Friday, April 11, 2014

EW:  As a rather avid geocacher myself, I wholly endorse the inclusion of the word "geocache" as an official Scrabble word.  But not everyone's happy about it.  It's not a very useful word, not a very common word, and redundant to a couple of other forms already in the pipeline. But a social media campaign by geocachers (including yours truly) saw to it that the word won the day.

And some folks are troubled:  "I'm angry that my weird, nerdy hobby has been coopted by other people's weird, nerdy hobby."

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

STARCHILD: Chuck Klosterman with a brief (by his standards) essay appraising Kiss's career and justifying its induction into the Rock and Roll Non-Country Popular Music of the 1950s and Beyond Hall of Fame, based on the following standard for entry:
[T]here is at least one metric that makes sense to me: the sheer number of people who really care about an artist, demonstrated over time. This does not privilege the taste of an exclusive class of people who get to decide for everyone else, nor does it mechanically reflect a raw numeric census of anyone who once purchased an album or once attended a concert. I’m referring to the long-term accumulation of people who are exceptionally invested in a particular artist’s existence; essentially, I’m referring to the kind of people crazy enough to care whether a few musicians they’ve never met are inducted into a mythical society that serves no nonsymbolic purpose. Certainly, every major artist has a handful of fans who fit into this category. But some have way more. And if an artist’s career output fosters that kind of following on a mass scale for multiple generations, they’ve obviously done something right. They’ve created art that validates itself, and which doesn’t need to be validated by anyone else.... 
LET'S GO CRAZY, BROADWAY STYLE: Anne Hathaway and Jimmy Fallon go all Marnie Michaels and sing some hip-hop songs a la Broadway.
WARRIOR: Unfortunately, it's never shocking when a former professional wrestler dies young, but the circumstances of this one are poignant.

James Hellwig, who portrayed The Ultimate Warrior, has passed away at the age of 54, just a day after his return to the WWE for his Hall of Fame induction and a pair of typically gonzo speeches. Because there were so many rumors of Hellwig's death in the 1990s and replacement in the role, it's impossible not to have some suspicion that it's a work, but this seems legit, which reframes his words from Monday night into something both sad and prescient:
No WWE talent becomes a legend on their own. Every man's heart one day beats its final beat. His lungs breathe a final breath. And if what that man did in his life makes the blood pulse through the body of others, and makes them bleed deeper and something larger than life, then his essence, his spirit, will be immortalized. By the storytellers, by the loyalty, by the memory of those who honor him and make the running the man did live forever. 

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

TAKE IT TO THE LIMIT:  While driving back from trial in Pittsburgh yesterday (6h in the rain), I couldn't help but wonder: what is the matrix of cost v. driving time you use to decide when to drive vs. fly for a solo trip?
BLOCKED:  Dikembe Mutombo was on ESPN2 today, and specifically denied perhaps the most famous urban legend about him.
SAY NO MORE, MON AMOUR:Twitter and Facebook have reminded me that it's Rex Manning Day.  How are you celebrating? Don't be afraid to shock me, shock me, shock me with that deviant behavior.