I come from a long line of curmudgeons

[Patrick.Ryan at westover.af.mil]

>From one Ryan on another (no relation BTW) the difference to me is
generational. He's forever the old time, old school typical curmudgeon
Boston Globe writer (Wil McDonough, Dan Shaugnessy - sensing a pattern
anyone?) that, unlike Ms Springer for example, doesn't have to
completely kowtow to the organizations they used to be beat writers for.
Secondly, he's NOT a beat writer anymore - he's paid to be an
opinionated and (here's the key word) controversial writer.
 
Opinion columnists don't sell papers by continuing to parrot the "party
line" - they sell papers by doing exactly the opposite. Just the fact
that it invoked such an emotional response in some list members prove
Ryan did his job. We're not talking about Tony Maz' Herald love piece
yesterday are we - because it echoed what everyone else said; we're
talking about the article that, for lack of a better word, pissed people
off.
 
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I will say this about Bob Ryan: (a) just about everyone says his
basketball knowledge is unsurpassed but (b) he comes across as just a
complete, first-class Crank.  Whether its on the SPorts Reporters, PTI,
or the movie theater in Boston I worked at... the guy just seems
unhappy.  Does one impact the other? I doubt it.