Thomas Lake on Pop Herring, How to Make It as a Journalist, Coffee, and Why You "Have To Get Yourself Good"

Today I am totally stoked to bring you this interview with Thomas Lake. Lake is a senior writer at Sports Illustrated. He is 31 years old. He wrote a good story in a recent issue of Sports Illustrated. ("Did This Man Really Cut Michael Jordan?") Only by "good" I mean "phenomenal" and other such over-the-top adjectives. I asked him some questions about it over email. Which was great, because it let Lake do what Lake does best, which is write, and he writes—as always—really, really well down there. Lots of smart thoughts, lots of good sentences. Just good stuff all around.

Since it's pretty long, I'll shut up now and just let the interview go. So ladies and gentlemen, Lake on making it as a journalist, coffee, how and why to get yourself good at what you do, and, of course, Pop Herring. I'd say "enjoy," but I know you will anyway, because Lake responded to everything just amazingly, so I'll just stop saying things and let you finally get to reading.

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Brandon and Katie Go To a Football Game

So last weekend this guy and his girl who've been married almost three years and who sometimes feel like they’ve been growing up too fast and who got tired of being all super tight with money decided for a weekend to just say "Screw it" and go on an adventure. 

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Missed Opportunities

I'm pretty happy with the way the past two years of my life have gone. I've gone from writing stories for $50 a pop for local papers to writing lengthy features for ESPN The Magazine. I've had a lot of great breaks, and I've gotten them by hustling and working my a** off. But a story came out this week that made me realize I definitely missed an opportunity, and I've been reflecting on it a lot today. Figured I could share. Might help some other young journalists out there.

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Something Really Dumb That I Just Figured Out (A Mind Dump)

The first Google image when searching "facepalm." From this place. 

Not trying to be all deep-minded or anything. Just started typing out some thoughts and then thought maybe they'd resonate with someone else, too, so I decided to share. Sharing is fun. Note: I offer this with imaginary grains of salt, one because I am human and thus, quite prone to faulty thinking, and two, because I wrote a lot of this last night, when I'm pretty sure I had a fever. Okay, I think that's all the disclaimers necessary. Onward, if you dare.  

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Thank You

Just wanted to take a quick second to thank the handful of you who stop by here on a regular basis. Really. Being a young writer with a blog focused on not much of anything, there are still a group of you who come by every day, and I'm really grateful for you. 

Come 2012, I'm hoping to find a bit better focus for the blog, or at least bring you more original content and other fun stuff. I'm totally open to suggestions. If you have a favorite blog post or something else I've written that you'd like to see more of next year, by all means, let me know. You can either drop that in the comments below or email me at bmsneed@gmail.com. 

You can skip the rest of this if you don't want to read all about me. Just a quick recap of my year and a look ahead.

In fact, if you do skip it, at least, please, tell me about your year in the comments. What'd you do this year that was awesome? And what do you hope to do next year? 

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Man Hangs Out With Wild Gorillas

Well, by "hangs out" I mean "sits in the most submissive pose possible and hopes the gargantuan silverback momma doesn't decide to use him for a game of fetch." 

I mean holy ... wow. This is unreal. And even cooler is that this is like, this guy's life work, studying these things. And one day they just up and get friendly with him. Way too cool. Video and full story after the jump.

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Eight-Point Buck Gets Stuck in Bedroom

CNN video screengrab

'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring except for the eight-point buck that somehow got stuck in one of the bedrooms.

Mariah Keller in Salt Lake City was putting her three kids to bed on Christmas Eve when she heard crashing and the breaking of glass in another bedroom. Upon investigating, she found an eight-point buck. Apparently it had tripped outside, fell through a basement window well, and couldn’t find a way out. It also stared down a picture of Poppa Keller holding the antlers of one of its unlucky cousins. 

"That was maybe the scariest part," Keller said.

That, and the buck trampling some of their presents. But everything was fine.

CNN has the full story:

Jumping 12-Foot Fences and Other Things: Highlights From Christmas 2011

Merry Christmas from me, Katie, Cooper (left) and JackSome quick highlights from Sneed Christmas 2011:

• Best out of context quote goes to my mom: “Man, it’s a good thing Katie married you.” Or "Man, you're lucky Katie married you." Or, "How in the WORLD did you get Katie to marry you?" Can't remember exactly which one. But it was along those lines of awe at Katie. Or maybe questioning her judgement for marrying me. I dunno. Onward...
• Mom leading “Luxury Bingo” in a British accent. With a megaphone. In the kitchen.
• My niece, Malia, getting her first bike. And then spending two minutes on it before realizing she wanted to go get in her Mini Cooper. She got that for her birthday earlier in 2011. She prefers the pedals you mash to make things go rather than the pedals you actually have to work to push. Kids these days.
• Coolest gift: A 1901 silver dollar from my grandma that was part of a collection that her mother had. It’s worth $250, although I think the whole vintage/nostalgia/IT’S A FREAKING SILVER DOLLAR AND SILVER DOLLARS ARE AWESOME factor is way totally rad. Gonna keep that thing forever. Unless it becomes worth a million bucks somehow. Then I’m going to be a total sellout.
• Perhaps most practical gift: A new set of clippers for me to use cutting my hair. They are actually called “Balding Clippers.” HA FREAKING HA.
• Awesomest Moment: Getting up at 5 a.m. to go play basketball at the YMCA with my two brothers only to find the Y closed. And then going to an outdoor court nearby to play 21 and it was 30 degrees and we had to scale a 12-foot fence to get onto the court. And then we realized there was a wide-open gate on the other side of the court.

Of course, these are only a few highlights from what was, honestly, a Christmas weekend that was absolutely chock full of goodness. But enough about me. Tell me about you. What were the best parts of your 2011 Christmas?   

Christmas Miracle: Comatose Man Readied To Donate Organs, Wakes Up

Sam Schmid/ABCNews.com

Arizona college student Sam Schmid has been in a coma since an Oct. 19 car accident that killed his friend and roommate and left him in a coma. Just hours before doctors were about to take him off life support and use him as an organ donor, he inexplicably—some are saying miraculously—woke up. 

Doctors say he will most likely fully recover, and has been cleared for a day pass from the hospital that will allow him to celebrate Christmas with his whole family. 

"Nobody could ever give me a better Christmas present than this—ever, ever, ever," his mother, Susan Reagan, told Good Morning America. "I tell everyone, if they want to call it a modern day miracle, this is a miracle. I have friends who are atheists who have called me and said, 'I am going back to church.'"

I know, I know, even though the story is amazing and everything, it's like EVERYONE whose loved ones ever recover from something like a coma go all divine on us and call it miraculous and, quite honestly, even though I'm a Christian and love God and am all for seeing Him involved in our lives and all that awesome stuff, I get a little tired of it. Feel like it waters it down, discredits a lot of other things He probably has done, because we get too excited and give too much credit that could be directed otherwise, like to the doctors.

But in this case, even Sam's doctor has called it a miracle. He's been under the watch of renowned neurosurgeon Dr. Robert Spetzler, the man who trained the doctors who saved Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords after she was shot earlier this year.

Spetzler said Sam's injuries were "lethal" and said that removing life support was "reasonable."

Yeah. The venerable doctor said letting Sam die was the reasonable option.

So what's he think of Sam's recovery? He said, "I am dumbfounded ... His recovery was truly miraculous." He later added, "It's a great Christmas story."

So, yeah. Merry Christmas, everyone. 

Tim Tebow, Christianity, And True Faith

 

Took on Tebowmania today over at HGC. Thoughts on the guy's crazy success, God, and how it's all sort of related while not being related at all. Or something. Anyway, check it out here.