Saturday, May 12, 2007

Pogonophobia


Pogonophobia is the fear of beards, and has nothing to do with this column.

I just wanted to raise everyone's attention to a very interesting interview with Dave Zirin, class of 1996 from The Harvard Of The Mississippi. Dave is an intelligent, well-reasoned and passionate sports writer who once pulled a fried chicken leg from the pocket of his jeans and ate it during a lecture. Via hearsay.

I read his book "What's My Name, Fool?" and passed it along to my father. The book was published by Reds. That's OK, my grandfather was once labelled a Red for defending labor unions. He was a Jew and he later became the chief historian of World War II for the US War Department, later the Department of Defense, soon the Ministry of Peace. What's my point? I've suffered too, that's my point.

No, no. I do disagree with some of his pre-programmed rhetoric ... e.g. honestly Dave, don't you think that if Mark "Juice" McGwire were about to bust Aaron's record there would be as much backlash as Bonds is experiencing? For me, it isn't the attitude (which I aspire to) or the race (some of my best friends are black) but the juice that makes me antipathetic towards the historic march.

But I think that D. Zirin is worth reading. More often than not, I find myself nodding to what I read from him. This interview is worth reading in its entirety. The rest of the website is interesting as well. Check out edgeofsports.com for more collisions in the intersection between sports and politics.

If you like Ali, America and Alliteration, you ought to check the current most known writer to emerge from THTM '96. I mean, Dave has a blurb on his book from Chuck D. I'm looking forward to Dave Zirin's new Muhammad Ali Handbook.

Thank you, and fuck off.

7 comments:

Badcock said...

Anthophobia = fear of flowers.

Did y'all remember Mothers' Day?

Garwood B. Jones said...

I assume you're using THTM as some sort of THE Ohio State University thing? What does it mean? I want to be in the know with the cool kids.

I remembered your mother on Mother's Day, if by 'remembered' you mean 'thought of while I jerked off.'

Badcock said...

#1 THTM is "The Harvard of The Mississippi" which my dear old alma mater has proclaimed itself. I use the acronym ironically.

#2 I didn't jerk off on Mother's Day. That's sick. Instead I went to an abortion clinic and made a fortune selling fetal burritos out the trunk of my car.

Muumuuman said...

Yuk.

Garwood B. Jones said...

Ahhh... thanks. The preferred method of informing your audience of your use of acronyms is to use the entire name once, with the acronym immediately following it in parentheses. Example shown below. No need to thank me.

...attention to a very interesting interview with Dave Zirin, class of 1996 from The Harvard Of The Mississippi (THTM). Dave is an intelligent, well-reasoned...

Badcock said...

Garwood, I did already use THTM in a previous column. At some point I have to limit how low we set the bar for paying attention. I remind you: read all of my clever columns closely for clarity and comprehension.

For example, re-read the post about coketits.

I'm just glad you stopped peppering your posts with "LOL."

Garwood B. Jones said...

LOL is so last year. I'm all about ROTFL.