Pro Football Hall of Names: Second Team

Confession time: I wrote the bulk of this post a year ago, at the beginning of the 2010 football season. It grew into a long enough opus to fall by the wayside because of my mercurial re-editing tendencies. Before I knew it, the divisional playoffs were upon us and I decided that the post and I needed some time apart.

But now football is back, baby, attended by two of my favorite ancillary activities: trash-talking my friends in our fantasy league and contemplating the funny names of players. The former I have mentioned in this blog before (although not lately), and the latter is the basis of this post — which is now a series of posts. That’s how many unusual, distinctive, or just plain funny names I have dug out of the annals of American football between the 1920′s and the present. So enough pre-game, let’s kick this thing off!

2ND TEAM (MILDLY SILLY)

  • atari-bigby
    Defensive Back • Green Bay Packers (2005-10), Seattle Seahawks (2011- )

    He claims that his first name is Japanese for “attack,” although that doesn’t account for the fact that Bigby is a defensive player. I think it would be cool for Bigby to celebrate his interceptions by forming himself into a triangle, rotating in place and ‘firing’ at larger players with a “pew-pew-pew!” sound. It would probably draw an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, of course. The refs might even tack on an additional five yards for copyright violation.

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How to Deal With Comic Sans

It’s extremely simple: don’t. Establish a zero-tolerance policy for the accursed Comic Sans font and its cross-platform counterpart, Comic Sans MS. This font is the typographic equivalent of IE6, by which I mean if you’re still using it, you’re part of the problem. Help us all get to where we should have been long ago: a world sans Comic Sans. Here’s a subtly annotated glimpse.
Come. Come, you see.

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Market Research Mirage

Today I offer an anecdotal snapshot of how hard it is to get paid to do anything in the current economy. The following took place only minutes ago:

I am seated at the computer screen, plugging away as usual. On the surface of my desk, my cell phone rings gently and vibrates loudly. I pick it up and look at the caller ID readout, which displays an unfamiliar number from an obscure area code. The phone continues to ring as I consider letting it go to voicemail. Then, impulsively, I touch the screen to answer the call.

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Websites Suck at Evaluating This Website

A few longtime readers may recall the time I had this blog’s reading level gauged by a web-based tool. The less-than-flattering result was “Junior High School level.” Less than a year later, that particular website evaluator no longer existed.

graded-paperDespite that experience, I seem to have retained a masochistic urge to be graded. Spurred on by the example of MaryAnn (a.k.a. The Flick Filosopher — see my blogroll), I rashly submitted this blog to the scrutiny of Hubspot’s Website Grader. Following her lead, I focused on Section I, letter E of the report:

high-school

Hey — that means I graduated up a level in only three years! Although… oh yeah, junior high school is only three years. Continue reading

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The Best of Twitter

Does anyone ever look at the “Favorite” tweets on other people’s Twitter profiles? Until that question occurred to me the other day, I don’t know if I ever had done so. Admittedly, the “Favorites” feature on Twitter is one I tend to forget about periodically. If my hunch is correct and people seldom look at each other’s favorite tweets, then what good is this collection of favorites that I’ve been compiling in fits and starts?

twitter-stampSo hear this: I have some favorite tweets — and damn it, attention must be paid. I am boldly risking my reputation by giving the following tweets the imprimatur of my favor. 1 Lastly, I should mention that the embedding code for these tweets was generated by socialditto.com; I tweaked the CSS format a little to blend with the design of this blog.

You know, my CD is available on my website. I feel silly saying, but it is, and Flag Day is coming up, so you’ll be looking for gift ideas.Jun 3 2009 via web

Something smells like pee. I think it’s near the spot on the rug where my dog was standing when she looked me square in the eye and peed. Jun 3 2009 via web


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