doug - evergreen park wrote:
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| Mac's Column - 3/12 https://mail.chicagofanatics.com/viewtopic.php?f=128&t=30491 |
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| Author: | No Clever Moniker [ Thu Mar 12, 2009 9:02 am ] |
| Post subject: | Mac's Column - 3/12 |
The first surprise was clicking on the link to find your visage aside the column. The second surprise was that you started out a column that had an opinion of significance, and that you started the column writing in a way to make this reader want to read more. You had a point and you wanted to deliver it, with an edge. This may have been your best column to date and certainly worthy of someone considered a columnist in a major newspaper. It was related to sports, pertinent and timely, and with a distinct point of view. You almost lost me with “Sing me a song, you’re the piano man” as to it was a throw away line, the injection of a cliché just to make the injection. Your use of the verb “devastated” was overkill, suggesting an outcome to which you don’t or can’t support with reason or facts. Your creation of a new moniker for the local residents was a true tip of the hat to your idol, the former Sun-Times sports writer who too often had to make up a name for someone or some thing. Mac, this column was good enough to define you and your character, “Laissez les bon temps rouler” McNeil. I just hope that you don’t do, as the former aforementioned writer, a flip-flop and give us an upcoming column decrying the festival atmosphere of the “’Ville”. |
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| Author: | Krazy Ivan [ Thu Mar 12, 2009 9:04 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Mac's Column - 3/12 |
Very good column. |
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| Author: | rogers park bryan [ Thu Mar 12, 2009 9:21 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Mac's Column - 3/12 |
definitely earning his sawbucks with that one |
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| Author: | Krazy Ivan [ Thu Mar 12, 2009 9:24 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Mac's Column - 3/12 |
SAWBUCKS!!!!! |
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| Author: | good dolphin [ Thu Mar 12, 2009 9:42 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Mac's Column - 3/12 |
I liked it. I live it. |
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| Author: | doug - evergreen park [ Thu Mar 12, 2009 9:46 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Mac's Column - 3/12 |
http://www.suntimes.com/sports/mcneil/1472684,CST-SPT-mac12.article |
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| Author: | Krazy Ivan [ Thu Mar 12, 2009 9:51 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Mac's Column - 3/12 |
doug - evergreen park wrote:
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| Author: | RFDC [ Thu Mar 12, 2009 10:27 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Mac's Column - 3/12 |
Very well done Mac. |
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| Author: | Hatchetman [ Thu Mar 12, 2009 10:33 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Mac's Column - 3/12 |
residents should have no say as to what goes on in their neighborhood. yep. good reasoning. |
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| Author: | Ex-Media Guy [ Thu Mar 12, 2009 10:36 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Mac's Column - 3/12 |
Sun-Times thought enough of it to make it the lead on their home page. Not bad. |
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| Author: | Krazy Ivan [ Thu Mar 12, 2009 10:38 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Mac's Column - 3/12 |
Score is Doomed? Aparicio? Irish Boy? |
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| Author: | hackwilson's ribbies [ Thu Mar 12, 2009 10:55 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Mac's Column - 3/12 |
I'd think that the article lends itself some credence to the issue if Mac wasn't letting his annoying meatball Sux fan out throughout this article - Yes, I understand that they're actions are somewhat hypocritical, but can he have a thought without taking swipes at the fanbase that DOES NOT ALL RESIDE WITHIN BLOCKS OF WRIGLEY?? I guess that's news to him. Everyone who lives around 35th and Shields moved there because they're Sux fans, right, meatball??? Typical... |
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| Author: | good dolphin [ Thu Mar 12, 2009 10:56 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Mac's Column - 3/12 |
Hatchetman wrote: residents should have no say as to what goes on in their neighborhood. yep. good reasoning. You're right, straight democracy is the perfect form of politics. |
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| Author: | spmack [ Thu Mar 12, 2009 11:04 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Mac's Column - 3/12 |
hackwilson's ribbies wrote: I'd think that the article lends itself some credence to the issue if Mac wasn't letting his annoying meatball Sux fan out throughout this article - Yes, I understand that they're actions are somewhat hypocritical, but can he have a thought without taking swipes at the fanbase that DOES NOT ALL RESIDE WITHIN BLOCKS OF WRIGLEY?? I guess that's news to him. Everyone who lives around 35th and Shields moved there because they're Sux fans, right, meatball??? Typical... Good call Hack...I was thinking about that too while reading the article....But you lost me with the Sux comment...you can't go down to their level Hack 
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| Author: | hackwilson's ribbies [ Thu Mar 12, 2009 11:06 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Mac's Column - 3/12 |
spmack wrote: hackwilson's ribbies wrote: I'd think that the article lends itself some credence to the issue if Mac wasn't letting his annoying meatball Sux fan out throughout this article - Yes, I understand that they're actions are somewhat hypocritical, but can he have a thought without taking swipes at the fanbase that DOES NOT ALL RESIDE WITHIN BLOCKS OF WRIGLEY?? I guess that's news to him. Everyone who lives around 35th and Shields moved there because they're Sux fans, right, meatball??? Typical... Good call Hack...I was thinking about that too while reading the article....But you lost me with the Sux comment...you can't go down to their level Hack Yeah, good call - I kind-of let my emotions get the best of me on that one, sp 
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| Author: | Jim DeRevolting [ Thu Mar 12, 2009 11:24 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Mac's Column - 3/12 |
I liked how Mac interwove lyrics from Billy Joel and Elton John into the article. (I guess he hasn't brushed up on his Fat Rascals or Rascall Flatts or whatever the fuck their hillrod ass names are. I'd add this: The Chicago Cubs organization are "Captain Fantastic" to Wrigleyville's "Browndirt Cowboys" |
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| Author: | doug - evergreen park [ Thu Mar 12, 2009 11:28 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Mac's Column - 3/12 |
Hatchetman wrote: residents should have no say as to what goes on in their neighborhood. yep. good reasoning. this is why we elect officials, otherwise nobody would make decisions and meetings would take months. It felt to me like Mac was taking swipes at those that live around Wrigley whether they be Cubs, Sox, or Toledo Mudhens fans and the hyprocisy of getting aggravated at a concert at Wrigley, not in concert, with the neighborhood block party...on the same day. |
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| Author: | Johnny Chimpo [ Thu Mar 12, 2009 12:14 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Mac's Column - 3/12 |
hackwilson's ribbies wrote: I'd think that the article lends itself some credence to the issue if Mac wasn't letting his annoying meatball Sux fan out throughout this article Sux fan! LOLOLO!!!!!111Win! 
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| Author: | Sawbuck [ Thu Mar 12, 2009 12:24 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Mac's Column - 3/12 |
rogers park bryan wrote: definitely earning his sawbucks with that one It takes more than ripping on Cubs fans and quoting some songs. |
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| Author: | hackwilson's ribbies [ Thu Mar 12, 2009 12:32 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Mac's Column - 3/12 |
Johnny Chimpo wrote: hackwilson's ribbies wrote: I'd think that the article lends itself some credence to the issue if Mac wasn't letting his annoying meatball Sux fan out throughout this article Sux fan! LOLOLO!!!!!111Win! meatballs...
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| Author: | bigfan [ Thu Mar 12, 2009 2:20 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Mac's Column - 3/12 |
As maybe the person who lives closer to Wrigley than anyone quoted in the article or who gives their opinion, I am all for whatever the hell goes on at Wrigley and Danny McSlezak should have consulted with me (On an hourly basis of course) regarding this issue. As a developer in this city I can assure you that the vocal minority are just that in many of these scenarios. I have 52 units in the development where I live and none of us have an issue with these events. We know where we moved and embrace whatever comes down the street. Be it a concert for s shitty country band or night games. I hate seeing some lady who formed a bullshit group and got the Aldermans ear speak on my behalf. Yes, I have gone to many meetings supporting the cubs right for as many night games as they want! If you ever attended one of these meetings you would see this crazy mob mentallity and if anything screws up these ladies days, they call their husband at the law firm who forms a non profit LLC and gives the wife something to do! If you lived here in 1908, OK you can bitch, everyone else can shut the fuck up! |
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| Author: | Score is doomed [ Thu Mar 12, 2009 5:05 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Mac's Column - 3/12 |
Krazy Ivan wrote: Score is Doomed? Aparicio? Irish Boy? I'll read it later and let you know. You obviously need my input. 
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| Author: | Brian's Mojito [ Thu Mar 12, 2009 5:42 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Mac's Column - 3/12 |
So the main criticism with this column is that is was penned by a White Sox fan???:roll: |
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| Author: | Score is doomed [ Thu Mar 12, 2009 5:47 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Mac's Column - 3/12 |
Well I read it. It was a waste of time. He had a couple of good points, but they gets lost in his rambling, incoherent style. He writes the column like he's trying to write a cheap detective novel. His phrasing is awful and his bitterness comes through. Maybe he should "hop a buggy bound for journalism class". I will say he didn't mail this one in, but that in itself is sad, because the result of his labor is not very good. He needs a ghost writer for this column because he is incapable of writing a column by himself. |
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| Author: | Gloopan Kuratz [ Thu Mar 12, 2009 6:02 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Mac's Column - 3/12 |
I think the ghost writer cleaned up his normal gibberish. He's one of these guys who thinks that they are great writers and think that they are embellishing just for effect. It just comes out douche. |
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| Author: | Irish Boy [ Thu Mar 12, 2009 9:55 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Mac's Column - 3/12 |
I think the effort was much stronger than the last few I read (I didn't read last week's), and worthy of a week's worth of effort. However, Mac has a tendency to write like someone would talk, falling back on hoary colloquialisms. Case in point: Quote: That's pretzel logic personified. Local gin mills, restaurants and apparel outlets open their doors there because of the circuslike atmosphere. Businesses thrive on the flurry of activity. Or: Quote: whole new can of unwanted worms There's a few others as well. I don't mean to criticize too much, because the effort was pretty strong on the whole and a definite improvement. A wise man once gave some simple rules for writing (to which I admit to being an imperfect follower): Quote: 1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. 2. Never use a long word where a short one will do. 3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out. 4. Never use the passive where you can use the active. 5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent. 6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous. Mac is good about two, four, and five, OK at six, and needs work on one and three. It seems like his main trick when he gets stuck is to pile a few cliches on top of one another, thereby creating a sort of super-cliche. It works in radio, because you tend to loose track of such things as you're listening, and mixed or exaggerated metahphors are a common verbal tic. When you're reading a passage with those things, they stick out much more clearly. As I said the effort was better, I feel obliged to give the positives as well: The topic was much less fleeting. A daily columnist, or someone who churns out five a week or however often they force Telander to pretend to work these days, can afford to be ephemeral. Bad article that'll be dated in a day? Who cares, you've got another shot tomorrow. If you're writing an article every day, I want your opinion on what happened last night, or what will happen tomorrow. If you're writing once a week, I expect something more. Not every effort is going to be Pulitzer-worthy, and readers understand that. Still, I expect something... broader. "Why is John Paxson so joyless?" doesn't qualify. Bringing out the internal contradictions of Chicago's major sports neighborhood comes much closer. I think that Greg Couch (I think that's his name) is pretty good about that, although he's also a joyless scold that finds misery and dispair in every topic he touches upon. He'll dig deeper for a topic than, say, Telander, and his articles are bit less hemmed to the particular day he writes them. I don't much like Couch, but I think he is better than most in that regard. I guess I don't have more specific advise than that, and I'm sure you don't particularly care if I do. |
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| Author: | Mac [ Thu Mar 12, 2009 11:16 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Mac's Column - 3/12 |
Irish Boy wrote: However, Mac has a tendency to write like someone would talk Bingo! Maybe that's because COLUMN writing is SUPPOSED to be CONVERSATIONAL. |
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| Author: | Mac [ Thu Mar 12, 2009 11:17 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Mac's Column - 3/12 |
I agree with many of those rules, by the way, IB, but rules... well... they don't apply in column writing. |
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| Author: | Spaulding [ Thu Mar 12, 2009 11:50 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Mac's Column - 3/12 |
There is an air of pomposity in your articles (shut up sid and Gloopan) that I don't think is you. I don't know if it characteristic of column writers or what.  I'd also like to see more solutions to your issues. The conviction, focus, opposing view points and facts are all there but they leave me with a sense of not ever being resolved. I don't feel better off for having read the article. |
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| Author: | Irish Boy [ Fri Mar 13, 2009 12:13 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Mac's Column - 3/12 |
Mac wrote: Irish Boy wrote: However, Mac has a tendency to write like someone would talk Bingo! Maybe that's because COLUMN writing is SUPPOSED to be CONVERSATIONAL. Your insistance that columns need not follow the basic tenants of good writing is peculiar. Just because it's an op-ed rather than a book doesn't mean it's OK to sound like a hayseed or a rube. You remind me quite a bit of beginning music theory students I've tutored in the past that are first learning how to apply themselves. Without fail, their first few attempts are chock full of gross sounding inaccuracies. Their response is usually something like "anyone can do simple, but I'm going for complicated and modern." That's all well and good, but learn how to do simple well before you break the rules, or else you'll just look (sound, whatever) like someone that doesn't know what he's doing. There's a reason there are rules, and it's generally because writing that doesn't follow "the rules" of good writing is bad writing. Do simple well. Don't cram in five metaphors where a single good one will do. Don't go for snappy euphemisms that read like you're trying to impress the cute creative writing TA. The rules may be made to be broken in column writing, but there's a difference between splitting an occasional infinitive and monstrosities like Quote: unearth a method of postseason advancement Besides, there's a reason that transcripts rarely read as well-polished prose. Good conversation is not the same as good writing, and confusing the two is a mistake. |
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