I think many of you know of my intense distaste for Sports Entertainment; I just can't seem to see the point of getting worked up about a bunch of sweaty, spandex-clad men jumping on top of each other, expectorating wildly and getting paid ridiculous sums of money for it.

So you can understand my cognitive dissonance when I discovered that Hunter S. Thompson, one of my favorite writers, is doing a column for ESPN [go.com]. There's dozens of them [go.com]. They're not too bad, either, even if you dislike sports as much as I do, because, like much of Thompson's writing, the subject of the piece is rarely what the writing is about.

We called my Yiddish Literature teacher this past year Hunter S. Thompson, mostly because they look alike, but also because of the way he talked in class. Many a discussion deteriorated into stories of our Teacher (named Shelby Schapiro) cooking kim-chi in his dorm room back in his college days, and then burning inscence to mask the smell, but he just had a thing for kim-chi. Overall it was kinda fun. I oughta find a good picture of him, upload it to a webpage, and then link it so that I can prove that they look alike.

Well then i might suggest women's boxing. Its more entertaining than mens boxing because they move around more and have interesting combos (kinda resembling mortal combat minus the wierd powers), but most importantly they are not "men jumping on top of each other" wearing "spandex," in fact, one of the fighters turns out to be a former playboy cover (Mia St. John).

In Response to Gentoo666 (#756):

"Turns out to be a former Playboy cover" is a kind of misleading way to put it, when the reason she was on the cover in the first place is that she was already the IBA featherweight champion [usedmagazines.com] when she posed.

Beeeej

Being a huge HST fan myself, I've been following that column since day one... the thing that annoys me is that he was *supposed* to update it every Monday when it started. Then it was every Tuesday. Then he took a month or so long vacation, did a few when he got back, and it now hasn't been updated since February or so, with no word on why. But some of those columns are priceless, particularly the 9/11 ones.

In Response to Incarnadine (#765):

It wouldn't be Thompson if he managed to follow a regular schedule.

In Response to jon (#766):

This is true. Hmmm... Douglas Adams could never follow one either... do *any* of the real talents get things done on time? Well, barring a certain webcomic author, of course. Ahem.

In Response to Incarnadine (#769):

I'm no good at schedules, either. That's why I can only crank out three strips a week, and why Patent Pending is gonna be every other week after this month [goats.com].

I think most writers would rather have written something than write something. The process is pretty exhausting, but the accolades are nice.

In Response to jon (#773):

You can get karma for being pathetic?

Oh, I should have come back to visit earlier... I would have racked up lots of points by now.

In Response to Beeeej (#760):

Well yes thats true, but the ends justify the means. Besides the point was achieved, and that bieng that there is an alternative to males in spandex dancing in the form of "Tah Tah wars" "with cleary no loser in my eyes" as my friend exclaimed. But thank you vigilant viewer, its nice to know other people share in the experience of the only ballet that i would watch...
well perhaps mud wrestling as well.

In Response to jon (#773):

*cough* Erm, I'm no good at keeping on task, as well... Obviously I'm a grade-A genius too =)

In Response to jon (#773):

Actually, when I was at the peak of my fiction-writing powers (I still write and submit to magazines, but at a much slower pace what with all this collecting unemployment and appearing on the WB11 News at Ten force-feeding pecan pie to Toni that's keeping me busy), the process was one of the most energizing experiences I had ever found. In fact if a girlfriend lasted longer than a few weeks, she would quickly learn that when I announced I'd finished a story, it surely meant that I was randier than a Russian mail-order bride with a week left on her dental insurance.

The accolades, on the other hand, I tended to find empty and suspect of phoniness, but perhaps that's just because they were coming from friends and relatives (and fellow ENGL 480-81 students, who were mostly there to be told how great they were, so naturally they did the same for everyone else - gag ) instead of editors and agents.

The irony is that when I started writing freelance magazine and newspaper non-fiction, the really energizing part of the experience was not selling a pitch to an editor or having them accept the finished piece; it was getting the freakin' check in the mail.

The other irony, I guess, is that I was most prolific (and arguably writing my best) under the gun of a deadline. If I were starting an MFA program instead of a JD in a month, I'd probably increase my output a thousandfold. So I'm not sure I agree with the "creative on demand" problem.