Column: Sports Illustrated is gone, but I’m still here weekly

column-sports-illustrated-is-gone-but-i-m-still-here-weekly

Dear readers,

It’s been a tough week out here at Giant FM. Not so much for me, but both Jeff Brown and Johnny McCrory are sports guys. The news that Sports Illustrated died was tough on sports fans everywhere.

One of my loyal readers reported, that upon hearing the news, a well-known sports fan proclaimed, “They laid off all the writers at Sports Illustrated, but Meltzer is still publishing stories about ‘The Helbing’ weekly. It’s just another example of how life is not fair.”

I’ll agree, life is not fair. However, I’m actually more upset about the local Dairy Queen removing the “Curly the Clown” sign than the end of Sports Illustrated. To anyone paying attention, it couldn’t have been a big surprise that Sports Illustrated was coming to an end. There were hints. It was fading away just like what happened to the Bears of Blue River Festival.

When Shelbyville started the Bears of Blue River Festival, it lasted several months. Every day the festival began with a competition to see who could get their lawn chair set up in a prime spot to view the night’s entertainment.

Each night was different. Sometimes it was a “lip sync” competition. Sometimes it was a musical act straight from the Hullabaloo TV show. The highlight of each festival season was always an Elvis impersonator.

The Bears of Blue River Festival began to fade. Instead of lasting several months, it began to shrink in duration. Soon there were fewer and fewer lawn chairs. I stuck with it until the end. It was sad.

I remember the final day. It was just me and a few other diehards sitting in lawn chairs that needed new webbing. We were watching someone’s grandfather pretend to remove his thumb. The magic was over. 

Sports Illustrated was a weekly magazine for years. In 2018 it became biweekly. In 2020 it became monthly. In 2023 the swimsuit issue featured 81-year-old Martha Stewart on the cover pretending to remove her thumb. Just like the Bears of Blue River Festival, the magic was gone.

Sports Illustrated won’t be the last magazine to fail. Harper’s Weekly is gone, as is Field & Stream, Popular Science, and even Playboy.

Speaking of Playboy, Hugh Hefner’s last wife has just written a trashy “tell all” book about her years married to Hefner. The title of the book is “Only Say Good Things.”

It was Hefner’s request of her before he died. She of course ignores his request and dishes the dirt.

In the days of Playboy, it was always a joke for men to say that they bought the magazine for the articles. Playboy did feature articles and short stories by many famous writers including Kurt Vonnegut, Joseph Heller, Norman Mailer, Margaret Atwood, Ray Bradbury, Truman Capote, John Updike, Jack Kerouac and Steven King.

Showing that sometimes you can’t judge a magazine by its cover.

See you all next week, same Schwinn time, same Schwinn channel.

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