This is the first edition of Down and Distance, a new weekly column here on TROUBL. It’s a place to consider the social, political, and cultural implications of professional football, because any game that hold’s a nation’s attention like NFL football has those implications. This is sports talk with a broad context.

Only in America do they look at rugby and say, “Fuck it, why don’t you just throw the ball all the way across the damn field?” More »

…of a Nomad Junkie

How to Recognize a New Yorker:

• If his accent (be careful now) or demeanor are specifically “New York” and perhaps you think you may have seen this person twenty, thirty years ago in some drama or comedy set in the street – but you can’t reference the title of the film–or if the person is just a little “too” out of the ordinary, then he’s a real New Yorker. More »

I remember the first time I noticed it. When I was a teenager, my friend and I were lifeguards at a day camp swimming pool. One day, we went up to the lodge after work to change for dates that evening. When we were putting on our makeup in side-by-side mirrors, I glanced over at her and almost burst out laughing. She was making this bizarre face–cheeks sucked in, lips puckered, eyes wide, skin tight over her cheekbones. Like a fish-face you learn to make as a kid. More »

Dweeb: A synonym for geek or nerd, first used in the 1960s, recently became a part of the hip-hop lexicon when Jim Jones lambasted Nas for his protest of Fox news’ racist reporting outside of the network’s Manhattan offices. (Watch Nas here)

According to Jones:
“…We don’t wanna hear that bullshit you tryna kick, man. That propaganda shit. Fuck outta here. It’s 2008 and it’s a recession. Let’s talk about that. Let’s talk about getting back, finding out how we make some fuckin’ money in these fucked up times. (Watch Jim Jones here) More »

…of a Nomad Junkie

“New York City (post-New Millennium, 2008): A city once led by the indigenous peoples, artists, thugs, conmen, fashion czars, and radical progressives (in any form) were replaced, co-mingled with, and invited the rest of the fucking country to join the party.”

I don’t know any New Yorkers anymore. No, that’s not true. I know two. One’s in rehab, the other is still in the Bronx. He started a moving company. The others have died or have left. Extinct. More »

This Fourth of July I spent ten hours on Greyhound buses to and from my parents’ house. Needless to say, I had a lot of time for pondering the nature of the summer’s biggest holiday - a lot more time than I usually spend thinking about it. As I waited in line for the buses, which each showed up an hour or more late, I spent some time thinking about America and patriotism. More »

I remember having short hair. It was curly, a little crazy looking at times, but always cute. Well, at least that’s what I thought. No one was trying to holla at me though, and I swear I overheard a group of construction workers talking about my unruly tresses in Spanish. Little did they know, I understood every word. I was extremely self-conscious about it, especially on windy days when rebel curls located at different regions on my head changed shape and position more often than I was comfortable with. More »

My favorite food in the world is my mom’s home-cooked meat loaf. The thought of indulging in it instantly engages my salivary glands. Think of your favorite food, and imagine if the law prevented you from eating it. I’ll do you one better. What if you had to work with your favorite food on a daily basis, interact with it, sleep next to it, play with it, but you were never allowed to eat it? This is the cruel joke God played on Jeffery Dahmer. More »

The old maxim “Leave it to the experts” is familiar because it’s usually good advice. We wouldn’t let anyone but highly trained doctors perform surgery on us. But sometimes even the most elite of experts must be called into question when they get carried away. Let’s say, a group of world-class physicists wanted to use a machine that would unlock the secrets of the universe, but it was also capable of destroying the planet. Some might think it’s time to take those experts down a few notches, right? More »

From the abundance of hate group websites to “hater-themed” rap videos, the Internet makes it easy to examine hate. Click the links below to watch our video collage on hate.

Bow Wow • Haters: The Series • Maino-Hi Hater • Ku Klux Klan • Kat Williams • Freaky Zeeky-Hater What You Lookin’ At