Chris Herrington dissects the recent Iverson comments and discovers there IS an “I” in AI.
Month: November 2009
- Stacey Greenberg
- Kat Gordon with the Underground Bakery’s vintage mixer
Monday afternoon I received a Facebook message from Kat Gordon, owner of Muddy’s Bake Shop, inviting me to come see the new “Underground Bakery” which she just opened in Cooper Young. I am not one to say no to the prospect of free cupcakes.
- Larry Kuzniewski
- Allen Iverson: Butt getting sore.
I haven’t had a chance to weigh in on yesterday’s Allen Iverson eruption until now, though a couple of my favorite NBA writers — John Hollinger and Kelly Dwyer — had strong takes on the issue.
Iverson’s post-game public reaction to playing 18 minutes off the bench — “I had no problems (with the hamstring). I had a problem with my butt sitting on that bench for so long.” — was not a surprise, but was still preposterous.
Two specific reasons:
1. Even if his role were not in question and it were clearly established that he were going to be a starter, in his first game back from an injury after a dormant offseason and not a second of game experience with this team, Iverson was going to come off the bench and play limited minutes. It was inevitable that Iverson would complain about a bench role if the team tried to keep him there. But to complain about it after this game is an act of extreme self-absorption.
2. The comical “my butt hurts” quote has understandably gotten the attention. But I’m more bothered by this:
“If we’re winning games with me in that (reserve) role, I would be a (jerk) for fighting that,” Iverson said soon after pointing out: “I came off the bench and we still lost.”
Iverson cites this game as evidence that the team is better with him as a starter? Not only is this one game, but it’s his first game back from injury, it’s the second night of a back to back on the road, and the team lost in overtime. And this is somehow definitive proof of how he needs to be used and gives him license to be outwardly disruptive after the game?
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E-mail Accounts for MCS Students?
Memphis City Schools is going to start providing student e-mail accounts and message boards through a company called Gaggle.Net.
The first guinea pigs will be middle schoolers … John Branston is not sure this is a good idea.
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neko case
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young & invincible
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On Push Polls
- Mike McWherter
A local physician friend of ours reports having recently received a phone call from a pollster who began asking him about various Democratic candidates for governor. All seemed on the square until the pollster began asking a series of leading questions regarding one candidate in particular, Jackson businessman Mike McWherter.
The questions all took some such form as “Would you tend to look favorably on Mike McWherter, knowing he is…” The son of a former governor. Someone who knows business and how the banking system works. A pioneer in the field of green technology. Etc., etc., etc.
In short, the good doctor had been on the receiving end of a “push poll,” one designed more to influence answers than to solicit them. And candidate McWherter will not be the first nor the last to employ such polls in the 2010 election cycle.
McWherter may indeed be all of the fine things indicated by his pollster’s questions. But have your salt shaker ready to pour out a few grains when his or anybody else’s home-grown poll results are published.
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School Memory Books
Nowadays I suppose students remember their classmates by the oh-so-clever posts they write on their friends’ Facebook pages, or with Twitter “tweets” and other so-called “social networking” devices.
Things were different when I was growing up. We bought fancy little autograph books, and passed them around, collecting the signatures and sayings of our dearest friends. Sometimes these turn up at estate sales or on eBay, and I thought I’d share one with you because — well, that’s what I’m paid to do.
This much-worn little booklet was once owned by Robert Hugh Murphy, who was age 10 and in the fifth grade. I know this because he wrote it inside the book. A few of his friends wrote “Bloomfield, Missouri” at the top of their pages, so that tells you where the book came from. Now how it ended up in Memphis, I can’t say.
What’s interesting is that in a book whose cover is labeled “My Schooldays Autographs” you didn’t just collect autographs, but you gathered witty sayings from your classmates. Apparently everyone picked out a clever poem or phrase, memorized it as their own, and wrote that in every book they were handed; they didn’t stand there and try to think of something on the spot.
So here are a few of the inscriptions. You’ll notice a certain trend with some of them.
And yes, by our standards they are corny, but you bet they were the bee’s knees back in 1932, which is the date of most of these:
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Pearl Jam: 40
Following the triumph/debacle of my much-lauded/derided U2 Top 40 list, it seemed like a great/terrible idea to give some other band the brilliant/redonkulous list treatment. Up next: Pearl Jam. Why? Because I can.
I’ve chosen to implement a completely different strategy for determining my Pearl Jam list than my last one, however. With U2, I listened to every album for a refresher and then made my list after the fact. For Pearl Jam, I have listened to each album, in order, and ranked each song as they played. (To wit: “Once” was number-one on my list until I listened to “Alive,” and then it dropped to two, until I listened to “Why Go,” when it dropped to three, and so on.)
Pearl Jam recently released a new album, Backspacer. I haven’t listened to it yet, and it seemed mildly appropriate to work up a list based on everything that came before it. Consider this a snapshot of my Pearl Jam opinions the day before I buy their next.
A note about eligibility: Pearl Jam has something like an open-source relationship with their fans. They’re prolific and they release scads of material in non-traditional formats such as fan-club extras, soundtracks, tributes, EPs, singles, official bootlegs, etc. In light of this, I created a list that assumed no studio Pearl Jam song was off-limits. That’s not to say I’ve heard everything there is out there. But I made a fairly concerted effort to access as much as is commonly available. Many rarities were collected on the band’s Lost Dogs two-disker, and I highly recommend it to anybody who’s into Pearl Jam enough to still be reading the words I’m typing here.
I ruled ineligible all live versions, because I just ain’t got that kind of time on my hands. This is Knowledge Bowl season, yaknow.
Pearl Jam Top 40 Songs:
The Memphis City Council’s executive committee today sent an amendment to the city’s scrap metal ordinance down to full council today for its first reading.
The city first enacted a scrap metal ordinance in 2007. The ordinance requires dealers to tag and hold scrap metal for 10 days to give the police time to track down stolen material. To deter thieves from stealing metal from air conditioning units, vacant homes and buildings, or cars for quick money, sellers are not given cash immediately, but instead receive a voucher from the scrap metal dealer.
The proposed amendment includes a tag-and-hold provision for telephone wire and cable, copper tubing, metals that have owner identification on them, catalytic converters, chain-link fences, and railroad spikes.
“That covers all the metals that are normally stolen,” said council member Jim Strickland.