Timothy McSweeney's Header Image

- - - -

Millard Kaufman's final novel has arrived!
Pick up Misadventure now—or, see what
you've missed out on thus far by picking up
both Bowl of Cherries and Misadventure
for 27% off the retail price.

- - - -

Everyone Knows Jose.

BY JASON ROEDER

- - - -

"Canseco showed up in every clubhouse at some point. I'm not gonna call out any specific players he helped bulk up, but you should probably start with the guys with 11-by-17-inch trading cards."
—MLB player, identity withheld

"I guess this finally explains the Mets cap."
—Tony Durbin, Bigfoot tracker

"Oh sure, Jose Canseco was everywhere in the old days. A lot of my teammates used steroids, but I didn't think it was normal or healthy to treat your body that way. I was barely 16 years old, and I didn't want to grow into some kind of 50-pound gorilla, you know?"
—Lydia Ivanova, former Soviet gymnast

"Jose was always hanging around the locker room. We just thought he was hilarious. He comes in and asks if we ever heard of steroids. I mean, seriously, you could fill a syringe with my sweat. I told him that the last guy who drank too much from our Gatorade jug had to get a second circumcision."
—Gilbert "Masked Cannibal" Lipschitz, professional wrestler

"Jose would stop by the tai chi studio from time to time. You could always tell who was using. They'd be the ones screaming, 'Yeah! Yeah! Get some, bitch!' and making, like, machine-gun noises. The teacher would turn up the Kitaro music as loud as she could to drown them out, and that worked OK until one of the guys took a bite out of the CD."
—Morgan Hathcock, martial-arts practitioner

"I heard that everyone called this guy 'the Chemist,' so I assumed it was because he was some brilliant scientist. This guy couldn't figure out a juice box, let alone an organic-reaction mechanism, and he gave me this stuff that made me grow sideburns during my final exam."
—Brenda King, MIT alumna

"Yeah, we worked with Jose Canseco in the '80s, early '90s. He told us that with steroids, we could enhance our herds and make our cows produce longer-lasting milk and more of it. But it just passed on the aggressive side effects to consumers. You really can't ignore the fact that most of those rioters a few years back were holding milkshakes."
—Kevin Hochschild, Dairy Farmers Association of America spokesperson

"I think it's better that I come clean on this personally before Mr. Canseco gets a chance to. Yes, given the demanding physicality of many of our sketches, steroids were abused by myself and many others. We covered this up for decades, and as a result, the drugs took their mutating toll. I guess what I'm trying to say is that there's actually no such thing as a Muppet."
—Aloysius Snuffleupagus, actor

- - - -

OTHER McSWEENEY'S FEATURES:

- - - -

Everyone Knows Jose By Jason Roeder
Who's Got Lists? We Do
Cases From the Files of Traig & McGrath, Shut-In Detectives: Cases 35 & 36 By Jenny Traig and Peter McGrath
Highlights of the 2004-2005 NHL Season By Christopher Monks
B.R. Cohen's Annals of Science, Volume VII By B.R. Cohen

- - - -

MAIN PAGE | ARCHIVES

- - - -



Memories of Amanda Davis

- - - -




Red dot denotes content that is new today.

Black dot denotes newish content.

- - - -



McSWEENEY'S STORE

SUBSCRIBE TO:
McSWEENEY'S
THE BELIEVER
WHOLPHIN

FUTURE McSWEENEY'S BOOKS

THE AMANDA DAVIS HIGHWIRE FICTION AWARD

INVITE A McSWEENEY'S AUTHOR TO SPEAK IN YOUR TOWN OR COLLEGE

THE BEST AMERICAN NONREQUIRED READING

McSWEENEY'S MONTHLY MAILING LIST

BOOKSTORES WITH A McSWEENEY'S DISPLAY

McSWEENEY'S-RELATED EVENTS AND VARIOUS TOUR DATES

ORDER INQUIRIES AND ADDRESS CHANGES

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
FOR BOOKS
FOR THE QUARTERLY
FOR THE WEBSITE
FOR WHOLPHIN

McSWEENEY'S INTERNSHIPS

CONTACT US

- - - -

LETTERS TO McSWEENEY'S

LISTS

McSWEENEY'S RECOMMENDS

REVIEWS OF NEW FOOD

TEDDY WAYNE'S UNPOPULAR PROVERBS

NON-ESSENTIAL MNEMONICS

SHORT IMAGINED MONOLOGUES

BITCHSLAP: A COLUMN ABOUT WOMEN AND FIGHTING

OPEN LETTERS TO PEOPLE OR ENTITIES WHO ARE UNLIKELY TO RESPOND

DISPATCHES FROM A GUY TRYING UNSUCCESSFULLY
TO SELL A SONG IN NASHVILLE


GET TO KNOW AN INTERNET COMMENTER

GLOBAL WAR ON BEDBUGS: LETTERS FROM BEDBUG CITY

THE CONFLICTED EXISTENCE OF A FEMALE PORN WRITER

OH MY GAWD: A COLUMN ABOUT A TEENAGER NAVIGATING RELIGION

DISPATCHES FROM AN INDIAN CASINO

THE CONVERGENCES CONTEST

CHRIS WHITE ANSWERS PROFOUND
QUESTIONS ABOUT THE PRESIDENTS


REPORTS FROM THE PINBALL SCENE

LETTERS FROM THE HELLBOX

NOTES FROM AN AMATEUR SPECTATOR
AT AMATEUR MIXED MARTIAL ARTS FIGHTS


CONVERSATIONS AT A WARTIME CAFÉ

SARAH WALKER SHOWS YOU HOW

DISPATCHES FROM THE CAPITAL

SEAN MICHAELS LISTENS TO MUSIC IN MONTREAL

STAINED TEETH: A COLUMN ABOUT WINE

KEVIN DOLGIN TELLS YOU ABOUT PLACES YOU SHOULD GO IN EUROPE

LETTERS FROM AN EARTH BALL
TO, OR CONCERNING, SEAN HANNITY


E-MAILS SENT TO THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FLAG-FOOTBALL TEAM


JOHN MOE'S POP-SONG CORRESPONDENCES

INTERVIEWS WITH PEOPLE WHO HAVE INTERESTING OR UNUSUAL JOBS

FLIP: A COLUMN ABOUT SKATEBOARDING

DISPATCHES FROM A PUBLIC LIBRARIAN

EXCERPTS FROM THE PANORAMA

SOLUTIONS TO BENJAMIN TAUSIG'S
THREE-DEMENSIONAL CROSSWORD PUZZLE
IN THE SAN FRANCISCO PANORAMA


ABOUT A VERY BAD WIZARD

ABOUT THE WILD THINGS

ABOUT THE CONVALESCENT

ABOUT FEVER CHART

ABOUT GOD SAYS NO

ABOUT ZEITOUN

- - - -

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL