I’m entering my second month as editor of With Leather, and I don’t think the readership totally understands me. I’ve gotten a few criticisms for “trying too hard,” which is sort of like your parents telling you you’re “being smart” in the realm of things to worry about. But I do try too hard, just in general, so I’m going to take a step back to refocus by repeatedly linking you to interviews with me and begging you for your support. I’m wiling to put 100 pages of a nude lady on one big ass page that loads even if you don’t click it if you’ll start enabling me.

I’m going to try less hard to be funny. I’m halfway through Season 6 of “King of Queens” right now, so I’m picking up some great material, and I think I’ll be fine.

Sports

Brandon Stroud: The Interview - Productive Outs did an interview with me, and I tried to be entertaining. Read closely for my thoughts on Kyle Farnsworth, veganism, and professional wrestling. You know, if you don’t read With Leather, because that’s basically all I ever talk about. [Productive Outs]

A Dish Served Cold: Michael Jordan’s 10 Most Memorable Revenge Games - One thing Michael Jordan doesn’t get praised for enough is his chilling, narcissistic heartlessness. Relive most of his classics, including that game when he stabbed Chris Webber for doing a lay-up. [Smoking Section]

New Evel Knievel Biopic Makes a Leap to Big Screen - Based on a book called “The High-Flying Life of Evel Knievel: American Showman, Daredevil, and Legend,” so you know they’ll call the movie “Showman.” Why can movies only have one or two words, and book titles have to have 50? I want to read Moby Dick, not “Call Me Moby Dick: The Story of Captains, Savages, and a Whale of a Tale!” [Moviefone]

Colombian Women Love Pole Dancing - When pole dancing is not respected, you’ve got to TAKE IT TO THE STREETS. These women are like the sexiest Improv Everywhere ever, and as a bonus I don’t want to kill myself every time I see them. [Burnsy.org]

Read the rest of this entry »

Evel Knievel, the late daredevil who took pride in his scrapes with the law, was nearly indicted by the federal government, according to the 290-page report the FBI compiled on him.  Along with possible ties to a crime syndicate, Knievel’s bread and butter seemed to be kicking the shit out of people:

His most well-known run-in with the law was a 1977 attack on movie studio executive Shelly Saltman, whom the daredevil beat with a baseball bat in the parking lot of 20th Century Fox.

Saltman promoted Knievel’s infamous attempt to jump Idaho’s Snake River Canyon and then wrote a book about the experience, angering Knievel by portraying him as “an alcoholic, a pill addict, an anti-Semite and an immoral person.” Knievel was sentenced to six months in jail and Saltman won a $12.75 million judgment, but never collected…

Knievel’s file shows investigators believed he was involved with other violent acts — a threat in Phoenix, an attack in a Kansas City hotel room and a vicious beating in San Francisco. All were allegedly carried out by Knievel associates, according to subjects quoted in the file.

Yeah!  What an awesome badass!  It’s like that old saying: revenge is a dish best served in public, as you assault them with a baseball bat at their place of employ.  Well done, Evel.  That guy was a real class act.  Not like those thugs O.J. Simpson and Lawrence Phillips.  Evel’s totally different, in that he didn’t play football and was… uh… how do I put this delicately?  I believe the term is “white.”

[Machochip]

Evel Knievel, the greatest daredevil who ever lived, died yesterday. He was 69.  Here's a video of him plying his craft at Ceasar's Palace on New Year's Eve, 1967:

I always admired Evel Knievel. Not because I was particularly fond of daring the devil, but because the motorcycle stunt-man didn't take shit from anybody.  I remember seeing a program about him on the History Channel in which they recounted the story of when Evel severely bludgeoned a former promoter of his with a baseball bat because the promoter had written a slanderous pulp biography about him. And he had 2 broken arms from a recent jump, but that didn't stop him from sending the promoter to the hospital. What? Yeah, I watched the History Channel. I couldn't find the remote control and the TV was at least 5 feet away from the couch, but the span seemed longer than the Snake River Canyon. More Evel vids after the jump: