Pots, Kettles, and Blacks

Don Imus came under fire again this week for racially charged comments relating to Pacman Jones. Among the I-Man's critics was Callahan, who derided Imus as a "racist, old crank."

Now, some might view this as laughably hypocritical of our boy, Gerry. After all, does he not own a coffee mug inscribed with, "World's Greatest Racist Crank" ? Indeed, he does. (He keeps it on his Herald desk, right next to his copy of Cheapshots: An Illustrated Handbook for the Pickup Basketball Player.)

[Figure 2.7]

The only way to reconcile this, then, is to focus on the second word of Gerry's epithet. Old. Because that's really the only difference between the two. Hmmm....OK, here goes: I'm guessing there exists within the racist crank community an age-based pecking order, in which the older racist cranks are discounted as doddering coots, and the younger racist cranks are dismissed as snot-nosed punks......That makes sense, right? Right?

Gerry may be an ageist. But a hypocrite? To quote Butch Stearns, "I'm not so sure about that."

(The best part of the story is Imus's claim that he was being intentionally sarcastic, rather than unguardedly racist. It actually would've been more believable if he used the I was rehearsing for a play defense. )

["Zero point zero....Good Glavin!"]