Tue, June 27, 2006
Ken Jennings and Hatelove—7:07 PM
I really can't stand Eminem. He's arrogant, stupid, annoying, and uninteresting. So, when his song "Lose Yourself" was nominated as the Best Original Song for the Academy Awards a few years back, it pained me. Not because it was an undeserved nomination – the song was better than most that year, in or out of the movies – but precisely because of how well deserved it was.
It was my most profound experience to date with hatelove. The rare and extreme cognitive dissonance phenomenon of grudgingly adoring something that you know you're supposed to hate, so much so that you hate yourself for such a betrayal. It would be like if I had a young daughter and Julianne Moore saved her life one day. ("I'm so grateful, it tears me up inside how I can't bring myself to punch you in the face the way I've always fantasized.")
So, today some random netizen linked me to the weblog of Jeopardy! superstar Ken Jennings, a man I absolutely detested during his run on the show. I didn't really care about his answers, I just hated his goofy false modesty and his dumb sense of humor. Assuming he's the actual author of his own blog, he's either gone to sense of humor boot camp, or he was just very, very different on TV. (Maybe he was nervous, or maybe he was acting the way he thought Alex would want him to.)
I've only skimmed through a handful of his entries so far, but already he ranks alongside Josh Friedman, Scott Adams, and John Rogers as my favorite bloggers to read. (Leaving aside my friends, of course, who are the best bloggers ever!)
So it's hatelove on a heretofore unmatched scale. This is like Bil Keane curing cancer. I am honestly surprised that my head hasn't exploded. Of course, the silver lining is a warm, funny, and surprisingly sarcastic new blog to read.
