Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

Instagram / Monday / photo / podcast / Twitter / video — Comments Off
22
Jan 18

Our fingers walk somewhere else

This is new from earlier today. Indianapolis Star sports writer Zach Osterman joined me to talk about soccer, the nature of sports dynasties and a bit about how The New York Times is covering sports in Spain.

I don’t think I put this here last week. Here it is now:

‪Allie's snow video. #FamousOnTheInternet‬ #TheBlackCat

A post shared by Kenny Smith (@kennydsmith) on Jan 15, 2018 at 9:33am PST

This arrived today:

It has a lot of numbers, and a lot of information. It could use a few coupons. And I guess the time for spunky defiance has passed. The upper righthand corner is a sad concession to the times.

We didn’t get one last year. I’m not sure why we received one today, but I feel like I should hold on to it. One day the art inside will be humorous, at least. And we’ll be able to look back, in 30 or so years, at a few more industries that have disappeared. But maybe the phone book will make a comeback by then. Maybe

More on Twitter and check me out on Instagram, as well.

Someone is going to have to index our social and biomedia pages.

football / Friday / photo / podcast — Comments Off
19
Jan 18

There are two podcasts embedded in this post

I have this friend that is a designer in an architectural school. We used to sit and discuss things, trying to find some way that we could put this thought process and that expertise together. There was always something there, we thought, but we never could quite grasp it. Probably because the rest of us all think design is one of those things that is easy, and the folks who do that just generally graceful enough to not laugh at us in person.

What do the rest of us know, anyway? Just because we’re binge-watching E.R. right now, after all, doesn’t mean I’m ready to run a trauma code.

“Give me CBC, Chem-20, lights and dip the urine!”

See what I mean?

I, of course, know absolutely nothing about design. But I do love all of those pictures you see online about design versus user experience. They are an insufferable way to point out that we see, in retrospect, what someone else couldn’t get right beforehand. “Haha, we are nerdier than you nerds, but we are casual about it, and only making jokes about it online, using someone else’s designed interface that may, or may not, be a well designed user interface. But believe me, I’m getting to that, just as soon as I find where I stored all my really cool gifs.”

Really, what those photographs always suggest to me is that we are a path of least resistance species. And right angles, while aesthetically pleasing, are inherently asking a lot more than a lazy person is willing to give.

I thought of that this evening, when we were walking out to the car and I saw:

When there isn’t snow on the ground there is a slightly worn path there. I’d have to really check, but the user experience path might be even longer in the snow. Because it is cold, I suppose.

Hey, Spencer Elliott of The Tennessean joined me on the show today. We talked about Uber and Lyft and how you work and communicate with your peers when you don’t have bosses or colleagues and what it all means for the future and there is some really interesting stuff here:

This is another good argument for driverless cars, I think. But I’m not sure how I’d feel about my Nissan logging on and then getting bummed out by something it saw on thepeopleyouferryaround.com/forums

And because my Nissan is a car, and not a person, it would never crave Chinese, never get the pork noodle thing I ordered tonight and never read the fortune that came inside the cookie that the guy dashed into the bag at the last possible second:

Why, yes, I am already lucky boy. More lucky than I deserve, I am sure.

I actually recording another little thing today, just because I love this story and it will be dated before the weekend is up. It is only five minutes of my soothingly smooth monotone:

Indiana / IU / photo / podcast / Thursday — Comments Off
18
Jan 18

If you squint, the snow looks like sand

That’s what I’m telling myself. It reminds me of the sugar beaches of my youth. Sunburns and shade and hot feet and warm water and getting that sand everywhere. At least the snow doesn’t have that same persistence of sand. Indoors, anyway. At least it has the decency to melt inside. Otherwise? No way. This stuff has been on the ground for a week, tomorrow.

But if you squint, it could be sand. It has just the right amount of frost as a covering to sound like walking on sand in shoes. And those grassy bushes, those bushes that I run my hands through, you know, when the windchill isn’t six below as it was yesterday morning, or .5 degrees this morning …

Point five degrees? Point five degree? Why are we even bothering to consider the grammar, or even calculate this?

Those bushes, why if you keep your gaze low to the ground, you could almost convince yourself they are sea oats.

But then the wind blows, and you realize you’re a long way from the Gulf.

On today’s program I spoke with Jamie Zega. She’s a former editor-in-chief of the Pacemaker-winning Indiana Daily Student. Soon she’ll graduate and take her many talents and great potential to The Washington Post. But today, she’s talking about modern presidential language. This one, as the people say, is sorta NSFW. Give her a listen in the player below:

Did you listen yet? You should? She’s a very smart and thoughtful young reporter.

And, now, back to my pretending to hear sand beneath my feet.

photo / podcast / Wednesday — Comments Off
17
Jan 18

I’m warm on the inside, you see

This is a seventh floor window at the office:

And it has been like that for days. I keep hoping it will change into some really cool geometric pattern, maybe a plot of equipotential curves, or at least an alien language, but no.

Later this week, we’re getting some rain and a bit of a warming spell. The snow will start to melt and, I’m sure, for the first day or so it’ll seem odd to look out and see things again, just as it was odd to only see the sharp, muted whiteness for the first few hours. Funny how you can get used to both.

Sports reporter Zach Osterman, of the Indianapolis Star came on to my show today. We talked about the ongoing Larry Nassar trial. You’re going to be hearing a lot more about that, finally, in the coming days.

And I created a Twitter account for that program. You can follow Best Story and get all of the latest there. Or here, here’s fine too.

Also, check out my Twitter account. And my Instagram. And come back for more tomorrow. I’m sure I’ll have another winter weather photo! And more!

photo / podcast / Tuesday — Comments Off
16
Jan 18

I produced a new-old show and you can listen to it here

I drove on this today:

Fortunately, most of the roads between here and there and back again weren’t like that. Just the first road and, logically the last road.

Now, what you can’t see, because I faced the wrong way for that photograph, was the house about four doors up the road. The man that lives there runs a landscaping company and, this time of year, he also does some road plowing. I know this because he has two pickup trucks and he puts a plow on both of them and then leaves them on the side of the road.

There’s probably an insurance issue at play here. And I’m not being mean-spirited; just yesterday I saw the guy do two really thoughtful snow-related acts of kindness for strangers. But, man, drop the plow and dry the road.

I’m thinking of going door-to-door and collecting a little extra gas money for the guy. How much would it take to plow one simple street a few times? I bet I could get that after just a few doorbells.

The mighty Jordan ~~creek~~ River has frozen over again. Just on the surface this time, and not quite to the extent that it did a few days ago. I’m assuming there are names and ways to measure and express all of that. Other than, “Wow, a moving body of water has frozen. Again. That’s an eight on the Demoralization Scale.”

Ahh, but it looks pretty you say, sure:

Know what looks better? Viscosity.

I have re-started an old podcast series. It might sound familiar to you. Problem not. It was always small and humble. And, guess what, it is going to stay that way! The premise seems to work, though. I invite guests, media members and people who just read a lot of news, and ask them to tell us about the most interesting story they’ve found that day.

And so here’s my colleague, Joe Coleman, on the re-launch episode, talking about, well, you’ll see:

I put together the music this weekend. A little jazz drum sound, some Brazilian guitar and a Cuban horn. I like how peppy it feels. But most importantly, what did you think of the show? Leave me a note in the comments. And then come help me clear off the neighborhood road.