Sports writer, Idaho Falls, ID

I always get my Eastern Idaho towns confused. sigh.

Ides, is Idaho Falls a dump or am I confusing it with Pocatello again?

 

Is that why some readers think sports writers are homers?

 

Just maybe . . .

 

Poky is most certainly the armpit of the Intermountain West.

Idaho Falls is okay. It's nothing special, but it's a fairly neat town. It's near some pretty great areas, such as Island Park and Yellowstone. I don't know much about the paper, but as far as the town is concerned, one could definitely do a lot worse than Idaho Falls.

 

Idaho Falls is a better town in most regards. Pocatello has a college, though, and as a sports writer that would be a huge difference maker for me. I.F. has a great greenway with the river, but the layout of the city is terrible for traffic and the freeway serves only to move people past the city and not through the city.

Poky is the uglier, dirtier, dumpier town by far, but it also has some very nice neighborhoods (including the one I once lived in) and is much more cost-of-living friendly. It's also 50 miles closer to the big city.

 

My favorite homer moment was from the SE of the Blackfoot paper. There was a FB playoff quadrupleheader being played in the dome in Poky. Three of the games involved teams from his paper. He showed up to Game 1 wearing the gear of Team A, then changed clothes accordingly to gear from Teams B and C in Games 2 and 4.

 

That takes some serious talent.

 

Another bonus (if you can call it that) of working in Poky rather than I.F. -- you'll never freeze your balls/boobs off covering a home football game. Even the three Poky high schools play their home games in the dome.

Covering the smaller schools, however, can leave your balls/boobs frozen in November.

 

I'll admit I've never spent much time in Poky's suburbs, but the downtown and the ISU campus, to me, leave a lot to be desired.

One funny thing, though. Actually found a gas station downtown that was, I kid you not, named "The Quickie Mart"

 

I think Cher, Madonna and other pop stars have had shows with less costume changes.

 

While we're on the homer topic, I can't, for the life of me, seem to convince the sports editors of the local college paper to remain unbiased. We at least got them to stop cheering in the press box.

But the former sports editor showed up to a game with a painted face. Yup. In the press box.

Another traveled to the conference tournament and sat courtside to take pictures wearing a jersey from the college.

This "sports editor" wore the jersey into the postgame press conference, and during questions referred to the team as "we."

*SIGH*

 

Can you just shoot them?

I'm surprised their advisor hasn't said something to them.