The post below and the heading/picture combo at left have more than a passing acquaintance with each other - viz: The Irrational, clause 1, sub-clause i. - but really, I just wanted to use the heading.
Chuck Klosterman's article at Grantland is a top read, but should be a must-read for any TV executive in Australia:
When it's come to sports, it's live ... or it's totally dead
Why is watching a prerecorded sporting event less pleasurable than watching the same game live?
It doesn't matter how much I sequester myself or how thrilling the event is — if I know the game has finished, it's difficult to sustain authentic interest in what I've recorded.
It is different when you support one of the teams in the recorded match. And here in Australia - especially Western Australia where the blackout has been an item of faith since at least 1987 when Wet Toast joined the then VFL - we have become inured to the concept of delayed telecasts by cynical Official Broadcasters all-too keen to bilk their viewers to maximise their revenue streams. What is undeniable, though, is that often on Friday Night Football I check the score at half time, then go to bed.
The Age unleashes its inner Olympian. Hats off, or given the circumcision, I mean circumstances, hats on to Caroline Overington.
"The Australian bid delivered big time."
~~ Mark Arbib, SEN
Keen to gauge a gender specific reaction as to whether new No.1 Lee Westwood will attract quite as much attention vis-a-vis the contradictory gender as his predecessor, I asked our secretary what she thought about the picture on the left.
The following is verbatim, to-the-letter and word-for-word:
TT: "Nik, what's the very first thing you think of when you look at this bloke?"
Nik: "He looks like a golfer."
Already had a gutful of the Commonwealth Games? Me, too:
You will be shocked, appalled AND quite outraged to learn that people around here have embraced Stephanie Rice's gay slur. Suddenly everyone* is saying "Suck on that faggots."
It has become a catch phrase.
* Everyone except me. As a pedagogue, role model and experienced blogger (eight years this Friday), I always set high standards with regard to respectable public discourse.
And now, a brilliant picture of a golfer sucking on a cigar:
Bet you didn't know Matthew Mitcham was gay. Not even when Matt waved to the camera after his last dive in 2008.
"Some of my best friends are straight."
Stephanie Rice's comments were offensive but she's not homophobic, says Matthew MitchamBut Mitcham, who is openly gay, wrote on Twitter that, while Rice's comments were thoughtless, "she luvs gays".
"I agree, it was offensive & very thoughtless, but being friends with her for 2yrs, I know she is not homophobic," Mitcham wrote.
I want you to know how sorry I am: tearful Rice
A tearful Stephanie Rice has made an emotional public apology over her homophobic slur on Twitter, saying she has learnt a huge lesson.
Will The Back Page have Jon Anderson on the panel next week for a good squirm? Were he a player the show would open with Gibbo dudgeon - "What the hell were you doing?" - followed by a professional apology, but would soon ease off to a series of jokes (possibly involving Billy Birmingham's Hedrovefastcarz).
Ando's a solid citizen, though, so I can't imagine he would swallow a PR pill:
Sports writer Jon Anderson to be charged with drink driving
HERALD Sun sports journalist Jon Anderson will be charged with drink driving and careless driving after smashing into a pizza shop.
Anderson, 53, was arrested by police after the incident at Domino's Pizza in High St, Malvern, about 7.30pm on Wednesday.
Police say the car, a Holden hatchback, was being manoeuvred in a carpark at the rear of the store when it accelerated through a roller door.
