In case anyone hasn’t seen this, it is worth the 4 minute investment. Neat. What you would expect from Neatorama:
May 25, 2007
April 12, 2007
Joe Morgan is a great entertainer
I have changed my tune on Joe Morgan. I no longer Mute him and curse the set out. Now, I view him as entertainment and I listen for just the sheer, breathtaking stupidity that has now really made the Sunday night game special for me.
And it’s apparently not only me. Check out this excerpt re Josh Hamilton. This kind of rockheadedness still exists out there in the wild.
From the Yahoo fantasy column By Jeff Erickson and Christopher Liss:
Both Joe Morgan and Steve Phillips talked about how Hamilton “needs to pay his dues” and “earn” the major league spot at the minor league level, and not leapfrog other guys who might not have the same talent but have put in their time. Putting aside the ignorance of the Rule 5 proviso (especially on Morgan’s part), this is unseemly from a couple of other angles. They’re suggesting that building baseball teams shouldn’t be a meritocracy, but rather like the tenure system, where one is promoted on the basis of time put in. I can’t imagine making a decision on a dumber basis. The other side is that while both pay lip service to wanting Hamilton to get his life together, they don’t “really” want that – they want Hamilton to be punished above and beyond the suspensions he already served.
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Addendum:
In the interest of journalistic integrity (unlike Rather), below is a photo of the man who managed the Boston Red Sox AND went by the name of “Joe Morgan” (Left).
If I recall correctly, his catchphrase was, “Six Two and Even…[blah, blah, blah]“
I always (well, not always) wondered just where in the heck that phrase came from. I mean it was just so durned goofy. I had never heard of it. Not even from my parents, who’s speech is peppered with Depression-Era expressions. Then one day I rented either “The Maltese Falcon” or “The Big Sleep” with Humphrey Bogart, and in it, Bogey says something like, “Six Two and Even they shoot this mug”… or something of that nature. But that was it. It came from that era, or from that film perhaps. BTW, both of those films must be seen. Amazing Film Noir. Mega-classics. I defy anyone to watch “The Big Sleep” all the way through with no stops or rewinds and explain the twists. You can’t do it. And there are some hilariously, over-the-top moments in them as well. Pulling out the whiskey bottle to drink with the shopkeep in the bookstore is among the most silly scenes in any movie.
This Joe Morgan was a nice and guy and I suppose that our currently vexing Joe Morgan is too, but he won’t take a breath and let me find that out. One game my wife and I play with Morgan is to pick up the “catchphrase” of the minute with him and then hold up fingers for each repetition of it in succession. If you do it deftly, you can rack up 4 or even 5 fingers very quickly. That’s like a Masters Degree in Joe Morgan. –fog
February 1, 2007
Dark Side of Oz
This may be old news to some. I had read of this at least 5 years ago but recently came across a site (linked above) devoted to it. I am almost proud to say that I have never done it or even thought about it but I want to throw it out to the readers, as we have a (ahem) “mix” of readers here at The Pinetar Rag and someone may know something. Has anyone done this? Results? Just random coincidences? It sounds like someone had a lot of time on their hands and it shouldn’t be a big deal but it just continues to have legs so I wonder. This website even offers presynched DVD’s (Copyright, anyone?) of Wizard set to Dark Side (if anyone has one, can you burn one for me?)
I once bought a 4 movie boxed set on ebay for the original, silent, Wizard of Oz. I never knew the original story was a long series (of books, I think) and so I picked them up for like 5 bucks. They were beyond bad. Unwatchable and didn’t even really make sense actually.
My favorite Wizard of Oz myths are that Buddy Ebsen got the part for the Tin Man but was allergic to the silver makeup. And I shudder to think of what that stuff was. Hey, in 1939, they’d have coated you in asbestos to get a shot, I’m pretty sure it was a good break for Buddy.
These and other myths, especially the ones that people embarrassingly forward out in mass emails, are all explained, verified and or debunked beautifully on the website snopes dot com, which is linked in the blogroll at right top. If you haven’t been to this site, you probably should hit it, especially if you’re an email forwarder of the “Microsoft will send you money for forwarding this to ten friends” variety.
The college myths are amazing too. I had personally heard several in my college days. The engineers didn’t figure the weight of the books and the library was sinking was heard all over University of Delaware (Snopes didn’t tackle the other UD library legend which was that the 3rd floor was a place George Michael would have frequented) .
I also recall hearing that the head janitor in our dorm complex was the head monkey in The Wizard of Oz and then was amazed to read that in the snopes college legend section. Yea, I bought that one and probably repeated it myself. Shame on me. –fog
January 22, 2007
“America’s Sweetheart” was Canadian!
About five years ago, I saw a piece on the History Channel on Mary Pickford. In it, they said that she was the first woman in the world to make a million dollars a year. (more…)
