Yes, we’re late. We got tied up on Tuesday.
But, in our defense, TMQ isn’t timely this week either.
After the jump, 2,000 words, no pictures (except the header), and one subject in this week’s TMQ…
Archive for the ‘TMQ watch’ Category
TMQ Watch: October 10, 2017.
Wednesday, October 11th, 2017TMQ Watch: October 3, 2017.
Wednesday, October 4th, 2017We’ve got nothing clever to start off with this week. This is the kind of week that sucks all the clever out of our strategic clever reserves. Let’s just get into it.
After the jump, about 5,000 words of this week’s TMQ…
TMQ Watch: September 26, 2017.
Tuesday, September 26th, 2017When we heard about Sunday’s events, our first thought was: Easterbrook is going to be insufferable this week.
In retrospect, “insufferable” may not have been the right word. Perhaps “long winded” is better.
In that vein, and before the jump, we’d like to point you at David French’s National Review piece, “I Understand Why They Knelt”, which is one of the best pieces we’ve read so far on the subject.
After the jump, about 5,600 words of this week’s TMQ…
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TMQ Watch: September 19, 2017.
Wednesday, September 20th, 2017TMQ Watch has our tropes, too. One of those is referring to the team by their full legal name, “The New York Football Giants”.
What are some of our other tropes? The only other two we can think of are:
- “autonomous 1911 and heroin-vending robots”, which in turn is derived from TJIC (though the original was “autonomous Glock and heroin-vending robots”, but only heathens use Glocks.)
- Pointing out that Easterbrook is wrong, wrong, wrongity wrong about the 1972 Dolphins.
Are we forgetting any recurring tropes, all of you huddled wretched masses yearning to breathe free? Please let us know in comments.
After the jump, this week’s TMQ…
TMQ Watch: September 12, 2017.
Wednesday, September 13th, 2017
Obit watch: September 9, 2017.
Saturday, September 9th, 2017Dr. Jerry Pournelle, noted SF writer and longtime computer columnist for Byte magazine back in the day.
Official website. Lawrence. Borepatch.
I don’t have a lot to add here. I never met Dr. Pournelle, and I don’t think I’ve read any of his solo SF. I’m spotty on his collaborations with Larry Niven, though the ones I have read I think are better than Niven’s solo work.
I enjoyed his Byte column, though at the time some of his recurring tropes did kind of grate on my nerves. (See also: Gregg Easterbroook.)
(For the younger set, and/or those who may not know: the Internet Archive has a large digital collection of Byte.)
I’m very fond of Oath of Fealty. And I believe Lucifer’s Hammer has been a huge influence on a lot of people (including me, somewhat),
The only other thing I have to say is: I’m ordering a copy of The Survival of Freedom, as my personal tribute to the good doctor.
Also among the dead: Don Williams, noted country musician.
Troy Gentry, also a country musician with Montgomery Gentry, was killed in a helicopter crash yesterday.
And finally, Rick Stevens, not a country musician, but a funk-soul one. He sang with the group Tower of Power, and did the lead vocal on “You’re Still a Young Man” from the 1972 album “Bump City”.
Then he got into heroin and other drugs. Over about a two-day period in 1976, he killed three men. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to death, but California declared the death penalty unconstitutional and he was resentenced to life. He was paroled in 2012 and started working again.
In January 2013 his old band brought him onstage at the Oakland club Yoshi’s to sing his signature song.
“When he got back onstage with Tower of Power for the first time in 40 years,” Mr. Maloney said, “he felt like he was levitating. That’s what he told me.”
While he was in prison, he became a Christian. He also did counseling and mentoring for other inmates, and formed prison bands.
He remained remorseful for the deadly events of 1976, which he said occurred during a time in his life when he was going from one drug high to another and not thinking clearly — “a jackass in a jumpsuit,” he would describe himself years later. When he began performing again after his release from prison he was realistic about his past.
“I know a lot of people won’t forget,” he said in a 2013 interview. “I won’t forget.”
Not exactly an obit, but:
Her parole still has to be approved by the governor. Jerry Brown rejected her bid for parole last year.
TMQ Watch: September 5, 2017.
Tuesday, September 5th, 2017With all the dinging going on in this week’s column, you’d think this was the Christmas season and TMQ was the non-stop 24 hours a day “Carol of the Bells” channel.
Let’s get into it. After the jump, this week’s TMQ…
TMQ Watch: August 29, 2017.
Wednesday, August 30th, 2017Week two. Gesundheit.
Our count is roughly 9,400 words. Will TMQ join the 10,000 Club this season? We would not be surprised.
(And this is why we’re running behind: we do plan to try to get these up on Tuesday, but if the Weekly Standard is going to let Easterbrook run on as long as he wants, without apparent editing or restrictions, we can’t promise that.)
After the jump, this week’s column…
TMQ Watch: August 22, 2017.
Tuesday, August 22nd, 2017“The Year Without A Tuesday Morning Quarterback” was one of Rankin-Bass’s lesser holiday specials.
Then a year ago this time, I took a year off to complete my next book.
Oh. Is that what it was? (By the way, Gregg Easterbrook has a new book coming out.)
But now, he’s back. And so is the editorial “we”. Not to be confused with the editorial wee, though we plan to purchase one or more of those really nice Toto smart toilets when we win the lottery.
Welcome back to TMQ Watch. After the jump, this week’s TMQ…
TMQ update.
Tuesday, August 15th, 2017The big announcement just dropped.
Where is Gregg Easterbrook’s “Tuesday Morning Quarterback” this year?
Would you believe…the Weekly Standard?
Yeah, that seems a little odd to me, too. Wikipedia characterizes it (fairly, I think) as “an American conservative opinion magazine”, and “conservative” is not a word I would use to describe Easterbrook. But, you know, whatever gets you through the night.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Will TMQ go back to the pre-NYT days, with 2,000 word digressions on how unrealistic a television show is? Or will this be the leaner, tighter, more disciplined TMQ we saw on the website for the paper of record?
And will there be cheerleader photos?
The Weekly Standard isn’t on our list of publications and websites we don’t read. (Heck, Lawrence even subscribes to it. Or did at one time: I’m not sure if he still does.) So yes, there will be a TMQ Watch when Easterbrook’s column resumes next week. Watch this space.
TMQ watch.
Thursday, August 10th, 2017I see a decent amount of traffic in the stats from people looking at old TMQ Watch entries. I'm glad for any traffic, but I wonder if they're actually coming here because they Googled something, or if they're looking for updates on the status of TMQ?
No matter what, there is a TMQ status update. Of a sort. According to Gregg Easterbrook's Twitter, "TMQ relaunch 8-22-17 details soon."
As soon as I get details, I'll post an update. Will I be doing TMQ Watch if TMQ comes back? As always, it depends on where Easterbrook ends up: there are certain sites that shall remain nameless that I won't follow him to. No matter what, I do plan to post at least one update.
Edited to add:
August 21 will be a total eclipse of the sun as the gods wax wroth.
How do you wax your wroth? My family was a big fan of Turtle Wax and Simomiz.
Also, given that solar eclipses are perfectly understandable astronomical phenomena, and have been for hundreds, if not thousands, of years, why is Gregg Easterbrook claiming they are a sign of the gods waxing wroth?
Edited to add 8/11: Easterbrook's Twitter now promises the big reveal for August 15th. I feel the anticipation rising…
Oh, wait. That was just gas from the tacos at Maria's Taco Express. Sorry.
Blood in the streets!
Monday, January 2nd, 2017This used to be the “Bloody Monday” thread, where I covered all the firings after the last day of the NFL regular season. But we’ve reached the point now where teams aren’t waiting for Monday to start firing people.
For example, general manager Trent Baalke and head coach Chip Kelly are both out in San Francisco. The official announcement came after the game, but there was widespread “speculation” that they were both out: Baalke actually appeared on San Francisco radio before the games and confirmed his firing.
San Francisco was 2-14 this year.
(On a side note, is it just me, or are San Francisco’s newspapers mostly really bad? On a second side note, Gregg Easterbrook would be totally insufferable, if he’d been writing TMQ this year.)
Speaking of bad teams, San Diego fired head coach Mike McCoy, which is a good start. Now if they’d just fire the entire rest of the team.
McCoy was 28-38 in four years with the team, and 5-11 this year. You may recall that San Diego gave hapless the Cleveland Browns their only win this season.
This is not a firing, but worth noting: Gary Kubiak is out as head coach in Denver. This seems to be tied to his personal health issues, which I’m really not comfortable discussing or speculating on. I hope he comes back at some point.
There’s speculation that Sean Payton may be moving to the Rams, which should be interesting. Do the Saints want to keep him? If so, why? It seems to me that since their one Super Bowl win, the Saints have been a giant ball of disappointment: almost as if the football gods were out to get them for Bountygate. Is Payton a good coach? Can he do something with the Rams? Or did he just get lucky once?
I’ll try to post updates here if anybody else gets axed today.
Edited to add: more from the “not quite a firing, but” department: Lane Kiffin will be leaving Alabama before the national championship game. It’s not quite a firing because he’d already signed on as head coach of Florida Atlantic, but the general expectation seemed to be that he’d at least hang around for the title game. However, there were complaints about the Lanester showing up late for events: it kind of sounds like Bama got tired of his (stuff) and suggested he leave now.
There are rumors that Jim Irsay may clean house in Indianapolis, but nothing definite yet. Chuck Pagano just held a press conference and said he hadn’t talked to Irsay, and that he expected to be back; I’m sure Irsay is filled with joy at hearing this.