The Elephant in the Room

So, this subject has gone un-discussed for a little while now, but we here at the Op think that it's best to confront the situation, rather than just ignoring it.

The Operation Shutdown Blog has a doppelganger. It's called "Operation Shutdown". It's also on Blogger.com, and it has a similar theme, both in terms of content and aesthetics.

Now, in case you don't know, a "doppelganger" (or "doppelgaenger" if we're trying to Anglicize the umlaut that should go over the "a") is an identical copy of a person - you're mirror-image, if you will. According to Wikipedia, seeing your doppelganger is a harbinger of death.

Fuck.

Well, rather than waiting idly by for death to come and sweep our lovely blog off into the forgotten oblivion of internet hell, where so many great websites now lie, we will instead be starting a series where we criticize everything done on this lame-ass excuse for our website.

I would also ask that readers send in suggestions. Seriously, I've never gotten a suggestion that I didn't use (however, with all due credit to Mark, we have not yet implemented our weekly/monthly William Howard Taft Award for the Least Athletic Play of the [appropriate time period]) so send yours in.

Actually, that's my first point. We have http://opshutdown.blogspot.com, right? Him? http://oper-shutdown.blogspot.com.

Fucking lame. No one refers to an operation as an "oper". No. They do refer to them as "op"s, such as "Black Ops" or "Cyber Ops". Or, as "short-hand slang for a surgical operation".

"Oper", contrarily, refers to "opera". Which is lame. Plus, there's no flow to it. Go ahead. Say "opshutdown" then "opershutdown" and you tell me which flows off the tongue better.

Now, with that said, I do have to give the guy credit. His appears to pre-date ours, although his does not pre-date the idea.

Further criticism may be summarized as follows:

1. No posts on anything except the Pirates since late June. I don't even know how that's possible. Most of this city had forgotten that the Pirates were even playing sometime in early August.
2. The strip on the right side sucks, too. It quotes the absolute worst catch phrase ever: "Raise the Jolly Roger". That's why the Pirates lose. Everything about them is fucking half-assed, right down to their radio announcer's shitty, uncreative slogans. Jesus. I don't like hearing it accidentally, which means I certainly wouldn't visit a website that has that shit front and right-of-center.
3. The strip on the right also contains various pictures, that seem to have been captioned by a 6-year old. "Cutch wins it and Celebrates". Is "Celebrate"-ing similar to "Jazzercising"? Why the fuck is that capitalized? Also, what did he win. There's no context to any of it.
4. As Vince pointed out, his poll close with only 7 votes. What is this, the comptroller run-off in NYC? Haha. Am I right??
5. Correction, there are 3 different polls. The other 2 had only 3 and 5 votes respectively. Unfortunately, that means that he has more readers than we do.
6. Well, I'm still on the captions of his pictures: "Cutch delivers again" and "The Cup Comes Back Home". Hm.
   
7. He links to a fucking Cincinnati-based blog. Fuck that. Nothing good has ever come from Cincinnati. Nothing. I'm serious. The queen city is best known for the pervasive racism that has dominated local politics over the last 40 years. And that's it.
   
8. He also references a blog that hasn't been updated in 6 months. Oh, and it's first headline? Much praise for Norman Chad. I'm not sure how this is going to get worse.
9. Feb. 26 09 post: "Your NHL trading deadline home will be right here. I will have up to date commentary on each deal on deadline day (March 4), as they happen."
   
   Really, dude? You think that people are actually going to rely on you for up-to-the-minute commentary on the NHL trade deadline? What, you have some kind of in? No, my friend, you are taking yourself far too seriously. Your first mistake is thinking that anyone will rely on you for straight-forward breaking sports information. You are not Adam Schefter, or Scott Burnside, or any other ESPN crony who knows people in the bidness, and would have a chance of knowing something ahead of time (or first).
   
   You, buddy, need to focus on what advantages you have: (1) no editing, which means that you can say whatever you want in whatever vulgar, politically incorrect or offensive terms you might prefer and (2) the time to actually think a topic through before blindly writing an uninformed article that is focused on getting you readership alone.
   
   Your second mistake, pal? Not actually posting anything on or around March 4th about any of the NHL trades. Pretty hard to be anyone's "source" if you don't actually provide the information.
10. Spells Ray "Shero" as Ray "Sherro". Fail.
11. "I'm not a guy that hates Hossa. I respect his decision to leave Pittsburgh and feel if he left to win a cup, he made the right choice, but it would still be sweet to see." If he left to win a cup, he made the right choice? Way to show a little bit of pride and confidence in the home team, dude.

All-in-all, it's really not that bad, though. I'm just pissed that he has our name.