Once consumed by making sense of 26 letters in the alphabet.
Pleasant Hill, Iowa
Joined May 2010
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Rick Brown retweeted
Remarkable statistic:
Prior to Western Michigan, college football teams were 110,352 - 0 when leading after the end of regulation, dating back to 1869.
Don't you just love all the political ads?
Rick Brown retweeted
As the great Harvard author, Linda A. Hill has so aptly noted, Mr. Joe Mazzulla, Coach, is one of the greatest leaders living today. Here he is taking the time to come to I so Indianola, IOWA to support his player and to share his experience, strength, and hope with youth.💚🍀🦚
Rick Brown retweeted
I was looping for him and didn’t know who he was. On the first green I noticed he had a Walker Cup ball marker.
I asked him if he was a big fan and he replied “Bud, I’m the captain”.
He cruised to a 68 with ease.
Rick Brown retweeted
We have waived QB Diego Pavia.
baltimoreravens.com/news/die…
Rick Brown retweeted
BREAKING: The Memphis Grizzlies are trading two-time NBA All-Star Ja Morant to the Portland Trail Blazers for Jerami Grant and Kris Murray, sources tell ESPN.
Rick Brown retweeted
More on McCollum: He had contact w/ UNC last week as the search played out, per sources. UNC was hoping to meet with him in person Sunday for a proper interview but he passed on that invitation to stay at Iowa. Malone's candidacy picked up speed as others removed their names.
If you love the written word, you'll love this interview with the great Wright Thompson.
"One great detail will do the work of 50 crappy sentences."
Wright Thompson is one of the last great magazine writers in America. He's long been a writer at ESPN, and if you love sports, you've almost definitely read his work. Maybe his profile of Tiger Woods. Or maybe the one about Michael Jordan.
Some highlights:
- "When somebody says something is overwritten, it really just means that the story is underreported."
- Profiles are about figuring out what is a central complication of somebody's life and how, on a daily basis, they go about solving it.
- "All of these stories, the few good ones I've written... I think these stories are like a prayer for empathy, to try to understand each other, to understand another human being a little bit at a time. Then slowly, thread by thread, you understand yourself."
- On writing well: "One of the things that's missing is that nobody wants to hear what I have to say, which is just reps. Zen is a butt in a seat. There's no mystery. It's just reps."
- "I wish someone had told me years ago that if you're going to be a professional writer for decades, writing is not going to be about words, but it's going to be about architecture. Only when you really understand how things fit together and move can you then actually be thinking about the words."
- "All writing is trying to say something new that is true and is both specific and universal and that helps the reader understand something they didn't understand before, preferably about themselves."
And here are the timestamps:
1:50 Writer's vomit vs. writer's block
8:33 The architecture of writing
11:30 What makes for a good story?
15:57 Bringing characters to life
21:11 "The hammer"
26:26 Writing a vivid scene
33:41 How to bring places to life
39:57 Dialogue vs. quotes
45:49 The role of secondary characters
51:44 The problem with "brainstorming"
1:02:13 What makes for a great ending?
I've shared the full conversation with Wright Thompson below.
If you'd rather watch on YouTube, or listen to the full thing on Apple / Spotify, check out the reply tweets.
This is awesome.
76 Trombones… finished the Hawkeye way. @HawkeyeBand at Hancher with The Music Man National Tour 🖤💛
Remember Mar. 9, 1996, @JessSettlesHoop? No. 19 Iowa led No. 4 Purdue, 54-52, at CHA. Settles ties up Porter Roberts, :10.9 left. Iowa possession. Coach Keady calls TO. Just four Boilers return to floor. A fifth runs onto court after in-bds pass to see Kenyon Murray dunk. 56-52.
A legendary coach at a legendary restaurant, right @johnbohnenkamp?
Rick Brown retweeted
New kid on the block 👋
@ZachJohnsonPGA makes his PGA TOUR Champions debut this week @JamesHardieInv!
Rick Brown retweeted
TFW you're headed to Ivy Madness
#FightOnPenn🔴🔵🏀