Author: jbenton

chanda in athens

It’s time for a special summer edition of ChandaWatch, that hoary crabwalk.com tradition in which we track the tournament progress of Chanda Rubin — the only person in the world to be both (a) a highly-ranked women’s tennis player and (b) my high school classmate.
Normally, ChandaWatch is reserved for the Australian, French, Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open. But this is a Very Special ChandaWatch — our hero is headed to Athens.
She’ll be one of four American women competing in singles, along with the Williams sisters and one TBA. (It was Jennifer Capriati, but she dropped out today, as had Lindsay Davenport before her.)
Chanda’s been nursing a knee injury all year, which doesn’t bode well for her prospects. But when the blood of patriotism starts coursing through her veins, who knows what is possible? Play starts Sunday.
I wish I could be there to root her on; there was a slight chance earlier this year I was going to be able to cover the Olympics again, just as I did the Salt Lake City games in 2002. But alas, ’twas not meant to be.

earlobe cut

How does one end up with a painful cut on the back of one’s left earlobe? One has no idea what one could have done to create said cut. Said cut hurts like hell, one could tell you.
If you are the person who created said cut — perhaps as part of some jujitsu-by-night campaign to cripple crabwalk.com — one would appreciate hearing an apology. One would.

myskina topless again

I’d like to thank The New York Times for writing a story on Anastasia Myskina suing GQ over two topless photos it allegedly allowed a shooter to resell to a Russian magazine.
I’d like to thank the Times primarily because the article has apparently sent tens of thousands of tennis pornhounds running to Mother Google and searching lasciviously. This site has gotten more than 4,000 “myskina topless” hits in the last 36 hours — and my site is only No. 13 in Google’s rankings for the phrase.

pre-acl dallas bands

I’ve written before about the strange joy/frustration that comes with being a Dallas music fan the week before SXSW each March. Dozens of bands, aiming to make a Texas jaunt worth their financial while, schedule shows in Dallas on their way to Austin. It’s a concentrated burst of musical talent, the sort we don’t get too often from the tour bookers of indie rock.
The unfortunate thing is that these bands all play in a few days, leaving the music lover with a host of unpleasant choices to make. (This year, you had the Decemberists, Modest Mouse, the Unicorns, and Crystal Method playing on the same night. Then Broken Social Scene, Calexico, Polyphonic Spree, the Unicorns, and Pedro the Lion the next night. Then Sonic Youth, Trans Am, and International Noise Conspiracy the next night. A man shouldn’t have to choose between all those!)
Anyway, it looks like we North Texans will now face the joys and pains of a similar bandclog each fall, now that the Austin City Limits Festival is revealing its glories to the world. On September 17, Dallas gets My Morning Jacket and Wilco/Calexico on the same night, and I’m sure a couple other bands will get booked over the next month.
(While the Wilco shine has tarnished in my eyes over the years, there’s no doubting that will be the best “bands-ending-in-the-letter-O” double bill in years. Now if only they can get Chromeo, Cee-Lo, TV on the Radio, Bebel Gilberto, Brian Eno, Disco Inferno, Caetano Veloso, and Grant Lee Buffalo signed on.)

quincy carter, drugs, the media

The big news in Dallas today is the Cowboys’ releasing starting QB Quincy Carter, just a few days into training camp. It’s a pretty shocking move, as these things go, and the Cowboys are refusing to say why they did it.
But what’s interesting is how different organizations are reporting it. ESPN, since early afternoon, has been reporting that Quincy failed a drug test. Fox Sports, which I believe broke the drug angle (if my rapid Googling earlier today was accurate), says specifically it’s cocaine. Both attribute the news to unnamed “sources.” I haven’t had a chance to listen to local sports radio, but I’m certain The Ticket has been buzzing with drug talk all day.
But my employer, The Dallas Morning News, isn’t mentioning drugs at all in its story. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram doesn’t either. And the Associated Press story is mum on the subject too.
Now, the DMN, the Startlegram, and the AP all have the same sources that ESPN and Fox do. Len Pasquarelli, ESPN’s reporter, is a terrific journalist — one of my favorites dating back to his days at PFW. But he’s not so much more plugged in than our guys or the Startlegram’s guys. The DMN is hearing all the same rumors from all the same sources.
But none of the local print media has decided to write about the drug angle. They haven’t even gone the route that many out-of-town news orgs have: reporting about ESPN reporting about it. (That’s the classic journalism cover-your-ass way of getting a rumor out there — pointing and saying, “Well, somebody else is reporting it!”)
I’m not passing any judgments — I don’t know what I would do. I just think the difference is interesting. When people talk about the difference between the standards of newspapers and the standards of Drudge, blogs, and other less traditional forms of media, this is exactly the sort of gap they’re talking about.
Were I a betting man, I’d bet $100 that ESPN and Fox Sports will eventually be shown correct in this case, probably very soon. I bet a drug test is what’s fallen Quincy Carter. But I’m not sure I’d print it in the newspaper right now. We’ll see what the DMN and Startlegram do in the morning.