So David Simon is not shy about responding to talk or criticism about the show on "blogs" and other net-sites. Here he
responds to one of Slate's TV Club posters who relayed an anecdote about running into a perturped Simon at a party. Another Simon post in The Atlantic's comment section was already linked in another thread, and I've also seen him post a comment before on that Wire blog,
Heaven and Here.
Now that the FOT board has its very own corner for Wire discussion (and rightly so, I might add), I think we should try to get in on this action and elicit a typically loquacious missive from Simon in this very space. To succeed I think we'd either have to spread some salacious, unfounded gossip about him or post a series of dizzying, eggheaded dissertations on the show and its themes. Since the former should be much easier than the latter, allow me to recount the following rumor I may or may not have overheard at a Wizards game I may or may not have attended from someone who probably doesn't exist and definitely never worked with David Simon:
While Simon was gathering material for his first book,
Homicide, in 1988, then-Det. Jay Landsman blackmailed him by producing a tape of Simon saying complimentary things about Baltimore Sun management and the city in general, which he categorized as “a swell place to live, except for Atomic Books and those vile crabcakes.” Realizing that these comments would severely undermine the cynical reputation he was trying to cultivate, Simon not only agreed to cast Landsman in future tv projects of Landsman’s choosing, but he also named a fictionalized, hi-lariously slovenly sergeant after him, much to the sardonic cop’s delight. Later, Landsman allegedly threatened to expose Simon’s rage-fueled murder of an Orioles hot dog vendor, but Simon apparently considered that good potential publicity and called his bluff.
I encourage everyone to spread this and other, more inventively malicious lies about David Simon wherever possible until he has no choice but to show his face here and confront his accusers, whereupon I can fawningly blather about how awesome Omar is and ask how come Nicky Sobotka had that Palace Music poster in his room. Remember: the bigger the lie, the more they believe!
