And a good thing, too

Most sports journalism is about as exciting as toilet water: box scores, game recaps, a lame quote or three.

At least in England, I can always count on an athlete or manager to say something silly. Today's example is Paul Jewell, manager of Derby County FC, a team that has spent the entire season being thumped in the English Premier League and will get dropped down a division for the next term.

"...you don't have to be a brain surgeon to see we concede too many goals and don't score enough."

I can't recall who it was, but one manager last year took some time to defend the league's referees. Seeing every single foul, he argued, was impossible.

"They'd need eyes in the back of their head, which they haven't got," he pointed out.

Not since Buddy Ryan took the helm of our state's mighty Cardinals franchise and announced "You've got a winner in town" have I heard anything to equal these in American sports.

First Post at the Word Cave

Hi there. Thanks for stopping my blog to check out my historic first Here, you'll mostly find my clips and my thoughts on whatever happens to be going on in my world. Yeah, that can be just about anything. I promise to keep it interesting.

If you want to see work samples, just look for The Clip Farm over on the right. My favorite of the batch is "Getting the Wild Out of Your Life." There's absolutely nothing like stories about carnivorous/venomous/poisonous creatures and the people who capture them. "In Search of His Big Break" is also a cool read, if a bit short; it also features a great photo from one of my favorite former colleagues, N. Scott Trimble. This guy will do -and has done- anything to get a top-flight photo. Then there's "For superior guitar amps, makers tout the tube." Some people really love guitars, but I've always been more fascinated by the amplifier. For this story, I grilled three Phoenix amp makers to talk about the vacuum tube, of all things.

I won't go on, even though I could say something about every one of these clips. More are on the way, along with more features as I get this blog interface all figured out. Enjoy!