THAT JACKSON BOOB
No, not Michael. Then the headline would have been ìThat Boob Jackson.î
George Sessum on his Musick blog [1] has a Fark [2]-type send up [1] of the Janet Jackson nipple brou haha.
Various righteously indignant types who get on talk shows are calling for CBS to be punished in some way for the Jackson-Timberlake Nipple Publicity Stunt. Why is this the most newsworthy topic of the moment? Think about it . . . People are lacking health care coverage. The jobless number is at a higher figure than in recent memory. There are thousands of people formerly receiving unemployment benefits whose time on the unemployment rolls has run out. So they no longer count in the numbers . . . there's no assistance for them. Theyíre just fucked. 
Soldiers from the US, from the Coalition countries, and loads of rebels and innocent bystanders are getting killed,maimed, disfigured, injured, or just somehow messed up in Iraq and Afghanistan (and a few more places, too),
The environment is being sold down the river (no doubt polluted with PCBs and other such stuff) by the Dubyadministration. John Ashcroft leads the governmental campaign to limit our democratic rightsÖ.in order to foist and force democracy elsewhere, like in Theocratic countries where they donít want it.
And FCC Commissar Michael Powell (friend of big business, enemy of the entrepreneur) finds his tit in a wringer [3] over one of Janet Jacksonís boobs being shown on TV? With some metal pin around and apparently piercing it?
Letís get it straight: there are loads and loads of heaving breasts to be seen on TV. It is the exposure of the nipple that gets the Puritanical all in a tizzy. But that clip-thing, pierced to it, how gross and disgusting! And, egad, they showed a nipple on TV.
It wasnít even prurient!
I donít watch [4] the Super Bowl. This is not a captivating sporting event, like, say, the World Series. Nope, it is just the Super Bowl. Donít watch. Never do, actually. I wrote about that in 2001 [5]. The halftime show is of no interest to me (especially with the line up they had this year). But a number of friends and associates made sure to send me web clips of the baring moment.
I turned the sound down. Watching this ìmalfunction [6]î clip, without the music, it looks like a violent act perpetrated on her by some poorly dressed predator. And if you believe it was really an error, a malfunction, an accident . . . I have a good deal for you on a certain bridge connecting Brooklyn to Manhattan. And if youíre really game, there are two others, you could have a veritable monopoly on bridges connecting Kings County to New York County.
IT SMELLS ALMOST LIKE SPRING
Calendar watch: Early Reporting Days for Pitchers and Catchers --- less than ten days off. There may be snow on the ground, and professional Basketball and Hockey being played. But Spring Training is around the corner. Makes me feel better just thinking about it.
The crack of the bat! The soaring of the ball. The hope and dream of the phenoms, the young arms, the Triple-A wannabes who hope to crack the barrier and play in The Show in 2004. The potential and the yearly awakened dream, that this is going to be the year!
Baseball, just a few days off, and the very preliminary, early-on activities begin.
Yes, it does renew the soul just to think of it.
PENGUIN AT THE PLATE
Speaking of baseball, hereís some Linux-flavored batting practice [7]for those of you still trying out for non-roster invitee slugger spots when Spring Training opens (a mere ten days away!).
HENSON BACK TO THE GRIDIRON
One last Baseball note. Well, no, it is actually a Football note.
Okay, it is a George Steinbrenner has a fixation with Gridironers note.
You see, Steinbrenner ordered his minions to throw colossal sums of money at a guy named Drew Henson. Henson was a major college football star. The pro teams wanted this guy. But Henson also liked Baseball, and played that pretty well, too. On the college level. But not on a college All Star level, or as a pheenom.
But George Steinbrenner, ìThe Boss,î as he is known to many (like, say, former underlings Andy ìDonít Take Me For Grantedî Pettite, or Roger ìThe Rocket who retired but then unretired after the Yanks put him on waivers after he retiredî Clemens), has had a life long love affair with the game of Football. So when Henson mentioned to the press that maybe Baseball was better career choice, longer playing time and less prone toward career-ending injuries . . . who made him Priority #!?
Thatís right, The Boss. Steinbrenner.
I saw Henson in his first year in A-Ball, the lowest of the minor leagues. He was terrible. His fielding was beneath that of Stevie Wonder or Jose Feliciano. Ray Charles looked better at Third Base than Henson.
At the plate he was simply overmatched. Couldnít hit a curve ball, was fooled by the change-up, and swung early and swung often at every fastball he saw early enough to take a hack at. He was there because Steinbrenner valued the concept of Henson, as opposed to any real or proven Baseball instincts or abilities Henson actually brought to the table. He was also there because Steinbrenner authorized his Player Development to offer Henson repulsively large sums of money, to ensure that Henson signed with the Yanks, and no other Baseball team.
It was announced earlier this week that Henson would walk away from the remaining $12 Million dollars due him from the Yankee organization, so he can pursue a career in a sport in which he supposedly excels. That would be Football, not Baseball. Goodbye and Good Riddance and hey, Boss, good waste of Development budget money.