May 12, 2004

***SPOFI LOCKER ROOM INTERVIEW #21*** lil_brown_bat: "Sure, fire away. I'm kind of here and away these days, though, between system transition and attending gen u wine sporting events." Well, if a SpoFi Locker Room Interview is not a "genuine sporting event", I don't know what is. And so, the call goes out to ... lil_brown_bat.

posted by worldcup2002 to navel gazing at 12:22 PM - 78 comments

Q1. llb, what's up with the nickname? Baseball equipment or small furry blind winged mammals with ultrasonic hearing?< ?b>

posted by worldcup2002 at 12:24 PM on May 12, 2004

I was thinking of something more personal, which is generally only hard as a wooden bat irregularly. But that's just me.</snark>

posted by billsaysthis at 04:38 PM on May 12, 2004

Q1. llb, what's up with the nickname? Baseball equipment or small furry blind winged mammals with ultrasonic hearing? The small furry winged mammal. I've always kind of liked bats, and then I read this article that talked about just how cool they are...like, each little brown bat (which is the species you find in these parts) eats up to 300 insects a night. It seems like a socially responsible thing to do, and besides, I like the way the name sounds. Sorry it's not more risque or sports-related, but I figured there would be plenty of the latter in this forum, and there are plenty of the former in any internet forum.

posted by lil_brown_bat at 08:52 PM on May 12, 2004

Why have you always liked bats? What makes them appealing to you? I ask because they aren't exactly a popular animal. (I recently learned about the creatures that inhabit the floors of bat caves, and even they give me the heebeejeebies.)

posted by garfield at 09:44 AM on May 13, 2004

i bat flew into my bedroom window last night. took an hour to shoo him back out...it was a cutie but it also gave me the chills.

posted by danostuporstar at 10:30 AM on May 13, 2004

paging Worldcup. Mr. Cup, please return to the interview.

posted by jerseygirl at 12:14 PM on May 13, 2004

Q2. So how did you find your way to SpoFi? What keeps you coming back? Any favorite experiences? Bad experiences? How would you make it better?

posted by worldcup2002 at 12:34 PM on May 13, 2004

We aren't breaking any posting records here, but what's the longest interview (or non-interview) ever done in here?

posted by usfbull at 03:50 PM on May 13, 2004

After painstaking research, I can reveal that samsonov14's interview reached a whopping 223 comments (probably the record for any thread here), and the smallest interview was vito90's waaaaay back with just 38 comments (wc2k2's interview was second lowest with 41).

posted by BigCalm at 06:29 PM on May 13, 2004

I was bit on the neck once by a bat while visiting Eastern Europe and have not been the same since, let me tell you!

posted by billsaysthis at 07:01 PM on May 13, 2004

btw, Van Helsing is laughable...literally.

posted by garfield at 07:18 PM on May 13, 2004

Q2. So how did you find your way to SpoFi? I honestly don't remember how I stumbled upon SpoFi. I do a lot of sports-related websearch, and I guess it just turned up while I was looking for something completely different. What keeps you coming back? I like sports, but I also like the way people express themselves about sports -- I'm a freelance writer, which these days is mostly sportswriting, and I'm intensely interested in what it is about sports, and sportswriting, that captures people's interest. Also, less work-relatedly, I like the breadth that's represented in the forum, and I rely on it to keep me up with interesting happenings in sports that I don't follow directly. Any favorite experiences? Bad experiences? Not really bad, but -- and this is certainly not exclusive to SpoFi -- I get annoyed when I see categories such as "basketball" and "women's basketball'. Men's sports are the default, women's sports are a special exception case, except when we're talking about the "girl" sports like gymnastics and figure sports. And then I look at my local high school: two individual state champions, one state championship team, one regional championship team...all female. There's something wrong with this picture. SpoFi doesn't own this problem, but this is one place where things could (and IMO should) be changing. How would you make it better? Besides the above? This is a minor thing, but I'd add some new categories. Baseball basketball football hockey...all others. "Olympics" ends up being the default category for a lot of stuff, even when the events being posted about have nothing to do with the Olympics. The Penn Relays happen every year, as does the Tour de France, the World Cup (not that one, the other one), etc. Oh yeah, Garfield, about the bats -- when I was a kid, my family would always sit on the porch on summer evenings. I remember the chirping sound of the bats. I thought it super-cool that they could fly so well in the dark. Doing those loops and picking off a bug in the dark, how cool is that? My parents never taught me to think of them as creepy, so I guess I just associate them with happy times.

posted by lil_brown_bat at 09:45 PM on May 13, 2004

I'm a freelance writer, which these days is mostly sportswriting Anything we can read on the web and, especially, make fun of?

posted by billsaysthis at 11:10 PM on May 13, 2004

Q3. Yes, tell us more about your sportswriting. What do you usually write about? Where are you published? What is it "about sports, and sportswriting, that captures people's interest"?

posted by worldcup2002 at 12:50 AM on May 14, 2004

Q3. Yes, tell us more about your sportswriting. What do you usually write about? Where are you published? I've been writing since I was twelve. I used to sit in the back of the class, ignore the teacher, and write: stories, mostly, weird made-up stuff, but also articles or whatever I felt like. I never published any of the stuff from my teen years, or tried to, but it was great practice. I write about whatever interests me, and sports are a part of the package. Right now I'm doing most of my work for Turley Publications, a media company that owns newspapers in Massachusetts. The paper that gets most of my stuff isn't on the web, unfortunately. Mostly what I do for them is high school sports (football, soccer, field hockey, cross-country, volleyball, basketball, alpine skiing, nordic skiing, track, tennis, baseball, softball...I think that's it...), but I just got done writing a puff piece for them on whitewater sports, and I got another assignment to write something or other for the US Open series (not the big one in Flushing, the series). Last winter, when I had more time on my hands, I was writing articles about World Cup ski racing, just for the fun of it, and posting them on the net. At the time, my brother was editing a newsletter for the Rocky Mountain Masters ski race series, and he hijacked a few of them, so there are a few out there on the web still. This one has an article that my brother described as "some New Age McLuhanesque World Cup Vulcan Mind Meld." It's about the Lauberhorn, my all-time favorite ski race (I think...it's being incredibly slow to load, so I'm not waiting around). What is it "about sports, and sportswriting, that captures people's interest"? Wow. Well. Ya know, we like sports for so many reasons. I think we like to do them because, on some level, we like effort. We are often lazy about getting started, but when we get going, we are captivated by the effort. Have you ever felt that feeling, of doing something and wondering, "Hmm, I wonder if I can go a little faster or a little farther?" And then there's the feeling afterwards, when you realize that you did more than you thought you could do when you started. Sports participation is an arena where people get to see their potential expand. We have this view of life as a sort of inevitable decline from your peak at 17, or something ridiculous like that, but a 60 year old runner is still expanding -- they won't run the times they ran in high school, but in a very real sense, they're still moving on. I think that's the main reason why we like to do sports, because really, very few of us get many cheers and accolades. We need some other reward. As far as sports spectatorship and fan-dom, there are all kinds of reasons, but I think we watch sports for the same reasons we watch movies or go to the theater. Sometimes it's mindless entertainment, sometimes it's great drama...sometimes you want potato chips and sometimes you want foie gras. I think when we look at athletes, we see (or imagine) something we'd like to be, just as we do when we see a character in a movie. Sports has its heroes and villians, thrills, tragedies, laughs, and lessons. It's a microcosm, and maybe we feel that by looking at this smaller reflection of life, we can get a handle on some things. Parents and coaches are always talking about how sports builds character, and maybe this is how it does (if and when it does): by giving people a simpler arena and simpler set of problems to tackle, where at least some of the ambiguities are removed and you can experience what it means to Do The Right Thing. And then, having once felt that, you can hope that you'll remember that feeling, and be able to seek it again when things are both less simple and less easy.

posted by lil_brown_bat at 07:11 AM on May 14, 2004

we see (or imagine) something we'd like to be Who's your hero? Who would you like to be or emulate?

posted by rocketman at 09:13 AM on May 14, 2004

Who's your hero? Who would you like to be or emulate? I hope I'm allowed to pick more than one. Off the top of my head, the list would include:

  • Sue Bird. Amazing on the court, gracious off...and only two inches taller than me.
  • Bode Miller. He's won a lot of cool stuff, but he's also lost a lot of races because he would really rather work to be the best skier he can be, and crash a lot in the process, than ski more conservatively and win a lot more.
  • Picabo Street. People talk about how much 'nads Hermann Maier has to be racing again after nearly losing his leg. They forget that Picabo nearly lost her leg, and unlike Hermann, she did it on the hill, in a race.
  • Diana Taurasi. Who wouldn't?
  • Derek Jeter. The style, the grace, the leadership, the work ethic, the sheer lack of whining.
  • Adam Vinatieri. Nerves o steel.
  • Tom Brady. Classic kid second looie gets promoted in a firefight...yer either gonna crack, or yer gonna show some real leadership.
  • Scott Shipley. One of the most incredibly hardcore athletes of all time, a world champion in his sport, and you never heard of him. He's a nice guy, too.
  • Jamila Wideman and the rest of the girls on the Amherst High School basketball team in In These Girls, Hope Is A Muscle. What I would have given to have been part of that team.
That'll do for starters...

posted by lil_brown_bat at 10:18 AM on May 14, 2004

Derek Jeter . . . the sheer lack of whining How 'bout a warning next time? It hurts like hell when I have to Heimlich myself on the edge of my desk.

posted by yerfatma at 10:20 AM on May 14, 2004

Q4. In your profile, you list WNBA, NBA, NFL, MLB and World Cup ski racing as events you've attended. Which is your favorite sport to watch? What sports do you play? Which of those is your favorite? Why?

posted by worldcup2002 at 11:44 AM on May 14, 2004

Q4. In your profile, you list WNBA, NBA, NFL, MLB and World Cup ski racing as events you've attended. Which is your favorite sport to watch? Did I really say I'd attended those? I don't even watch all of 'em. I think, of the biggies that anyone would recognize, I've attended MLB and WNBA, also US alpine ski nationals. My favorite sport to watch depends on where I'm watching it from, and then on the weather. I enjoy watching NFL football on TV when it's snowing; I also enjoy watching ski racing on TV, but ski racing is usually a PITA to watch live. And if you have to take pictures and interview people? Big PITA. I like watching baseball played at any level, and I especially like watcing it live, because I find that the crowd generally has a lot more intelligent stuff to say than the idiots who are doing the commentary on the tee vee these days (and yes, I remember thinking no one could be worse than Phil Rizzuto). I like watching tennis a whole lot. I love going to track meets when the weather is good. I like watching basketball at any level except for the NBA. I like watching college hockey, but only live. I like watching lacrosse, especially girls' or women's lacrosse. I like watching halfpipe competitions because you get a lot of wrecks. And, how's this for obscure, I like watching whitewater kayak slalom and whitewater rodeo. What sports do you play? Which of those is your favorite? Why? Competitively? The only thing I do competitively is ski racing, which I only do because it helps improve my skiing, not because I might actually win something. Put it this way, in my division, whenever I get int the starting hut, I'm standing behind a former US team member. I've also done a little whitewater kayak slalom and may do some more in the future, although it's hard to find somewhere to train. And I may be playing some hoops in a women's just-for-fun league in the fall. I also do a lot of road biking, whitewater kayaking, and I play tennis, but I never do any of those competitively. What's my favorite? Skiing, whitewater kayaking very close second.

posted by lil_brown_bat at 12:19 PM on May 14, 2004

What the heck is whitewater rodeo? And is it a coed sport?

posted by billsaysthis at 08:23 PM on May 14, 2004

Q5. Yes, what the heck is whitewater rodeo?

posted by worldcup2002 at 09:39 PM on May 14, 2004

WC, I love you and all but stop stealing my questions already!!!

posted by billsaysthis at 10:45 PM on May 14, 2004

I agree. Stop stealing bill's questions already.

posted by worldcup2002 at 11:10 PM on May 14, 2004

Derek Jeter. The style, the grace, the leadership, the work ethic, the sheer lack of whining. You forgot over-rated! I'm just sayin'...

posted by justgary at 04:03 AM on May 15, 2004

Derek Jeter. The style, the grace, the leadership, the work ethic, the sheer lack of whining. Good old Captain Intangibles.

posted by jerseygirl at 09:01 AM on May 15, 2004

Red Sox Nation in full effect!

posted by dusted at 07:27 PM on May 15, 2004

If you are looking for the epitome of Yankee style, grace, leadership, ethic, etc, look no further than Joe Torre. I like Torre and have this culmulative growing respect for him. The boss, the team, the players... no dice. Torre, all good.

posted by jerseygirl at 08:22 PM on May 15, 2004

strike "culmulative" because A. it isn't a word and B. if it was a word, it would be redundant. and if you'll excuse me, i've got some moisturizer i need to be applying. so burnt. so very very burnt.

posted by jerseygirl at 08:24 PM on May 15, 2004

well, somebody's gotta try to break up this boston circle jerk, might as well be me. i agree with you on torre, jg (but show me one yankee fan that wouldn't) but i also gotta agree die fledermaus on jeter. no matter how crappy he's hitting right now, he still emodies those qualities. and he hasn't let his defense suffer through the slump (he's actually picked up his play in the field this year) although he has been whining a bit more on strikes, but i think that's more of a frustration thing. so make fun of capt'n intangibles all you want, but i think he's handled the captaincy well so far. (i'm sure i'm gonna get beaten to a pulp over this) bernie also has the style, grace, ethic, etc. he's been here since lean years of the early 90s and the real fans here don't forget that. sure he's not the player he once was, but he's not dead yet. and his mojo at the plate has been creeping back the pasat few games.

posted by goddam at 09:08 PM on May 15, 2004

i should qualify my above statements by saying that i don't think those qualities are directly responsible for winning ball games (although they don't hurt). but for me it makes following this team and its players more enjoyable.

posted by goddam at 09:18 PM on May 15, 2004

well, somebody's gotta try to break up this boston circle jerk Aww, come one. Two people does not a circle jerk make. It would be back and forth, back and forth... I won't say anymore about this, because I know this is a derail but Jeter has never been a good fielding shortstop. His hitting has gone downhill steadily since 99, but his fielding has always been average to below average. Sometimes you can't believe the big apple hype. And I like jeter, but I'd respect him more if he'd go to third by his own decision. Arod is a better shortstop, case closed. If its better for the team, and jeter is THE team player, why not? On that note, I'm outa here.

posted by justgary at 01:16 AM on May 16, 2004

Who ever breaks up the jerk has to eat the ookie cookie. So there.

posted by yerfatma at 01:29 AM on May 16, 2004

i'm just supporting lil_brown_bat's love for jeter. admiration for a player doesn't come down to stats. you guys will never understand why we love jeter, just like i'll never understand why you guys love the caveman.

posted by goddam at 05:46 AM on May 16, 2004

i for one, don't love the caveman. he's okay, especially this year. i love ortizzle. and the new manny. but i get what you're saying. on with the interview! :)

posted by jerseygirl at 08:15 AM on May 16, 2004

i figured you'd get it. yes, on with the interview. i'd like to know how she became both a yankee fan and a patriots fan.

posted by goddam at 03:30 PM on May 16, 2004

A nose for bandwagons?

posted by yerfatma at 04:58 PM on May 16, 2004

Okay, I'm back. Sorry. Spent the weekend cleaning out a house. Quel dommage. Q5. Yes, what the heck is whitewater rodeo? Whitewater rodeo is a sport performed in a whitewater kayak, or occasionally a C1, which is basically a whitewater kayak paddled with a single-bladed paddle. In whitewater rodeo, the participants compete to see who can do the most/best stunts in the time alloted. It is somewhat like a western rodeo in that you have x amount of time to get your "ride", and also that you frequently get bucked off (or, as whitewater people put it, beat, spanked, worked, turfed, hammered, blendered, chundered, etc.). It is somewhat unlike a western rodeo, and a bit more like halfpipe or figure skating or something like that, in that you have some control over the moves you choose to make, and that moves are judged for successful execution and also degree of difficulty. One good place to see some examples of whitewater rodeo is the Lunch Video Magazine website.

posted by lil_brown_bat at 07:09 PM on May 16, 2004

Q6. Wow, so many sports, so little time. What do you do outside of the sports you mentioned to keep in shape or get in shape? Do you have a special exercise and diet regimen?

posted by worldcup2002 at 12:42 PM on May 17, 2004

Q6. Wow, so many sports, so little time. Yer tellin' me. I forgot to mention that I'm also an occasional snowboarder. What do you do outside of the sports you mentioned to keep in shape or get in shape? Do you have a special exercise and diet regimen? Yes, but it varies a lot with the seasons. I got motivated when I realized that I wasn't seventeen any more, and that I could spend the time getting in shape, or I could spend twice the time recovering from injuries. Duh. The big disadvantage of my fave sports is that they're not real good ways of getting in shape. Yes, they'll tax your body, but that's not the same thing as "getting in shape"; on the contrary, if you're not already in shape when you hit the ski slopes (or put on the river), you're likely to get in a shape of some sort, but it probably won't be the one you wanted. My goal, which I often miss, is something cardiovascular 5-6x a week, strength training 3x a week, and something interval-ish if I'm heading into ski season or kayak season. And yes, it is time-consuming. Right now I'm doing a 5 AM run-walk with some friends, and I'd much rather be sleeping. As for diet, I keep it simple, which doesn't mean easy: whole grains, poly- and mono-unsaturated fats rather than saturated or hydrogenated, fruits and veges, get some protein at every meal, and try to keep the red meat and sweets down to a dull roar.

posted by lil_brown_bat at 02:24 PM on May 17, 2004

Q7. Man, I have a growing fear and admiration for you. Were you always this athletic? Were you really sports-oriented growing up? How did you develop this love for sports?

posted by worldcup2002 at 11:11 PM on May 17, 2004

Q7. Man, I have a growing fear and admiration for you. Don't. Were you always this athletic? Were you really sports-oriented growing up? How did you develop this love for sports? Nope. I went to high school in the early years of Title IX. Compliance was slow and grudging, and there were few opportunities for girls in sports. Maybe more to the point, girls ran into a lot of resistence, disapproval, and even outright harassment whenever we tried to do sports. The way my high school "complied", in most cases, was to tell girls that we were perfectly free to try out for the boys' teams if we wanted. I remember the year that girls had the brand new option of trying out for the baseball team, and how a male teacher (who was also the wrestling coach) went into a rant about it in class one day. According to him, the fact that none of the girls who'd tried out had made the team was "proof" that we didn't belong there. All the boys who were trying out had had years of organized coaching and playing experience, as well as the benefit of simply tossing the ball around with their dads and older brothers -- but this "teacher" either forgot that small factoid, or chose to overlook it. My local high school has about ten different sports teams for girls; my high school had two, IIRC. The track coach tried to recruit me to run 400, but I wasn't that interested at the time. It just seemed like too much hassle. If you win, people might cheer a little, but mostly they'd treat you like a freak. Looking back on it, I think I would have been better off if I'd just said the hell with it and did it anyway, but at the time I could see all the downsides and none of the upsides. Anyway, I was active and always loved getting in a game, but the only time a girl would ever get to play was when they were short of boys. I would have loved to play little league, but girls weren't allowed. I did do a lot of sailing -- I've been single-handing since I was five -- but we never owned a race-class boat, so I never raced. And I did as much alpine skiing as I possibly could, but because we didn't live in a mountain town, I couldn't get hooked up with a race program. I think that I was naturally drawn to sports, but for all the reasons described above, I didn't participate much as a kid. Things have changed now -- not as much as they need to, but enough to create some opportunity -- but all those changes came too late for me to take full advantage of them.

posted by lil_brown_bat at 11:09 AM on May 18, 2004

Q8. And yet, you have a full sporting life. It's inspiring, I tell you. OK, enough about sports. What else do you do for fun?

posted by worldcup2002 at 12:17 PM on May 18, 2004

Q8. And yet, you have a full sporting life. It's inspiring, I tell you. OK, enough about sports. What else do you do for fun? Um, letsee, long walks on the beach, candlelight dinners...wait, no, wrong website... I like to hike (can we say that's not a sport, pleez?). I like to read, mostly fantasy/SF, but also books about sports, and newspapers, particularly the Boston Globe accompanied by a good capuccino. I like to go see movies if they're shown in a really good theater -- one with a decent screen and real butter on the popcorn. Otherwise, I'm a big fan of Netflix. I like to homebrew beer...actually, it's a lot of drudgery, but I like designing new beers and I like the results. I like to cook with my oldest brother. I like to hang out on my front porch, which is one of the world's greatest front porches, with a view of a whitewater river and a ski area. I also like thunderstorms, and the reason I mention that is that we got a beauty approaching Right This Minute, and I'm about to pop a DVD into the player (Brotherhood of the Wolf, in case you were wondering...one of the all-time best "lights are off and there's a thunderstorm outside" movies) and get down to some quality reeelaxing.

posted by lil_brown_bat at 07:29 PM on May 18, 2004

Q9. Food and drink! Tell us about the beers you make. What's your favorite beer, either of the homebrew variety or not? Any other pet poisons? What do you like to cook? And why, particularly, with your brother?

posted by worldcup2002 at 09:52 AM on May 19, 2004

we got a piece of that thunderstorm in boston late last night. it was sweet. netflix, yep, yep. cooking, good good. the globe is good. love the globe. which reminds me, i need to go get my Swilly pin.

posted by jerseygirl at 09:57 AM on May 19, 2004

And why, particularly, with your brother? Inquiring minds want to know.

posted by dusted at 11:55 AM on May 19, 2004

Will you guys please send that rain down here to NC? It's brutally dry right now.

posted by NoMich at 12:17 PM on May 19, 2004

My wife wants to start brewing her own beer. Please tell her its incredibly hard and not worth the trouble so she will leave me alone ;)

posted by justgary at 01:46 PM on May 19, 2004

Q9. Food and drink! Tell us about the beers you make. What's your favorite beer, either of the homebrew variety or not? It varies a lot. My best recipe is for an amber ale that I call Frank Smith's Ale, after my grandfather. It's malty, uses a very mellow hops, and is fermented with an Irish ale yeast (although you can make minor but distinctive variants of it by simply changing the yeast strain). I also like white beers, but I'm a little off them to drink. I used to be into pale ales, but the whole heavily-hopped ale thing has been taken too far, IMO -- it's like hot and spicy food, there's a point where you're using so much hops that it's just not very drinkable any more. Likewise the previous trend towards really tarry dark beers. I've never made a really dark beer because, to be honest, I'm too arrogant. They're easier to make than the lighter beers; all that dark stuff covers a myriad of mistakes. Some of my all-time fave beers are Kross, which is a really small Belgian-style brewery in Vermont, and the Mountain Ale they serve at the Shed in Stowe, VT, and Dusseldorfer Altbier. Can I just say one thing? There are a lot of micros out there now, but most of them seem to have a clever label and not much else to recommend them, frankly. Buyer, beware, there are a lot of $7.60 a six pack ripoffs out there. There is nothing wrong with a clean, crisp, Labatt Bleu, and if someone's trying to push some micro with Ralph Steadman label art on you and telling you that it's All That, let your tastebuds take a vote. And let your hangover take a vote, too. There are some beers, some very good beers, that you really shouldn't drink after a fifty-mile bike ride, because you will feel like fifty miles of bad road the next morning. Any other pet poisons? Hard cider, Hornsby's by preference. I, um, also have a five gallon carboy full of what is probably hard cider in my pantry. I didn't get around to bottling it on schedule. I'll have to taste it some day soon, and if it's drinkable, that'll be my first batch of hard cider. I also like Old Fashioneds made according to my aunt's recipe (fill glass with ice, add a dash of bitters, slice of orange, maraschino cherry and a little cherry juice, and fill glass with whiskey). What do you like to cook? And why, particularly, with your brother? I like to cook all kinds of things. I can make a pretty good cake, and I used to make truffles every Christmas (it's a lot of work, though). I have a great sesame noodle recipe that I really can't call cooking cuz it's just "put it all in a blender, wrr, there ya go". I cook a lot of seafood. I can cook all kinds of foolish things like puff pastry and chicken Queen Elizabeth and souffles and like that, but I don't do it very often. I love cooking a really big breakfast -- again, something I almost never do. Chili. Pie. Fussy party foods. As for why with my brother, it's cuz he taught me how to cook, along with a lot of other things. He's the oldest, I'm the youngest, and we're very alike in temperament and in what we like to do. He was a professional cook as well as a ski instructor, and he taught me how to ski and play tennis, too. Anyway, we live a couple thousand miles apart, but when we get together, we cook. The rest of the family gets a huge kick out of it, because it's pretty comical: "Okay, so...now what?" "Well, now we have to cook the shrimp and scallops." "Okay." [pause] "So, um..." "So, go ahead." "Go ahead? I thought you were gonna cook 'em!" "What do you mean, I was gonna cook 'em? Cook 'em how? Wasn't this your idea?" It all turns out fine in the end, and no lasting damage done.

posted by lil_brown_bat at 07:11 PM on May 19, 2004

That's just beautiful. Probably the most engaging answer of the bunch (and that's saying something!) Food, drink, family. I'm hungry, thirsty, and now I have a smile on my lips, and a tear in my eye.

posted by worldcup2002 at 07:14 PM on May 19, 2004

Q10. So let's end this with more love. Do you have a main squeeze? If you do, tell us who it is. If you don't, tell us what you look like. Maybe we'll have the first SpoFi hook-up from it. Who knows. And tell me who to interview next.

posted by worldcup2002 at 07:16 PM on May 19, 2004

My wife wants to start brewing her own beer. Please tell her its incredibly hard and not worth the trouble so she will leave me alone justgary, I advise you to tell your wife to start leaving you alone, and feel free to give her my e-mail address. Gift horse, dude. We should all be so lucky. You bastard.

posted by Samsonov14 at 01:06 AM on May 20, 2004

You know, you may have a point there Samsonov14. (honestly, I just think the money would be best spent on more guinness)

posted by justgary at 02:23 AM on May 20, 2004

I don't know if you guys ever watch Good Eats, but he did a show on brewing your own beer. It didn't look all that hard to do and I have a friend that tried his recipe and said that it was actually pretty damn good. I'd say that if you don't want to put as much effort as l_b_b does into brewing your own, then Alton Brown's method would be worth a try.

posted by NoMich at 07:46 AM on May 20, 2004

I've had homebrew equipment sitting my closet for the last 6 months. I should do something with it.

posted by corpse at 08:00 AM on May 20, 2004

My wife wants to start brewing her own beer. Please tell her its incredibly hard and not worth the trouble so she will leave me alone i don't know how you live, man. she probably wants to attend sporting events and watch gross out comedy movies with you too. The horror! /sarcasm ;)

posted by jerseygirl at 08:30 AM on May 20, 2004

If you can dedicate a Saturday to it every now and again, homebrewing is an extremely rewarding hobby. My advice is to learn using the pre-packaged malt syrups, but figure out how to extract your own from malted barley as soon as you can. The syrups are convenient but expensive; buying bulk grain gives you more control over your beer, more varieties to explore, and makes you feel like a total stud.

posted by rocketman at 08:53 AM on May 20, 2004

Alton Brown teaches you how to brew beer!? That's like combining two of my favorite things! Now I know what we're using the extra space in our basement for.

posted by Jugwine at 08:57 AM on May 20, 2004

corpse, send your idle brewing eqpt to justgary's wife in exchange for a monthly case of beer. That's a win-hic-win situation.

posted by worldcup2002 at 09:59 AM on May 20, 2004

Jugwine: Alton's recipe for beer.

posted by NoMich at 10:44 AM on May 20, 2004

Where be l_l_b?

posted by worldcup2002 at 11:39 AM on May 20, 2004

You people are no help whatsoever.

posted by justgary at 11:47 AM on May 20, 2004

Actually, gary, I can sympathize. When my girlfriend found out I homebrew, she wants to do it every weekend, which is more than I can handle.

posted by rocketman at 12:03 PM on May 20, 2004

And when I say "do it", I mean "homebrew". Not, you know, intercourse.

posted by rocketman at 12:04 PM on May 20, 2004

Coitus?

posted by LionIndex at 12:05 PM on May 20, 2004

making the beast with two backs?

posted by garfield at 12:24 PM on May 20, 2004

rocketman: you're not the man that we think you are. Are you? /millionth time you've heard that

posted by NoMich at 12:27 PM on May 20, 2004

When my girlfriend found out I homebrew, she wants to do it every weekend, which is more than I can handle. Haha. Such a great line.

posted by justgary at 01:05 PM on May 20, 2004

remind me to refuse that 'weekend special' batch rocketman offers at the spofi meetup.

posted by danostuporstar at 01:55 PM on May 20, 2004

yeah, stay away from the cream ale?

posted by garfield at 03:25 PM on May 20, 2004

This has to be the most "locker room" the locker room has ever gotten.

posted by LionIndex at 04:30 PM on May 20, 2004

this ain't nuttin.

posted by garfield at 05:18 PM on May 20, 2004

Wow, I go away for part of a day to do a little hiking and look what I come back to. Get yer mind out the gutter, get your hand off my udder...bonus points to anyone who gets the reference. Q10. So let's end this with more love. Do you have a main squeeze? If you do, tell us who it is. If you don't, tell us what you look like. Maybe we'll have the first SpoFi hook-up from it. Who knows. Not hooked up, not looking to be. I like my lifestyle the way it is, and to be honest, my last four SOs took more away from it than they added. If it happens, it'll be with someone who likes the same stuff I like -- a rare combination. As for what I look like, I'm 5' 6", got short dirty blonde hair that makes up its own mind what to do, green eyes, naturally pale white person with a farmer's tan. I don't have a third eye or anything, but they'd never put me in Cosmo or anything foolish like that. And tell me who to interview next. Who's already been?

posted by lil_brown_bat at 08:02 PM on May 20, 2004

You're gonna have to look here (all my Locker Room posts) or here (lists 18 of the 21 interviews). I'm too lazy to summarize. You could also just list a bunch, in order of interest, and I can pick the first one I haven't interviewed. Thanks for doing the interview.

posted by worldcup2002 at 08:21 PM on May 20, 2004

Get yer mind out the gutter, get your hand off my udder...bonus points to anyone who gets the reference. MoooooooooOOOOOOOOOoo, I'm a cow. That song always gets stuck in my head when I think about it.

posted by Ufez Jones at 10:00 PM on May 20, 2004

Okay, who to interview next...how 'bout chicobangs???

posted by lil_brown_bat at 09:01 AM on May 23, 2004

hoho!~:)have your times!

posted by google163 at 02:18 PM on November 05, 2004

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