David Simon: The Wire of MacArthur geniuses
I’m hereby announcing that we are now accepting nominations for the first annual FKArthur Genius Awards. Every FKer may nominate as many geniuses as she or he deems fit. We will accept nominations until we have enough nominees, and then we’ll decide who wins. It could be one, all, or none of the nominees. Official designated FKArther Geniuses each receive a lifetime supply of FREE KRAUT! Suggested (there are no rules!) eligibility for the FKArthur Genius Award: lifelong pursuit of an idiosyncratic form of perfection (of form) in the face of scorn and/or neglect from Respectable People.
My nominees:
- Randall Munroe
- Matt Yglesias
- Jack Cust
- Adam West
- Gerard Langley
Prof. Mavalvala’s win is sweet for mrs trebuchet – Mavalvala is the faculty sponsor to mrs trebuchet’s Graduate Women in Physics group.
I’ll second nominations for Munroe and Cust.
Also, Adam West’s voice over as “The Gray Ghost” in Batman: The Animated Series is the first time I recognized the concept of meta (albeit without putting a name on the phenomenon).
Sarah Palin has got to win one of these.
I second this nomination, but only in conjunction with Sullivan; they’ll have to split the FREE KRAUT evenly.
I will put a nomination in Rivers Cuomo, for – over the last 15 years – reaching the saddle point intersecting insanely-catchy-tap-your-feet-keep-humming-it-for-five-straight-days pop and embarrassingly terrible music.
In that same category I’d like to make a joint nomination of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker.
Hawk Harrelson?
Don Perata.
K-Thug
Kenny Williams
Shit then, the entire White Sox organization. Ozzie, Kenny, Reinsdorf, Hawk, AJ…
Christ.
Really? Nominating the son of God? I didn’t realize you were christian.
Kiss ass.
In fact I am. So there.
Here’s my prediction for Beane’s surprise FA move: he signs Napoli after the Slegna nontender him (no TUOOD, no Werth, no Lee)
And we’re in a race to the bottom with Seattle.
Mike Pence approves
HIRE MACHA NOW!!!
Morlock? Seriously?
From Wasilla?
All those cries of “Eloi Akbar” finally got to him.
He can see the year 802,701 from his house.
When I was an exchange student in Brazil, I played Moog for The Progressive Liberal Synthesis
Hey, Ken Arneson is blogging again.
infrequently, it appears.
An ad campaign for sabermetrics … that’s right in your wheelhouse, isn’t it?
Yes, it is. I posted a response to Ken … I’ll have to give some thought to the challenge.
As long as FK gets the exclusive scoop, you are hereby authorized to split your online creativity time in this manner.
I need an account # to bill time to.
1234567
“admin”
Yeah, well, look out for lightning bolts.
Beane should have some scratchers custom-made with free agent names underneath.
I nominate Rev Halofan.
Seconded
Is it just me, or does this make zero sense?
I doubt the Giants really give half a crap. They’re just positioning themselves to maximize their ransom demands. I guess, sure, if the A’s disappeared entirely, that wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing for the Giants; but it seems to me that the A’s remaining in Oakland would be a positive for the Giants (especially if the A’s stadium keeps getting deferred indefinitely) — it provides great contrast for the Giants, what with the perception/reality of a less affluent fanbase, the lack of a stadium, the lack of roster continuity, the absent/ineffectual marketing.
Either way, though, the first objective is to stop the A’s from moving to SJ.
I think the Giants mostly just want the A’s to remain the poor stepchild of the Bay Area. Stone is overlaying his pretty heavy partisan spin on the matter, construing that as a desire to drive the A’s out of business/town. I also think there’s some truth to the idea that the Giants believe that some of their revenue is under long-term jeopardy from a South Bay relocation, but yeah, that should be a relatively quantifable amount that the G’s could demand as compensation.
It would be interesting to see what SF’s perspective would/will be if they come to a point of believing a new ballpark in Oakland will happen. If you stipulate that the A’s are guaranteed to remain in the Bay Area, in a money-making new park, would SF rather have that new park close by in Oakland, or further away in SJ?
Yeah, you and I are in agreement on that first bit.
Given the real reason for the A’s desired move (more corporate cash in SJ/South Bay than in Oakland/East Bay), I think the Giants would prefer an Oakland park.
I think a MacArthur award for Tom Tango would be a very interesting idea.
We’re # 1!
…in understanding theological issues better than most adherents themselves. Though the Mormons get a shout-out for being better versed in the New Testament than most Protestents.
Unsurprising. This is a
countryworld where noone knows shit about shit. Why would religion be different? Ed Note: fixedAlso, I would posit that atheists win because they often choose to reject their parents’ views (therefore having to talk alot about it). I bet the reverse is true in less religious parts of the country.
11 for me.
15/15
Ditto
14
Ditto
Missed only the Jewish Sabbath question.
same here
the christian questions are pretty detailed (asking about job, for example), but the questions for other religions are very general (vishnu is part of what religion, who celebrates ramadan – the equivalent would be asking which religion is jesus a central figure in and who celebrates christmas)
and yet…
I got tripped up by a couple that were tricky (the sabbath, for example, is mostly on a day other than when it starts), and made a couple stupid mistakes. Hence 11. And that put me in the 80th percentile.
also, aren’t you more religious than us high scorers? :-)
Probably. Certainly by “facebook identification” type tests.
13 for me. Missed the Job one and the 10 commandments one. However, I confess to a few lucky guesses (never heard of Jonathan Edwards, for example).
Never had to read Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God?
Or hear his followup hit “Sunshine”?
Nope. My guess was based on a further guess that perhaps former presidential candidate John Edwards was named after him, which does not appear to be true.
Fortunately, I was quite familiar with Chuck Finney.
Fortunately, I know that JE Sucks
13
JLBait
I don’t agree with the whole post, but I endorse the following:
Well, if we’re going the route of knowing what’s actually taught/believed, I probably would have gotten the HOW MUCH DOES JEEEZUS H8 SOSHULISM — THIS MUCH, THIS MUCH, OR THIS MUCH?!? question wrong.
Duh. The answer is GO USA!
Along the same lines, it’s my impression that Judaism and LDS both place more emphasis on their histories than do the mainline protestant sects, which might be another reason why their adherents do better on this kind of quiz.
On the other hand, I’d consider most of these questions to be in the category of basic cultural literacy, especially for people who purport to be Judeo-Christian.
This is why you have to back up the back-up.
I was really disappointed that the RF didn’t flub it as well.
If I was in RF I might feel morally obligated.
Erick Erickson
Leif Ericsson.
Sony Ericsson
Leif Garrett
I was waiting for that one.
Garrett Anderson
Anderson Cooper
Sterling Cooper
Sterling Sharpe
Richard Sharpe
Cliff Richard
Clifford the Big Red DogCliff BurtonBurton Ernie
Sterling Hayden
Stirling Moss
California is awesome sometimes.
Cal eliminates varsity baseball.
That stinks. What are they going to do with Evans diamond?
New A’s stadium.
A’s fans would never fill that thing.
Supply would finally equal demand.
Christ, and rugby.
The one thing Cal truly dominates, and they defund it.
“varsity club”
Meanwhile the football team is getting their $150 million locker room. Built on an active fault.
It should not be this hot this late into September.
At least it’s FKin’ dry. It’s almost tolerable if you stay in the shade.
But it’s folly to venture out under the hateful gaze of Malefic Sol.
{does happy dance in the sunny garden}
I might have to make an ice cream run
I’ve gotten hooked on Yogurtland self-serve plain tart frozen yogurt.
Spent July in Shanghai this year for an internship and went to St. Louis for a week in August. One of the worst summers, heat wise, I’ve ever experienced.
I can top it.
I wonder if this would work against a fog bank.
Langur hands!
In 98, McGwire hit 70 homers, Sammy Sosa won the MVP, but neither finished in the top three in position player WAR. Who in the NL put up seasons of 9.3, 8.1, and 7.4 WAR that year?
Bonds, someone, and Chipper Jones
My first guess for the middle one was Helton, but I was way off (that year–8.8 in 2000)
Dang it, not Bagwell either.
John Olerud
i was surprised by how far ahead of the pack bonds was. he really was a magnificent all-around player early in his career.
another really remarkable thing is that sosa blasted 20 hrs in june 1998, but slugged “only” 842 as he hit only 2 doubles.
IMO, a hall-of-famer with or without ‘roids*. Maybe not the best of all-time (sans roids, though who really knows what their actual effect on his numbers were), but still pretty freaking amazing.
*Unless the roids somehow prevented career shortening injuries.
Let’s see, without looking I’d go Bonds, Vlad, & …oh what the hell, Justice.
Craig Biggio?
watched the burns documentary tonight. the section on the rise of latin players was really good, and pedro (as usual) was hilarious and insightful. the part about the 98 chase got the room pretty dusty, if you know what i mean, but i like schmaltz and i’m easily manipulated.
I caught most of it. It’s interesting to watch footage of times that don’t seem that long ago to me and see how dated they look, like the early years of the Yankee resurgence. I thought the way they ended it with the chase and then Bonds brooding over the attention given to McGwire/Sosa (particularly given your q&a above) was very effective, .
right, I thought of that question while watching the doc last night.
well, willie bloomquist is going to the playoffs.
I missed most of Lew’s appearance in the TV booth earlier, but caught a hilarious gaffe at the end where, winding up an interminably rambling question Fosse ended with “42 great years and four World Series titles in Oakland,” and then everyone sort of paused awkwardly, until Lew said “and we’re trying to win another one for the whole Bay Area.”
That goes in Deuk Neukom’s file …
Christ.
#3 Asian population in the US.
It’s decent.
In 2005 **’s definition where Giambi was a decent hitter for the A’s
Oooh, maybe we should try to get him again.
He’s not retiring.
Just when you thought it was over
“Izzy Santa”?
And so ends one of the most destructive stupids in world history.
This is an interesting project:
Interestingly, the Yankees win this one.
This Segway owner thing is really weird.
Better than the time the CEO of Garmin drove his car off an unfinished bridge (
recalculating...in .2 miles, drive out of Lake Winnetonka).Huh?
I was attempting a funny…just laugh.
No, I mean batgirl clearly knows something I don’t.
http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/owner-of-segway-company-dies-in-a-segway-accident/
Now you do.
If only Agatha Christie were still around.