I feel like I have literally died and gone to heaven. I am there now.<\/p>\n
Why?<\/p>\n
Cause Bill Simmons and Malcolm Gladwell are having an email exchange<\/a>. I … I … can’t process my own … joy …<\/p>\n Simmons starts his email exchange like this:<\/p>\n When I started reading you back in the mid-’90s, I remember being discouraged because you made writing seem so easy — technically, you were almost flawless, and since I knew I couldn’t write that well, you were one of those visible writers who made me feel like I was going to be bartending my whole life. You never waste a word. You come up with cool arguments and angles for your pieces, then you systematically prove\/dismantle those same arguments and angles, and you do it in an entertaining, thoughtful, logical way. You never allow your biases to get in the way. You’re better at writing than me in every way. Basically, I hate you.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n hahahahaha<\/p>\n The image of the two of them going out for drinks and having some hottie hit on Gladwell … just … ARGH.<\/p>\n I’m in heaven. Two of my writing idols? Emailing about SPORTS? And WRITING? Kill me now.<\/p>\n Quotes I so far love:<\/b><\/p>\n From Malcolm Gladwell: “Rural Ontario is not, exactly, a hotbed of athletic ability. I think I read somewhere that Jason Williams (the point guard) and Randy Moss went to the same high school. How is that even possible? If Brian Scalabrine went to my high school, it would now be called the Brian Scalabrine Memorial High School.”<\/p>\n hahahahahaha<\/p>\n More:<\/b><\/p>\n From Gladwell: “They say that Wayne Gretzky, as a 2-year-old, would cry when the Saturday night hockey game on TV was over, because it seemed to him at that age unbearably sad that something he loved so much had to come to end, and I’ve always thought that was the simplest explanation for why Gretzky was Gretzky.”<\/p>\n More<\/b>:<\/p>\n From Bill Simmons: “My favorite Red Sox regular season was 1986, and only because I was stuck living in Connecticut before the days of DirecTV and the Internet. We did have Channel 38 on our cable system back then, but they didn’t show that many of the Red Sox games, so either I had to climb on my roof to catch a static-filled radio broadcast or wait for “SportsCenter” and Warner Wolf highlights on Channel 2. (That was a big year for me and Warner because he also announced the Drago-Creed fight in “Rocky 4.”) Still, I appreciated the season more than if I had lived in Massachusetts and watched the games — every telecast was a treat, every radio broadcast was an effort, every highlight felt like a special gift, every box score was studied and analyzed, every phone call from my Dad felt like a live report. It’s crazy, I remember more about that ’86 season than any other season. And I missed most of it. ”<\/p>\n Just finished reading the whole thing. Even better: it’s only Part 1!!! Part 2 to come on Friday. SO satisfying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I feel like I have literally died and gone to heaven. I am there now. Why? Cause Bill Simmons and Malcolm Gladwell are having an email exchange. I … I … can’t process my own … joy … Simmons starts … Continue reading