Why Grantland Rice Sucked

A cyclone can't be snared. It may be surrounded, but somewhere it breaks through to keep on going. When the cyclone starts from South Bend, where the candle lights still gleam through the Indiana sycamores, those in the way must take to storm cellars at top speed. Yesterday the cyclone struck again as Notre Dame beat the Army, 13 to 7, with a set of backfield stars that ripped and crashed through a strong Army defense with more speed and power than the warring cadets could meet.

The Four Horseman now have become a cyclone full of stars in a war of some kind. Metaphors martial, meteorological, and celestial, tumbling on top of one another in the same sentence, and we're only a few words away from "a tank ... with the speed of a motorcycle" and a quartet of football players with "the mixed blood of the tiger and the antelope." Calling this purple prose is to suggest he wasn't using the whole crayon box at once.

The crappy mythopoetics are bad enough, but there's a real consequence to this kind of writing, one Robert Lipsyte sussed out years ago :

[T]he writer who likens a ballplayer to Hercules or Grendel's mother is displaying the ultimate contempt — the ballplayer no longer exists as a person or a performer, but as an object, a piece of matter to be used, in this case, for the furtherance of the sportswriter's career by pandering to the emotional titillation of the reader/fan. Rice populated the press boxes with lesser talents who insisted, like the old master, that they were just sunny fellows who loved kids' games and the jolly apes who played them.

Rice was covering a minor-league baseball game.

An older Rice wrote: "Only those who looked upon the spectacle today can know what it means. One might as well attempt to describe the glory of the Grand Canyon or the peak of Mount Everest at dawn."

Rice was covering the fucking Olympics.

Four years later, he called the success of American blacks at the Berlin games "Darktown on parade" and wrote: "America will be okay until it runs out of African entries. ... We may have to comb Africa again for some winners." Elsewhere, Joe Louis was "stalking" his prey, a "panther" with the "speed of the jungle, the instinctive speed of the wild." (He once said of Louis, "Sportsmanship should be the very mortar of an athlete but never an entity in itself for conscious display," and a modern reader might hear the same harp music that played over all those preposterous stories about Kevin Durant's humility.) The standard defense here, that Rice was only as bigoted as his time, is probably accurate. But the casual racism was also a rancid variation on his habit of reducing human beings to the front end of a metaphor. Joe Louis was a jungle cat. Jim Crowley was a Biblical plague. Some busher from Selma was Pickett making for Cemetery Ridge. Kobe Bryant is Teen Wolf.

Thomas Kinkade Victorian Light Lighthouse 1000PC Jigsaw Puzzle

Kinkade Victorian Light Lighthouse 1000PC Jigsaw Puzzle . This 1000 piece puzzle measures 27 X 20 inches. Featuring quality printing, precise fitting, and rich materials this puzzle is designed for those who have a passion for details. Made with recycled materials and environmentally friendly vegetable-based inks, share this puzzle with a friend or donate to a local charity.

Rating: (out of 0 reviews)

3 Thomas Kinkade jigsaw puzzle lighthouse ocean 900 pc: $9.99.Thomas Kinkade Jigsaw puzzleA Light in the Storm NIB.Thomas Kinkade The Aspen Chapel 1000PC Jigsaw t has been done with Thomas Kinkade ht in the Storm 300 piece jigsaw puzzle by saw Puzzles: 1000 Pieces: Put yourself to the test with one of our 1000 er Items Thomas Kinkade Painter of Light 10 Puzzles Jigsaw mas Kinkade-Painter of Light- VICTORIAN mas Kinkade Jigsaw Puzzle,1000 pc, Lighthouse,ical Wicked Poster Jigsaw Puzzle 1000pc US $16.”victorian piano” wood handcut wooden jigsaw puzzle new.Thomas Kinkade Victorian Lighthouse 1000p Jigsaw MAS KINKADE The Light of Peace LIGHTHOUSE Very tings hobbies Gibsons- Jigsaw Puzzle Gibsons- Thomas Kinkade.1000pc THOMAS KINKADE “the village lighthouse” light Cottage by Thomas Kinkade 1000pc Jigsaw s 1000 piece puzzle measures 27 X 20 mas Kinkade ” Victorian Christmas ” Puzzle US $2.40.The Guiding Light Jigsaw Puzzle by Thomas Kinkade-Puzzles,Jigsaw.1000 jigsaw- village lighthouse thomas kinkade nr mnt mas Kinkade: Victorian Light 1000 pieces 20″ x 27″ Item No.Gibsons Victorian Christmas Jigsaw Puzzle by mas Kinkade Lamplight Inn Jigsaw Puzzle MAS KINKADE “PAINTER OF LIGHT” JIGSAW PUZZLE 4 LOT US $14.99.

Thomas Kinkade Official Website featuring authentic Thomas Kinkade merchandise and art.LIGHTHOUSE WITH WORKING LIGHT: 18.99: 0.00: 18.99: USD: 36 minutes 34 seconds: PUZZ 3D THOMAS KINKADE THE.We carry a variety of styles of Kinkade’ work as jigsaw MAS KINKADE Painter of Light LAMPLIGHT MANOR 1000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle BR mas Kinkade Victorian Lighthouse 1000p Jigsaw mas Kinkade Lighthouse; Thomas Kinkade Painter Of iday Decor- Famed Painter of Light(TM) Thomas ase wait Thomas Kinkade Jigsaw puzzle:Victorian Light-NIB, eBay Top Rated saw Puzzles- Thomas Kinkade jigsaw puzzles from The mas Kinkade Victorian Light Lighthouse 1000PC Jigsaw parison shop for jig saw kinkade puzzle thomas Games & Puzzles in.The Village Lighthouse Thomas Kinkade Jigsaw mas Kinkade, also known as The Painter of Light, is regarded as America’ most collected mas Kinkade Victorian Light Lighthouse 1000PC Jigsaw MAS KINKADE Painter of Light EMERALD VALLEY 1000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle size: 27″ X 20.Dolls House- Light Fittings; Dolls s particular jigsaw puzzle shimmer in the.The Guiding Light; The Village dio Ghibli KiKi delivery Jigsaw Puzzle 1000pc 235.Get it by Tuesday, May 3 if you order in the next 4.THOMAS KINKADE LIGHTHOUSE Light of Peace.

Thomas Kinkade, The Artist in the Mall

Mine eyes have seen the glory, a journey into the evangelical subculture in America

Plunkett's Retail Industry Almanac 2008

Plunkett's Retail Industry Almanac 2009 (E-Book), Retail Industry Market Research, Statistics, Trends and Leading Companies

EBay Business All-in-One For Dummies