Sports Guy's editor missed something...

Don't ask, don't tell.

 

Fair enough. I refer to all balls as "the orb" and I never use verbs. Ever. Too risky.

Seriously, though, I just try to think about whether something could be read in a certain way, and if so, I try to rework it. I don't think that's unreasonable. Apparently, I'm in the minority.

 

This is honestly the most ridiculous thread I have read in a while. I know a lot of people don't care for his writing but to take any racial connotation out of poker analogy is insane. He set the whole thing up a paragraph before. Have the PC police really gone this far.

 

Grantland Rice rises from the dead and takes his old stool at Jack Dempsey's.

 

Former editor of mine said he was taught never to use the term "poured in" when writing about women's sports, as in "Jessica Jumper poured in 10 points on 5 of 49 shooting". I never understood that. I could understand not using "poured in" for "scored", but why specifically ban it for women?

 

And of course: "Poker? He doesn't even know her!"

 

I do enjoy a muffed punt, though.

 

Rectum? It damn near killed 'em.

 

I would have changed it in heart(diamond)(club)beat. Let's put it this way -- whether you think it's ridiculous anyone might read racism into a white guy comparing a black basketball player in Boston to a spade, I wouldn't want to waste days and weeks responding to angry emails, sitting in bosses' offices, preparing apologetic statements, etc., for that turn of phrase. It's not like it was a brilliant, unimpeachable line.

Speaking of reading into things, I was at Great America yesterday, and saw a teen girl, 13-to-15-ish, wearing a pair of shorts with "Jump In!" on the butt. I'll leave it to the rest of you to figure out what signal she was intentionally or unintentionally signaling.

 

Two things: He wasn't "comparing" him to a spade. He didn't say "He looks like a spade." It was an analogy.

Secondly, the growth of the 'girls with things written on their asses' industry is frightening. Someone bought a baby outfit for my friend's newborn that said like "Tigger" on the ass. Who draws attention to a 6-month-old's ass? Goddamn pervs.

 

I know that. But not every reader is going to know that. And the perceived connotations of spade in this context are obvious enough, to me, anyway. Changing the suit wouldn't change the meaning of the phrase, and it would keep my phone quieter and my email box emptier.

 

I can't argue that, that changing it erases any problems. I'm just concerned that now someone's going to get fired for saying something they didn't even know was wrong. I mean, what happens if I (31 years old) send a story in and one of our young deskers read it, and neither of us have any idea of the origin of a word...then I'm fucked, with no intent or reason.

It's just...a reach to me. But I'm guessing we're from different generations, since I'd never heard this term in a racist context before.