The Atlantic - Latest Comments in Open Thread At Noon

Re: Open Thread At Noon

CitizenE — Thu, 07 May 2009 15:46:33 -0000

At yahoo sports, the report is that poor Manny was just taking a sexual enhancer--usually used by women for fertility, but also by men to offset testosterone deficiencies.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=AnUNnc6_R_qHQlwNk.GL76w5nYcB?slug=ys-ramirezsuspension050709&prov=yhoo&type=lgns.

Is there any doubt that not Barry Bonds, but Rafael Palmeiro--point man for Viagra in the big leagues--is America's true poster boy for performance enhancement? Ah, the perils of masculinity--especially for millionaires. Just looking for the long ball.

Re: Open Thread At Noon

atlantapril — Thu, 07 May 2009 14:43:20 -0000

Zack, thanks for this posting. It made me smile, particularly as I remember checking and double checking polls and predictions last September when the presidential race seemed to be tightening.

Re: Open Thread At Noon

zacksback — Thu, 07 May 2009 14:12:43 -0000

Has anybody seen that photo of a toddler kissing a pig with the

white text: "You little bastard. You've killed us all." ?

I told my mom about it and mentioned that it was similar in graphic design to the famous Obama photograph. She hadn't seen that one. (Aside: My mom is a die-hard Democrat and Obama fan; without cable or internet I had to give her the Nate Silver update daily last autumn just to get her down off the ledge of 'OMG, what if he loses?').

So, I showed it to her and she loves it. Now there's a 79-year-old white woman wandering around central NJ with a new favorite expression. Which is hilarious when you're offering to carry in groceries and a tiny silver-haired senior citizen tells you: "Chill the fuck out, I got this."

Re: Open Thread At Noon

Stacy — Thu, 07 May 2009 13:58:22 -0000

Of course Gammons is now reporting it is not steroids. It WAS a PED, so I don't give damn what kind of PED it was. I'm not one to get on my high horse, and I don't think that steroids are the end of sports as we know it, but I'm interested to see what excuses are made for Manny.

"C'mon, he didn't know what he was taking. He's SO goofy. He was just being Manny."

Re: Open Thread At Noon

Dan Fox — Thu, 07 May 2009 13:37:40 -0000

Ok sorry, to basically triple post, but Gammons is reporting its NOT steroids: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4148907

Re: Open Thread At Noon

Dan Fox — Thu, 07 May 2009 13:35:30 -0000

nah, nevermind, its steroids

Re: Open Thread At Noon

Dan Fox — Thu, 07 May 2009 13:34:43 -0000

I know this sounds naive, but I sorta think maybe it wasn't steroids.

Re: Open Thread At Noon

AMT — Thu, 07 May 2009 13:16:23 -0000

Absolutely. I'm a huge sci-fi/fantasy nerd and I've always told myself that this is balanced out by my interest in sports, i.e., playing high school football, taking muay thai classes, etc. Of course, I'm pretty certain my interest in football and muay thai is legit.

Re: Open Thread At Noon

Incertus(Brian) — Thu, 07 May 2009 12:56:38 -0000

I think I'm more likely to deny my inner non-nerd, but that's mostly because of my surroundings--work in an English department and the freak flag has to fly pretty high to be unusual, and mine is only of moderate strength (unless we're talking about Doctor Who). What I tend to avoid talking about with my peers are things like NASCAR or my dear love for Popeye's Chicken.

Re: Open Thread At Noon

DougEMI — Thu, 07 May 2009 12:53:37 -0000

What do y'all think? Have you done anything similar to deny your Inner Nerd?

Yeah, I bought Def Leppard's "Pyromania" while prefering more New Wavey type music instead. I read a lot about sports growing up, and that can be seen as geeky, especially when the in thing was Reggie Jackson and Tony Dorsett as opposed to Lou Gehrig and Ty Cobb.

Though the true sports geekiness is in the form of the stats nerd, more so than sports history. Think of Olgivy in The Bad News Bears.

Re: Open Thread At Noon

Incertus(Brian) — Thu, 07 May 2009 12:51:03 -0000

Re: the video: I wonder how many of the classics will make it onto this game, now that they're adding a turntable.

Re: Open Thread At Noon

calexical — Thu, 07 May 2009 12:43:00 -0000

As a woman who was one hell of a tomboy as a kid, I sometimes wonder whether my gradual girlification was partly as a way to help balance things out.

Still, I selectively deny my Inner Nerd. My love of sports is real, and I'll tell anyone who asks about my obsession with the Marvel universe, or Firefly/Farscape/BSG/etc., or the two Comic-Cons I've been to. But for some reason, I tend to stop short of admitting I've read almost every Star Wars novel. I definitely don't tell anyone I know that I have read fanfiction. I have a couple bright lines.

Re: Open Thread At Noon

Persia — Thu, 07 May 2009 12:37:35 -0000

At work people sort of know I'm nerdy, but they have no idea that they only see the tip of the iceberg. I find myself biting my tongue sometimes when I want to try to explain the awesome movie I just saw, because it's in Chinese, and Quentin Tarantino liked it, and...yeah. I got nothing, even sometimes for things I think my co-workers would enjoy.

Re: Open Thread At Noon

CitizenE — Thu, 07 May 2009 12:37:33 -0000

Open thread item--Manny Ramirez suspended for 50 games for (unspecified) drug use.

Re: Open Thread At Noon

Cash — Thu, 07 May 2009 12:17:53 -0000

I've been thinking about the issue of passing--not in the racial sense, but in another sense I think a lot of us here know well: pretending we're not really nerds.

I spent a lot of time in my childhood and adolescence being teased and occasionally knocked around for being a bookworm/comics fan/Tolkien nut/D&D player. I also spent long hours of reading up on NFL/MLB history and practicing my jumper, but I sometimes wonder how much of that practice and dedication was done out of a sincere love of sports and how much was done out of a desperation to be accepted by my less nerdly peers.

So: Is my obsessively watching Ty Lawson leading UNC to a title a sincere expression of my inner being, or is it a learned behavior?

What do y'all think? Have you done anything similar to deny your Inner Nerd?