They kerfuffled without me!

[shipperx]

So, I gather that there's been a kerfuffle, and I missed it.

Of course, JM inspiring wankage isn't exactly news (even when you'd think that these days there are a reduced number of opportunities for wank). Still, from looking at the residual wank, I'm guessing that JM experienced a moment with foot in mouth disease. I haven't found the quote or what it's about (and don't feel obliged to tell me. It's okay. I really don't have to know.) But I don't know whether to simply roll my eyes at the wanking, or stand in awe that people still find the energy to wank over JM. For one small man, he sure can inspire an impressive amount of controversy.

Anyway, personally, I've been distracted by a different kerfuffle -- the Alabama coaching controversy (Explanation, UofA fired the coach and is currently searching for a new coach elsewhere -- wackiness ensues with wild rumors, flame wars, and the media going berzerk.) I find myself in the curious position of having to agree with Paul Finebaum... again. (*shudder* Hate agreeing with Finebaum). Still, he was in the right of it in his recent column when he wrote:

[quote]"Who died and left the talking heads on ESPN in charge of the University of Alabama?

Unless you've been in a cave in recent days,

[Or aren't obsessed with football... or live outside of Alabama, North Carolina, and West Virginia]

...it has been difficult to miss the continual stream of one invective after another leveled at the Crimson Tide football program, mostly from people who have never stepped foot in Bryant-Denny Stadium and couldn't care less whether the program lives or dies.[...] However, listening to these people on ESPN, one would think Mal Moore was an al-Qaida section chief and the school's football program a secret training ground for terrorists.

Here is an example from one of ESPN's highest-paid radio hosts, Colin Cowherd: "The one everyone thinks is such a great job and I don't is Alabama. They have a bad athletic director, Bear Bryant's son is your boss. They have wacko delusional boosters, an absurd and unrealistic scrutiny, hyper-competitive environment ... What's good about that?"

Jim Rome, host of ESPN's "Rome is Burning" television show, said: "Maybe Alabama wouldn't be so quick to have fired Mike Shula if they knew that nobody in America who mattered would be willing to step in and replace him."

[...]These people make it sound like the school fired Shula after a 12-0 season and three SEC titles. How many times do we need to repeat that Shula was incompetent and if it hadn't been for his daddy's name, he couldn't have gotten a job on his own managing a 7-Eleven. Shula had one winning season in four years. Hello! [...] [UofA] has made countless mistakes over the years, but one of the best things it has done this year was to correct the blunder of hiring Shula. The school should be congratulated for that. The easy way out was to ignore the problems and watch the program slip deeper into the abyss. Instead, the school did the right thing, the intelligent thing, and is being attacked from one end of the sports world to another. [/quote]

Amen.

And screw you, ESPN. (Though they do seem to be easing off just a little, perhaps beginning to realize that they went WAY overboard last week. Or maybe they simply have something else to distract them with Michagan being upset over not being included in the championship game.)

Anyway, with a great deal of work keeping me busy, I haven't been online much and have simply listened to the radio and newspaper wankage over the coaching search (and still no coach in sight), so I missed JM wankage round 6,000,004.

On a slightly different subjects:

I still haven't finished my bathroom renovation.

I'm having to make a second try at designing a house for my sister (because the current design breaks the budget... like I told her that it would. She wouldn't believe me when I said she couldn't have everything she wanted and keep it within budget, but the contractor had better success in making clear to her that she can't have everything... unless she's willing to pay for it.

I've begun my noel_of_spike story, but god only knows when I will find the time to finish it. (But I'm determined to do so).

And, as far as TV goes:

* I can see the Peter/Claire shippers about to form. They do have a sweet chemistry.
* The 'hero' to die was the annoying pixie. Can't say that I'm sorry (and I do hope that it wasn't a fake out and she's really, most sincerely dead.
* Horned Rim Glasses Guy's flunkey didn't want to erase Claire's memory. I'm glad. For reasons unknown, I've been rooting for Horned Rimmed Glasses Guy's flunky (who apparently has the power to erase memories) to not be a bad guy.

Comments

[sp23.livejournal.com]

I read about the JM wankage on kellyhk's journal. I guess he was trying to be clever, but is too uneducated (or uncaring) to realize that "craven" means cowardly, and that Christians just might be offended by that. Personally, I don't know whether to be offended or just give up on Marsters as being too stupid to even care about any more.

As for Alabama, I don't care who they get for their coach as long as they keep their mitts off Rich Rodriguez. Although considering how West Virginia shot themselves in the foot (feet? *g*) this season, maybe we should let them take him. :)

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

At this point I can fairly safely say that no one has any idea who in the hell UofA is actually interviewing. Everyone and their brother has a source with their sister's husband's best friend who knows the janitor at Alabama who says coach X, Y, or Z has secretly already clinched the deal and no one is announcing it because... well, that's usually where the rumors go kerblooey.

I just hope we get a good coach, and I really can't cry crocodile tears for "poor mistreated" Mike Shula, who had every opportunity in the world to save his job by simply not blaming everyone in the world but himself for crappy play-calling, refusing to make any changes, and then whining about how he wasn't given enough time (They asked him what changes he was going to make to improve the craptacular offense and his response was to say he wouldn't change anything. This is the same offense that had one of the lowest rankings in the league for scoring once they were in the red zone). Shula got himself fired, so I can't bring myself to feel pity for him.

As far as actors and their comments...whatever happened to publicists? Seems that most of them are falling down on the job these days.

[denny-dc.livejournal.com]

I may be one for the Peter/Claire shippers club...oh, woe is me...but I agree, please let 'pixie' be no more...and poor JM...his mouth gets in the way (or was it his fingers on the keyboards) again...

[sp23.livejournal.com]

I think JM's publicist (does he even have one?) was out having tea with Gwyneth Paltrow's. *g*

[tnmisery.livejournal.com]

Ehhh, I think it was the Little Wank that Couldn't. Somebody, somewhere, said that "someone fucked up and let James near a keyboard". I'd say that sums it up really well.

Pixie Cut does indeed need to be really dead. Because we wish it so.
I've been rooting for Horned Rim Glasses Guy's flunky, too! I was just pleased as punch with him. Now they need to keep it up with him and the talking thing, although it may have been his enigmatic presence that reeled us in? Hmmmm...
Now that Claire's guy friend forgot everything, hell, I guess Peter/Claire isn't too far fetched. Except for the whole high school thing. I guess male mutants don't get the special "Old-ass vampire" exemption. :p

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I wonder if celebrities shouldn't be be considered the equivalent of minors, who shouldn't be responsible for themselves...

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Well, Peter doesn't seem to be 1/10th as old as Angel, so it's all good. >:)

[mary5958.livejournal.com]

Stuff like this is one of the main reasons I never really want to know anything about the actor/actress who portrays a character I like. There's always that chance he/she will say something/do something/believe something that annoys me and that might color my love of the character. So mostly I try to stay far, far away.

That's not to say I'm not occassionally curious! *snort*

I read about this one. Do I think it could be considered offensive? Yeah, mildly.

Am I upset? No.

So - will you be sending us pictures of your sister's house when it's done?

[shapinglight]

Re the JM thing - rolls eyes that anyone would actually be offended then wonders whether to be offended myself becuase he missed out my religion altogether.

[deborahw37.livejournal.com]

The message was playing with alliteration and stereotypes and the wank was ridiculous . Most people of all faiths and none , took the message in the spirit in which it was so obviously intended A few people were offended and the message was removed . A very few weren't happy with that and went right over the top but, you know what? Those people offend me far less than the " James should keep his mouth shut and look pretty" brigade. And now I'm going to shut up before I go on a rant ;)

[mlgm.livejournal.com]

One season certainly isn't enough to be sure,but I begin to believe of all the good things Barry Alvarez did for Wisconsin football, the rarest was to find his own successor and bow out when he did. As his first big hire as Athletic Director, Bielema is making Barry look like a genius.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I'm still trying to figure out where I can post .pdf when the plans are done, but I think house construction will probably mean there isn't a house until next fall/winter.

And from the pieces I've gathered, it sounds like JM pulled some Sorkin Studio 60 dialog which... don't you love it when they're all confused that it starts wank? Diplomacy. It's also an art.

[kitmarlowescot2.livejournal.com]

What did James acuattly put on his website?

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure. I never saw the original quote, just stuff about how whatever he had said and started some (small?) kerfuffle.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

There is something to be said for that. It's certainly been a problem for us.

ESPN is making it sound like "those crazy Alabama fans are just obsessed with winning" but they really aren't telling the truth about exactly how this has come about. Most of the firings have had not a darn thing to do with winning or losing (albeit, this firing does).

Dubose was fired because he had a sex scandal with a secretary and got us into a shit load of trouble with the NCAA. We had no choice but to fire him (even though he also managed to be a sucky coach). Still, it wasn't like "crazy Alabama fans fired him for not winning a national championship!" What else are you supposed to do with a coach who violates NCAA rules to the point that we ended with four freaking years of probation, and was the cause of several lawsuits?

We didn't fire Franchione at all. HE left when Texas A&M came a knocking offering him a big salary. He screwed US over, delaying signing the contract (and raise) we offered him. He's hated now, but only because he screwed us over because he was so consumed with negotiating a contract elsewhere that he didn't bother to coach his last two games. Still, the fact remains, we didn't fire him. He left.

Coach Price never even coached a single game, so he certainly wasn't fired because fans were obsessed with winning. He was the idiot who got caught with strippers, one of which ran up a $1000+ breakfast bill in his hotel room... and it was charged to the university. Oh, and the entire debacle was splattered all over the place in Sports Illustrated. It's not Alabama's fault that he couldn't keep his pants zipped (or keep track of his credit card). He was fired in mid-summer and, that being the case, we were willing to hire whoever we could because... well... quite frankly, we were desperate. It's not like coaches are easy to find only a month before football season starts!

So we ended up with a young coach who happened to have a famous last name. He was the only one available at that time of year, and we were hoping that he'd grow into the job... but he's had four years and only one winning season. The truth is, he isn't being fired because he lost to the likes of Florida, LSU, Arkansas, and Auburn. We barely had a hope of that going into the season. Would have been awesome, but fans didn't expect wins and weren't devestated by the losses. Fans began becoming seriously unhappy with the guy when he started being beat by the likes of Duke (ranked as THE worst team in the nation), Mississippi State, and Southern Miss ... both of which have sucked so badly this season that they too have barely eeked out a game and are the bottom teams in the SEC. If we can't beat the WORST of teams and have a coach who can't see anything wrong with that, or why he should be asked to make any changes... well, if that isn't the cause for firing, are we supposed to just suck it up and say "Oh, it's okay to suck from now to infinity?"

Frankly, nationally, we were damned if we did or damned if we didn't. If we kept him, we were idiots for keeping an incompetent coach. If we fired him, we were wackos who demand too much and keep the program in an uproar.

We can't win for losing.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Heh. Give it time. There seem to be kerfuffles with JM and everything under the sun. Sooner or later that wank will show up. It's bound to. >:O)

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

It's amazing how many kerfuffles the man can generate even when he has no intention of doing so. It's a talent. :)

[sunryse00.livejournal.com]

Re:JM
I was more appalled by the comments towards the Christians that complained than I was to his comments.

Re:Peter/Claire
There's no about to, there are two Peter/Claire LJ communities and they were both started way back in October. The fans are way ahead of the show 'ship wise, but Peter seems to be the fandom slut and I think he's been paired with everyone so no surpises there.

Re: Alabama coaching
Alabama has a college football team?...I didn't even know they had a college. (And yes I'm joking)