007 trade value column had 50 spots, all the others had 40.
- Bill doesn’t write these columns at the same time each year, which can make things a little confusing. For instance, between the 2006 and 2007 columns a season and a half of basketball was played.
I think thats about it. Without further ado, here’s the spreadsheet:
I tried to be accurate but if you see any mistakes holla at me.
Not how you want a review of your book to end
This NY Times book review (via) is pretty brutal. Not liking a book is fine, negative reviews happen, but do you really have to say this?
Chesa Boudin seems like a genial guy with a bright future stretching far ahead of him. If “Gringo” is any indication, that future should not include committing sentences to paper with the intention of distributing them widely.
Yikes. Book was so bad the guy shouldn’t even write anymore? Sounds like the Gigli of books or something, almost makes me want to read it just to see for myself.
Will Ferrell and Bear Grylls drink urine
You ever wonder to yourself “Hmm, I wonder how Will Ferrell would do on an episode of Man vs. WIld?” Well guess what, you are about to find out. Will Ferrell is joining Bear Grylss in Sweden as part of a movie promotion tour. And from the description it sounds kinda epic:
In the “Man vs. Wild” episode, Ferrell joins Grylls in the far north of Sweden, where they spend 48 hours performing tasks such as rappelling down hundred-foot frozen waterfalls, tandem-abseiling off a helicopter and staying warm overnight in subzero temperatures.
The two also find food in the forest, improvise snow shoes and drink their own urine.
“Will did an amazing job in subzero, very unforgiving conditions,” Grylls said. “He trusted me when it mattered, and we survived. … He should be very proud of how he performed.”
Ferrell called the stint on “Man vs. Wild” “a thrill of a lifetime, even though I did get urine-drunk, which is sad.”
Sounds like must watch tv to me. I can think of no one I’d like to see “urine-drunk” more then Will Ferrell.
Senator Webb is one of a kind
From Ana Marie Cox’s review of Senator Webb’s A Time To Fight:
By my tally, Mr. Webb is anti-immigration, anti-gun-control, pro-labor (he’s actually a card-carrying union member), antiwar, anti-affirmative-action (as applied to anyone but black people), pro-military (his prescription for reforming our justice system, he tells us, “derives from my service in the United States Marine Corps”), protectionist and—if you saw this coming, you’re a better analyst than I—adamantly in favor of the legalization of marijuana. If constituencies were based on ideology rather than geography, Mr. Webb’s would be rather small. Really, beyond the author himself, I can’t imagine who else it would include.
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