October 22, 2010
Link-O-Rama
• You know what's even more "baller" than a Division II football player? A taser.
• Remember the "boom goes the dynamite!" kid from a few years ago? Well, his name is Brian Collins and now he's a news reporter for the local ABC affiliate in Alexandria, Minnesota.
• Esquire magazine named former Friday Night Lights star, current Parenthood guest star, and longtime Derek Jeter girlfriend Minka Kelly the "sexiest woman alive" for 2010.
• Based on this study, I should be a billionaire.
• Zooey Deschanel and Katy Perry are like a before-and-after comparison, but I'm not exactly sure for what.
• My favorite headline of the week: "Why did Kanye West replace his bottom row of teeth with diamonds?" Even better, his answer: "I just thought that diamonds were cooler." Obviously.
• One of the greatest and most underrated soul singers of all time, Solomon Burke, died last week at age 70.
• This story is why the Target Field crowd is better off if I watch most Twins games from home.
• Is this guy doesn't become a superstar, something is wrong with the world:
He looks eerily like a miniature Patton Oswalt.
• Ozzie Guillen's impression of David Ortiz trying to bunt for a hit is pretty great.
• When it comes to White Sox fans, sometimes the jokes write themselves.
• There's no shortage of great Randy Moss pictures, but none can top this beauty.
• Two weekends ago a phone call woke me Saturday morning and I was confused to hear a woman claiming to be "a reporter from the New York Post." Intrigued but still groggy, I checked my e-mail and found several messages from the same person offering $200 for "a freelancer to go out to a house in Eden Prairie and interview someone today." I'm not a reporter and barely leave my own house, so I replied with a simple "no thanks."
It turns out, as David Brauer of MinnPost found by doing a bit more digging, the New York Post was looking for someone to basically go ring the doorbell at Brett Favre's house while he was in New York to play the Jets. Apparently their goal was to get his wife involved and turn that into a story, which is just about the grossest possible thing someone could pay you $200 to do on a Saturday morning. Perhaps that was covered in journalism school after I dropped out.
• I'd be thrilled if marijuana saved the newspaper industry.
• On a related note, that's a whole lot of pot.
• Despite using exclusively laptops for a decade I've somehow managed to avoid "toasted leg syndrome." Clearly, like Robert Neville in a great book turned disappointing film, I am immune.
• I just hope they had an open bar at the reception.
• Jessica Alba is back on the Official Fantasy Girl of AG.com radar.
• Speaking of Alba, this is a slippery slope that ends with a lot of disappointed perverts.
• This video of Hakeem Olajuwon tutoring Dwight Howard is a must-watch for NBA fans:
After watching it I'm convinced Olajuwon a) would be an amazing coach, and b) could probably still give some team 10 solid minutes off the bench at age 47.
• Roy Oswalt might be even better at photo-bombing than he is at pitching.
• Mariano Rivera's unique greatness, as shown by heat maps.
• Jon Heyman of SI.com blocked my Hardball Talk colleague Craig Calcaterra from following him on Twitter a while back, so I'm endlessly amused that a TBD.com post on social networking "tearing friends apart" included this excerpt:
The snub came months after Heyman called Calcaterra at home to discuss criticism Calcaterra had made of Heyman. Calcaterra says the call "ended civilly enough" but then came the Twitter block, a move that "far more offended" him than the phone call. "It's just so passive aggressive," he says.
Heyman confirms the block, saying that Calcaterra wrote numerous negative posts about him and he didn't want his tweets to provide further fodder. "I guess it's flattering, but I wasn't flattered," he says. Calcaterra says he's "moved on," but the incident made him question "odd interpersonal relationships" social networking sites encourage.
Heh.
• This is what many non-New Yorkers picture when they think of Yankees fans.
• Now that I've got a floor plan, it's probably time to remodel the AG.com home office.
• Professional poker player Nick Schulman was recently the subject on MTV's day-in-the-life style documentary show World of Jenks and my fellow degenerates will enjoy the episode.
• Baseball America's scouting report on a 21-year-old Roy Halladay was right on the money.
• Here's an interesting interview with one of my favorite podcasters, Marc Maron.
• Here are some highlights from my NBCSports.com blogging this week:
- Zack Greinke can block a trade to 15 teams in 2011
- And a rookie shall lead them: Buster Posey carries Giants to brink of World Series
- Giants embracing the power of Aubrey Huff's "rally thong"
- Tigers sign Brandon Inge to two-year, $11.5 million deal with option for 2013
- Mariners’ new manager has an ugly history with Milton Bradley
- Rangers acquired Neftali Feliz and Elvis Andrus by trading Mark Teixeira in 2007
- Red Sox owner John Henry buys Liverpool soccer team for $476 million
- Ted Lilly’s three-year deal with Dodgers worth $33 million
- Tony La Russa will return as Cardinals manager in 2011
• Finally, in honor of his passing away this week's AG.com-approved music video is Burke and The Blind Boys of Alabama singing "None Of Us Are Free":
