Thursday, May 31, 2001
Taking up the challenge...
to find bad sci-fi actors turned bad author, I give you Walter Koenig. The other part of m.a.d.'s challenge, to actually read them, I leave for heartier souls. From his list of accomplishments:
*Not to dredge up the whole X-Files topic again, but this is another show I'd rather watch. I never saw Mulder take on anything as bone-chilling as a sleestack.
Walter has written for the television series "Family, Powers of Mathew Starr", "Class of '65", "Land of the Lost"* and the "Star Trek" animated show.
This actor-writer has seen publication with the non-fiction "Chekov's Enterprise" and the satiric fantasy novel "Buck Alice and the Actor-Robot". He also created the three issues of the comic book story "Raver" published by Malibu Comics.
*Not to dredge up the whole X-Files topic again, but this is another show I'd rather watch. I never saw Mulder take on anything as bone-chilling as a sleestack.
Wednesday, May 30, 2001
Casey Martin
ESPN.com - Supreme Court upholds earlier Martin ruling
I wrote about this subject on my website (see the archives for end of June 2000) in support of Casey Martin being able to use a cart. I'm glad the Supreme Court ruled as they did. It may be the one thing they got right this year. Unfortunately, they arrived at the right ruling for the wrong reasons; Scalia and Thomas's dissenting opinion has some merit. What's going to happen now is every golfer with a "bad back" is going to want to ride a cart as well, which isn't what this was supposed to be about. I guess that the Court felt it had to deal with the terms of the ADA in order to base their opinion on something concrete ... it really should have been handled by the PGA and never gone to the courts. Seeing how their rules, designed to promote fairness, were falling short, they should have amended the rules to address cases like Martin's and considered how to prevent others from taking advantage of them over a year ago. It irks me how guys like Niklaus, Palmer, and Pate can say with a straight face that 'walking the course is part of the game' when they have a caddy carry their bags. Tell me it's part of the physical challenge when you tote your own clubs. Or, before you complain, consider whether you think it would be an advantage to come down with a debilitating circulatory ailment so you too could ride a cart. I don't think anyone would take that trade.
I wrote about this subject on my website (see the archives for end of June 2000) in support of Casey Martin being able to use a cart. I'm glad the Supreme Court ruled as they did. It may be the one thing they got right this year. Unfortunately, they arrived at the right ruling for the wrong reasons; Scalia and Thomas's dissenting opinion has some merit. What's going to happen now is every golfer with a "bad back" is going to want to ride a cart as well, which isn't what this was supposed to be about. I guess that the Court felt it had to deal with the terms of the ADA in order to base their opinion on something concrete ... it really should have been handled by the PGA and never gone to the courts. Seeing how their rules, designed to promote fairness, were falling short, they should have amended the rules to address cases like Martin's and considered how to prevent others from taking advantage of them over a year ago. It irks me how guys like Niklaus, Palmer, and Pate can say with a straight face that 'walking the course is part of the game' when they have a caddy carry their bags. Tell me it's part of the physical challenge when you tote your own clubs. Or, before you complain, consider whether you think it would be an advantage to come down with a debilitating circulatory ailment so you too could ride a cart. I don't think anyone would take that trade.
Saturday, May 26, 2001
Boston Public, it turns out, is a reality series ...
This story of two female student-teachers at a Maryland High School getting it on with with their students makes me even more bitter about my high school years. (Thanks to 3NA for the link and for cracking all the good jokes about the story already. Punks.)
Open Secrets
Salon.com News | Baseball boyfriend?
This story is still making the rounds. Kettman's article makes the case for there being a cultural vacuum into which a prominent male athelete ought to out himself into. (There's a prepositional pretzel for you.) He argues that it's only a matter of time before gays get their Jackie Robinson and that when it happens we're going to see how pervasive homophobia still is. Passages like the following make me think that the day may come soon:
This story is still making the rounds. Kettman's article makes the case for there being a cultural vacuum into which a prominent male athelete ought to out himself into. (There's a prepositional pretzel for you.) He argues that it's only a matter of time before gays get their Jackie Robinson and that when it happens we're going to see how pervasive homophobia still is. Passages like the following make me think that the day may come soon:
It's an open secret among sports insiders that there have been all-star-caliber gay athletes playing in each of the four major U.S. sports in recent years, including baseball. Lemon's article has inspired coast-to-coast guessing games about which rumored gay major leaguer is his supposed boyfriend. Working on the New Republic piece, I got a tip from a gay friend that a certain East Coast star -- maybe even Lemon's boyfriend, if his story is legit -- was a regular at a gay bar in town. A visit to the gay bar left little doubt that the story was true. The star's picture was on a ledge above the bar. Several people there had stories about the star that passed a beat writer's bullshit tests.The more this story makes gets ink, the harder it's going to be for players to keep their 'open secrets' secret.
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