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.
