Joanne C. Gerstner

Love when Paula Deen says “Y’all” with her Carolina low country drawl. I can’t do that as effectively. Darned souther Ontario/Detroit accent gets in the way 🙂

Anyways, been a busy bee. Writing, hustling for work, it’s all good. Doing a lot of swimming, every day if I can. Tennis and other stuff I love is hard to do, because of the torn ACL and that honking knee brace I have to wear. No USTA for me this summer. There is irony: going from the best tennis of my life last summer to zero this summer. Oh well.

Here is what I have been up to:
– Michigan may someday have a woman on the football team. Maybe in my lifetime. But I saw some women with really, really good skills at Michigan Women’s Football Academy.
– Michiganian Mark Grimmette, one of the best lugers in U.S. history has finally retired and moved into a big-time managerial role. He seems very happy.

Some photos from Paris and Spain. 🙂

I tuned in last night to watch Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga finish off his perfect game. No Tiger pitcher has ever thrown a perfect game. They’ve had no-hitters, but not the elusive, holy grail perfect game. I thought I was in the bag after Jackson’s crazy-good catch in center. And then THIS happens? Oh man…

Galarraga showed a lot of class and dignity, which is incredible under the crazy circumstances. I agree with Wojo in the Detroit News.

Hey kids –

Sorry to be dormant for a while, been super, super busy. In no particular order: had a birthday, wrote a book, working on another book, went to LA for the AWSM convention, went to Spain and Paris. So yes, getting the chance to really sit down and work on the site wasn’t happening.

But I am back now! And there will be more posts.

Happy Memorial Day and much thanks and love to all those who have served in our military, especially my Dad.

jcg

Yes, I quoted R. Kelly. For the first, and possibly the last, time since R. Kelly usually works a lot bluer than I do. (Let’s break them off a little bit of the remix…)

I’ve been busy with a lot of projects.
– I was quoted in a MarketWatch.com article, by media guru Jon Friedman, about the Ben Roethlisberger scandal and how the media is handling it.
– An Earth Day article about Olympians getting involved in trying to make our planet a bit cleaner.
– Still cranking out blogging goodness for the New York Times: on the NHL, and the NBA.

– Much love and best wishes to my friends at Wayne State Law School, as finals are nigh. Nothing spells panic, being worn out, and insanity like law school finals. I wish my friends much success and awesome grades! 🙂

– Seriously? 80 degrees in Detroit on April 15? I will take it. But I am still paranoid enough to think we could have one more snowstorm left in the hopper. I know, it’s probably not going to happen if we’re at 80. But still…this is Michigan.

– Keep a good thought for former Michigan kicker Phil Brabbs. I did a story on him last week, on his fight with multiple myleoma. MM is a terrible, nasty cancer. Phil, who a wife, two little ones and another on the way at the end of this month, is undergoing two stem cell transplants in hopes of putting MM in it’s place. He’s suffering a lot, but hopefully it will kick cancer.

Some recent stories from me:

New York Times:
– On Bill Ford Jr. and Chris Ilitch loving hockey.
– And on Michigan State’s behind the scenes basketball team.

Miami Herald:
– Going old school for me, writing about hoops!

– I love the Internet. I love the freedom to peruse different publications and opinions. As a journalist, I love that people from around the world can possibly read something I’ve written. But what I do I hate the most, with all fiber of my being? Anonymous posters on comment pages and message boards. This form of cowardice has led to more cruelty, insults, slurs, you name it, than anything else. I have been called every name you can imagine, and then some, via boards and emails. And usually, it’s for something as stupid as the person was a fan of X and I wrote about team Y. So I naturally have to be a bitch, slut, whore, dyke, you name it. Would those words change if the person had to sign their name and stand behind what they wrote? The irony is, I stand behind everything I write, with my name and sometimes my photo. We’ve allowed a new world of cowards and guttersnipes to ferment, hiding behind cutesy names while throwing bombs. I wholeheartedly second tremendous Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist Connie Schultz, who also wants read names attached to real comments.

I am all for free speech. Have your say. I may not agree with it, or like the language, but I respect your right to say what’s on your mind. But with rights come responsibilities. Have the maturity to be stand-up and take responsibility for your words.

To play, or not to play, that is the question. Is it better to suffer the slings and arrows of sitting out a USTA season or shall I risk playing and having something as scary as the Yorick’s skull (alas!) in Hamlet happen. It’s a really tough decision. And I haven’t made one yet. I will have to play at a higher USTA level than last summer, thanks to being moved up because I had a winning record. I get that I played well last summer. But my only loss, the last match of the year, was when my ACL and meniscus ripped apart. So am I really a 4.0? Maybe the rest of me is, but my knee is around a 3.0. I still have time to make up my mind, which is good. My answer changes by the day. Sometimes, I think I can do it. Other times, I wonder why I thought I was ready to play a match against better players. I don’t know. Ouija board, anyone?

– The craziness of the NCAA tournament means big things, even for a smaller place such as Oakland University. Hard to believe that there once was a Lepley Sports Center, Pioneer man, and everything else now lost in the fog of history.