And they say he was led astray?.

They don't call them catchphrases for nothing...
... and then it's no great distance
from slogan to logo to Logos
(the Word of God!)

Tiger Woods' wandering meat putter

I wish to use this (in conversation, honestly) with due attribution of course. :)

But the essential point remains, whether it's $12 bn or $1 bn. A hell of a lot of money was (and is) riding on this man's image.

Could we both agree that the point is better not made with statistically-illiterate reporting of a study with methodological fish-hooks even its author…

Pork futures?

We're not going to have a 'Pork Bone' political incident, are we? Cause that is certainly derivative ;-)

And all the while, this has been contingent on the keeping of confidence not only of Woods's employees and "girlfriends", but of journalists and fellow players who frankly didn't even like the guy. It is quite fascinating.

See that's interesting. The value of the image of one man to his…

I'm still cheered by it because it shows how poorly we understand the economy and the staggering fictions we tell one another when it comes – for instance – to the role of endorsements and sponsorships.

Or the 500 Trillion Dollar Derivatives 'Market'. Talk about inflating the value of thin…

To be honest, putting all that on Tiger Woods' wandering meat putter is giving the man's penis a damn sight more power than it deserves.

But the essential point remains, whether it's $12 bn or $1 bn. A hell of a lot of money was (and is) riding on this…

To be honest, putting all that on Tiger Woods' wandering meat putter is giving the man's penis a damn sight more power than it deserves.

I'm still cheered by it because it shows how poorly we understand the economy and the staggering fictions we tell one another when it comes…

Tiger Woods' wandering meat putter

Another triumph

I don't really care about Tiger Woods, golf, or celebrities. This however fascinates me. Investors believe that these companies will suffer a huge customer backlash, so that their sales suffer to such an extent that they are worth $12billion less ? Weird.

Brent: I suggest you go have a look…

It's how business journos report things, but it's a tendentious and misleading way of putting it, based on taking the last sales and multiplying out by the number of shares on issue.

A tiny minority of the shares on issue changed hands at a lower…

A quickie analysis claims his top nine sponsors have suffered a $12 billion loss of stock market value as a result of his fall from grace.

I don't really care about Tiger Woods, golf, or celebrities. This however fascinates me. Investors believe that these companies will suffer a…

Like Gio, I'm somewhat cheered by the massive losses from it all.

The problem is, the money will just shift onto other people some of whom we will eventually learn are no better. It's rearranging the deck chairs on the (not at all sinking) titanic.

"Why the fuck would he even bother with her in the first place?"

Your ability to accurately determine if and why people you've never met might be attracted to each other is truly astounding.

I'm not surprised. Sexual morality within legal boundaries is rather private. Panty sniffing, as Craig so often calls it.

Yes, yes, I know. But am I right in thinking we'd all be less hesitant to think ill of someone who's behaved like a lying creep to his friends, relatives, investors,…

But any time I say that I get told to drop the sanctimony and mind my own business :-)

I'll see your MYOB and raise you a 'crotch sniffing', which is why I'm not in this discussion, well mostly not, cause I'm trying to learn from my mistakes. I do…

As you say, I'm not of the view that "he deserved it", but I can think of many, many people for whom I feel greater sympathy. I'm slightly surprised at the rush to such great sympathy here. He's an extraordinarily wealthy man with excellent PR advice.

I'm sure that excellent…

so maybe tiger should play the cultural/race card from his black heritage like 'monty' zuma the sth african polygamist.

...well lucy, i think that sux ballz!

Societal pressure on gay people to be and/or act straight? Yes, it does.

maybe tiger and gareth thought marriage would cure their bacon and smoke their screens but as public figures it is inevitable that all eventually comes out in the wash

goes without saying…

I'll let Craig play with that one

Can it wait until my lunch has settled? :)

wheres the outcry and christian moralising over that ? instead he's held up as a role model for gays in elite sport..go figure

i guess he's not famous enough ? and this seems weird...

Given what society does to gay people, especially gay men who aspire to supposedly ultra-masculine sports…

cross threading here but...do you mean like gareth thomas marrying and fathering kids, all the while decieving wifey and the public at large about his gayness...

wheres the outcry and christian moralising over that…

PS: A quickie analysis claims his top nine sponsors have suffered a $12 billion loss of stock market value as a result of his fall from grace.

That's one of the most uplifting pieces of news I've heard this decade. And I started it in 2001, not just a few…

Obviously someone has cultivated that image but I suspect that it has had a lot more input from the people around him than from the man himself (and not necessary just PR people – I'm sure his father would have been involved, for example)

Oh, come on. He is actually…

Where do you think inspiration for fiction comes from, if not 'real life'? *People* are stupid, crass and debased (as well as intelligent, noble and uplifting, at least sometimes).

True, I just wish I was on the " intelligent, noble and uplifting" side of the ledger for once :)

So I don't agree that it's simply and purely a celebrity gossip story that all right-thinking people should ignore. There's enough money involved to make it interesting.

Russell, I agree that there is valid interest, but I find the volume of coverage depressing (though sadly all too common with this…

PS: A quickie analysis claims his top nine sponsors have suffered a $12 billion loss of stock market value as a result of his fall from grace.

If you had your retirement investment in Proctor & Gamble, Pepsico or Nike, you might be entitled to be pissed off with him.

The…

I'm assuming you know that the source of Beenie Man's loathsome overcompensation is widely thought to be the career damage he took with his Jamaican audience after he appeared on RuPaul's TV show?

No I didn't, but that's going straight in the **Truth Is Waay Is More Fabulously Freaky Than…

Gossip is how humans communicate, a lot of the time, and no-one is forcing anyone to participate at knife-point.

As in all professions, when academics get together (usually at conferences) much of the talk is what I would call 'gossip'--who has shifted jobs, who is feuding with whom, in which…

Gossip is how humans communicate, a lot of the time

True, it goes right back to when we were hunters and gatherers, when KDONK [he is hit on the head by an anvil that leaves him unconscious.]

How many sponsorship deals did Michael Jackson have?

Quite a number

Er, okay,…

I thought it particularly interesting that much was made of TWs affairs being with blonds. Those sneaky black men despoiling our blonds.
As if every other man in the…

Good point, actually. The great flowering of literacy in the Victorian era was driven in good part by the salaciousness of court reporting in the newspapers.

And it's no more or less ridiculous to gossip over sports stars than it was then to be titillated by scandal involving people who…

But am I the only person who finds the whole ratings argument rather disingenuous?

No, you are not. Ratings--especially Peoplemeter measurement which is the standard across the globe--are a load of horse-doo. I don't wish to divert this conversation but, on some other occasion, I am happy to argue as…

As Russell said, this sort of thing isn't at all new. Mass media has enabled us all to gossip uncharitably on an unprecedented scale since the twentieth century – but in the early modern period we gossiped via woodcut and pamphlet.

Good point, actually. The great flowering of literacy in…

Couldn't we just stick to fiction?.... the saddest part is not that we choose "real life", but that we choose to enshrine its stupidest, crassest, most debased stories...

Where do you think inspiration for fiction comes from, if not 'real life'? *People* are stupid, crass and debased (as well as…

I just have the sneaking suspicion that if RuPaul was on the bill, the affiliate would have been made perfectly well aware that Mr. Charles in an in your face trannie and disassociated himself PDQ.

You have a point there. If nowt else, some church would have brought it to…

them africans do have some crazy customs and beliefs though pretty much on a par with american objectivism

I'm charitably assuming that was an ill thought out throwaway comment.

Aw, everyone knows only dykes are pro golfers. But seriously, yes. :)

I guess what I mean is, would there be the same outbursts of "family man" rhetoric or is it more likely they'd vanish him into obscurity? The great man undone by hubris is an easy narrative; the acknowledged…

seems to be the new way. do something controversial, get the publicity and to hell with the consequences.

Er, same as the old way?

It's hard to see what else they could have done at a corporate level.

Oh, I don't know — as my late Nana used to say, it's all very nice being sorry but much better to have nothing to be sorry for in the first place. I just have the…

seems to be the new way. do something controversial, get the publicity and to hell with the consequences.

no such thing as bad publicity. give the mob what…

But I'm not finding Keith's own righteous indignation about Woods' fate in the popular media very compelling either. I'm just not outraged, as such, about any of it.

Oh, neither do I. But on the other hand I can understand their contempt when as you can see here, there…

And, to be fair, whose lyrical fag-bashing isn't exactly outside the mainstream in Uganda But my point is that if anyone is "tainting" the Pepsi family of beverage brands, Tiger Woods is slipping down the list fairly quickly.

To be fair, Craig, Pepsi's local bottling affiliate in Uganda sponsored a…

them africans do have some crazy customs and beliefs though pretty much…

And, to be fair, whose lyrical fag-bashing isn't exactly outside the mainstream in Uganda But my point is that if anyone is "tainting" the Pepsi family of beverage brands, Tiger Woods is slipping down the list fairly quickly.

Craig, you're forgetting the secondary meaning of "family values" in the US...…

I'd agree with Craig and Keith that the righteous indignation is utterly ridiculous and seems to emanate from the same quarter that believes in keeping politics out of sport.

But I'm not finding Keith's own righteous indignation about Woods' fate in the popular media very compelling either. I'm just not…

...who makes insanely catchy tunes

And, to be fair, whose lyrical fag-bashing isn't exactly outside the mainstream in Uganda But my point is that if anyone is "tainting" the Pepsi family of beverage brands, Tiger Woods is slipping down the list fairly quickly.

...who makes insanely catchy tunes

I'd agree with Craig and Keith that the righteous indignation is utterly ridiculous and seems to emanate from the same quarter that believes in keeping politics out of sport.

That same quarter was guilty of hypocrisy in the early 1980s (and probably still is) – it refused to send NZ…

It should not surprise anyone that Woods is flawed — it's hard to be as insanely good at one thing as he is without suffering a deficit somewhere. But he and his people did consciously create and sell an image of him based on virtues he didn't possess.

Indeed, good…

my take on rand was, 'it's ok to be a greedy white…

That said, if I recall correctly Rand's rejection of conventional morality was about getting rich and bugger the proles, not puritanical…

It should not surprise anyone that Woods is flawed — it's hard to be as insanely good at one thing as he is without suffering a deficit somewhere. But he and his people did consciously create and sell an image of him based on virtues he didn't possess.

OK, that's…

In any case, why should Woods matter – because he plays golf very…

After that, I struggle to complain about the media's titillation reporting. Mike said it. It's about the ratings. They might as well show porn.

But am I the only person who finds the whole ratings argument rather disingenuous? I once had a conversation with a media maven that went something…

Quite a big chunk of Woods' income has come from the sale of his image, as opposed to his excellence in playing golf.

I've never seen him as a big family man. To me the image was always just that he was extremely good at golf (though I admit I…

he's still got the talent, the money, the ladeez, the life style, minus the pressure to perform on the golf course and she's set up for life. i cant see either of them being too cut…

Although I dread to think how many times you've mentioned it ...

Exactly the same number I've asserted it's total irrelevance to her performance as a public figure, and rather close to the number of times I've bitched so-called "mainstream" media outlets for their hypocritical condemnation of Ian Wishart's panty-sniffing…

When soccer player David Beckham was rumored to have been in sexual trouble, it may have been disappointing to his fans, but it was hardly surprising. Beckham just had the look of someone who was born to screw around

1. Beckham came clean very early when his story broke.
2.…

Fox News's senior political analyst Brit Hume weighs in on what Tiger Woods needs to do to redeem himself: convert to Christianity.

The daily show (not appearing on C4 this week for some reason?!?) was all over this the last two nights. Damn funny. www.dailyshow.com.

... the greatest single fall in popularity of a nonpolitician in the history of public-opinion surveys: a drop in approval from 87 percent in 2005 to 33 percent, with an unfavorable rating of 57 percent, according to a recent USA Today/Gallup…

That aspect slipped right past me until you mentioned it now. I must be gazing at even fewer magazine covers than Keith.

Ditto – I'd heard "Tiger Woods had a car accident" followed by "Tiger Woods had an affair" followed by "Tiger Woods had multiple affairs" followed by "Tiger Woods…

By that logic, I guess Ted Haggard should have switched to Buddhism.

apparently got paid a $15,000 monthly retainer just to corral a bevy of willing women on demand

That aspect slipped right past me until you mentioned it now. I must be gazing at even fewer magazine covers than Keith.

But surely you're not suggesting that Jackson was "torn down" because of his fame? If anything, his fame kept him out of jail.

Reminds me of a cartoon I saw at the time he was settling out of court: A father is talking to his son, saying "That's what's so…

the saddest part is not that we choose "real life", but that we choose to enshrine its stupidest, crassest, most debased stories... and call it celebrity news.

Hyperreality, etc, but I'm not feeling like delving. Where's Giovanni?

I still don't give a shit what Helen Clark does with her twat in private with however many consenting adults of whatever gender floats her boat.

Although I dread to think how many times you've mentioned it ...

Morals, schmorals: I am feeding the machine because I love the story on a purely 'ohnohedidn't' level...

I already know that I suck in fundamental ways, but I laughed for a very long time at the YouTube slow jam someone made from the 'take your name off your phone' voicemail.

…

Are you saying he wouldn't have been torn down if he hadn't accepted sponsorships?

Quite a big chunk of Woods' income has come from the sale of his image, as opposed to his excellence in playing golf.

And when the image being sold turns out to differ sharply from the…

Some of this relates to Tiger but I still think that he walked into this trap and that Ayn Rand's criticism of "most of humanity" is a bit rich.

See!! There you go – this idea that he *deserves* it. That if he allows himself to be worshipped, it's his…

Filtering out all celebrity-related news might have saved you from that.

I did. I no longer watch TV news, and barely read NZ papers anymore. My only absorption of the Woods story has been through display advertising in public spaces, and I think that illustrates how ridiculous it's become.

Tried to read Rand once and gave up early on because it was so crappy (but, then again,…

I'd also like to know exactly how Elin Nordegren "asked" to be publicly humiliated?

Good point but going back to the original post

The basic theme of it was that most of humanity are parasites who alternately feed off and tear down great individuals, and that society was an obsequious…

Therefore you can't blame "society" for tearing him down. He played with fire.

Wow, I don't know how to respond to that. Oh yes I do...

I still don't give a shit what Helen Clark does with her twat in private with however many consenting adults of whatever gender floats…

Therefore you can't blame "society" for tearing him down. He played with fire.

I'm guessing that many people who have affairs portray themselves as good upstanding family men/women. Portraying yourself as a cheater might be a giveaway.

And 2 years off golf now? Hard to see what the point of that is.

A game where following a white ball is used as a sex substitute or maybe as a way of avoiding spending time with their partners

"A good walk spoilt"

Tiger gives them all something to aim at

Therefore you can't blame "society" for tearing him down. He played with fire.

Are you saying he wouldn't have been torn down if he hadn't accepted sponsorships? How many sponsorship deals did Michael Jackson have?

Therefore you can't blame "society" for tearing him down. He played with fire.

Didn't he tear himself down by living a double life and betraying his family????

Er... You could question whatever it might have to do with his golfing, surely? (Hint: it rhymes with "buck hall") It doesn't strike me as an Ayn Rand story in fact precisely because Tiger is no…

For better or worse, I can honestly say that I finally appreciate Rand's contempt.

Filtering out all celebrity-related news might have saved you from that.