Cool Like Fedor Emelianenko

When Fedor showed up today at the well-timed Affliction press conference, I couldn't believe my eyes. It wasn't just the fact he was wearing an old prop from The Cosby Show. It was that he wore it two days in a row—first, on The Opie and Anthony Show, then to the NYC press conference the next day. It's either that or he owns more than one.

It reminded me of the opening paragraph of Neal Pollack's short story "The Albania of My Existence."

I've been going to bed lately on a pile of jagged stones covered only by a thin cotton blanket half-eaten by moths. This is one of the worst possible sleeping arrangements I could imagine. Sometimes I wonder how things got this way, but I have to remember that I am a journalist, novelist, radio producer and poet, and I am here in Albania to find out what life is really like for a family in the poorest country in Europe. I have personally borne witness to much human suffering. People here are beset by unwanted refugees, obscure diseases, and limited opportunities to express themselves through fashion. I must tell you: Things are not good.

(It's also quite shocking when a sweater is able to deflect my attention away from Tito Ortiz's head and Oscar De La Hoya wearing lifts in his shoes.)