Month: December 2004

boo roy williams

For the record: You are hoping for Dallas Cowboys defensive back Roy Williams to have no more than six tackles tonight. Should he have more than six, the Bum Phillippi — my fantasy football team and, let’s be honest, America’s fantasy football team — will lose.

from minor threat to minor midwestern city

Jeff Nelson moves to Toledo, puts a bunch of anti-Bush signs in his front yard.
Why is this noteworthy? Jeff Nelson was the drummer of uber-influential D.C. hardcore band Minor Threat and co-founder (with Ian MacKaye) of uber-influential indie label Dischord Records.
Why in the world did one of the world’s hardcore godfathers move from D.C. to Toledo? Not clear, although this alleged explanation — a supposed Jeep fetish coupled with the relatively cheap availability of dilapidated Victorian mansions — could be as true as anything.
(Found via joeyharrison.com, photo blog of the husband of a former Toledo coworker of mine.)

rockin’ rollen stewart blogs

Everyone remembers Rollen Stewart, right? The guy who became famous by putting on a big rainbow afro wig and going to sporting events, holding up a sign saying “John 3:16” and mugging for the cameras? The one who, in 1992, proclaimed the apocalypse was six days away, took a woman a hostage at a Los Angeles hotel, and threatened to blow the place up after shooting at passing airplanes?
Anyway, Rollen’s friend George Winter left a comment on my last post about Rollen, letting me know that Rollen, though in prison, still has something to say.
Hence the Rainbow Man Blog, where George relays the messages Rollen sends him from behind bars. It also lays out Rollen’s claims to fame:
You already know Rainbow Man, “John 3:16 Shirt and Banner Man,” Rock’n Rollen Stewart if you watched any sports in the late 1970’s, all of the 1980’s and the early 1990’s…
And it didn’t just have to be sports – Rainbow Man was in Alaska when the Pope was there, he was the first to yell out “President Reagan” on the day that Reagan was elected, and he danced in front of Buckingham Palace just after Charles and Diana kissed after The Wedding of the Century.
Huh? First to yell out “President Reagan” on the day he was elected? What does that mean?
His most recent entry, in which he asks for money to support Rollen’s “cause”:
After spending the past six months in Solitary Confinement, Rollen is worried that the football season is half over, and anxious that no one has started a “John 3:16” banner campaign.
Yesterday I received a quickly-compiled letter from him. I knew that he had rushed because, in the past, he has used plenty of colored markers to write Bible citations and messages on the envelope. This one was all in pen and simply declared:
Rapture! Feast of Trumpets! Rosh Hashanah! 2005!

world aids day

Happy World AIDS Day, everyone. I would act like a good socially conscious blogger, but it looks as though Link ‘n’ Think hasn’t been revived for 2004.
I will link, however, to my one contribution to global AIDS knowledge: zambiastories.com, the blog I kept while on fellowship in Zambia last year, reporting on AIDS. Links to my two DMN stories from Zambia are on that page, too.
If all goes according to plan — and it may or may not; my fingers and toes are crossed — I may get to do some more AIDS-related reporting in India soon. Think happy thoughts for me around the end of the month, when the selection process reaches its climax.