the big, blank page

Open Letter to ESPN

nymble — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 22:08:26 +0000

Dear ESPN:
I love baseball. I pay attention to football, both pro and college. I enjoy hockey – mainly NHL, though college hockey has a grand tradition. I am passionate about NCAA basketball and accept the NBA.

But I want to see… I need to see…

World cup skiing
Word-class track and field
Acapulco cliff diving
Australian rules football
Soccer of any kind
Boxing of all kinds
Gaelic football
Ski jumping
The very first Hawaii Ironman Triathlon
All-Ireland hurling
And just about every other game and sport played on earth

In short, I miss ABC’s Wide World of Sports, Jim McKay, Howard Cosell and everything they brought to sport in America. While professional sports certainly make more money, the sports world has been diminished since the demise of this amazing, wonderful program. And a disservice has been done to athletes in every corner of our earth.

Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sport. The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. The human drama of athletic competition.

This is where we witnessed the Kentucky Derby and Eric Heiden skating at speeds no one saw before. Where we saw Greg LeMond battle up and over Alp D’Huez against Bernard Hinault – the Badger – in the Tour de France. Where Americans were first introduced to Irish hurling, Scandenavian cross country skiing and the Boston Marathon that was already the better part of a century old.

Please. Someone. Bring it all back.

Attention must be paid

nymble — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 04:38:18 +0000

To four fellows who understand that you can play acoustic instruments and still tear the roof off the dump.

There but for…

nymble — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 20:37:33 +0000

It was an absolutely beautiful day today. I was walking along crossing 57th St. on my way back to the office minding my own business when a man directed an “excuse me, sir” my way. Normally, being a hard-hearted New York City pedestrian, I would have walked along ignoring him. But for some reason, I leaned down to hear what this large fellow in a wheel chair had to say through the din of city noise surrounding us. “Can you please help me get across the street?” Initially, I thought this was just another pan handler, but I realized this man also had both arms severed at the elbows. I asked him to repeat his request. “Sure,” I said still thinking somewhere deep down this was some kind of scam. But the walk light changed, I pushed his chair across 3rd Avenue and back up through the curb cut onto the sidewalk. “There you are,” I said trying to find a place for him in the crowd. “Where would you like to be?” He just said thank you and told me he could take it from here. He turned his chair around backward and shuffled his way up the block. I waited another cycle of the light to cross back over to where I began feeling on one hand glad I helped another person out. But on the other hand, something more that I still can’t quite pin down. Hooray for me helping out another human being – big deal. I wondered what this man’s life was like. How he had to wait on the corner asking people for help getting across the street. And if he didn’t get it, he’d never get more than a block from where he was at any given time. Hundreds of people must have passed him before I responded to what he was asking. Clearly, he didn’t want anyone feeling sorry for him. He just wanted some help getting across the street.

Summer face

nymble — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 14:29:18 +0000

The annual phenomenon is upon us again. The first really warm weather hitting the city brings about new choices in wardrobe across the board, particularly among those of the female persuasion. The legs get bare, the fabrics get lighter and heads begin to turn.

But why is it that there are so many pretty outfits that are so much prettier than the girls wearing them? Is it the shapes? I think it has to be the shapes. The light, flouncy clothes allowing a hint of unfettered, natural body shape. All sorts of body types and sizes and so many of them look good at an angle. Tight, athletic builds. Slim, model-type builds. Healthy, rounder builds acting as hangers for loose, draped fashion. Feeling comfortable and not so worried about the shape hugging designs of fall and winter. The bare legs and strappy sandals show what you don’t see in cooler weather.

It’s certainly the shapes. The shapes you see and the shapes you only get a hint of. But why is it that the faces aren’t nearly as pretty as the shapes?

They walk with casual flair, but they look straight ahead with dead, shark eyes. Their features, by and large, are not antagonistic to the eye, but they force a fixed, stony stare – expression emitting “fuck you!” to the world. Faceless mannequins would be prettier. Are they under the delusion that putting on their best runway model scowl will make them look sexy?

Sadly, they don’t seem to realize their colorful, summer outfits smile on their own outshining the serious women wearing them.

If Sarah Palin fell in the woods… ?

nymble — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 00:07:58 +0000

Sarah Palin has been very visibly cavorting around the touristy history sites of the Eastern United States this week with a large part of the national media machine scurrying around behind her because she isn’t telling them where she’s going.

“I don’t think I owe anything to the mainstream media,” Palin said in an interview with Fox News’ Greta VanSusteren. “I think that it would be a mistake for me to become some kind of conventional politician and doing things the way that it’s always been done with the media, in terms of relationship with them. Tell them to come along, we’ll orchestrate this, we’ll script this, and we’ll basically write a story for you, media, about what we are doing every day.

Some in the media, predictably, are a bit twitterpated by this. A reality I find oddly confusing. I mean, she’s not a candidate for president. She’s not even a candidate for dogcatcher. She’s a tourist in a big bus with a big mouth. And she’s a hockey mom with a bit of celebrity.

She said in the same interview that she feels like she has no need to make the media aware of what her plans are.

“No, I want them to have to do a little bit of work on a tour like this, and that would include not necessarily telling them beforehand where every stop is going to be.”

I couldn’t agree more. She is merely a private citizen touring the country. Good for her. Why is the media covering something that is so obviously not news. Raising the very simple question…

What if Sarah Palin didn’t throw an event and nobody showed up?

The old time fat cats

nymble — Thu, 26 May 2011 11:20:20 +0000

In 1907, when the full weight of the U.S. economy was poised to collapse into a pile of smoldering ash, the great James Pierpont Morgan picked up a phone and made a few calls. He and a handful of his so called robber baron pals banded together to put their own skin in the game and keep the whole darned country afloat.

Now, there are plenty of criticisms I could have for ol JP, but if even the leftist of my friends looked at it objectively, they would admit that he saved this country’s bacon.

In addition, they might recognize that, while, there is no real modern equivalent to JP. There is no one in modern society with a sense of self interested generosity big enough to do that today.

I know, some of you will tell me this was a time before personal income tax and other such conditions that started to put an undue burden on the wealthy of the nation. But, it was also a time before federal bailout deals and too big to fail.

True there is virtually no one of ol JP’s scale any more. Still the truth remains, his modern equivalents are unwilling to step up for what’s right and necessary like he did at the beginning of the 20th century.

They’re all hanging around making money, and they all have plenty of self interest. But rather than let’s save my country, their rallying cry is “lower my taxes!!!” And that is unfortunate for all of us.

Personal perception

nymble — Mon, 23 May 2011 17:18:07 +0000

Just because you claim you are not a…

… bully

… bigot

… racist

… or anything else

… does not mean you are not one.

Arts and crafts

nymble — Thu, 12 May 2011 17:18:25 +0000

What Dave Bielanko said about songwriting really applies to fiction writing as well. Maybe even more so. It’s not a craft. It’s an art. You throw away a whole lot more than you ever keep to show the world. It ain’t heavy lifting, but it ain’t easy. Focus and time and skill meets talent and inspiration. And talent doesn’t mean a thing if you’re not writing. A lot. When it works, there is nothing better. When it doesn’t, which is most of the time, it can be physically painful.

No direct link to the post – it’s on this page listed under the heading “New Marah Single – “For Nothing” Thursday, 03 March 2011 15:13″

Humble suggestion #6:

nymble — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 14:36:45 +0000

Just because it’s ringing doesn’t mean you should drop everything to pick it up right now, wherever you might be. Call them back.

Best last line of all time

nymble — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 13:43:50 +0000

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.