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I’m (officially) a bum!!

Posted in Ranting and Raving, tagged I'm an idiot, Maddie Big Time, Whidbey News-Times on July 4, 2014| Leave a Comment »

My anger for how The Examiner went out? I need to let it go. Probably should let this shirt go too. It’s getting a little drafty.

“Cookies! Bring me all the cookies now … for I am Maddie Big Time and I have earned them!!” (John Fisken photo)

This is my only job. At least for now.

Having walked out Sunday (literally) on my restaurant gig, after being there close to two years, I am free to put my full 100% into Coupeville Sports for the first time in the 22.5 months it has been in existence.

If anyone needs me, I’ll be down at Penn Cove, being a beach bum.

A Washington state-bred, rocky beach-usin’, is-it-even-55-degrees-out-here-complainin’, cold water-splashin’ beach bum…

A beach bum who hopes that, if folks like what they’re getting here, they might consider chipping in a buck or three to the cause. How convenient that I have a donation button at the top of the blog.

Handy.

While down at the beach — the barnacle-encrusted, jagged-rock-strewn beach — I will ponder the twists and turns Coupeville Sports has taken.

This blog started in anger.

I was mad at the Whidbey Examiner for selling out to a giant Canadian media conglomerate that already owned the Whidbey News-Times and South Whidbey Record.

I was mad Canada erased hundreds of my bylined stories off of what was now their web site.

I may have referred to the former owner of the Examiner as a carpetbagger. Actually, I’m sure I did.

Not the first time I ticked her off. By a long shot.

Perhaps, maybe, if we all believe hard enough, I will show some personal growth and it’ll be the final time I do so. That would be nice.

But as Coupeville Sports took off, hitting heights I didn’t think possible, as I have pulled in far bigger readership numbers than expected, as I delivered onto you 2,206 articles (they weren’t all gems, but dang, that’s 3.5 articles a day for almost two years, doing it PART TIME), most of the anger abated.

I have still continued to poke the eeeeeeeviiiiiillllll Canuck media empire that owns the three “local” papers, but I am trying (seriously) to tone that down a bit.

They’re not going to give me back my articles, and, at this point, I don’t much care.

Coupeville Sports has given me what I wanted most as a journalist (or whatever you want to call me — writer, blogger, spleen-venter, “that idiot who won’t shut up”) — freedom.

I don’t answer to an editor. No one touches my words except me. I publish what I want, when I want and how I want.

2:17 AM — the time when all the best articles get published. It’s true.

It has been liberating and, after 24 years of on-again, off-again sports coverage on Whidbey Island, there is a joy in my work again that was missing for a big chunk of that time.

What we have here in Coupeville Sports is something the papers can’t offer, because it’s not how they work. And I don’t mean that as a slam on them.

The newspapers are the responsible adult in the room.

I don’t have to be responsible, or act like an adult. I can be Dennis the Menace peeking over the fence and screaming, “Hey, guess what I heard?!?!?!?”

Newspapers report. They are part of the community, but there is always a level of removal from the people they cover. It’s how they operate.

Coupeville Sports is YOU, the people.

I may be largely writing it, but it exists because of the countless people who give me photos for free, who slip me info and gossip, who point me in new directions, who read my work, who tell me what they like or loudly yell at me about what they hated.

We can create larger-than-life myths, turning Madeline Strasburg into Maddie Big Time and convincing her to flex her guns for the camera guy after crackin’ a home run, than payin’ her off in cookies from the dozens donated to me by softball moms.

The News-Times won’t do that, can’t do that, and I don’t expect them to. It’s not how professional newspapers work.

Which is why I’m glad I don’t work for a professional paper, as I have done several times in my checkered employment past.

I’m having more fun this way. And now, I’m going to do it full-time.

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Stick your sign where the sun don’t shine!!

Posted in Ranting and Raving, tagged Christa Canell, Island County Treasurer, Rants, Wanda Grone on July 1, 2014| 6 Comments »

Permission? I’m Wanda Grone, buddy! No rules for me!!

Christa Canell, posting a sign AFTER asking permission. I approve this message.

I don’t know Wandra Grone and Wandra Grone doesn’t know me.

So, it was with some surprise that I woke up this morning to find several of her campaign signs shoved deeply into the grass in front of world-wide headquarters for Coupeville Sports.

If I was supporting anyone in the race for Island County Treasurer this year, it would be Christa Canell, mom of recently graduated Wolf two-sport star Haley Sherman.

During Cookie Wars 2014 — when CHS sports moms bribed me with goodies all spring — Haley was one of the few who got one of my cookies, which I otherwise ruthlessly guarded.

I never gave a cookie to Wanda Grone. Not before and definitely not now.

No cookies for you!!

And no putting up campaign signs on people’s property without permission.

Having spoken to my landlord, who, you know, actually owns the property, NO PERMISSION was given to the Grone campaign to besmirch a property that sits on SHERMAN Road.

In her campaign info, Grone states she is “professional and ethical.” It’s possible.

Her fly-by-night supporters with their hammers and campaign signs, however, probably prefer words like “sneaky,” “obtuse” and “oh crap, run, they saw us!!!!!”

So, I’ll tell you what. I’m going to even things out a bit.

She has never asked for, and would never ask, but Christa Canell is getting a free ad here on Coupeville Sports.

She didn’t pay for it. She isn’t a sponsor.

This is a freebie.

Because I like Christa and I think she raised a wonderful daughter in Haley, who was always a shining example of what a Wolf student/athlete could, and should be.

Team Canell all the way!!

To see more info on the woman I hope wins this election, pop over to:

http://www.canellfortreasurer.com/

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Freedom to the people, a right click away!!

Posted in Ranting and Raving, tagged A free press is free, rant and rave, right click on June 21, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Freedom of the press, true freedom, is worth fighting for.

We are at war.

There is no two ways about it. You can sugarcoat it, but facts are facts.

On one side sits giant media conglomerates that want you to pay for each and every morsel of info they are willing to dole out to you.

On the other, the few idiots willing to raise two middle fingers and use them to point, while screaming, “Free news for all!”

I believe in a free press, a truly free press.

The world has changed. The internet has opened things wide open.

Knowledge is power and no one should be prevented from soaking up as much knowledge as possible.

Here at Coupeville Sports, we don’t nickel and dime you.

We don’t offer a few stories for free, then slap a pay wall down and insist you pay for the rest.

We don’t have annoying pop-up ads you have to click through.

The giant, wheezing media conglomerates among us, however, the interlopers who have descended into our waters and plucked up the once-independent newspapers, want you to pay and pay again, for articles that come late or not at all.

I say no thanks.

So I offer my stories completely free. If you want to donate to the cause, good on you. If you don’t, read away and then never think about it again.

Your choice.

So, it’s in that spirit I offer the following tip, which I picked up recently.

If you’re using Firefox, Chrome or Safari and find yourself on a newspaper web site that tries to throw up a pay wall on you, try this little trick. You’d be surprised how often it works.

Right click.

Click on Inspect Element.

Hover over the element and delete the nodes that are highlighted.

Read away.

Power to the people. Freedom of the press, free for all!

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Suck it up, buttercup!!

Posted in Football, Ranting and Raving, tagged 1A state title, CHS Wolves, football, Freeman on June 15, 2014| 1 Comment »

New helmets are nice, but they’ll look nicer if you’re hoisting them skywards while standing on the field at the Tacoma Dome.

The defending 1A state football champs have only 11 more students than Coupeville.

Numbers don’t win championships. Desire does.

In the 2014-2016 counts, the Wolves represent the smallest 1A school in the state (though 12 of the 64 schools which will play at the 1A level actually have fewer than Coupeville’s 225 students, but have opted to forgo being a B school to play up instead).

Freeman, which rolled Mount Baker 31-13 in the Tacoma Dome, capping a 13-0 season, has 236 students.

Unless those 11 students are all 6-foot-3, 300-pound linemen, Coupeville is basically on an even playing field with the state champs.

Except…

When there is talk of canceling summer practices because of a lack of turnout, you realize the gap between Coupeville and Freeman is far bigger than a few bodies.

I will guarantee you that the players at Freeman, like those at King’s, like those at national 3A power Bellevue, are on the field, in the weight room, as much as is allowed.

At a certain point, as a player, you have to ask yourself what you want.

Do you want to coast into the season, pick up a few wins, lose a few games you could win, and write off the season as something you did, when you had the time?

Or do you really want to take advantage of moving into a new league where you won’t be playing 2A schools and big-money private academies any more?

Do you want to take advantage of the fact you have moved from District 1, where King’s and the Bellingham schools sit, to District 3, where Coupeville is now one of just eight teams?

Do you want to do something more than just put the uniform on two weeks before school starts and go through the motions?

Do you have what it takes down deep to live up to the players who wore those uniforms in the past? Can you play like Brad Sherman, compete like Virgil Roehl, bust heads like Murph Cross?

Well no, you probably can’t bust heads like Murph Cross, cause everyone is a pantywaist now and you’d get ejected from the game for playing ultra-old school, but you get the point.

Do you care? Really care?

Are you content to end your football career in the fog on the Cow Town field in October, or do you want to lift your helmets while standing on the turf in the Tacoma Dome in November?

You, the Wolf players, have the power. Not the coaches, not the fans, not idiot writers.

You, and you alone, will decide how far you want to go. How much effort you will put in. How much time you will commit.

If you are willing to work, to fight, to grab underclassmen and drive them to the weight room, to refuse to accept anything less than a full commitment from every man who wants to put on a Wolf uniform, you can surprise a lot of people.

They are NOT more talented in Freeman. They are NOT growing some rare strain of genetically-gifted athletic gods in Rockford.

But they are working their asses off while you sit on yours.

They care in Freeman, which is why they have a state title banner hanging at their school.

There are no championship banners hanging in the CHS gym, and, right now, it’s fairly easy to see why.

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Free, you say? Free, I say!!

Posted in Poking the Canucks, Ranting and Raving, tagged Black Press is hosin' you, paid subscriptions, Safeway on June 11, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Yes, I am three years old.

Nature finds a way. Always.

In the past, you could try and control the news, parcel it out at the rate you wanted and make people pay every time they read it, but that time has passed.

The Whidbey Island newspapers, which would prefer you didn’t look behind the curtain and realize they’re all owned by one of the largest media conglomerates going, Black Press of Canada, are locked in denial and they’re not coming out any time soon.

Access to their web sites (which is where far more people are looking for their news as print editions of newspapers wither on the vine) is limited to a handful of articles per month before the screen goes gray and a popup attempts to block your access.

I use the word “attempt” for a reason, since, if you go to the side and hold down the mouse, the articles roll upward, paragraph after paragraph coming up over the top of the popup.

Guess what? Live with the gray of the screen and you just read the entire article … for free.

When a commentator on the News-Times Facebook site raised the question of why articles weren’t freed for reading after their expiration date, a Canadian-paid employee tried to draw a comparison to the bakery at Safeway giving away its inventory at closing, saying you couldn’t expect that, could you?

Well, except that DOES happen EVERY day.

When it was pointed out that Safeway, like all grocery stores on the Island, do EXACTLY that, donating large quantities of merchandise to local food banks, the offending comment, and the one that provided the set-up for the rebuttal, suddenly vanished.

I’m not saying the Canadian-financed papers, which send most of their profits back to Canada no matter how many times a random employee or two may purchase cheese and wine at local shops (David Black is NOT operating a non-profit), would deny people access to food.

Even those who can not always pay for it.

But, they would deny you access to news.

Including news about … the food banks.

The “local” papers are using a broken business model, clinging desperately to the belief that they, and they alone, are capable of providing you with the news.

When they are beaten, consistently and loudly, by a one-man operation working on a computer run by two hamsters on a treadmill, they are prone to getting seriously defensive.

They don’t like other people getting the news out there before them, free of charge for all to read.

It threatens their ability to buy wine and cheese, because, at some point, the bean counters in Moose Jaw may realize the business model is broken and shut it down.

And then they might have to become familiar with the local food banks.

Of course, that could be a liberating experience, finding out how many people on Whidbey Island actually do give stuff to others without requiring something in return.

And yes, I once cashed checks from the Canucks, when I was Sports Editor at the News-Times from 1992-1994. We all have our youthful indiscretions…

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