Photos with porn stars are a no-no, Gronk
Former University of Arizona football player Rob Gronkowski, now a member of the New England Patriots, ruffled some feathers when he shed his shirt and took a photograph with adult film star Bibi Jones. Gronkowski claims the photograph, which was posted on Jones’ Twitter, was not intended to hurt anyone and was “just a simple picture.” The photograph shows Gronkowski shirtless and Jones wearing his Patriots jersey. Jones claims that nothing happened between the two, although she admits she wishes something did happen, and that Gronkowski approved of her posting the photo on Twitter. Apparently Gronkowski wanted to take advantage of her much larger following on the social networking site.
Seriously? Gronkowski approved this because he wanted to reap the benefits of a porn star’s Twitter following? Yikes.
Let’s just disregard the obvious problems with this (i.e., an athlete representing a professional football franchise is shirtless in a photo with a porn star) and figure out exactly how the two even met. Jones told a radio show that the two met through a mutual friend who played with Gronkowski while he was at the UA. Great. Just what we needed to hear about college athletes.
Amid all the nonsense surrounding the University of Miami Hurricanes’ athletic program (a booster saying he funded sex parities), coupled with the “trophies for tats” scandal at Ohio State University, I personally have been theoretically counting the days until something horrendous comes out about the UA football or basketball programs. While members of our football team being friends with porn stars isn’t exactly boosters paying for abortions (like at Miami), it’s worth an eyebrow raise at the very least and it very well could be the tip of the iceberg.
Perhaps nothing is really going on here and maybe this is one of those “guilty by association” things. Either way you want to look at it, it must be a great time to be a college athlete. Free education, playing a familiar game you love, taking cake courses (although some athletes do thoroughly dedicate themselves), befriending porn stars and, hey, the NCAA has even talked about increasing athletes’ grants. Sounds like a sweet life. Factor in the possibility of potentially becoming a professional athlete, and you’d be hard pressed to find a better life as a 20-something-year-old.
— Storm Byrd is the Perspectives editor. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.
Christmas creeping up
Dear Christmas, stay in winter and get the hell out of fall.
Walking through CVS last night to pick up some of my favorite Halloween pumpkin candy, I found something shocking: Two entire aisles filled with Christmas decorations.
The only time Santa Claus and Halloween should mix is in Tim Burton’s “Nightmare Before Christmas.”
I feel bad for Thanksgiving because it has officially become the middle child of the winter holiday season. Halloween will always have a special place because it’s the first holiday and you get to dress like a freak or a slut and get free candy. Christmas you get presents and then more presents. Thanksgiving is that awkward holiday where you have to spend time with your family and don’t get anything out of it.
But they all have their own month, so back off Christmas.
The biggest day for shopping sales is the day after Thanksgiving because that’s when Christmas season begins. How much extra sales money can you make from putting out stuff 10 weeks early? If I saw someone with a wreath in their basket you can bet money that I will cut in front of them. Hey, I’m living in the here and now, they’re clearly delusional.
Stay in December, Christmas, it’s where you belong.
— Michelle A. Monroe is journalism senior. She can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.
There’s such a thing as too much social networking
Guess which prominent political figure created a Tumblr account? If you guessed President Barack Obama, you would be correct. The president added the blogging outlet to his list of social media networks this past week, meaning Obama now uses Facebook, Tweets and posts things on Tumblr.
Tumblr is a blogging system that allows users to post their ideas and Internet findings (YouTube videos, recipes, clothing, movie quotes, etc.). You can also ‘reblog’ things from users you follow.
I find it odd that the president finds the need to jump on another social media bandwagon, especially one that is so popular with the teenage generation. I’m guessing it’s a campaigning technique, targeted at the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, newest crop of voters: teenagers.
But to be honest, it’s actually pretty smart because it does target a very specific group, but it doesn’t help him gain votes from the older generations, or the people that take politics and reading about policies a lot more seriously.
While it’s a good way to produce clear and concise facts and a newfangled and interesting campaign approach, I believe that Tumblr is a tad overkill.
— Ashley Reid is a journalism sophomore. She can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.
Why do we celebrate fear?
Halloween is coming up, and the smart marketers are releasing horror films to coincide with our cultural celebration of all things terrifying. One such movie is “Paranormal Activity 3,” the quintessential ‘scream flick.’ Though not much in the way of plotting, it more than makes up for it in the amount of visceral, shriek-inducing moments. Audiences are surely terrified, but what’s interesting is that, if the money received thus far is any indication, they are also very glad to be there. Why do we pay good money to be frightened witless, and set up an entire holiday to praise fear? It seems counterintuitive at first, as fear is ostensibly quite unpleasant. But fear may provide us with something that the more benign range of emotions can’t. Back in our evolutionary history, our nightmares were all too real. An encounter that elicited fear in those days far more often ended with being eaten than any other eventuality. So why on Earth would we want to revisit the feeling of eminent consumption by a bear or a tiger? Well, unlike in caveman days, we are (besides fans of “The Ring”) guaranteed to survive watching a scary movie. While it must have been quite unpleasant to encounter a real life monster intent on eating you, surviving that encounter for whatever reason was probably the best feeling in the world. We duplicate that feeling every time we escape a big scare with our lives intact. Humanity has moved to the point where not only are we literally the masters of all earthly monsters, but can experience the thrill of their defeat and our survival on demand. That’s a fine reason to have a holiday.
— Andrew Conlogue is a junior studying philosophy, politics, economics and law. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.
