Skip this blog, go directly to Slate

I realize that it's rather lame of me to link to multiple Slate articles in one entry, but hey, you get what you pay for with this blog.

Speaking of paying, here's a very sobering preview of your home heating bills this winter. Holy crap. Our leaky, creaky 70-year-old house is about to get hit hard. We live here because we like the "character", but character doesn't keep your nose warm at night. We may have to pick up a space heater and start sleeping in one room.

Slate also has a profile of legendary online columnist Bill Simmons aka "The Sports Guy", who has a new book out. Like thousands of others, I've been reading and forwarding his ESPN.com columns for years. Several of them are among the funniest things I've ever read on the web. But I have to say, Slate's profile is pretty lacking. It provides no examples of his writing other than a phrase or two, doesn't link to his column, nor does it provide any guaranteed-to-be-glowing testimonials from Jimmy Kimmel or Adam Carolla. WTF?

It does an okay job of explaining his success. Unlike the typical sports columnist who watches the game from the press box then spends his time in the locker room and post-game press conferences, Simmons writes from the perspective of a regular fan. He'll watch the game on TV, then he'll write about (and riff on) not only the game but also the announcers, the commercials, the mid-game phone conversations with his buddies, the befuddling comments from his wife, etc. And he works in dozens of pop culture references, usually from shows that we've all watched on cable way more times than we'd care to admit publicly. Some columns are barely sports-related at all: he'd just as soon spend the entire space talking about the "Rocky" or "Karate Kid" movies, MTV's "The Real World", "Saved By the Bell", the genius of Will Ferrell, or all of the above mixed into three paragraphs. It sounds like too easy of a formula, but he manages to keep it fresh, smart and actually insightful. Basically, he was blogging before there was a word for it.