In honor of Texas Tech’s success, it’s worth revisiting the New York Times Magazine’s profile of Mike Leach.
From his unique technique:
The big gaps between the linemen made the quarterback seem more vulnerable - some defenders could seemingly run right between the blockers - but he wasn’t. Stretching out the offensive line stretched out the defensive line too, forcing the most ferocious pass rushers several yards farther from the quarterback. It also opened up wide passing lanes through which even a short quarterback could see the whole field clearly. Leach spread out his receivers and backs too. The look was more flag than tackle football: a truly fantastic number of players racing around trying to catch passes on every play, and a quarterback surprisingly able to keep an eye on all of them.
…to the pirate himself:
Each off-season, Leach picks something he is curious about and learns as much as he can about it: Geronimo, Daniel Boone, whales, chimpanzees, grizzly bears, Jackson Pollock. The list goes on, and if you can find the common thread, you are a step ahead of his football players. One year, he studied pirates. When he learned that a pirate ship was a functional democracy; that pirates disciplined themselves; that, loathed by others, they nevertheless found ways to work together, the pirate ship became a metaphor for his football team. Last year, after a loss to Texas A.&M. in overtime, Leach hauled the team into the conference room on Sunday morning and delivered a three-hour lecture on the history of pirates. Leach read from his favorite pirate history, “Under the Black Flag,” by David Cordingly (the passages about homosexuality on pirate ships had been crossed out). The analogy to football held up for a few minutes, but after a bit, it was clear that Coach Leach was just … talking about pirates. The quarterback Cody Hodges says of his coach: “You learn not to ask questions. If you ask questions, it just goes on longer.”
# 2008 Nov 19
“To dissipate any doubts, one morning on the way to the lab I bought a pocket-size bottle of cheap white tequila and we did some tests,” Apátiga said. “We were in doubt over whether the great amount of chemicals present in tequila, other than water and ethanol, would contaminate or obstruct the process, it turned out to be not so. The results were amazing, same as with the ethanol and water compound, we obtained almost spherical shaped diamonds of nanometric size. There is no doubt; tequila has the exact proportion of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen atoms necessary to form diamonds.”
No wonder those shots always cost so much at the bar. I’m throwing back diamonds!
# 2008 Nov 19
I don’t know what they put in the water at Pixar, but apparently it contains the pure extract of “consistently awesome”.
# 2008 Nov 07
Though the national media (represented by plasticine mouthpiece known colloquially as “Joe Buck”) expends extraordinary effort suppressing the truth at the request of the powerful Taco Lobby, it is the lowly hot dog that has, in fact, been motivating Carlos Ruiz’s masterful performance this World Series.
Our agents have succeeded in decoding the inner-workings of Ruiz’s head and present them here:
We also have reason to suspect the motivation behind Joe Blanton’s improbable home run was the promise of one “Nathan’s Famous” hot dog.
# 2008 Oct 27
Pennsylvania’s smoking ban went into effect yesterday, but since not all bars are required to go smoke-free, curiosity compelled me to call a few places up and see which way they went regarding the ban.
I figured others might find this information useful, so here’s which bars in the southeastern Pennsylvania area allow smoking, and which ones don’t:
Delaware County:
Chester County:
Montgomery County:
Delaware County:
Notes: I plan on updating this list as I gather new information, and so far, I’ve verified each bar on the list. If you think something’s wrong, use the email link on the right.
# 2008 Sep 12
EepyBird’s Sticky Note experiment from Eepybird on Vimeo.
Via Waxy.
# 2008 Sep 11
Pennsylvania finally sort of joins neighboring Delaware, New York, and New Jersey in banning indoor smoking.
Unfortunately, the law contains a few exceptions:
The new law exempts taverns and bars where food accounts for less than 20% of sales and alcohol accounts for more than 80% of sales, established private clubs where the officers vote to allow it, and on 25% of gambling floor space at casinos; the bill passed also would not allow for more stringent regulation by county and municipal governments.
Philadelphia’s stronger ban is untouched (good), but other local governments are barred from passing stronger bans (bad). And the “food accounts for less than 20% of sales” exemption is less strict than Philly’s, which sets the limit at 10% sales from food.
No matter what, it’s better than nothing. The ever-present cloud of smoke in local bars pushed me to make the trip to Philly more often than not, and it’s nice to know at least some of my neighborhood bars are smoke-free.
# 2008 Sep 11
This Saturday, for the first time since 1990, Penn State meets Syracuse on the football field. The teams played every year between 1922 and 1990, making it one of the few things older than Joe Paterno.
There’s a rundown of the history of the rivalry over at Black Shoe Diaries, which might help you find a reason to care about what’s otherwise going to be a rout.
# 2008 Sep 11
Kottke made a poll asking what’s the best show that’s ever been on television?.
There’s some great shows listed (more than a few personal favorites), but there was one show that surpasses all the others in cultural relevance, ubiquity, and literacy: The Simpsons.
# 2008 Sep 10
Love - it’s not up to you:
Swiss startup company GenePartner is offering to evaluate singles and couples according to the potential union of their HLA genes, which help regulate immune response.
People may naturally be attracted to mates with HLA profiles different from their own, ostensibly guaranteeing the hybrid vigor of their offspring’s immune systems — and also providing a spark that will last through good times and bad.
Via the Frisky.
# 2008 Sep 10
Ezra Klein on the media’s role as storytellers given the overabundance of information in the comtempory media market:
They fill this new role through the methods storytellers have always used to tell stories: the repetition of certain key themes and characters, which creates continuity between one day’s events and the next and helps the audience understand which parts to pay attention to. It’s sort of like a TV show: If Friends had had an episode where Ross and Rachel hooked up, but never mentioned it again, that would’ve been weird, but their tryst wouldn’t have been a big part of the story. Since they mentioned it all the time, and came back to it, and fit future events into that context, it was a big story. Similarly, if the press reports something and never mentions it again, the public knows to forget it. It’s not important. If they mention it constantly — “I voted for the $87 billion before I voted against it” — they know it is important. The job of the media, in other words, is now to also emphasize the right parts of the story.
# 2008 Sep 09
You’re looking at the most recent posts on scotttroyan.com. Older posts can be viewed in the archives.
Follow along with me on Twitter.
Like what you see? Hate it? Then .
All contents copyright 1995-2008 by Scott Troyan unless differently noted.
