Captious Observations

So I was checking out this site BarStoolSports.com that Thomas J. sent me and I came upon this Moronic nugget:



That comment was in regard to the HBO series John Adams. So Benny Franklin invented electricity? Crap, all this time I thought he had DISCOVERED it.

I perused some more and DISCOVERED that the website is just a bunch of puerile meatheads discussing sports, guessing the owners of faceless chick butt shots, and apparently it ventures into the realm of high brow American History - HBO style anyway.

What's worse is that despite 71 comments in the thread, no one corrected the blog author. To think, we wouldn't have any lightening without Ben Franklin's "invention"...



Then yesterday I stumbled upon the above nugget by ESPN's ace Bill Simmons. Click to enlarge if needed.

Okay, if he's going to use the word imbroglio AND draw attention to it ("Love that word!"), shouldn't he at least spell it correctly?

It's a great word but I would encourage pedants utilizing it to at least get down the spelling and proper pronunciation. By Google's count, this will be my fourth usage of the word on Marginalizing Morons!

im·bro·glio [im-brohl-yoh]
1. a misunderstanding, disagreement, etc., of a complicated or bitter nature, as between persons or nations.
2. an intricate and perplexing state of affairs; a complicated or difficult situation.
3. a confused heap.

An imbroglio could also be referred to as a scabrous situation.

Now Bill Simmons is a guy that I have mixed feelings about. He is somewhat of a peer, being another New Englander who's only five years my senior. He did an end-around the closed Big Media establishment and became ESPN's star columnist. I have to respect that.

What I disrespect however, is his grand self-unconscious ego. Success has clearly gone to his head. Ironically, he's become a blustering know-it-all not unlike the "appointed for life" Boston sports columnists (Bob Ryan, Dan Shaughnessy,...) he out-maneuvered.

I can't imagine how many Captious nuggets I'd mine if I started trolling MySpace or FaceBook.com.