Bill Simmons

The finals of the National Spelling Bee just took place, and that reminded me of a great article I read a few years back. The article was written by Bill Simmons. Simmons writes a sports column for ESPN ( He's also done comedy writing for Jimmy Kimmel. ), but whether you're a sports fan or not, I think you'll be impressed if you click on the link below:

Bill Simmons' Spelling Bee Column

In the column above, Simmons does the impossible. He somehow manages to make a spelling bee entertaining.

If you found that Bill Simmons article entertaining, I'd also recommend the following three articles:

Thoughts on the most dreadful - This is a great article about 9/11.
One final toss for The Dooze - This article is about the death of his dog. If this doesn't get you choked up, then you must not have a heart.
Getting deep sixed - This article may be stretch for those of you out there who are not sports fans ( particular those who don't know much about baseball ), but if you really want to understand the feelings of a passionate sports fan, you should read this article ( Personal Note: This article is about 1986 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Mets. Simmons is one of the biggest Red Sox fans in the world, and I'm probably one of the biggest Mets fans in the world. The Mets won that World Series ( the only time in my life one of my favorite teams won a championship ) , but the Red Sox would have won it if not for a extremely unlikely series of events at the end of game 6 of that series. Depending on how you want to look at it, the end of game 6 represents either the greatest comeback victory in the history of baseball, or the most crushing loss in the history of baseball. Simmons ( and every Red Sox fan in the world ) was devastated by this game. As a Mets fan who was absolutely euphoric after game 6, it was fascinating to read such an eloquent and passionate description of the "other side of the coin". Simmons frequently points out that he was only 17 during the 1986 World Series, and writes that the moment that the Mets tied the game on a wild pitch was "one of the five or six worst moments of my life". I was only 16 at the time, and I don't think I've ever experienced as much pure joy as I did right at the moment the Mets tied that game. I know it sounds silly, and in retrospect, I would have to say that my wedding day and the birth of my children were greater moments, but I can't really understate just how much the New York Mets meant to me as a 16-year old boy. I had sooooo much emotionally invested in that team. There was no doubt in my mind that the Mets were going to lose that game I was absolutely crushed. After the second out was made in the bottom of the 10th inning, I sat in the corner of my couch at home, clutching on to a pillow with a death grip. I was petrified. I couldn't move, and I could barely breathe. Even when the Mets started a rally and managed to get the tying run to third base, I still didn't believe a Mets victory was possible. Each time the pitcher released the ball, I knew that pitch could end the Mets season. I sat there petrified, waiting for the guillotine to drop. Then the wild pitch happened. Even after the ball got past the catcher, I was still worried that Kevin Mitchell ( the runner at third ) would be thrown out at the plate. When he crossed the plate to tie the game, I finally dropped the pillow, and flung myself across the room. The next thing I knew I was on the floor, pounding my fists and kicking my feet in a spasm of ecstasy. ).

I know that Bill Simmons seems like a rather odd subject for a column, but if not for Bill Simmons, there wouldn't even be a MoLewis57 blog. Bill Simmons is the first link in the series of events that led to this blog. The chain of events is as follows:

1) Bill Simmons provides a link to the video below in one of his columns:



2) After watching ( and loving ) the video, I feel compelled to respond to some of the stupid comments made on the video. I soon discover that I need a YouTube account to make a comment, and the MoLewis57 YouTube account is born ( The video below has the details of why I decided to create the MoLewis57 YouTube account ).



3) I start using YouTube more frequently so I can save videos of old Sesame Streets clips to the Favorites under my new YouTube account.

4) The video below gets featured on the front page of YouTube. I click on it and discover communitychannel.



5) I become a huge fan of communitychannel, and I am eventually inspired to start making videos of my on ( see this link for more details ).

6) Katy Perry records "I Kisssed a Girl".

7) Natalie ( communitychannel ) makes the following brilliant "I Kissed a Girl" parody.



8) The lyrics to Natalie's parody included a reference to scones. While reading through the comments on Natalie's video, I notice that a lot her viewers have no idea what a scone is. This inspired me to make video response below.



9) Natalie enjoys and favorites my "Scone" video. Naturally, the video starts to get a ( relatively ) huge amounts of hits after that. The video gets noticed by lots of people who wouldn't have noticed it otherwise. One of those people is Shweta, who comments on my Scone video from her munchkinhugs YouTube account. We converse a bit via comments on the Scones video, and I eventually I discover Shweta's blog.

10) After a while, Shweta's blog inspires me to create my own blog.

So, all of the stuff above leads us to YOU reading this blog post right now. So, if you enjoyed this post ( or my blog in general ), you can thank Bill Simmons ( along with Natalie, Shweta - and to a lesser extent, Katy Perry ). If he doesn't provide that link to the Brady video, this blog post never happens.

Oh, and BTW, to add one more twist to the whole "Butterfly Effect" angle, the Brady video probably never happens if the NFL referees get the call right on the play below:



Yes, so this blog was really brought to you by "The Tuck Rule".

Wow, what a positively link-y blog post.

Rich