DICKIE V BABY! 7/22/13

Dick Vitale. The same person who makes my father hit the mute button on the TV and watch the game in silence was the topic of today's class. Baby. A word that is very frequently said at the end of every sentence said by Dick Vitale. For example, "He’s a PTPer tonight, baby!" Also see "Diaper Dandy." I feel embarrassed to have listened to enough Dick Vitale to know that PTP means "Prime Time Player."

Our teacher, Tim Crothers, had us read two opinion pieces he wrote for Sports Illustrated about Vitale. I was impressed with the stats in the second column, especially the fact that the word "great" was used 85 times. He also played phone messages left on his machine by Mr. Vitale, and it was pretty funny. They nicely displayed the two different types of opinion pieces, "rants" and "reason."

We then practiced writing a lead for an opinion piece, before being assigned to write one on Around the Horn, a show on ESPN at 5 PM. Since I am temporarily living with a co-worker who does not get ESPN, one of my classmates offered to have me watch the show with her. I went to He's Not Here, where she works, and watched the show and got another Blue Cup before I left Chapel Hill. Certainly more enjoyable than watching it at home by myself.

I was glad I watched the show. I originally wrote my piece based on what I thought about the show from the few times I had just happened to have watched some of it. However, there were parts to the format that I didn't know, and I was glad to see that so I could make my writing accurate.