News item -- Samuel L. Jackson, the star of the nation's top-grossing film, "Shaft," actually has a connection to the Reno-Sparks area.
In 1983, while driving from Denver to San Francisco, Jackson stopped in Reno in order to take a leak at a Texaco station. According to Sally Smirkenhoffer, a 19-year employee of the Texaco station where Jackson whizzed, Jackson was polite, although not necessarily all that hygienic.
"I don't think he washed his hands after he did his business," Smirkenhoffer recounted. "But then again, maybe I'm getting that 'Shaft' guy mixed up with Gary Coleman."
While the above story is made up and has not yet appeared in any local media reports outside of Tuesday humor columns in the Sparks Tribune, we see stories like this all the time.
It is a common media practice to take important, national stories and "localize" them -- in other words, find some sort of local angle to talk about. It happens everywhere, but I can honestly say I have never seen story localization taken to the extremes that some Truckee Meadows newspapers and news broadcasts dare to approach.
For example, if you have been in the area for longer than 37 seconds, and if you happen to be anything of a sports fan whatsoever, you know that Arizona Diamondbacks third baseman Matt Williams went to high school in Carson City. We all know this because are reminded of this fact constantly by the local media.
But the deeper question: Why are we reminded of this fact constantly by the local media? My theory: Sparks-Reno-Carson City is kind of like a little runt brother who wants to be cool. We hang around at the same places (the Western U.S.) with big boys like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, and -- our big brother -- Las Vegas. While all these big bergs have it goin' on with sports, culture, celebrity and the like, we don't -- and thus, we grasp at straws to be cool and to try to be like all of our neighbors.
And this leads to the media reminding us constantly that Matt Williams, a very good third baseman, went to Carson High School. One local TV sportscaster particularly drives me nuts, because he refers to Williams as the "Carson City Crusher."
One problem: He now lives in Arizona. He lived in Arizona even before he became a member of the Diamondbacks. He NO LONGER LIVES HERE and we all know HE ONCE WENT TO SCHOOL HERE, so can we GET OVER it?
The same thing goes for a bevy of other high-school athletes who once lived in these parts but, for whatever reason, ran off when they became famous. Giants pitcher Shawn Estes, bicycle champion Greg Lemond, Chicago White Sox outfielder Chris Singleton (who one local sportscaster recently referred to as the White Sox "Mr. Excitement," swear to God, even though he is having a terrible season) -- they are hyped endlessly around these parts even though they don't live here anymore.
Now, I went to college with all sorts of cool and famous athletes, some of whom were my friends, but I don't go around talking about it every 17.3 seconds, because 1. That would be stupid, 2. I have a life, 3. I don't keep in touch with these people anymore, and 4. I am no longer in college anymore, so can the local media please SHUT THE HECK UP ABOUT THIS before I go crazy and write more sentences that are 87 words long, please?
And athletes aren't the only ones the media goes goofy about. A few years back, it was oft-quoted that -- and I am not sure that I am completely right about this, because every time I heard it, I ran off screaming -- Tom Hanks once lived around here when he was a kid or something.
WHO CARES?
Look, Sparks-Reno-Carson has lots of cool things to be proud of without us grasping for feeble trivia about people who used to live here. We have trees, snow, deserts and several lakes that kick major butt in categories of coolness. We're a cool area, OK?
Or, well, at least we could be -- if we didn't run around like a bunch of dorks bragging that Frank Gifford's sister lives in a trailer park somewhere around here.
Jimmy Boegle is a fifth-generation Nevadan who enjoys ranting a little too much sometimes. Jimmy's columns appear here Tuesdays, and he can be reached via e-mail at jiboegle@stanfordalumni.org.