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What does this quote mean here? What is it talking about?
I couldn't find the article online. Please help me.

"And a couple of smellfungus from the Official Paper ... carped that Issel chose to jump when the schedule reached its toughest stretch."
Paige Woody; Issel is the Wrong Scapegoat in Nuggets' Mess; Denver Post; Feb 13, 1995.

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Dan Issel was coach of the Denver Nuggets basketball team from 1992 to the 1994-95 season when he resigned. The Wiki on it is here.

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I see. But what is this schedule? What is "Official Paper?" And what is "jump" here? I don't understand what this sentence means here...

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No idea about Official Paper, but I'm pretty sure that "jump" here is short for "jump ship", an idiom for abandoning something when the going gets tough.


Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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the major paper in Denver is the Denver Post itself (see quote), so one (i.e., me) supposes it to be the Official Paper in question.

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Thank you everyone.
But this "smellfunguns" is uncountable here?
Isn't it supposed to be "smellfungi?"

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the rest of that article appears to be equally opaque; to wit:

The Nuggets' sheep should be led to Enos Slaughter.
"I played every game like it would be my last," Slaughter once told me.
The Nuggets played their last game as if it were their first - ever.
Dan Issel, the erstwhile coach of the Nuggets, was saying the other day:
"If the players want to blame me for that long string of losses, fine. But don't blame me for Golden State."
Before recess, the Nuggets had naptime. They were drubbed at home by one of the worthless teams in [the league]..

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Originally Posted By: momi1234
Thank you everyone.
But this "smellfunguns" is uncountable here?
Isn't it supposed to be "smellfungi?"


well, smellfungi has actually been used as the plural:

Let the grumbling smellfungi..rail at the extravagance of the age.
[1807]

but this {grumbler, faultfinder} probly didn't bother to LIU, and rather than guess wrongly between smellfunguses and smellfungi just went with the sing.

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I wish this site would include some context in the usage section as the more unfamiliar the word is, the more context is needed in general.

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What zmjezhd said about "jump" is correct. The "schedule" would be the game schedule that the Nuggets had in the NBA (National Basketball Association). Enos Slaughter was a baseball player in the late '30s through the '50s. I might also offer that the writer chose smellfungus because the fungus in question is not plural no matter how many folks were smelling it. I would also suggest that smellfungi and smellfungus(s)es would both (or even all three) be correct.

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>Enos Slaughter was a baseball player..

oh, I know that; but (generally) who else would except for elderly Cardinal (and maybe Yankee) fans?

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I don't read many sports columns, but I have heard a fair amount of sports reporting / opining on the radio trapped in commute. They all seem to have this jocular style.


Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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