Ask Grandstander

[LongtimeBravesFan]

I suppose your friend from the Farve question really hates boxing.

[Grandstander]

Originally Posted by LongtimeBravesFan

I suppose your friend from the Farve question really hates boxing.

As have I, he has abandoned what was once a high interest in the sport.

But...yes, boxing did feed his anti comeback fury. Ali retired and unretired numerous times, but that was the warm up for the '80's where Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran took the art of false retirements to a new world class level, which inspired Larry Holmes to get in on the game and all this was still before the era of the geezer comeback which George Foreman pioneered.

[skrable]

a new version of the gong show starts this week. what is your favorite memory of the original?

[Grandstander]

Originally Posted by skrable

a new version of the gong show starts this week. what is your favorite memory of the original?

More so than any of the acts, I enjoyed the robust enthusiam which Barris brought to the show. He really appeared to be having the time of his life out there and that was infectous. Some hosts were just perfect for their shows. Consider how both programs would have suffered if Barris and Richard Dawson had changed places. Both were in the business of mocking their guests, but Dawson's dry cynicism was just right for the ordinary, run of the mill, sometimes dim people who appeared on Family Feud, while Barris' life of the party demeanor was more suited to the whackjobs he was presenting. Dawson made fun of the mundane, Barris the insane...neither would have been as good trying to do the other.

[Nighthawk]

Is this graphic for the 2009 NCAA Final Four the most ironic sports logo ever?

[Grandstander]

Nighthawk

Is this graphic for the 2009 NCAA Final Four the most ironic sports logo ever?

According to the latest rankings in Irony Monthly, it has moved up to the # 312 spot for July, just ahead of:



and just behind:

[LongtimeBravesFan]

How did you vote on the isue of letting the cop carry the dummy?

[Grandstander]

Originally Posted by LongtimeBravesFan

How did you vote on the isue of letting the cop carry the dummy?

No, I voted for the fireman who wanted to wanted to be able to wear his magician's hat on the job rather than a helmet.

[phenweigh]

I saw a bumper sticker this morning that said:

Don't move firewood - it BUGS me!

Do you have any idea what it means?

[Grandstander]

Originally Posted by phenweigh

I saw a bumper sticker this morning that said:

Don't move firewood - it BUGS me!

Do you have any idea what it means?

It refers to the time that a Parts Unknown citizen was moving a pile of firewood without knowing that the pile was being used to entomb.....

[Wiggen]

Speaking of giant flying things, why did the gigantic creatures of the 50's and 60's have it in for Tokyo? Didn't that city suffer enough damage during WWII without then being subject to periodic attacks by huge mutated Tyrannosauruses and gigantic moths? What was the reason for this?

[Grandstander]

Originally Posted by Wiggen

Speaking of giant flying things, why did the gigantic creatures of the 50's and 60's have it in for Tokyo? Didn't that city suffer enough damage during WWII without then being subject to periodic attacks by huge mutated Tyrannosauruses and gigantic moths? What was the reason for this?

The Japanese are a unique people and had a unique reaction to losing a war....they blamed themselves. Japan had been an extremely closed society before the middle of the 19th century. Jolted into international realities by the navies of the US and European powers, Japan made the deliberate decision to emulate the west and become an imperial power itself.

After the war, a large segment of the Japanese population focused on that decision and decided that it had represented an abandonment of their true natural character which had made them so special and superior to everyone else. They decided that the atomic bombs and Japanese surrender were punishments inflicted upon Japan for having violated their character. Along with going to General McArthur and demanding that a clause permanently renouncing war be added to their new constitution, their general atonement view spilled over into their popular culture.

In the '50's, it was usually nuclear radiation which was responsible for creating the monsters who were forever stomping Tokyo to the ground and even though we may see those flicks as silly adventure stories, to the Japanese they were morality plays, it was part of the atonement psychology. Over and over, Japan was being punished, nuking itself symbolically as a reminder of what happens when they forget who they are and have always been.

[LongtimeBravesFan]

Do they view mac moving to Japan as part of their atonement?

[skrable]

is it true the hebrew nationals never made the playoffs because they were a bunch of showoffs?

[Grandstander]

Originally Posted by LongtimeBravesFan

Do they view mac moving to Japan as part of their atonement?

We all know that mac is the product of atomic radiation mutation, so I would have thought the above obvious.