Cup of Coffee

November 30, 2016: When Obsession Pays Off

93 Comments

I just got a job writing for a very successful pro wrestling site. I sent off the sample and cover letter two months ago and figured it was dead, but yesterday was met with an offer out of nowhere.

93 thoughts on “November 30, 2016: When Obsession Pays Off”

      1. Is there any chance this could result in an interview with Kent Hrbek about his interest in pro wrestling?

          1. Congrats! I got back into wrestling about 5 years ago but slowly lost interest in watching it again. However there are so many talented people writing/podcasting about it that I still regularly read or listen to a number of different sources.

            1. That must be a weird pro graps thing because the only time I watch it's on business travel, but I'm a regular best and worst reader (Brandon Stroud's vintage columns are the best.) And now that SmackDown is an actual show again, I've gotten to add an additional column to my weekly toilet reading.

        1. If only there were some sort of stable they could put him in with, like, two guys who are good at talking so he could just focus on beating guys up.

          1. The very brief Shield reunion during the Survivor Series was enjoyable. Also, the final match during the Survivor Series was one of my favorite matches ever.

      3. Big fan of pro wrestling writing (I read about it more than I watch it these days) so I'm excited to see your stuff.

        Do you have your match rating system developed? 1/4 stars and whatnot?

        1. If I do star ratings, I expect to use the traditional five-snowflake method with quarter-stars, as I'm pretty well used to it at this point.

          I will have two weeklies unless things change: a WWE PPV feature where I review old shows and talk about their long-term implications for the workers involved as well as the company, and an NXT Tracking "scorecard" piece where I talk about the development of the individuals there.

          (And Will, no, I do not know how to make Roman Reigns interesting)

          1. Maybe if they tried putting the odds against Roman so he could overcome them...wonder if they'll ever think of that one.

  2. I'm leaving Memphis today after packing up my institution's show. I'll make one more pitch for the National Civil Rights Museum, and another pitch for central BBQ.

    1. We have two sets of really good friends who both moved to Memphis a while back. We've only visited once, but will be going back. We were down there for fewer than 24 hours, so I didn't get to make it into the Civl Rights Museum, but I was adamant we visit the Lorraine Motel anyway. The only other place I've felt the mix of emotions I felt there was outside the Presidential Box at Ford's Theatre.

      I also need to get to Central BBQ the next time I'm in town.

      I'll throw out three more Memphis recs: the Stax Museum of American Soul Music (one friend is the new-ish executive director), lunch at Payne's BBQ (jumbo spicy chopped pork sandwich, mmmmmm), and dessert at The Beauty Shop (Elvis-worthy strawberry or coconut cake).

      1. This is awesome. We're planning a little trip to Memphis for spring break.

        Has anybody been to Graceland? It seems like I will need to get there even if it bores the kids to death.

          1. Since the Graceland people are involved at Paisley Park, I was thinking I could do them both in the same week.

        3. Okay, so I'm back home from the road trip / crating / shipping / driving / unloading trip to Memphis. Graceland was a pretty great, but not cheap by any means, experience. The basic tour was almost 30 bucks, plus parking and extras if you're willing to pay for them (behind the scenes / airplane / stables / ... / ... / ...), and is an all ipad all John Stamos afair. Yeah, the mediated ipad / headphone tour is annoying as all get out, but the house is remarkable in how 'modern' it is in relation to our current standard of living. The kitchen has 2 (!) tvs (!), the rec room has 4 tvs(!), he has a pool table in his basement (!), the king has a throne* in his bathroom, and they had a water feature in their living room(!). Despite John Stamos in my ear, and the ipad in my face, I was totally impressed with the ... ordinariness of the house. I know that this is current contextualization butting up against what was luxury at the time, but that was what struck me the most. I'd go to Graceland in a heartbeat, but I'd also go to the National Civil Rights Museum. Totally different experiences at different ends of the spectrum, but both necessary. I'd suggest the heavy stuff first...

          Other Memphis highlights are definitely worth a stop including the Stax musuem (Issac Hayes' caddy is a sight to behold....), the blues foundation gallery, mud island museum, and the peabody hotel ducks (not worth the drink prices / procession nonsense but worth a look at some mallards swimming in a hotel fountain...).

          For food, as Twayn says, good bbq isn't hard to find, but there are a ton of great dining options that don't include smoking hunks of meat. We ate at Hog and Hominy (it was fantastic), Itta Bena (also fantastic, hard to find if you don't know what you're looking for), and Gus's Fried Chicken. The chicken at Gus's is probably the best I've ever had. Yeah, New Orleans knows how to cook up the yard bird, but this is the real deal, and you'll feed your family for less than 40 bucks. Yeah, I'm going to be dreaming about gus's fried chicken tonight.

          The beauty parlor is great, and the arcade is good, but the overall message is that Memphis is a great place to spend some vacation time.

          1. Damn, and on the beer scene: Wiseacre is great (and so is their 'taproom'), Ghost River is pretty great, and High Cotton is meh. The Wiseacre beer room is okay, but if the weather is nice you'll totally appreciate their patio. Along those lines, Loflin Yard is an outstanding kid / pet friendly space (with wiffle ball diamond) and great bbq. Memphis is pretty great, and apparently having a bit of a renascence.

          3. Co-sign on Hog & Hominy. We ate there during our visit last year. The food was a bit heavy for my palate that day, but that was more me (I have occasional sensitivity to heavy dishes) than the chow.

            Gus's is going on my list for our next trip downriver.

  4. On way to wake last night, low tire pressure light comes on. I fill up the tire. Light goes off. Drive to/from the wake without incident. But this morning it is flat flat. Oy. Car seats switched to different vehicle for travel to the funeral. Will need to replace it later.

    I guess it's as good a reason as any to end up with new tires before winter? (I did slide into a ditch a couple weekends ago on an icy gravel road... going <30 mph, just one of those things...)

    1. Is there a clear puncture? Otherwise it might be a bead seal leak – those aren't unusual when the weather turns cold. Then again, if you actually need new tires anyway, it's probably not worth fixing.

      1. Haven't had a chance to look. Tires aren't in "clearly replace" condition, but it won't hurt to replace 'em. We drive that van all the time.

    2. My right rear tire had a slow leak for weeks, I got into the habit of filling it up every few days. I knew they were also wearing thin so I bought a tread depth gauge last week and found they were all down around 4/32nds so I got a new set, plus an alignment since there was some uneven wear on the fronts. And there was a nail in that right rear tire, close enough to the inner sidewall that it wasn't repairable anyway. I also replaced the headlights on my daughter's car this weekend, which will need 2 new tires next time she's home, and I put a headlight bulb in the wife's minivan.

      1. Just did a headlight on our other vehicle. I'm always quite pleased with myself when I manage to do something like that myself, since I'm... not so good with the cars.

      1. One of my Volvo's wheels was slightly out of round (I blame the State of Illinois), which resulted in a continual slow leak. It was aggravating.

    4. Man, I was on the road all day and missed my opportunity to put up the Twayn signal. Replaced the shocks and struts the other week. Hot damn is that satisfying. However, now the tail lights won't illuminate. Had some funky problems with breaklights earlier than s month, but now the breaklights work fine but the tail lights won't illuminate. I can't seem to find the ground wires, and the fuses are all good, so this is a head scratcher.

      1. Replacing struts is a little less satisfying when you cross thread the hell out of one of the bolts and it bangs like crazy on every bump or crack in the road. However, it is immensely satisfying to realize that the car has well over 200k miles and you'll never need to do it again so you just wrench that sumbitch as hard as you can until it's tight.

        1. Less satisfying was cracking off a bolt and taking a trip to autozone for an easy out set. Thankfully my buddy had a correct sized and threaded bolt to replace the one I sheared off.

  5. So I set up the Christmas tree over the weekend, but we have a conundrum. The kitten (she's getting pretty big now at 7 months) has decided the tree makes a dandy climbing toy. We've got a spray bottle nearby and we're chasing her away from the tree every time we see her get close, but she's not really getting the message. Anybody have any tips for keeping kittens out of Christmas trees? We would like to decorate the tree, but if we can't keep the cat out of it I don't see the point.

    3. We had the same problem. Solved it by getting a six foot tall cat tree, which satisfied her need to climb. Now I've gotta figure out how to prevent her from pretending to be a neck tie when I'm trying to sleep.

  6. Twins HOF vote up on FB for the next year; Dazzle and Cuddy leading so far :/
    I'm small hall and only voted for Mudcat, Al Worthington, and Larry Hisle. Do your duty, Citizens

      4. Sid is old enough to have voted for FDR in 1944. He would have been 20 in 1940, but the 26th Amendment wasn't ratified until 1971 and I don't know if voting was allowed in Minnesota below the age of 21 before then. Wilson was president when he was born. The Great War had been over for about 4 months. Babe Ruth hadn't yet played for the Yankees.

    2. Apparently Al Michaels has never heard of Roger Angell. I'm not sure who I'd compare Great-Grandpa Sports to, but it's sure not Vin Scully.

  10. Hey hj (and anyone else making kombucha): two apples and three small cinnamon sticks steeped in a one gallon batch with the tea is incredible.

    1. My `cha's* been on pause lately. I switch out the mother every few weeks, but it's way too sour to do anything with. Or at least a use for it hasn't impressed my laziness yet. That could be good to try for the season though.

      *ooo, that's deliciously douchey.

      1. Heh, sorry about my timing. I just got it bottled tonight and had a small amount left over that I didn't need for the next batch.

      1. I've been doing all my flavoring while I make the tea. I figure the heat will aid in flavor extraction from whatever I'm using. Secondary fermentation is only used for carbonation.

      1. I was fine with the old system of alternating leagues for home field in the World Series, but better record makes more sense than all-star game winner.

        2. I think this is worse than the ASG thing.
          At least that lets us bring up Seligshrug.jpg.
          This is just one more thing towards all other North American Leagues.

          1. That, really, is the main thing I disliked about the all-star game winner deciding home field advantage. The only rationale behind it was to change the subject from Bud Selig's incompetence in allowing an all-star game to end in a tie.

            1. But at least it made things clear from the onset.
              I'd be fine with best interleague record (AL vs NL for entire season), with any tie going to whichever team did not have it the previous year.

    1. I'm getting awfully sick of these contested 20-footers from Wiggins. It's like the Sam Mitchell offense came back.

      1. They either blow teams out or lose.

        I'm not happy. Too many minutes for starters. I can accept that maybe they aren't ready for prime time yet, but this nightly second half collapse is disheartening and if they are going to lose 50 games (I think they will), let's keep Towns et al. at about 35 minutes a game instead of 40.

        1. On the one hand, most of the bench can't score. On the other hand, they're usually playing with Shabazz who manages to complete fewer passes than LOLeidner.

Comments are closed.