I held my usual Klawchat on Thursday; I’ll have a wrap-up reaction piece on Monday to all the smaller moves from the last few days (Butler and LaRoche in particular). If something huge breaks today or tomorrow, I’ll write a separate piece on that.
If you’re looking for a comment, I’m sorry, but I have none to offer. I appreciate all of the support I’ve received.
- My friend Wendy Thurm discusses the dominance of male followers on sports Twitter. I’m mentioned, and I too was surprised that the ratio of men to women among my followers was that high, given how many women I hear from via Twitter.
- Because I’m a language dork, here are 23 charts and maps about languages from vox.com.
- From Bon Appetit, some tips on not screwing up marinara sauce. I’ll add two more: Don’t add sugar, and add a splash of wine to extract some of the alcohol-soluble (but not water-soluble) compounds in the tomatoes.
- From The Guardian, Hunter Felt writes about transgender MMA fighter Fallon Fox’s confrontation with the prejudice of Joe Rogan. There’s some interesting science in here too.
- The report this week from the Connecticut Office of the Child Advocate on the failures to treat Adam Lanza’s mental illness is incredibly horrifying. I’m reminded of the result of these mistakes, many of which were from his mother refusing to see her son as severely ill, every time I drive to or from Bristol, right by the I-84 exit for Sandy Hook and Newtown. But reading that piece also made it seem like Lanza was suffering badly and denied treatment that might have helped him (and saved all those kids). We’d never think of refusing treatment, even palliative care, to someone suffering from cancer or MS. Mental illness shouldn’t be treated differently.
- NPR’s food blog goes after what’s really in “pumpkin spice” flavoring. I’m disappointed they linked to Vani Hari, who is wildly anti-science, but I would guess most people who down those drinks don’t know what they’re actually consuming. Eat real food, not facsimiles designed to remind your brain of real food.
And finally, a picture you won’t be able to unsee. What’s worse, the annexation of Crimea, or “Sweating Bullets?”
Dave Mustaine looks like Vladimir Putin. pic.twitter.com/C4pisxu7Gb
— Martha Young (@MarthaYoung) November 21, 2014
Just heard that you were suspended from ESPN because you defended evolution. I just wanted to say thank you for defending evolution against the ignorant and hypocritical Curt Schilling. I support you in this and have sent an email to ESPN saying exactly that. Best of luck
Well put Zac. I purchased ESPN the magazine and subsequently get the insider. Can you forward me ESPN representative you contacted? I want to offer my thoughts as well.
I think Adam’s mother knew her son was ill. Sounds like she was just too permissive as a mother trying to be his best friend knowing he wasn’t social and probably felt sorry for him. It appears she also may have had a case of Munchausen Syndrome. Just a very bad combination that lead to an unhealthy relationship between the two.
Just a terrible tragedy from start to finish.
You should consider doing your own paid website like Dejan Kovacevic did. I’d say you have enough followers to make it worthwhile. http://dkonpittsburghsports.com
Keith,
I second this thought. I only pay for ESPN Insider to have access to your blog and chats. You move elsewhere or to your own pay site, I’m moving with you.
Klaw I sent this to ESPN:
ESPN Management: I am shocked and irate that you have suspended Keith Law, the only reason I subscribe to Insider, from Twitter due to his back & forth with Curt Schilling over creationism & evolution. I don’t know what policy he violated but in reviewing the deleted tweets I was able to find, I saw nothing that was remotely out of line or offensive. If there was a policy violation, you should at least come out publicly to explain to Keith’s audience what that violation was before denying us his content via Twitter. The censorship you have demonstrated with Keith and with Bill Simmons has me seriously questioning my commitment to ESPN. If your heavy-handed ways force either of these stars to leave your network, you can rest assured I will drop Insider in a heartbeat and follow them wherever they go.
Sincerely,
David Silverberg
San Jose, CA
ESPN doesn’t care. A guy like Keith is a dime a dozen in management’s eyes. For every Curt Schilling out there, there are 20 Keith Laws. It sucks, but it is what it is.
Think of it this way. A guy like Keith might have a large following. But it takes years to develop that. A random person flipping the channel isn’t going to stop if they see him on TV. But Schilling is famous. Anyone flipping the channel would recognize him and watch.
That’s why these networks hire famous people. It gets people to stop flipping the channel and watch. Unfortunately, people like Keith and Bill Simmons get burned if they say anything slightly inflammatory. Meanwhile Mike Golic shows his naked ass for the world to see and everyone laughs. But he can get away with it because he’s an ex athlete. Does anyone think Greeny could have pulled off the same thing? No, he would never do it because of journalistic integrity and he also wouldn’t get away with it because he’s not an ex athlete.
I’m interested in a lot of things and throughout my life I’ve ended up in many male dominated situations. I was the only girl at an architecture camp; I was often the only girl waiting outside Busch stadium with my baseball card collection trying to get autographs. As a kid it made me feel a bit isolated; now I can own it more and pat myself on the back for being a nonconformist. (And it continues into adulthood–I’m a female Twitter follower and the only female commenting here!) But I cringe a little when I hear people asking young girls who their favorite baseball player is and then teasing them for having a crush on them, as if girls would be interested in sports for superficial reasons and boys would be interested because they’re boys and it’s expected.
Speaking of interests, facts are one of the things I’m interested in, so I applaud you for being a champion of them.
On Keith’s comment on Adam Lanza- couldn’t agree with you more. My wife is a social worker and said the very same thing when we read the report. Mental illnesses are the most insidious, and if there is anything I would want my taxes to support, it would be for treatment for these types of diseases. And that isn’t a purely altruistic view- as horrible as cancer is (and I lost my mother to stomach cancer a few years ago, something I wouldn’t wish on anyone), it’s not communicable. I can’t catch it. But I could get shot by someone suffering from an untreated or misdiagnosed mental illness. It is in society’s interest and safety to provide that support.
Matt – There are 20 Curt Schillings for every Curt Schilling too. There’s no shortage of retired athletes with no fallback career options who would be happy to grab a microphone and spew blather into the air on TV for a paycheck. Some of them are actually good at it (Pedro has been a revelation). Most, not so much.
I disagree Darren. Not borderline Hall of Fame players like Schilling. Ex athletes at ESPN clearly get away with a lot more than others. I mean Ray Lewis basically said with a straight face that you need to know how to cover your tracks when you do something wrong and ESPN didn’t even blink yet when Simmons called Goodell a liar he was suspended for 3 weeks. Hell, Keith got suspended but Schilling didn’t. They were both talking about the same thing, just from different viewpoints.
Thank you for sticking up for science. It’s disgusting and very frightening that you were suspended for speaking out in favor of evolution. I hope this suspension doesn’t prevent you from making similar arguments in the future.
Keith: It is a shame that an uneducated, narrow-minded, moron like Curt Schilling could lead to this. I hope that you take this opportunity to find a way out of your contract with ESPN- not sure how you could continue to work for ESPN given their decision to essentially cave to those who choose to believe in something based entirely on a desire for there to be something and ignoring facts because it is too complicated for them. The fact that none of your ESPN colleagues will step in and tell ESPN to pound sand given their recent actions demonstrates the power of money over self-respect. You are by far the best part of ESPN and the only reason I even go to the site anymore- and we all know you could find a job where you would be respected in no time.
I’m glad someone said it: wine, NOT sugar, goes into your marinara.
I am outraged that you were disciplined, Keith. For any organization to have a policy where colleagues that engaged publicly in this manner resulted in a suspension of the one in your position is absurd. I will not be sending the Disney corporation any more of my money if it can be avoided.
@Zac
@RichardCrespo
Please send me the CSR’s name if you have it as well. Complete lunacy and complete agreement that if Keith goes my Insider goes as well.
As the first commenter on Wendy Thurm’s article points out, Twitter actually has no clue what gender its users are: http://readwrite.com/2014/09/03/twitter-analytics-demographics-gender-algorithm-male-female-followers
Just found out. Incredible. I would like to forward this information to Steve Novella and crew at the Skeptics Guide to the Universe, in case they do not know. With permission of course. I always thought you would make a great guest on their show.
Keep being you.
Great idea!
Curious to see if the ombudsman has a comment on this act of censorship.
I tweeted at the ombudsman and asked if Mr. Lipsyte was looking into this incident. I’m almost glad my Insider sub lapsed and I am on a one month trial…going to think long and hard about re-subscribing. Klaw, don’t stop being you…I read all of your work I’m sure most of your followers do. Keep the great work and Happy Thanksgiving.
Thank you for your comments on science and critical thinking Keith!
Twitter is much less interesting without you.
As much as I enjoy and support your work on ESPN part of me has always wished you were with the New York Times; which I think would be a great one-stop shopping place for your talents in sports, literature, food and pop culture.
I’m not sure how much it matters now, but you were polite and respectful with Schilling. As a consumer of ESPN’s products I’m not sure how much it benefits the company to have one of their representatives (Schilling, among others) demonstrating that he doesn’t know what he doesn’t know.
This being Thanksgiving, I’m grateful that Kirk Cameron doesn’t have a side job on Baseball Tonight.
First off, I support creationism above evolution because I find it to be more intellectually satisfying in the context of my worldview.
Second, I believe that everyone should be forced by conscience and by criticism to carefully consider the implications of their worldview.
Third, I find it morally reprehensible that anyone would be punished for standing up for their worldview. I know that Keith would probably say he’s standing up for science and not for a belief system (probably because of the possible normative implications of using the word “belief”to defend his position) but that’s the way that I see things. Keith believes he is right, Curt believes he is right. At least one of them is wrong, that’s just simple logic. Neither of them should be suspended or even discouraged from standing up for what they think is right. The world needs more people having a serious intellectual discussion about topics like these, less people who result to name-calling in place of intellectual discussion, and fewer people who are offended by such high level arguments.
I think it was the great philosopher Peter Griffin who once said, “While I don’t agree with what you have said, Sir–I will defend to the death your right to say it!
The funniest part about my whole response is that I don’t even have a Twitter account!
Hang in there Keith.
Huh. I hope this ridiculous twitter suspension (which is a ridiculous concept in and of itself) does not get you down. I have been a long-time reader of The Dish, but this will only be my 2nd time commenting as I would like to thank you for your thoughtful and engaging writing over the years, and to echo many others here giving support. I appreciate your baseball writing, of course, but I find your blog posts and links on non-baseball topics to be some of the more stimulating things I read each week. Keep up the good work.
And since I’m already commenting…
I admit to being someone who usually will add a pinch of sugar to my marinara sauce and also mix dried basil at the end of the process. It has always come out tasting good to me, but I’m always open to trying it differently. What type of wine works best?