All a man's got is the integrity of his work
After my last, lengthy post, I am going to have a links only day, although I cannot promise to be light-hearted.
Black People Love Us! - A nice ironic parody website.
Caddy Hacks - Golf, the Ultimate Symbol of Republican Corruption - This is an interesting Slate article about the corrupting role of golf in today's Washington, particularly among the GOP. There is an interesting section about how Democrats are vilified for not loving NASCAR and hunting, which points out that most Republicans are the same, but are even more likely to succumb to countryclub elitism. (I like not being neutral.)
Not Just an Angry Black Man - This is a belated link, but an important one for me. On June 13, 2004, Ralph Wiley died at the age of 52. You probably didn't know who he was, and I can't say that I knew him personally, but he did touch my life each week. He was a writer for ESPN, covering several sports, but primarily basketball. Ironically, he died during the NBA finals. While Bill Simmons was always considered the posterboy for ESPN columnists, Ralph had his own niche. He usually wrote single topic articles that are argued a point, most often a point about the role of race in sports culture, but on many other topics as well. He wasn't as controversial as Hunter S. Thompson, also a writer for ESPN and also recently deceased, but to me he could always stir more emotions. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't that he wrote human interest stories, it was that he found the conflict in any situation, and he argued his side. I probably agreed with him barely over half the time, but I always read him. By the end of his life, out of all of the columnists from ESPN, I only bothered to read his and Bill's. The link leads to one of the better pieces written about Ralph in the week after his death. Someday, I hope to read Ralph's most successful book, "Why Black People Tend to Shout." (And for all of you Berkeley people, Ralph Wiley was close friends with Dr. Harry Edwards. Not having him as a professor is one of my biggest regrets from my days in school.) While he has done excellent work about Barry Bonds and others, if you read only one of Ralph's articles, read this one, White Magic in the NBA, his last column. In it he discusses the differences between Larry Brown and Phil Jackson, ultimately deciding that Larry Brown is the better coach of the two. I may never have been more angry with a column of his before, but I read it and paid attention, even if I disagree with nearly every element of his argument. You may also recognize the first sentence, "All a man's got is the integrity of his work." I have the phrase posted in my office and on this blog, and I have lived my life with it in mind ever since his death.
Comic Covers - This is just a simple link with comic book covers.
Black People Love Us! - A nice ironic parody website.
Caddy Hacks - Golf, the Ultimate Symbol of Republican Corruption - This is an interesting Slate article about the corrupting role of golf in today's Washington, particularly among the GOP. There is an interesting section about how Democrats are vilified for not loving NASCAR and hunting, which points out that most Republicans are the same, but are even more likely to succumb to countryclub elitism. (I like not being neutral.)
Not Just an Angry Black Man - This is a belated link, but an important one for me. On June 13, 2004, Ralph Wiley died at the age of 52. You probably didn't know who he was, and I can't say that I knew him personally, but he did touch my life each week. He was a writer for ESPN, covering several sports, but primarily basketball. Ironically, he died during the NBA finals. While Bill Simmons was always considered the posterboy for ESPN columnists, Ralph had his own niche. He usually wrote single topic articles that are argued a point, most often a point about the role of race in sports culture, but on many other topics as well. He wasn't as controversial as Hunter S. Thompson, also a writer for ESPN and also recently deceased, but to me he could always stir more emotions. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't that he wrote human interest stories, it was that he found the conflict in any situation, and he argued his side. I probably agreed with him barely over half the time, but I always read him. By the end of his life, out of all of the columnists from ESPN, I only bothered to read his and Bill's. The link leads to one of the better pieces written about Ralph in the week after his death. Someday, I hope to read Ralph's most successful book, "Why Black People Tend to Shout." (And for all of you Berkeley people, Ralph Wiley was close friends with Dr. Harry Edwards. Not having him as a professor is one of my biggest regrets from my days in school.) While he has done excellent work about Barry Bonds and others, if you read only one of Ralph's articles, read this one, White Magic in the NBA, his last column. In it he discusses the differences between Larry Brown and Phil Jackson, ultimately deciding that Larry Brown is the better coach of the two. I may never have been more angry with a column of his before, but I read it and paid attention, even if I disagree with nearly every element of his argument. You may also recognize the first sentence, "All a man's got is the integrity of his work." I have the phrase posted in my office and on this blog, and I have lived my life with it in mind ever since his death.
Comic Covers - This is just a simple link with comic book covers.
posted by Xryz - kingofallcosmos at
12:11 AM
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