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Writes your humble author, mordantly...

Rider on Green Line:
Today's planned (and written in my head) strip has been derailed by the Globe mysteriously changing this line:

"'So,' Beckett said with a sardonic smile, 'I guess that means we can beat Texas'."

To this line:

"'So,' Beckett said with a smile that bespoke satisfaction, 'I guess that means we can beat Texas.'"

In this Peter Abraham "Extra Bases" blog post sometime after I read the original piece around 5am.

The whole theme of today's strip was built around the word "sardonic." I shit you not.

I'm not 100% sure (you know, the chronic and all) but I'm I'd swear in a court of law sure that I didn't imagine the original line.

So why the change? Somebody at the Globe think the readers are too dumb to know what sardonic means?

If so, then why not just turn the whole thing into this?

See Josh throw the ball. It is fast. See Jacoby run to the ball. The ball is small. Jacoby jumps. Jacoby catches the ball. See Jane in the pink hat? Jane is happy.

 

Comments

This might be my favorite Soxaholix "strip" ever. HB, can you post a link to what you "would have posted" now that we have the back-story.

Keep up the good work .

This might be my favorite Soxaholix "strip" ever. HB, can you post a link to what you "would have posted" now that we have the back-story.

Keep up the good work .

Fuck the Globe!

Also, Becks rules.

real fuckin' wordsmiths @ da Globe

that's my takeaway.
sardineically,
lc

I saw the original post, too, H.B. But I think it said "satanic," not sardonic.


The Globe is playing with your mind. I suggest checking your totem.

Nice to see Beckett get some Lackey-esque run support. Oh, and I agree: Fuck the Globe!

This was the draft post from my head:


MIKE:
Why hello first place, good to see you again. Why, yes, we certainly missed you, too.

CIRCLE:
You know sometimes a playah uttahs a line so perfect that there is no longah anything left to say.

CIRCLE:
In re...

"'So,' Beckett said with a sardonic smile, 'I guess that means we can beat Texas.'"

MIKE:
You know, I think I owe Beckett an apology. I didn't know he was capable of the sardonic expression.

CIRCLE:
Are you firggin kidding me? Beckett is the complete package.

CIRCLE:
In addition to sardonic he can throw a nasty irascible, a cutting ambiguous, and he can make you look silly with his opprobrious. And, though he doesn't yet have enough confidence in it, he's working on one fuck of a supercilious.

Us missing Circle in a strip = stealth jihad on the Globe.

Beckett has the most most obstreperous eephus pitch in the majors.


Hey, this is fun!

Note to the Globe:

If "sardonic" is too much of a five-dollar word for your readers, replacing it with "bespoke" is probably not doing you any favors at the lunch counter.

I would have opted for 'said with a bemused smile'. The re-write does not capture the spirit of the first draft.

So long as he's not working on a lugubrious, bilious, or lachrymose, I am all good. Love the actual and the discarded strip today. Irascible is a particularly good word.

On an unrelated note, I think there is something significantly wrong with me that I am totally jazzed to be receiving notices about evacuation zones for NYC (I'm a Zone B, can experience flooding from a Cat 2 or above) and am perversely thrilled. Bring it, Irene!

Nat, stop being so jejeune; it is outside of your ouvre in the Soxaholix milieu.

I meant 'oeuvre'.

Best "no strip today" strip, ever.

That last bit is Freak'n Classic!

da kine, you say jejune, I say ingenuous.

As much as I missed the planned strip, the replacement had me falling out of my chair.

Oh, and Natalie you aren't alone. I will take perverse pleasure in trumping your Zone B with my Zone A. Perched at the harbor tip of Manhattan and about 100 feet from the water. I've only evacuated once on 9/11 and not moving again. Do you think FedEx can deliver a canoe by Sat morning?

But Josh had nothing to be bitter about in the first place. Sarcastic, but not bitterly so, no?

According to sources writing on background, Peter Abraham says "sardonic" was never in the copy.


Meanwhile, note to self: Mark that strain of cannabis for further, er, analysis (your author writes with a roguish smile).

hb, do you for realsies have sources? That's so pissah if you do.

Dude, I don't smoke weed, but if there were a strain that would cause me to replace any infantile, sophomoric or just plain stupid text with awesome 50 cent words, I would be ALL over it. For sure, as a result, there'd be a hell of a lot more popular fiction I could actually stomach!

HB, you give an excellent definition of sardonic, by example of today's stripped-down strip.

::feeling like a grammar nazi, sorry:: "bemused" is one of those words that often gets misused. It means 'confused' or 'bewildered' but is often taken to be akin to 'amused.' Sometimes I have to justify the amount of money I tossed into a English degree by being a little bit of a dick. Sorry!
.
Great strip/not-strip, though. You channeled Jacoby and knocked that sucker out of the park.

Note to self: Develop new hybrid strain for Natalie.


Start by crossing "purple haze" (blurring) with "northern lights" (cerebral intensity) with "big bud" (general sweetness).


Call new hybrid "The Teal Dress."

I stand corrected. I thought it meant 'wry amusement'. But I won't argue the point. It certainly isn't an adjective. On other notes, sorry to hear about Manchester's favorite son, Mike Flanagan. I suspect he pre-dates many of you.

HB - I'll get my guys up in Humboldt to start working on The Teal Dress. Should have it ready for the holidaze...


Mr. Roget aside, glad to see Crawford join the party.

Oh Circle, talk dirty to me more:

"CIRCLE: ... he's working on one fuck of a supercilious."

Not to jinx out, but out looks like the Yankees are gonna get swept out of The Toilet by the men in green from Oakland. Schweet!

A gooch if there ever was one.

This is the "Globe", not the Herald, which we all know is read by public school grads, who are barely literate. To use the word "sardonic" is not cause for a change. hb: I read the post at 4:15 AM, I was awake because of a very loud storm. Pete Abe wrote a very literate (almost) piece. I smell an arrogant/jealous editor. I have only seen "sardoinc" in a Grantland piece, when it comes to sports posts.

Rob - Yanks closed the gap to 1 run in case you missed it.

Yanks now up 10-7 in case anyone was wondering.

13-7.

22-9 and it is not over yet. Nice call Rob.

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!


Fuck! Sorry guys. Three slams? Really? Really?!


I'm afraid to say anything now about the Sox lead... But if, well, you know..., I'll look forward to seeing the jerk from Dallas I'm working with down here who was giving me shit.


Um, 'nuff said.

da kine says jejune,
Natalie says ingenuous.

I say:
Natalie + The Teal Dress = Femme Fatale

Rob is a witch. That's some powerful gooch.

Ron must be thrown into a lake to see if he floats.

Rob, not Ron. I KNOW Ron is a witch.

Oh, shut up before I turn you into a newt. You won't get better.


LOL!

She turned me into a newt!
You're a looney, you're not a newt...
Well, I got better... Search youtube or just watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Quite a shitshow at the ffrenss in Saturrday. Not wry the troubles.

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