As we reported earlier this month, the Orange County Register scored a coup by nabbing legendary crank columnist T.J. Simers from the Los Angeles Times. Well, his first column appears today in print, and it's as lovably antagonistic as ever before–how can you not love a columnist who begins his OC tenure by trashing Angels owner “Angry” Arte Moreno, a man who deserves all the barbs thrown his way.
Even better? Simers also directed his acid pen at yours truly, although never by name. We. Are. HONORED!!!
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After cracking a joke at the behalf of Register owner Aaron Kushner, calling him “Ashton Kutcher,” Simers cites our column warning him about what's to come, although never mentioning myself or the Weekly by name, simply referring to me as a “blogger.” Hey: that's the nicest thing the Register has EVER printed about us, so we'll take it as a compliment.
“The blogger had a warning for me,” Simers wrote. “He said my columns are just 'the type of journalism Kushner loathes.' Well, why should he be any different than most Page 2 readers?”
HA!
You can read the column here; the Reg said it'll allow free access to its sports columnists for a wee bit, which means we won't have to steal our neighbor's paper for a couple of weeks.
The funny thing, though, is that Simers also claimed in his inaugural column that LA Times editors recently pressured him to stop trashing Moreno and the Angels so much–“I guess it didn't look good with all the advertising the Angels were doing on the Times' website.” Simers does realize that the Angels spend mucho dinero with the Reg, going so far as to unloading cheap seats on Register subscribers, right? Who's got the over-under on how many weeks until Kushner tells Simers to kibosh the Moreno-bashing?
Let's hope that never happens (although betcha it will). Here's to hoping Simers has a long reign on Page 2 of the Register's always outstanding sports section. And, TJ: seriously, big honor. Huge fan. Coker doesn't like you, saying you were better off covering football–but he roots for the Raiders, so what does he know? Let me take you out to breakfast one day, because if you've been eating at the same Yorba Linda cafe all these years, then you've been eating shit food, as Yorba Linda has no good breakfast to speak of outside of Original Pancake House.
Email: ga*******@oc******.com. Twitter: @gustavoarellano.
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