Girls Next Door & Cougars Next Door Tonight At Flannery's On Washington Avenue

Tonight's the night at Flannery's...as we'll crown our August Girl Next Door and Cougar Next Door. The fun and games get underway at 10 p.m. If you're shooting to the Cardinal game, head over to Flannery's to witness GND's and CND's battling for votes and the prize of $500.

If you still want to vote, you can click here to vote for Girl Next Door and click here to vote for Cougar Next Door.

Steven Jackson On The ITD Morning After

The Rams open up their season this weekend, and for whatever reason, I'm feeling a little more optimistic about it than I was at the start of camp. The two young receivers (Donnie Avery and Keenan Burton) combined with Al Saunders have me hoping that this year could be entertaining.

But, one guy that will provide some good talk radio material no matter how good or how bad the team performs is Steven Jackson.

#39 was kind enough to join us on The ITD Morning After Thursday, and he addressed our questions...some of which, I'm sure, he didn't particularly want to get asked. But, give the guy credit: he appeared on the show.

Here's an excerpt on his holdout and criticism from some Rams' fans:

Jackson: As nasty as a holdout could be, I think this one was really well. I think both sides had great respect for each other. I know that I need the organization. I wasn't trying to hold the organization hostage. It's just tactics and different business. In the National Football League, it's common ground. This is not unusual. It will happen again next year with a different player with a different team. So, it's something that it happens, you hate that it happens, but it's a part of the game.

McKernan: It has happened with other players. And, it will happen again with other players next training camp. No question about it. However, the difference with you, specifically, is that months earlier you had chastised some fans in some quarters for selling their tickets trying to make the most out of their situation, and then you go a couple of months later and try and make the most out of your situation...

Jackson: It's not the same thing. And, it wasn't months later. And, actually I addressed the fans back in December of '07, and it was revisited in a national article on Yahoo! Sports by a writer who wanted to revisit it, because he didn't have a chance to sit down to me. So, when it was brought up, I didn't add to it. I didn't fabricate what I said months earlier. It's been on the record two times, and my words haven't changed. And, I wasn't chastising fans for taking advantage of making money in holiday's times. I just know from looking around the league is that other organizations in their dog days and dog years, and they consistently have their own fans in their own stands.

I liked the answer...even though he didn't like my question. He stood by what he said. That takes balls. I respect that. I respect his candor. And, even though our motives are different---he wants a friendly place to play football and lead to better performances, and I want St. Louis to come alive for home games so we don't lose another franchise---his words have people's attention...and that's critical, because it is, unfortunately, my belief that pro football in St. Louis is either in the middle of or on the verge of a dangerous time. It is necessary for area fans to be aware that our city is not guaranteed a franchise past 2015...but we can be guaranteed that if this one goes...we'll never see another one again.

The ITD Morning After Goes National...Sort Of

So, we have the star running back of the local football team on talking in a rare one-on-one style interview...and naturally, our interview with a female pro wrestler gets more attention.

Yesterday, we had WWE Diva Mickie James on the show. No real good reason. She was promoting some show guest appearance. We were acting like asshats. Par for the course. Since all of our show prep revolves around typing our guests' names into search engines, Doug Vaughn typed Mickie's name into a few different search engines with a few variations...and we discovered she had "allegedly" done some porn a few years back. Since we easily found it, I didn't think we had broken a story...but when we brought it up to Mickie, all hell broke loose. A national wrestling website picked up on the story...and here's how they reported it:

From website: http://www.lordsofpain.net/news/2008_/1220566048.php

-- Via call-in, Mickie James was interviewed on The ITD Morning After radio show based out of St. Louis this morning. Mickie James, who was at the National Republican Convention this past week, talked about WWE's "SmackDown Your Vote" initiative. She was asked if she was a Republican, but said no. James considers herself an independent and is still thinking about who she's going to vote for. The hosts ask her if she's dating anyone. She said she's "dating her job" as her line of work makes it hard on relationships as she's on the road so much. The hosts jokingly ask her if she's dating St. Louis' own Randy Orton. She laughs it off, saying, "No!" James then talks about her upcoming guest appearance on the USA Network show Pysch this Friday. Up until this point, the interview was your typical standard stuff, but it then takes a rather unusual turn as soon as the hosts start talking about looking her up on the Internet.

The hosts were doing some research on Mickie James and they discovered some nude photos she did in the past (for Legshow magazine). They then ask her about it and she doesn't seem to know what to say as she stumbles on her words a lot in her response to the question. James tries to dodge the question at first, but eventually remarks, "It's kind of hard to say, like I may I have done, I did some different stuff in my past but I don't think that makes or breaks who I am today." The hosts then talk about it more and Mickie says, "Alright we have to move on." The interview concludes a few seconds later.

Here is a transcript of this very awkward conversation. If you listen to the audio, you can easily tell that she was highly uncomfortable.

Host 1: You know we were, as you can probably tell this is a well-oiled machine, lot of show prep goes into it and we were doing our show prep at 3:30, 3:45 St. Louis time. (interrupted)

Host 2: 3:50.

Host 1: Okay, we were a little late there, 3:50 St. Louis time and uhh, the great Doug Vaughn, who I know you're familiar with typed in uhh, Mickie James online.

Host 2: Uhh oh.

Host 1: And... (interrupted)

Mickie James: 30 seconds guys.

Host 1: Uhh, okay thanks. And, and there are, (hosts laugh) there are some pictures attributed to you that appeared to say that you have done adult work. And then I look at your bio and it surely doesn't seem that is something you would have done. Your reaction to that?

Mickie: Well, umm I think that, uhh... I mean, I've been doing this 11 years and I think that uhh you know everybody... like I said before everybody comes from different backgrounds and they, you know... I don't... I don't think that... that...

Host 1: So you did it?

Mickie: That... (pauses) Well... I mean, you know what? It's... it's kind of hard to say, like I may I have done, I did some different stuff in my past but I don't think that makes or breaks who I am today.

Host 1: No, no, no! As a matter of fact I consider it a check mark yeah, absolutely. I'm all in favor. I, I actually thought...

Mickie: (Laughs)

Host 1: Doug, Doug was looking at it and I go, oh, I don't think that's her.

Mickie: Right.

Host 1: But it was.

Mickie: Alright we have to move on.

Hosts: (Laughs)

Host 2: Flip that off!

Host 1: (quietly) Alright, please destroy this!

Host 2: Please flip...

Host 1: Alright Mickie, good talking to you! Thank you!

Mickie: Thank you!

Host 2: (Laughing) I don't even know who this women is and we had to handle her moving us along!

Host 1: Right when I was hitting the issues! So that was her!

Host 2: Uhh, clearly it was. Otherwise she'd say, WHAT? No! It's an Internet thing.

Host 1: No, she went, uh, yeah, uh, WELL?! That was her response! WELL?!

Host 2: That's when I said she was prepared for that, or uh, that was you.

Host 1: I don't think that that's out in the open. Maybe it is?

The hosts then talk about how they didn't do much research on the subject as they simply typed her name in on Google and Wikipedia and it was there. They then ponder if she was prepared for the question about her past and if she is trying to put it behind her.

Apparently there was a WWE representative listening to the interview and/or with Mickie, hence her "30 seconds guys," statement as soon as they started talking about looking up Mickie James on the Internet.

You can listen to the segment at this link by clicking segment two. Mickie comes on mid-way. The hosts add more reaction to their awkward conversation with Mickie later in the show, which you can listen to mid-way in segment three. The synopsis reads: "Looking Back into the Mickie James Interview and Her Reaction to Being Asked About Doing Adult Work, You Would Think She Would Have a Better Answer to Being Asked About Porn."

For the record, the supposed voice moving the interview along was not Mickie, but rather the NBC handler who had set the interview up and was listening in.

If you want to listen to the entire interview, click here.

Cool Email From A U.S. Soldier Overseas

Tim and the rest of the Team,

First of all, let me start by saying amazing website.  I am currently on a one year tour of duty out in the Middle East fighting the war on terror, and everyday I am on your website checking out what is new.  So let me say thanks for what you guys do, because surfing on your website some what keeps me in reality out here.   A friend of mine, who currently lives in St. Louis, showed it to me  because I have recently found out that I will be moving to St. Louis when my tour is done. 

Sincerely,

Maj. J. Scott Hancock

It turns out that Major J. Scott Hancock plays in a band while serving overseas, and he sent some pics along from what life is like for him and his guys in the Middle East.

If you want to email a loyal insideSTL.com supporter and an American soldier, his email address is jhancock43@hotmail.com.

insideSTL.com Job Opportunities

Ryan "Big Grease" Pickett is going back to school, and so we're now in need of someone to replace him. To Grease's credit, he started as an intern, and he did so well, he was getting paid by the time he had to resume being a full-time student.

But, we now need to try and find someone who can do what he did for us. This is a prime opportunity for someone just starting out in IT who is a fan of the site/show and also wants to get into marketing/promotions.

Essentially, you'll be working as the right-hand man to our new Vice President of Web Operations, Justin Boyd...who, for the record, was hired after answering a job opportunity column in this section of the website. But, you'll also be in charge of our events...which, relatively speaking, are limited to a couple per month. However, as you may know from seeing the pictures, they tend to be nice, little cocktail parties.

I want to make this clear: this is a job. If you're wanting to come here to fuck off and try and get laid, don't bother. But, if you want to get in the door at a company that's growing and probably has some more fringe benefits than the average operation, email your resume to tmckernan@insidestl.com.

College students, this may be a prime opportunity for you...because this isn't a 40 hour per week job. But, it is a pretty damn good opportunity. Email me if you want in.

See you tonight at Flannery's...

Log-in to post your comments or feel free to email me at tmckernan@insidestl.com.