IM Conversation Theater: On Teresa Masterson, John Madden, Text Messaging, Etc.

What does Steve Irwin’s death mean to all of us? Teresa Masterson investigates:

pwddmac: oh oh oh!

anonymous reader: teresa!!!!!!!!!
pwddmac: today she ruminates on steve irwin and how she used to watch him in college
pwddmac: she sent her friend a text saying steve irwin died
pwddmac: just like the text you sent me!
reader: i know!
pwddmac: you two should hang out
reader: maybe we can hang out after stripper-pole-dancing class sometime
reader: “He had zeal for what he did.” incidentally, lots of people have zeal for their professions. it’s not always a good thing.
reader: see: dealers, bush, etc.
pwddmac: aaron rowand
reader: i also kind of hate it when people say college was “a simpler time.”
pwddmac: yeah. can’t we all just agree ALL times of life suck(ed)?
reader: seriously.
pwddmac: i mean, okay, when i was 3, that was probably simpler, but i remember being really upset that nursery school picture day was just that, pictures, and i wouldn’t get to play with toys
pwddmac: seriously i think i’m crying in my school photo
reader: life gets more complex just by existing
reader: i bet in college, no one paid teresa to “blog,” either.
pwddmac: yeah, in college i made $225 a month at my school paper
pwddmac: hot times!
reader: oh, burn! we paid better than that.
reader: there is something to be said about the fact that when i hear about a murder in west philly i don’t immediately text any friends who live there, yet i did feel compelled to broadcast the crocodile hunter’s demise.
reader: i didn’t text anyone when the pope died.
pwddmac: well, if the pope was killed by a stingray or a nun, you’d pry text me
pwddmac: jp2 was on his deathbed, it’s not like it was unexpected
pwddmac: god, i hope when john madden dies i don’t spend 1000 words writing about how i we played madden 04 for approximately 250 hours my senior year of college.
reader: well maybe you can text teresa when madden dies.
reader: (which will be soon, i hope. turducken!)
pwddmac: no joking about john madden’s death!
reader: i hate john madden!
reader: someone should write a column - or book - about all the people whose video game/non-reality alter-egos are actually better than their real-life personalities. (john madden = top of that list.)
pwddmac: paging chuck klosterman!
reader: oh god. or not.

Blog: Croc ‘O Nostalgia For Gen X [NBC 10]
Archives: Teresa Masterson

No Steve Irwin Puns Here, No Sir

Last night at quizzo — or, since it was New Deck, “Quizo” — I learned a very important thing: It’s already apparently okay to joke about Steve Irwin’s death. (It’s a coping mechanism, I suppose. It’s okay; nobody from his family was there.) Team names included: Six Feet Down Under; Float Like a Crocodile, Sting Like a Ray (uhh, this may have been ours, I don’t remember); about three team names involving “Crikey!” and “Total Eclipse of the Heart” by Steve Irwin and the Stingrays.

Someone from the Daily News, who was moralizing about t-shirts just a few weeks ago, must have been at Quizo last night, too, since today’s cover story headline is “It’s No Croc!” (Isn’t the expression “What a Croc?”)

Which means that the Daily News apparently has these rules: It’s okay to joke about death or violence, as long as it’s thousands of miles away. Naturally.

Irwin’s death caught on videotape [CNN]
Aug. 21: T-Shirt Turned 21 In Prison Doing Life Without Parole