My Instapaper queue is currently like a cheap toilet: so full that it is overflowing.
Wait, that’s a terrible analogy.
How about this: by failing to get a links post out before spring break, and then continuing to add items to Instapaper during the break, I have a ridiculous number of articles to share.
So I’m going to bundle all the baseball items together in another post, and throw everything else into this one. In the interest of not completely overwhelming you, I’ve cut a few articles I might normally share but don’t seem necessary this time around.
Put on your readin’ glasses!
Of course you’ll want to read a minute-by-minute breakdown of the night that “We Are The World” was recorded.
There’s tons of great stuff in here, but I loved this story from Lionel Richie:
Last year, Richie told Billboard about the songwriting session: “I’m on the floor in Michael’s bedroom. I don’t think he had a bed — he just slept on the floor. There’s a bunch of albums around the wall, and there’s a carpet and a little bench. I’m writing the first verse — ‘There comes a time’ — and I hear over my shoulder, hhhhhhhhhhhh. There was a goddamn fucking python. A boa constrictor, a python, who cares what the hell it was. It was a big-ass, ugly-ass snake. I’m from Alabama — what you do with a snake is you call the police and you shoot the damn thing. I was screaming. And Michael’s saying, ‘There he is, Lionel, we found him. He was hiding behind the albums. We knew he was in the room, we just didn’t know where he was.’ I said, ‘You’re out of your freaking mind.’ It took me about two hours to calm my ass back down.”
‘We Are the World’: A Minute-by-Minute Breakdown on Its 30th Anniversary
My high school was never all that great at sports. We’d have decent teams occasionally, but conference championships and deep runs into the state tournaments we not very common. So, even though my class was several years out of school, many of us found great joy in the wonderful run from 1994–96, when Raytown, led by future NBA player Tyronn Lue, was really good.
I was at the epic state quarterfinal game against Central in 1995. It remains one of the best games, at any level, I’ve ever seen in person. My enduring memory of that night was a Central fan, sitting a few rows behind us, screaming “MR. HOOD! MR. HOOD!” over-and-over after Derek Hood’s desperation three sent the game to overtime.
The Kansas City Star talked to the coaches and some of the players involved in that game as the 20th anniversary passed a few weeks back.
I love Top Gun when it came out, and for several years after. Flying fighter jets seemed like about the coolest job in the world. Despite being just 15, though, I realized there was a lot of terrific leaps of logic
Some of these are of interest only to true aficionados of naval aviation, but it is still fun to look back and see how ridiculous the movie was.
79 Cringeworthy Technical Errors In The Movie ‘Top Gun’
An oral history of Larry Bird’s 60-point game? Hell yes!
‘It Was Like Living in a Video Game’
Proof there is still strong, important journalism being practiced in the US of A.
Who Won the Scene? The Kid vs. Play Freestyle Rap Battle in ‘House Party’
Here is a great piece about one particular flavor of Wikipedia ridiculousness. I kind of wish I had some grammatical hang-up that I could devote myself to. I guess I’ll stick to silently mocking anyone who uses an apostrophe to pluralize their last name on their Christmas cards.
Don’t You Dare Use ‘Comprised Of’ On Wikipedia: One Editor Will Take It Out
Finally, and fabulously, how Larry King Tweets.
Larry King has a special way of tweeting: The broadcast legend who just can’t retire