..you’re not too close, but someone’s passing judgement on you, anyway.

From Vinyl Mine’s Clip Shack :

Gerard Cosloy’s sports thing has a obscure reference to the band White Boy that only his hipster readers who don’t like sports anyway got.  The ones that read it for the sports are going huh?

I’m sure it will come as news to those readers who commented on said “obscure reference” that they, despite professing otherwise, don’t like sports anyways. Likewise, “the ones that read it for the sports” (?) are obviously such a bunch of IQ 32’s, a cultural reference to something less universally recognized than Michael Jackson or Paris Hilton is gonna zoom right over their low-brows.

I can tolerate criticism of CSTB. Jessica Hopper says it is a bullet-point version of the Sporting News. Another correspondent, whose favorite subject is (surprise!) herself, says CSTB is “insular”. Whether either of these persons are completely out to lunch or just slightly, is for you to decide. Me, I’m comfortable either way. The notion that any particular group of people may or may not “get” something in CSTB never occurs to me, because I write/compile this for my own entertainment. If others happen to enjoy it (and the monthly bandwidth bill indicates that more than a few of you do), that’s terrific.

But either way, it should be evident by now to those who actually follow this thing that CSTB is aimed neither at “hipsters” nor “those that read it for the sports” (though said persons would have nothing to apologize for), but rather, free thinkers who are willing to kiss my ass in lieu of paypal donations.

I ask not for any defense of CSTB, dear readers, but how does it feel to know that you are the ones being stereotyped? That a person you’ve never met already knows that if you’re savvy enough to be aware of WDC’s late White Boy, you couldn’t possibly follow sports (tell it to David Wells!). And that the same commentator is pretty sure that if you do have an interest in the sporting scene, you either have no idea what I’m going on about the rest of the time or you require things to be spelled out for you.

I’m having none of that. I respect the intelligence of CSTB’s readership —- even those of you laboring under the delusion that the comments section serves as a guestbook where you can leave personal messages for Barrett Robins, Carmelo Anthony or Huckapoo. If another blogger thinks CSTB is unoriginal or that I’ve got nothing to say of consequence, hey, bring it on. But when they start picking on you, that’s when I take exception. I will not sit by idly as CSTB Nation is characterized as a bunch of posuers, dumb jocks, retards and cultural illiterates.

Because I don’t think you’re posuers.