However crappy your year has been up to now, there is a very good chance that Rick Pitino’s was worse.

Granted, unlike you, he still lived in some moated castle on a hill somewhere, wearing custom Armani suits while doing his yard work (or, more likely, paying someone poorer than himself to wear Armani suits while doing his yard work for him). But also, unlike you, he had to admit to a courtroom full of media and his family that he jizzed down his leg at the end of a 15-second sexual tryst with a grasping, desperate muppet. If you, also, endured such a thing, then I [...]

From time to time, The Awl offers its space to normal, everyday people with a perspective on national issues. Walt Fruttinger, an Applebee's franchisee, would like to address Rick Pitino's recent admission of a sexual liaison with a woman, Karen Sypher, who was not his wife, in a Louisville restaurant, after hours, on August 1st, 2003. Following the tryst, Mr. Pitino, who coaches the Louisville Cardinals men's basketball team, paid $3000 for Mrs. Sypher to have an abortion; then she married the team's equipment manager. Recently, Mr. Pitino believed Mrs. Sypher (who is now getting divorced) was trying to extort hush money from him. Mrs. Sypher claimed that Mr. [...]