Monday, January 19, 2009

The Stool That Sets The Bar High


File this one under networking for a job.
Back in 2005, I discovered this free publication, on the streets just outside my work, in one of those free newspaper boxes that line most public transportation stops. It's title: Barstool Sports.

It was love at first sight. As has been documented in my first meme on line, I may have been born with an extra Y chromosome, so between you and me, I am really a guy in girly sheep's clothing. I fell in love with this paper.

At the time it was a Boston-based, bi-weekly publication with total T&A and sports stories with a Boston slant throughout. Of course, the T&A was not the draw for me, (except to possibly comment on the model's make-up application or their designer shoes) but it goes with the territory over at "The Stool" and there's no getting around it.

The draw for me was the free style of writing about sports and other oddities of life. I was hooked on the language they used and the "no holds barred" style of prose as well as their look at life and sports. In a nutshell they are rude, offensive, and totally outlandish-I had stumbled upon the Mothership.

Since I began reading this publication, I tried, on two separate occasions to get, what I considered the ultimate job, writing for The Stool. I sent them two separate writing samples, a few years apart. The first was a book recommendation on ESPN's Sports Guy, Bill Simmons (a Boston native and my fave) book, "Now I Can Die In Peace". The book was about how Simmons, a long suffering Red Sox fan, can now go quietly into heaven since he witnessed the Sox win the World Series title in 04. I emailed, what I considered a worthy submission-about 700 words-and never heard back. The kicker here is I submitted my work, under a pseudonym. A male name.

There were no chicks writing sports for The Stool and the only other female writer wrote a non-sports column entitled, "From her perspective". I figured I needed to even the playing field from the start-so to speak.

The second, a few years later, was when my nephew met one of the guys who writes for Barstool and told him about me-he gave my nephew his email and told him to have me submit a writing sample. This time I wrote a funny piece comparing the Red Sox "family" to the Soprano's "family". At the time the Soprano's were in the middle of their legendary last TV season. It was good stuff and timely. Still, nothing.

Today, I am back into my, "get a job at The Stool" mode. Since I became a blogger, late last year-The Stool has seen some changes also. About a year or so ago, I couldn't find my favorite paper anywhere. I searched on line and found that Barstool, along with the printed publication, had a daily blog where they published the now famous "Random Thoughts" for the day. Story has it that our blow-hard Mayor decided that Barstool was one step below free porn and put the printed version out of business. This made Barstool a blog entity.

Every day, when I go to my computer to compose my own blog content, I go to The Stool first, (before my own site) to see what ElPresidente and the boys are blogging about. Barstool is crude and hardcore but never-the-less thought provoking and I want to write for them. I just recently decided to work up enough nerve to start posting comments-under a pseudonym, of course.
Some of the fans of The Stool are tough-and the threads in the comments kept me from joining in the conversation for a long time.

I'll give you a sample and ask you for your advice on the best way to get their attention and a possible consideration for a job-heck I might even do it for free-I said MIGHT.

This is one of this morning's posts on The Stool. I need to warn you that a lot of the photographic content on the blog is NSFW, and this post is no different but El Pres always give you a disclaimer before clicking.

ElPres must be nursing a hangover or something because he didn't permalink this post.
Scroll down to "Naked Madonna Picture Up For Auction". Can you guess which one of the first ten comments is me????



Now I know what you're thinking. "Why does a nice girl like you want a job with a crazy, funny, inappropriate for women, site like that?'"


I often wonder about this myself.....My only response to that would be that it is entirely possible that maybe I DO have an extra Y chromosome or that my brothers just did a great job in raising me.

13 comments:

Dr Zibbs said...

You should mail some sample work AND a picture of yourself in a sexy pose wearing some local team stuff. Or better yet, send them a few post cards with pics of you saying, "get ready, it's coming.." - send a few of these.

Alex Galvez said...

I must agree with the Blue Yak....you have the skills as a writer, but it will be the photo that gets you this job. Oh, and maybe buy them a few pints of Sam Adams!!!

MJenks said...

If that fails, you me and Zibbs (and maybe Red) should make our own sports blog.

Heff said...

"The Stool", lol !

LYDIA said...

So which one of the first ten comments is you?

SkylersDad said...

I hope you land a job with them, and we can say we knew you back when...

And the Madonna photo did nothing for me. Now the reef girl ad underneath... Whew!

Candy's daily Dandy said...

Zibbs-Brilliant second idea!! I likey!!!

Alex-Sam Adams could serve to "soften them up" to the idea!

Mjenks-YES! Count me in!

Hef-The Stool is SOOOO right up your alley. They have a little quiz almost every day called, "Guess that Ass". It is truly Hef worthy.

Lyddy-Hi baby! I missed you! Since you are the only one to ask-I will email you with the answer ;)

SkylersDad-That is normal, every day content for the stool. See the aforementioned "Guess that Ass" in my comment to Hef.

Lisa said...

Oh, you and I would get along just fine. ;)

and the blue yak does have a good point.

mike said...

For all the shit that Bill Simmons gets, I have to tell you that "Now I Can Die in Peace" is possibly my all time favorite book. I re-read it every spring to get excited for the upcoming season. I even had him sign it when I bought it. (he wrote, "to Mike... Big Papi for President.")

Scope said...

Sorry I'm a little late to the party on this. The next time you submit, I'd do it under your real name, but then tell them the screen name you use in the comments section, so they can go back and reference what you've done for them already.

And which one was you?

Joe D. said...

I co-sign with Zibbs,

Piece o' Coconut Cake said...

Yeah, no, I don't get it. Who are you and what have you done with my Jimmy Choo wearin' Chloe lovin' girlfriend?

Candy's daily Dandy said...

Rest assured Coco-I can still swing it with the best of the ladies-I just can adapt like a chameleon to my surroundings-as a matter of-I got the screaming, hot pink Balenciaga hobo bag for X-mas and (in the immortal words of WhiskeyMarie) I love it so much I want to take it behind the middle school and get it pregnant:)