UCW invades the OC and my heart.

This weekend, Bratch and I attended an event, an event we have not attended in close to 20 years. We attended some real live professional wrestling. A few weeks back, we went to SC to visit Merlin and French Toast and the Little Rascals and I found out that there was going to be professional wrestling at the local high school that same weekend. I joked about how we should have postpone the trip so we could attend the event, but I was only really half joking. This event was going to have former WWE stars Test and Billy Gunn and current TNA stars on the card and it has been many years since “real” wrestlers have been in the county. To top everything off, the legendary “Superstar” Bill Dundee was going to be there.

As a child living in BD we were exposed the WWF wrestling and wrestling out of the Memphis area that we called “Channel 7 Wrestling” because of the channel it came on. This wrestling was much better than WWF and actually in later years supplied the WWF with its major stars. We are talking Randy Savage, Ric Rude, The Undertaker, anyone who was anyone wrestled in Memphis. My personal top 5 wrestlers in Memphis all time are:
1. Jerry Lawler
2. Bill Dundee
3. Randy Savage
4. The Fabulous Ones
5. P Y Chu Hi (not really, I just liked the name)

As you can see by my ranking I loves me some Bill Dundee. I thought that weekend would be the last to see the “Superstar” someone I would much rather see than Merlin, let’s be honest. Thank the stars I got a second chance this past Saturday. The UCW group was having another show at the OC fair grounds and Dundee was scheduled to appear. Also scheduled were a couple of brothers with the last name of Maddox, Merlin I am sure knows the brothers I am referring to. Apparently they have become real deal professional wrestlers, at least as real deal as you can be wrestling in the OC.

At first I wondered if I really did want to go, but Bratch would not be denied. He was going come hell or high water, so I decided to take him. We arrive about 30 minutes before the first match. We get out of the truck and begin the journey to Building #2 in which the matches will take place. I noticed a car had just pulled in and parked and the trunk opened up. I saw one of those metal suitcases and surmised this to be a wrestler’s car and I was right. Out of the car stepped the “Superstar” himself. I froze and just kept walking. I couldn’t believe that I couldn’t say anything to a 55 year old wrestler whose best days are well behind him, I am a geek.

We made it to the front door and as soon as I opened the door I realized this might not be great idea. There were about 20 people in there, most belonging to the White Trash classification of the species. Bratch’s and my IQ dropped 70 points; I guess that is why I paid for our admission. We see our friend, Roach, ringside and we go and sit down. The whole time I was there waiting for the show to start I couldn’t believe I had not gotten up and ran from the building. Finally around 50 to 60 people arrive and half appear to not realize that pro wrestling is scripted and the other half are drunk and/or high on crank.

The show began and wrestlers I had never heard of kept coming out and after a bit, I realized that this wasn’t so bad. Even Bratch was having a good time. I must explain that when I watch wrestling, I do not necessarily cheer and yell, at least not for the “good guys.” I always enjoy it when the “bad guys” win and I am just looking for some entertainment. I like to sit back and watch the fans that seem to suspend too much belief get into the matches by cussing the wrestlers and threatening to beat them up after the show.

I got my first good dose of entertainment in the second match. The entertainment was Ryan Dookie who did not have the look but had the charisma of a wrestler. Another named Eric Young was so good I actually went home that night to see him on Spike TV because he is a part of TNA wrestling. Young did a running commentary throughout his match, and because there were only 50 or 60 people in attendance you could hear him the whole time. He made the whole night worthwhile.

There was an intermission and Bratch and I went outside to debate as to whether or not to return and we met some drunken dude who inquired if he could relieve himself behind Bratch’s truck. Bratch told him to go for it and the whole time this jackass was taking a leak he was talking about how he was going to jump the “bad guy” wrestlers after the show. He would make sure they would never come back to the OC again. He was probably right because they would have murdered this a-hole and would be imprisoned. We decide to go back in and we find out our judge executive is taking part in the show. It turns out he is the wrestling fan’s candidate.

The intermission ends and the main event begins. The “Superstar” came out with the younger Maddox brother to wrestle against Mike Samples (the Maddox’s trainer) and a masked wrestler taking the place of a wrestler who no showed. We all began trying to guess the masked wrestler's name, we thought about the Invader, Mr. Wrestling, Bratch even came up with a member of the great Memphis tag team, Rough and Ready. We were all wrong the man in the mask was…The Phantom, dun, dun, duuuuuun. The match was pretty good, the Maddox boy got beat pillar to post and Bill Dundee got the crowd into the match, but he probably had some help from Budweiser and crank, nevertheless. The match ended with Dundee rolling up Samples for the pin and the show ended.

As I look back on this night I guess we had a pretty good time but I am left with a few questions. Who did I feel the most embarrassment for? The wrestlers who appear on Spike TV every week because they had to come to the OC to wrestle in front of 50 rednecks? The judge executive for appearing at the show? For us being seen by the judge executive at the show? Whatever the case, I feel like I will be going back to embarrass myself again and I know Bratch will drag me there no matter what.

Instant news...

This story will be all over the newspapers tomorrow, but talk about instant news.

The story linked in the title is about a Nike jet that has had a landing gear malfunction. Now I'm sure you are wondering, did it get down safely without anyone getting seriously hurt?

Well, that's the thing. As of right now, 2 p.m. Central time, it's still in the air. That's how instantaneous news is now. They are reporting the disaster before the disaster has even happened. Personally, I don't know that it will be a disaster. I think the jet will be ruined, but I don't see anyone getting hurt.

They are going to burn off all of the fuel they can and probably divert to a remote airport and belly land it. If that plane in L.A. can land with its front landing gear turned completely sideways, I think this plane can make it.

Tomorrow this will be all over the newspapers and no one will care. They will have watched the video on TV and read the articles just as I have on the Net and bypass the story on A-1.

Of course this is assuming that many newspapers will be stupid enough to run it as a big A-1 story after everyone has already heard everything about it.

A new arrival and Death Matching....

For those who haven't heard the news, Sivart and his wife had a bouncing baby boy last week. His name is Aiden (or Nedia, I guess) and following a short phone call after the birth and a phone call from Sivart's mother, Sivart has fallen off the face of the Earth.

It may be years before Sivart resurfaces. So if anyone wants Sivart's address to send over some cute University of Kentucky Wildcats baby clothes and toys, just email me and I'll get you the info.

Tee Hee!

I haven't blogged in a while since I've been working on a great little project for work that I now don't even wish to speak about at this point, but I should get back into the flow off things now. I believe that Merlin and French Toast are making their way back up here to the OC for Thanksgiving and hopefully we'll check out a movie or two. At least one UK basketball game.

I spoke with Merlin last night as he was unable to get Quake 4 to run on his computer. Apparently, Merlin went from not having gamed in 5 or 6 years to purchasing games that are on the bleeding edge of technology without upgrading his computer system first.

That being said, I did a little research on a new web site that I saw advertised on TV. It is linked in the title and it's called gametap.com. This website has thousands of games available to play via the internet as long as you have a broadband connection.

Merlin and I talked about the good old days when we had a small 4-5 PC network to deathmatch with and how it would be great to be able to do that every now and again. Well, this new website will make that somewhat possible. I did see some PC games that were big back in the day so we'll be able to do this someday. Of course, they'll have to figure out how to support Mac's first, but they know they need to get on that.

Talking about the network gaming reminds me of one of our funniest stories involving Merlin and a little game called Counter-Strike. Piccu and Merlin were the evil terrorists and myself and Sleeping Boy were the anti-terror authorities sent to destroy them.

Sleeping Boy and I had come around to the front of the house where Merlin and Piccu were holding the hostages. While Piccu was hiding with the hostages, Merlin thought he would get on the roof and get the drop on us as we worked our way around.

Merlin was roughly 3 stories high on top of this house and as soon as he saw us he opened fire. I was the closest to him with Sleeping Boy behind some rocks to my left. I was armed with only a shotgun and a pistol which didn't help me much since I was out of range with the shotgun.

So Merlin was at the edge of the roof when he opened up and Sleeping Boy and I let the bullets fly. I don't know what Sleeping Boy had, but it was an automatic sub-machine gun of some sort and I emptied my shotgun peppering Merlin before switching to my pistol.

The great thing about Counter-Strike and most first person shooter games is that if you get hit, it will move you around. So if you get hit in the left shoulder, you will spin in that direction.

Merlin was spinning wildly in all different directions since we were shredding him with lead. But we were so far away from him being so high up that we couldn't kill him. I guess he had body armor on. Anyway, while he was spinning around trying to reorient himself to shoot at us, he got a little too close to the edge and Sleeping Boy shot him off of the roof where he fell to his death.

I had emptied my pistol and got to witness the carnage after I reloaded and stepped out to open fire again. What made his great was hearing Merlin scream and yelp like a like a little girl in the other room as we unloaded on him.

Deathmatching is a nice stress reliever. You get to run around and release your frustrations with large caliber assault weapons and explosives killing your friends.

What's not to like?

I'm hoping that I'll be able to get into gaming a little more through GameTap.com as soon as they come up with some stinkin' Mac support. That is ultimately the only problem with Macs is that gaming is way behind despite the fact that Mac a 100 times more stable than Windows-based PCs. That and you have to spend a couple of grand for one capable of playing games like Quake 4. Even though Quake 5 will be out about the same time that Quake 4 is made available for the Mac.

Clemency for Tookie.

Has this man truly turned his life around? Does the fact he is trying to help stop gang violence really mean that much when it was in fact he who founded the Crips? Snoop Dog thinks so. Stanley “Tookie” Williams is on death row for any number of criminal charges, but apparently he has seen the light and has tried to be a model prisoner. I guess fans are rallying around him and trying to get clemency granted and have Tookie saved from the electric chair. Others are not sure about his redemption. I have no idea myself, but click the link and look at this cute little guy; doesn’t he deserve a second chance?

The Jacket: w/ Keira Knightley how can you really go wrong.

We just watched (actually I watched and french_toast assumed her post 9 'oclock sleeping postion) The Jacket. In brief, it's a movie about Adriene Brody who plays a post Desert Storm Vet who sustained serious brain damage. Through a series of events he ends up in a mental hospital under the misguided experimentation of psychiatrist played by Kris Kristopherson. During the course of the experimentation, he is placed intermittently in a straight jacket. It rapidly becomes difficult for both Brody and the audience what is real and what isn't.

I really enjoyed it. It is amazing what happens when you take any script and put some actors in who can actually act. Keira is one of my personal favorites and she did this unbelievable job of getting rid of her British accent. You need to check out this movie sometime. While I am on the subject, I also reccomend The Hole with Keira. It is pretty good too.

The Final Step

Well, it has been official since yesterday afternoon about four 'oclock eastern time: I passed Step 3 of the boards. For those of you who don't know what this exactly means let me give you the two sentence explanation. Physicians have to take three medical licensure exams over the course of your last two years of medical school and the first few of reidency. Once you pass the last one, the only thing you have left to study is your own subject area.

It is awesome for me to not have the headaches of having to study subjects will have no bearing on the remainder of my professional career. Also, the pressure is off for a while from a test standpoint.

Removing 'In God We Trust' from money? That's rich... Or not.

I briefly mentioned something like this in a post a while back, but I don't really see why this particular Athiest insists on removing God from every public thing.

First, he sued to have "under God" removed from the pledge, or at least have schools not recite it in the mornings and now he wants to 'In God We Trust" removed from money because it links the gov't with religion.

I think I've mentioned this before, but the separation of church and state was set up so that the government wouldn't pass a law saying we had to belong to a certain religion or else.

Like the church of George W. Bush.

Instead, the founding fathers wanted to ensure that they would have the freedom to worship how they wanted to so that they didn't risk sailing off of a flat Earth for nothing. I guarantee that several prayers were uttered on that trip.

I'm kind of wondering how this little trial will go down. He basically was asked to go away over a mild technicality last time. He was told that he couldn't proceed with the case against the Pledge because he didn't have custody of the daughter for which he was filing the case about to begin with. His argument was that his daughter was being force fed religion in the half second it took to say "under God".

I would think that he should see the big picture after that. They blew him off big time. They basically challenged him to get custody of his daughter and then go through the process all over again as if being a much publicized God-less heathen was going to score points toward getting custody.

However, lacking custody of his daughter doesn't change anything. Everything he was against is still going on. He has pointed out something that despite having gone on for over 50 years, it still is most likely wrong if the 229 year-old law is followed to the letter. But the courts didn't care.

So I'm wondering if the courts are going to find a loop-hole and toss him out on his ear like last time or if they are going to just have a judge say, "What if we don't want to remove 'In God We Trust,' what are you going to do about it? Boycott using money?"

Apparently, this moron has too much money if he can take the time to fight these frivolous cases.

Personally, I believe that if he really wants to get those words removed from money, he'll need the Christians backing him. After all, money is the root of all evil.

If he really wants to get it done, he'll need to mobilize a Christian movement to remove God's name from the evil dollar. That could get it done, but then he would have to associate himself with a religion.

That's heckuva catch-22 for an Athiest.

But then again, some Christians would say that at least there is a little good on money with God's name there.

However, there is nothing I hate worse then when a twenty dollar bill starts pushing that religion on you. They just on and on endlessly like you don't have anything else better to do.

In fact, just the other day I cashed a paycheck and a hundred dollar bill held a two day revival.

My driver's license and a stack of business cards got saved.

A case of mistaken identity leads to a very cool story from some loser.

I came upon this in my daily news roundup. It is credited to the Gawker, a kind of celeb gossip blog. They like to rip celebs to shreds so it is a good read sometimes. I saw this particular piece on Yahoo, actually. I do not know if it is real or just some guy’s imagination, but it certainly is interesting. It’s a story about a regular dude’s flirtatious brush with fame. Who did he almost brush up against? A one Miss Lindsay Lohan. Woof! Sivart probably won’t enjoy this but some of the rest of you might.

Jones Soda takes care of all your cooking worries on Thansgiving.

I have a confession to make. I purchased a Jones Soda Holiday pack last weekend. Maybe you have not heard of this, let me explain. Jones Soda is kind of a small soda company that makes all kinds of different flavors. They are different in the respect that they don’t have just orange or grape like the big soda companies. They have other flavors like watermelon, tangerine, black cherry, green apple, berry lemonade, strawberry lime and others. A year or so ago, I heard about their limited edition Holiday Pack. I looked for this special five pack but it seemed it was always sold out. Well, I tracked some down this time.

The Holiday Pack consists of many different flavors in soda form that have to do with the Holidays. Flavors such a turkey and gravy, country herb dressing, Brussels sprouts, cranberry, and pumpkin pie. Sounds delicious, right? Well, it isn’t. How do I know this? Well, here comes the confession. I bought one and tricked Bratch into buying one and we decided we would taste test some of the soda at Big Kev’s during the UK game this past Sunday night.

We arrive at Big Kev’s and needless to say Big Kev and Suze didn’t seem to be too enthused. At half time I broke into the turkey and gravy. It smelled weird but not horrible. I poured a little shot into a plastic cup and steeled my nerve and took a little taste. I have to say, it did taste a little turkey-y, which is not good. Turkey in soda form is not that great as you may have suspected. Bratch then took a shot and agreed with my take on it.

Bratch opened up the country herb dressing and poured a little into the cup. I by this time was feeling a little ill. I began to wonder if these were not for drinking and if I had ingested liquid botulism. Bratch took his swig of dressing and it didn’t go so well. He ran to the sink and spit it out. By this time we were both done with the taste test.

We decided to open the rest and at least smell them. The cranberry smelled pretty good and, according to Suze and Bratch, tasted pretty good. The pumpkin pie smelled pumpkiny but no one had the onions to taste it. The Brussels sprout soda was then cracked open. The smell that emanated from this bottle is almost indescribable. Suze and Big Kev almost vomited just smelling it. It was like room temp Brussels sprouts with a ton of butter poured on them. Not a great smell. So ended the night of Holiday tastes. I felt queasy all night long and worried that I would die a horrible death from liquid turkey during the night.

I have seen that Jones Soda is actually putting out several different flavors in their Holiday Packs according to regional tastes. They have added a salmon flavor in one region’s area; in fact it is a smoked salmon pate. Also in that region’s Holiday Packs, pecan pie, corn on the cob, and broccoli casserole. To top all things off, all these drinks are low carb, no calorie. So if you want all the flavors of a big Thanksgiving dinner without all the guilty feelings of ingesting 10,000 calories, then click the link and order a Jones Soda Holiday Pack. Enjoy!!!

Your favorite, Lost clues and a note about Ghost Hunters.

For those of you who haven’t completely given up on Lost (like Bratch and Big Kev) and those of you who don’t watch the episodes over and over and over again looking for clues as to what the f is really going on, here’s some help. I found this on Yahoo today as I was making my daily news rounds. At first I thought is was going to be about tonight’s show which will focus mainly on the “tailies” as they are being called on line, the people in the tail of the plane who crashed on another part on the island. Instead I found some interesting clues, some of which I will share with you, the others you can click the link and see for yourself.

Last week, if you haven’t seen the episode stop reading now……………………………………..Shannon was killed, at least that is what we are led to believe. She once again sees a water covered Walt saying something that no one seems to be able to make out. Well, apparently someone with too much time on his or her hands recorded what Walt said and then played it backwards. It sounds as though Walt is saying, “They’re coming, and they’re close.” Did he mean Ana Lucia and the tailies? Or does he mean the others? Is Walt dead or alive? I am afraid we won’t find out for years.

Another thing that really interested me was that in last week’s episode you can see Jack’s dad hurrying into his scrubs. Shannon’s dad died in a car accident. Jack met his future wife after a car accident in which the driver of the other vehicle was killed. Could that driver have been Shannon’s dad?

If that isn't interesting enough, apparently Hurley’s boss at the fast food restaurant, Randy, was also Locke’s boss at the box factory. What this all means, I do not know. Also pointed out in the article is the fact that many of the survivors have daddy problems. Jack, Locke, Sun, Jin, Shannon all have some kind of shame or sadness or tragic memories associated with their fathers.

Here are some clues about Hurley’s numbers. Take the numbers, 4,8,15,16, 23, and 42 and add them together and you get the number 108. That is the number of minutes that you have to enter the seperate numbers into the computer or...something happens, we think. More crazy numbers stuff that only real geeks have time to find out. The most interesting, uh, coincident I guess you would say is that the numbers 4,8,15,16,23, and 42 all have been retired by the New York Yankees, though the article makes sure to point out that there are also other numbers that have been retired by the Yankees.. Also, there are 108 stitches on a Major League baseball, 108 is the amount of time in minutes it takes for some satellites to orbit the earth, 108 is the number of beads on a Buddhist prayer strand.

What does all this mean? I have no frickin’ idea. I just thought it was really interesting to see some of the stuff people are looking for when it comes to this show. If you would like to see a few more, click the title for a link to the complete story. I wonder how many of these things have anything to do at all with the real answers or if these are things that overworked imaginations are picking out of the air. I also wonder if the creators of the show are keeping up with these and are going to incorporate these things into the show when they had no prior intention. I wonder if they even knew about some of these things.

I believe we will find that all of these people are connected in some way. Whether they are connected by the experiences that they have gone through separately but seem to share or because they have all had a quick instance in which they were in the same room. Whatever is going on, I hope tonight’s episode will give us more answers. It is a special extended episode, that’s a lot of time to fill and not give us something. Also for those of you with DVRs or even prehistoric DVRs called VCRs, on the SciFi channel tonight starting at 6 PM Central and running until 10PM Central there is a Ghost Hunters marathon. I have already seen the episodes that are on tonight and I recommend you check that out if you are interested in ghosts and the supernatural. Enjoy!!!!

Death From Above 2006

Well, it’s here, DEATH FROM ABOVE 2006!!! People are freaking out here. Schools were let out in the OC at 10:20 AM, businesses are closing down. It’s pandelirium!! The local channels are full of radars. We’ve got Doppler, Viper, Nexrad, and whatever other radars they can come up with. People are flying around trying to catch some TV coverage. Every place that you go is full of kids who had to be brought to work because no one was home when they were let out from school. Word on the street is, “watch the skies!!”

I am not sure what is going down, but I wonder if things would be this crazy if we had not just had some deadly tornados touch down a week or so ago. It probably helps to get people riled up a bit more. I firmly believe that there will be no major damage or loss of life in the OC because there never is. People always worry about tornados here but we never really have any reason to worry. We just don't have tornados, at least not to the extreme as Oklahoma or Kansas. Of course I will look like a real idiot when something happens later on toady or tonight, but that is the chance I am willing to take.

I do not know what will happen. I do not know when it will happen. There is one thing I do know. I am sure this is somehow George Bush’s fault. In fact, I find it awful convenient that he just happens to be out of the country when we are being faced with the Cyclones of Terror Tour 2006.

If you have a weak stomach, do not click this link!!!

I think I kind of threw up in my mouth a little after reading this. A few questions. How does this happen? Is all the healthcare in India this bad? Why would I even put this up here for you to read and then be disgusted? Enjoy!!!

Aquaman the TV show is now casting.

Has it really come to this? Have we basically run out of every super hero available to exploit? It appears that casting has begun for an Aquaman TV show. It is going to be on the WB, of course. The WB has already kind of given Aquaman a trial run on Smallville, the Superman the early years show, but they will be looking for a new actor to play this wonderful super hero…who controls fish.

Can the producers really be interested in making a show about a superhero that has been a running joke of the HBO show Entourage this past season? I guess the old saying is true; there is no such thing as bad publicity. I can’t imagine this show lasting too long. How many dastardly crimes occur in the water? I can see this turning into an environmental show. Aquaman stops companies from dumping waste into the ocean. He controls fish. That is not a super power. It’s not even something that 90% of the world’s population would find helpful. I guess if the bad guy was allergic to shellfish that would be to Aquaman’s advantage.

The WB has sent out a casting notice and here is what they are looking for in an Aquaman. A person that is 18-24 years of age, with blonde or light brown hair, and someone who is “drop dead handsome.” Why don’t they just use a drawing of Aquaman form the old Justice League of America cartoon? They could put it in the USA Today with the question, “Have you seen this man?” They then could have a phone number for friends or relatives to call and tell the casting agents about how much their cousin Pete looks like Aquaman. The callers could fax or email a photo with contact information and then the show’s producers could go from there.

I believe Merlin ought to try out for the part, although I believe he is too old for the part and I wouldn’t describe him as drop dead handsome (though French Toast might), but he can swim like a sea otter. His acting is not that great. I can remember a heated game of Mafia in which he was lying like a dog. He even went so far as to throw things and scare some other players so bad they feared for their safety. Unfortunately for him all the shenanigans did not work. He could luck out; maybe try some psychological mind tricks on the casting directors. Maybe we should start a petition or something. Maybe we could march on it. Merlin for Aquaman in 2006.

Fiddy Cent would be proud.

“This movie is so good I gotta bust a cap off in here.” I always thought that was one of the funniest stand up routines Chris Rock had. In Pittsburgh, it’s not just part of a stand up routine. Someone capped a Pittsburgh area man right in front of the concession stand on opening night of Fiddy Cent’s new movie, Get rich or Die Tryin’.

Reports from the scene said the victim got into an argument with some men in a men’s room and later shots were fired in the theater with two hitting the victim and killing him. Many witnesses were overheard to say that there was more drama to be found at the concession stand than on the screen during Fiddy’s movie.

Best. Christmas Tree. Ever.

For those of you who do not have your tree picked out for Christmas and are a fan of a certain holiday special, then I have a tree for you. Click on the title for the link and enjoy your Holidays.

A picture is worth 1,047 words when it comes to the UK Wildcats.

I have a University of Kentucky basketball calendar on the wall in my office, well it is not exactly a calendar, at least not in the sense you would think it. It is a poster board size sheet sponsored by a local bank and it has the 30 years of Rupp Arena stamp, the upcoming schedule and a calendar for next year. It also has pictures of the Kentucky Wildcats.

It is made up to be a team picture, but you can tell that it looks kind of like a photo shop job. As I looked at and studied this year’s Wildcat team, I began to realize that this picture is worth a thousand words or more likely 1,047 words and gives us an insight into what this season may hold for the team and its fans.

The calendar has some interesting photos. As I said, it is made up to look as though all the players are together for the photo, but it is apparent that these are separate photos pieced together for the bigger picture, if you will. Having said this, it is also apparent that there are some members of the team that did have their pictures taken together.

For example, the picture has the three seven footers all standing together looking gangsta. Lukasz Orbzut, Shagari Alleyne, and Jared Carter are all standing shoulder to shoulder. It is really amazing to have three seven footers on one team, the only problem is that none of them really do too many things well. It is unfortunate that Tubby Smith cannot take the best parts from each and make a Tubbystein’s monster out of these three. One really good seven footer will beat three average seven footers every time.

Then there is Joe Crawford sitting and smiling a big "I'm glad I didn't ruin my college career by leaving UK" smile. Adam Williams is standing there with arms crossed looking all Ian Tomblinson, wondering whether or not he should have gone to a school where there weren’t 12 guards ahead of him in the rotation. In front of Adam, Ravi Moss and Ramal Bradley seem to be together in the picture looking as though they are from the mean streets of Hopkinsville and Brooklyn, respectively. They also appear to not be too worried about Adam Williams looking over their shoulder.

Then we come to Tubby who has a smile on his face, something you do not see during a game or in a year that the Cats lose more than 2 games, thanks to the hard core UK fans’ unrealistic expectations. He also has Brandon Stockton leaning on his shoulder. Brandon Stockton appears to realize he needs to lean on Tubby to get himself some playing time during his final season.

Rajon Rondo is breaking down an old school Run-DMC arms crossed pose and beside him is Bobby Perry appearing as though he is about to blow. He looks like super-fly TNT, he looks to be the guns of Navarone. He and Rondo are ready to get this season under way.

Sheray Thomas and Rekalin Sims are seen together with Sheray pointing to Rekalin as if to say, "Yep, this is the man who is going to take my job." Rekalin Sims is smiling real big as if to say, “Yep, that’s right, I am going to take your job.”

Now we get to the most interesting pictures on the calendar. We have Randolph Morris standing with arms crossed and a tiny smirk on his face. He appears to be very proud of the mischief he has been up to, lo, these many months. His smile seems to be saying, "I made it onto the calendar and I don’t even know if I will be on the team."

Who knows what will happen with Morris, perhaps UK will get lucky and be in a Charlie Villanueva situation like Uconn had to go through and he will only miss 5 or 6 games. Or UK may get even luckier and he will not be allowed to come back at all. In the long run will Morris really be worth all this trouble? Whatever the case may be, with the way the NCAA moves I predict we will know sometime before 2012.

Now, we get to everyone’s favorite Cat, especially in this area. We call him Pat-Pat, Patrick Sparks. His picture is very interesting. He has his arms to his side and a cold, dead stare that makes me think he wants to do me bodily harm. In this photo he is in full fledged executioner mode.

I feel as though we should be using his middle name when referring to him, as in Patrick Leroy Sparks was captured today after a 3 day manhunt (I know, I know, his middle name is really Grant, but it makes for a better column if I use Leroy). His eyes seem to be saying, “I am going to straight cut you when you get on the court.” He appears to be all business this season.

I just hope that Mr. Sparks doesn’t try to do too much and become careless with his play. As the old clichés go, he needs to let the game come to him and play the game within himself.

I also hope he performed in a million conditioning drills this summer so he won’t appear to be out of gas on the defensive end at the end of the season. I have to tell you, I am becoming a little unsettled by his picture and I may have to remove this calendar from my office.

That is a look at the team photo in my office. I think it gives us a unique insight into the future performance of this team or perhaps I had nothing better to write about this week. In any case, I see an SEC title and a strong showing in the NCAAs; unfortunately I believe it will end with a Sweet 16 finish. Then at the end of the season, we will most likely lose Rondo and Morris, more definitely Patrick Leroy Sparks, Ravi Moss and most decimatingly…Brandon “The Brandon” Stockton. Next year’s photo should be radically different, but hopefully it will prove to be just as interesting.

UK football fans have more than doubled in number this week

I was greeted by several people this morning at church telling me that they were newly found football fans in the Kentucky program. Why you may ask? Well, if UK were to stop the earth from moving, reverse its rotation, and finally beat Georgia next week, then SC would be up for SEC title.

All of this essentially translates into the entire no Clemsen supporting, state of South Carolina pulling for the Cats. For those fans not familar with UK's football program, there is a lot of banter about how stranger things have happened. Well, not much stranger. It is amazing to see such a football backing down here in this state. They pull for the Gamecocks during the good and the bad. I am not going to say that KY basketball isn't like that, but I have yet to see the basketball program really have a truly bad season. At least in the past ten to fifteen years.

At any rate, I am a realist, yet I can't help looking toward next week and saying go cats!

Spurrier for president!

I think it is official, the church of Steve Spurrier will be open for business soon. He is a great coach and I think it is hard to deny that at this point. I'm not sure whether he'll take SC to the top of the SEC or to a national title in the next several years, but he has already and will continue to improve the team. He airs out the ball, he moves players around until he finds the best combination, and he motivates both team and fans. You have to respect him even if you don't like him.

With my somewhat limited experience, I have to give SC's fans credit on being hugely supportive. THey have consistently shown up, provided cash, and traveled well over the past years despite not always having a winning team. Today and this season, they have something to cheer about.

Video Games and PTSD

For those who are not in the psycho-babble know, PTSD or post traumatic stress disorder is a common psychiatric disorder most associated with war veterans. Essentially, the show description includes flashbacks, nightmares, hyperarousal (edginess), "numbed" feeling, and avoidance of situations which provoke the other symptoms. This is a very debilitating disorder and has been documented at least since the US civil war.

Recently there have been some studies involving video games and PTSD. Not what you may think though: the video games are treatment. According to a large study out of The New England Journal of Medicine July 2004, treating these vets with video games or virtual reality has been proven to be highly effective in reducing symptoms. The scenario involves going through these simulations in uniform with goggles. Those running the program add in the sound of explosions, tanks, and screams in varying levels as the patient tolerates. The scenario is complete with "smells of war" to include smoke and even body odor.

It is easy for me to understand that these guys are made numb to all of the surrounding war background. But, it really is fixing the problem of the symptoms, not the underlying problem. Mixed emotions arise from the scenario, when it's not undoing the problem, but allowing these men and women to get back to a more normal life is a huge gain.

Are the ratings for The Apprenctice dropping?

You have to realize generally I don't watch a regular schedule of TV. Right now I'm watching ER for the second week in a row which is a personal record for the year.

Anyway, I caught the end of this week's Apprentice and I have to say that it's getting old. I've probably only seen maybe a dozen of them in the 3 or seasons that it's been on, but after a while seeing the contestants talk about how great they are and then crumble at the sight of "The Donald" gets old.

The only reason why I liked the show to begin with was that they had cool tasks to do. However, that got old because it seems like they have these monumental tasks like creating an advertising brochure for Pontiac with a turn around of about 48 hours. That included a photo shoot, design, printing and any over the top creative super high dollar junk.

And then the team that won that particular challenge put together a decent brochure, but it only had about 5 words in it creatively placed with some nice photos lacking any info on the car. And the car is a performance 2-seat convertible. Actually only a single person of the 3 person team did any work, but the brochure design made you want to know more about the car without actually telling you a stinkin' thing.

It was all one big tease. Which worked for the nitwits at Pontiac, but then again they only had 2 designs to choose from. My guess is that they found a decent starting spot and then scavenged the good ideas for themselves.

Either way, the tasks are the fun part and all they do is concentrate on the bickering and not the details of the task which is the interesting part.

Really the worst part about the whole thing is Donald Trump. He waltzes into the board room as if he's been watching their every move like a hawk. When he probably just gets there 5 minutes before filming starts and asks his henchmen who sucks. And half of the time he lets the contestants hang themselves in the board room by constantly talking and then makes a snap judgment.

It would have been better if they let the henchmen decide who gets fired in every show but the final 2 when Trump would be there in all his Donald-ness raking in the ratings. One of the draws of the show was Trump to begin with so instead of just teasing the viewers with the big payoff at the end, they show him every week with his barely there hair and the "Blue Steel" look on his face.

Now NBC is pulling a Millionaire and showing the Apprentice whenever they can and is killing the show.

The good news is that they'll have to replace it with something and it might be interesting. But I wouldn't hold my breath.

ER is almost as frustrating as a soap opera. If it wasn't for their previews, it would have been cancelled before Eric LaSalle left and we were all spared the torture of watching him weekly.

Paris Hilton's version of Derek Zoolander's Blue Steel

As I read the latest piece from IA's resident celeb gossip columnist, Sivart Worfner, I was reminded of something I saw a few days ago about Paris. It was a comment about how she always seems to have the same lobotimized look in every picture you see of her while she is on the red carpet. I thought I would just share this little animation with the readers. Click the title for the link and see Paris "The Lights are on, but Nobody's Home" Hilton's version of Blue Steel.

Celebrity News!!!

According to Kidd Kraddock morning radio show, Jessica Simpson was in Kenya doing some charity work for Operation Smile. OpSmile is a charity that helps children with disfigured smiles. Simpson was to visit a hospital there but called in "too sick to get out of bed." Then she went on Safari. You stay classy Mrs. Lachey!

Paris Hilton and her latest boytoy were apparently in an accident after a night of drinking. Her new beau was behind the wheel of her Bentley (why would you let ANYONE else drive your Bentley?!?) while apparently intoxicated and fleeing paparazi. He crashed the car into a parked truck and this is where it gets interesting.

Police arrived on the scene (your favorites and mine, the LAPD) and issued NO tickets. They checked NO ONE for intoxication even after another passenger said he was the only one sober enough to drive home. All this is being filmed and photographed by paparzi mind you. So if you're the officers, you're not getting away with it. I don't even blame Hilton (who was allegedly flirting with the officers) I blame the police for not doing their job.

We all know celebs get special treatment. No surprises there, but the LAPD is lacking enough credibility without incidents like this.

And as an aside, why do I know Paris Hilton? I don't want to know her. She's a rail thin skank with way more money and privilege than sense and all without a lick of talent or any discernable education. Unless I hang with a "socialite" I don't want to know he/she exists. I don't want to hear about her sex tapes (A Night In Olive Oyl's Blonde Cousin) and I don't want to see her in horror films. I want good looking girls, preferably with curves, that I've never heard of.

This is one of my few posts about celebrities. I can't stand celeb news, but I just wanted something to rant about this AM. I apologize for making us all dumber.

People Piss Me Off

I was reading USA Today a couple of days ago, and as I usually do, read the small state blurb for Ky. It was out of Louisville and may or may not be big state wide news there. But, the story was about a 14mo old who had died because the family pit bull turned on the infant while it was eating.

Ok, there are a lot of things about this that piss me off, but I'll focus on the fact that people own these horrible animals. If I hear another version of the same old bull s**** of how they have these type monsters and "they wouldn't hurt a fly" crap. Repeatedly, dogs of all breeds turn on children. There was a stretch where labs were going crazy (or the news inflated the few incidents up, I admit).

These are not labs, these are certainly not your non-ferocious breed either. These are monsters that were trained to kill other animals traditionally, just like several other breeds. What is the point of owning them, ESPECIALLY if you have children of virtually any age. There is no purpose. People may argue they need a guard dog. That's crap if you need a dog that does more than just bark to let you know there is an intruder, then chances are you are either guarding your meth lab/mj patch or you can actually afford to pay for an expensive security system that will not potentially kill other people.

A defenseless, harmless baby who could walk for less than a couple of months, wanders by this animal chewing on food in it's bowl. It's life is over. They are destroying the dog. The parent's probably should be too.

Is a Major League Baseball player dealing out Venezuelan justice?

Good Lord, what is going on in the sports world? I was saddened and shocked to hear that one of my all time favorite baseball players has been arrested for attempted murder. Ugueth Urbina and some “friends,” “rellegedly,” attacked some workers on Urbina’s mother’s farm with machetes. Well, if that isn’t bad enough, Urbina and the other attackers “stupposedly” doused them with gas and set them on fire. Such is life in Venezuela. The victims did not die, but many had cuts and one had burns on his back and arms.

Urbina says that this is a case of someone trying to take advantage of him, something he is used to. A year or so ago, Urbina’s mother was kidnapped and held for ransom. Urbina left his team to go home and try to get her back. Finally the police found where she was being held and rescued her, but a few of the kidnappers escaped. Urbina knows how some people in Venezuela work. Perhaps he will have to pay someone to get the charges dropped.

I have now heard on a sports talk radio show that the men that were attacked because they had something to do with Urbina’s mother’s kidnapping. If this is true, and this source is not exactly the most reliable, according to Venezuelan justice he is probably justified. Urbina claims he was asleep and this is all a scam. Machete hackings and burning men, it kind of makes you appreciate the U. S. sporting world scandals.

Terrell Owens and Drew Rosenhaus, not sorry yet.

Did anyone check out the press conference at Terrell Owens’ house yesterday? I saw some images and heard it live on ESPN Radio. I have to say that I believe that TO is actually sorry for the way things turned out. Whether he is sorry for what he did, that is debatable, but I think he realizes now that things got out of hand and went too far. I believe he is mostly sorry because he is going to lose money this year and he won’t be able to strut his stuff on the field.

As I was driving back to the office yesterday afternoon, I realized who Terrell Owens is. He is a guy who just likes to show off. He has no real skill. Running and catching is not something that is learned or something others can’t do well. He is just a big show off, he is the Bandit. I guess that makes Drew Rosenhaus Frog.

As sincere as I thought TO appeared yesterday, Drew Rosenhaus ruined any warm feelings some might have had for TO and his apology. Rosenhaus took control of the press conference and basically shouted and yelled and made everything before that look like a sham. Rosenhaus is one of those guys that just make you want to puke and I would be willing to bet that if TO sits down and thinks about this whole fiasco, he will realize that Rosenhaus is much to blame for this.

As far as I know, Rosenhaus hasn’t made too much money since becoming TO’s agent. He wasn’t the one who got TO his original deal with the Eagles. He was the one, however, to convince TO that his current deal was not enough and that he could get him a new one. That is what Rosenhaus is famous for, getting old deals thrown out and new ones signed.

How can Rosenhaus make some money? Well, he will need to get TO a new contract. I am not saying Owens himself did not want a new contract, but I would be willing to bet that Rosenhaus stayed in his ear and made sure TO did all he could to disrupt the Eagles. Owens, and I’m sure Rosenhaus, never thought the Eagles would actually deactivate him, but they miscalculated.

The big question in all of this is, how much money has Rosenhaus cost TO after this whole thing blew up in their faces? I heard a sports talk guy say that he thought TO has lost $30 million over this. I am not sure that much has been lost, but we are talking tens of millions. TO will not receive a huge signing bonus with his next contract. He will probably only get a one year deal so that he can prove he has “changed.” After this year and next year, he will have to try to get a huge deal at the age of 33. That is not the age you want to be when looking for a huge deal.

I can’t say that I am not a little happy to see this happen to TO, especially since I traded him straight up for Carson Palmer in my fantasy league a few weeks ago. I like to see him play and I like to hear him talk, however, he is a me first player and a team killer. I do believe TO was sincere in some ways with his apology and he should have been. I believe he brought all on himself. I also believe this guy has got some problems and should probably spend this time off in therapy. That being said, I believe Owens had some help from his new agent Drew Rosenhaus. Rosenhaus and Owens did not realize until it was too late that they should stop all the stupid games and finish out the year quietly. Unfortunately for TO his tactics and this tactical error has cost him the thing he was after in the first place. Next year, when looking for a new deal, Owens and Rosenhaus will indeed be sorry.

UK AD says that football coach Brooks will hang around?!?!?

All I gotta say is that if University of Kentucky Athletic Director Mitch Barnhardt won't fire head football coach Rich Brooks, then Barnhardt's boss should fire him and hire someone who'll fire Brooks.

Barnhardt cited strong "in-state" recruiting classes and emphasizing the right things on and off the field. Those are two things I have a problem with. First of all in-state recruiting doesn't exactly give me the warm and fuzzies. Kentucky is a basketball state not a football state. Therefore in-state recruiting should be kept to a minimum. I've covered a couple of UK football recruits and at least one of them was a non factor in the 3 football games I covered and was a better basketball player than football player anyway. And on top of that he was playing against 1-A class football teams.

And I'm sorry, but emphasizing the right things on and off the field is just a cop out statement. No program is telling their kids to go out and get in trouble. And frankly, when you get into college, you shouldn't have to have adults constantly telling you that you should act like you've got some sense in your head.

Also, I don't see UK continuing to get strong recruiting classes when they get humiliated every time they take the field.

"Hello son, would you like to come play football for UK and get annihilated every time you walk out of that lockerroom? At UK we can give you that dream."

About the only recruiting strategy they can throw on a kid is that they can almost guarantee that he can be the star player if he's very good.

The bottom line is that Rich Brooks came completely out of nowhere. If not for Jerry Jones UK was looking at Bill Parcells. After that big juicy steak was dangled in front of us, we got Brooks who virtually no one had ever heard of.

I know that he can really be held responsible for the fact that UK has had so many injuries that soon players will be playing both sides of the ball, but I witnessed the 'Cats take a knee on the 12 yard line to run out the first half clock instead of kicking a measly 35 yard field goal. A field goal distance that surely you have to be able to kick blindfolded before you can make the team as a kicker. They instead chose to cut their losses and leave the points out on the field so they could go talk things over at half time.

Honestly, if I was a player I would have considered quitting at that point. If not for the fact that I would be giving up a free education, I know I would have quit. They left 3 points out on the field literally for no reason at all.

If Brooks was the head coach at Nebraska, he would have been fired after a poor performance in a Blue/White scrimmage.

LAST YEAR!

Merlin, you and French Toast need to pull some strings and get them both fired. Or are you going to leave things alone and show us your back-stabbing allegiance to those winged birds of Game.

It Would Be Easy to Laugh at France, but...

France is in an uproar. Two young people were shot and suddenly it's a borderline rebellion. There were over 2,500 cars set on fire in two days. Over 630 arrests, buildings burned, people killed, police attacked.

All this and the president Jacques Chirac won't authorize the military to even show up. This is the same guy who wouldn't force Saddam Hussein to let UN weapons inspectors do their thing because he was taking cash from Hussein in the Oil for Food catastrophe the UN engineered and oversaw. But that's neither here nor there.

Here's a quick point before the main one. Many Americans were siding with the French when the French and others were against the Iraq War. Namely Johnny Depp who lives in France. Oh the French are so peaceloving and forgiving, why can't we be that way. I suppose it's because we're not wimps, we have principals, and we believe SOME things are worth fighting for. The French won't even authorize their military to come in and save their OWN people. No wonder they wouldn't help free the Iraqi people.

Now, a big key to the problems in France is their influx of Muslim settlers. France is socialistic and basically will care for anyone who can't/won't care for themselves. That is what many of these (certainly not all) Muslims have done. They don't work, they are carried along by the government. Thus there's a lot of civil disdain for the non-natives. It has boiled over into what they have now.

Point is that could easily happen in the US. Right now illegal immigrants flow over our borders daily at an alarming rate. It's not as big of a problem for us because we have jobs for them to do and because we aren't socialistic and giving free rides to those who won't work. So the disdain is mild in comparison. But many, MANY politicians and activists would like to see us become a more socialist society. May it never be.

We must avoid such a problem here and we do that by regulating immigration, controlling the amount of people entering the country and by making sure we don't give free rides. For a guy like me, there's a tiny part of me that says France is reaping what it has sown for years. Part of me wants to laugh and point at France saying, "THIS is what socialism gets you!" But there's a much bigger part that feels very sorry for these people and is scared of something like that happening here someday.

Greenhouse gases doubling by 2030

I linked the article from Yahoo! in the title, but the main reason this caught my eye is because I had the opportunity to discuss global warming with a geologist last week.

Don't ask me how we got on any of the subjects that we discussed, but this guy seemed to be an expert in everything. Especially if it had to do with energy because we were drilling for natural gas at the time. I say we because I just happened to be in the proximity of the drill at the time. I was actually taking photos and they were drilling.

We went to check out the operation because it was an interesting story and these Texas natural gas drillers were pretty nice fellows. They were drilling down 2,995 feet through the New Albany shale so they could see if it yield some decent natural gas. After we walked around and talked with the money man, the geologist that was on the scene struck up a conversation with us and soon it turned to the weather and oil and all of that good stuff. They were in the energy business so it made sense.

Anyway, the geologist brought a good point about global warming. He said that global warming isn't the worst thing that could be happening to the world. Global cooling is much worse. He mentioned that the Earth has gone through several ice ages and of course those ice ages warmed up into the types of climates we have now in the world. He also stated that he didn't believe that the people and governments who were concerned about global warming were taking into account the earth's natural cycles of warming and cooling. Which makes total sense.

And when it comes down to it, we don't have any record or any way of telling how warm or cool it got when the ice ages were present or when the warming trends prevailed. Our weather records only go back maybe 125 years or so and honestly I'm not sure if I believe that we can rationally prove that the current weather patterns we are seeing now are in fact due to "global warming." We don't have nearly enough data to support the theories. And who knows how reliable weather records from 1890 are.

I'm not saying that air pollution and CO2 gases aren't hurting the environment, but all of the information we are going on most likely isn't based on rock solid facts so much as it's based on the scientists' best educated theory. Because honestly you can't just pick out a few spots in the world and say, "Yep, it's a lot warmer here today than it was this day 10 years ago." Maybe it was just hot today and there was a cold front that day 10 years ago. Maybe there was a bit of a cooling trend on those days for a couple of years in a row. Anything can happen.

I can remember when here in Western Kentucky we used to get decent snows every year. I remember being able to be swallowed up in snow drifts. Now it's hit and miss. That doesn't mean that global warming has caused this, it just means that the weather patterns didn't line up to give us any good snows for a while. I also remember when we used to have some good flooding about every year during the summer. Now we are in 4 or 5 year drought and if not for the hurricanes that brought some rain up here, we would have lost nearly half of the rain we had this summer and would have cost me some cash.

I did see a documentary on China a few months ago about how terrible the air is over there. Especially in Hong Kong. Their air is so bad that it crosses the Pacific Ocean and makes our air bad on the west coast of the United States. They even followed around a young family who had to weigh the pros and cons of moving to Hong Kong.

On the one hand, if they moved there they could make enough money in about 7 years that they could move to the country and have a nice life. But on the other hand, they had to consider how much damage 7 years in Hong Kong would do to them with the terrible air pollution. That's rough.

But that's what happens when you burn coal for 70 percent of your energy and have zero air pollution laws.

Terrell Owens suspended and possibly cut by the Eagles, are his problems just beginning?

Have you ever seen a more insane situation play out in the sporting world than the Terrell Owens and Philadelphia Eagles situation? It is beyond me how out of hand things have gotten.

In case you have been living under a rock, Owens has been trying to get a new contract during the off season and this season as well. He hired a new agent, Drew Rosenhaus, an agent that causes most owners and general managers to cringe when they hear his name. Owens is unhappy with his salary and has been grumbling about it all season.

On top of all this, Owens has been taking pot shots at his quarterback, Donovan McNabb, all season long. This is not something that is new for Owens. Owens slammed his former quarterback Jeff Garcia when he was with the San Francisco 49ers, even going so far as to question Garcia’s sexuality.

The latest Owens attack on McNabb has Owens claiming in an interview that if the Eagles had Brett Favre as their quarterback, the Eagles would be undefeated. Huh? I love Brett Favre, he is a great quarterback, but he is not that great this year. In fact, McNabb has better stats than Favre. McNabb has Favre in yards per attempt, touchdowns, and Favre has 6 more interceptions than McNabb.

Owens was also mad that the Eagles didn’t celebrate his 100th catch of his career. What Owens didn’t know was that the Eagles never celebrate individual accomplishments. He apologized for the 100th TD celebration remark, but would not apologize publicly or privately to McNabb. After a called team meeting and apparently a scuffle with former Eagle Hugh Douglas, Owens was suspended from the team for four games and then he will not be coming back to play on the Eagles.

Now that we have the back story out of the way, I really think Owens needs some professional help. The things he does do not make any sense. He has a pattern of being a horrible teammate and being a selfish person. He is only about himself and doesn’t care what he says or who he hurts as long as he gets what he wants. I guess he is thinking what better way to get a new deal than to slam the team leader and make him look like a fool.

Owens signed his deal with the Eagles because he had no leverage to get a better contract. He blames his current deal on his former agent, when it was possible that he being a selfish child could have been the real problem. After the Eagles got to the Super Bowl and Owens pulled out a great performance in a losing effort, he saw his chance to get a new contract. Or so he thought.

He hired an agent who is famous for getting things done, but he forgot that the Eagles are like the government. They do not negotiate with terrorists. Owens was trying to hold his talents hostage. As I said before, in this world of outrageous salaries, I believe that he is underpaid. Whatever is wrong with him mentally does not take away from the fact he is an unbelievable player on the field, but he is obviously an unstable person.

Before Owens started attacking the leader of the team, McNabb, the players were all in his corner, but when he tried to “punk” McNabb in public, he lost any support he once had on that team. I believe that Owens may not only have jeopardized his career this season, but with his actions he has probably killed his chance to get that big money deal he was looking for all season.

When you are on a Super Bowl caliber team and you cause this much trouble and have to be jettisoned even though you are one of the best receivers in the game, then other teams have to be worried about the effect you will have on their team. Other teams may ask themselves, “If he can have this kind of effect on a Super Bowl team, a team that is winning games, what kind of effect will he have on ours?” That is a very valid question in my mind.

I do believe Owens will find a new home, but he is in the same position he was in when he signed his deal with the Eagles. He has no leverage. Instead of just playing out his contract, being the best receiver in football and signing a big deal after his Eagles deal was up, he has to negotiate a deal coming off a stint as the original team cancer. He destroyed a Super Bowl team with his antics and that will cost him millions of dollars.

What can Owens do to repair his reputation? Well, not much considering he has had a bad reputation since he came in the league and has had plenty of opportunities to make amends for his actions. He must come out and apologize publicly to McNabb and try his best to make himself look contrite. Then he has to do the hardest thing, at least to my thinking, he will be able to do. Keep his mouth shut. If he can do that then that would be a bigger accomplishment than winning the Super Bowl. He will not be with the Eagles next year no matter what, but if he suddenly turns into a Boy Scout, perhaps his act can fool a team into giving him a big deal.

As I said Terrell Owens is a great player on the field, he is probably a great teammate on the field, but in the locker room he kills teams. Philadelphia should have put more stock into his actions in San Francisco as that team was circling the drain in his last few years there. Will some team be willing to take a chance on him? I would think so, but Owens may realize very quickly that he was in a great position to win championship and Donovan McNabb may not have been as bad as he thought when he is on a team with a David Carr or Joey Harrington or Anthony Wright as his quarterback.

Britney's boy is all grown up

It appears that everyone's favorite celebrity,Britney's Husband, has gone from dancing to rapping. It seems that a track from his soon-to-be-in-a-bargain-basket-near-you rap album was posted on the website of one of the producers.

Apparently he has created some new-fangled rap style from the future that supposedly sounds a lot like Kelis' "Milkshake" which was a terrible song from the past. If anyone saw her performance on SNL you probably saw that even though she only sings in about 40 percent of the song, she was noticably winded about 30 seconds in and that seemed to end her career.

So K-Fed is his rap name even though "Brit's Hub" seems more appropriate. He's only famous because Britney Spears thought that procreating with him would be a wonderful idea since she wasn't doing anything productive at the time.

I know that I don't have to tell you that this album is going to suck so bad it'll blow, but I would like to at least tell you why it's going to blow. And it has nothing to do with the fact that he probably can't rap. It might sound like the second coming of Jay-Z, but it'll never make it because he doesn't have any street cred.

It you have street cred you can put out rap songs where it sounds like there are a couple of guys moaning in the background like they've been shot and left for dead and they'll be hits. Master P did it. If you've done time for dealin' crack or better yet, have been shot several times, you can release a full blown platinum hit where most people can't understand a word you are saying. 50 Cent did it and now he's makin' a movie about it.

The only way Britney's husband is going to have a successful album is if the cover is a mugshot from Folsom Prison and the liner notes include a long and successful rap sheet of the crimes he's committed and served time over.

Or better yet, if he could finish the album and get sent prison for 3-6 months and then cordinate the album release with his prison release... Triple platinum.

That's a winner right there, I should be his agent.

The trouble with Puggles...

I was talking with my dad this morning and he said that Good Morning America or the Today Show did a story on the newest craze.

Apparently someone got the bright idea to breed Beagle hounds with Pugs to create this super species of sinfully cute dogs known as Puggles.

So what is the trouble with Puggles? The price tag.

The website that I've linked in the title sells Puggles for around $750. This particular website is a regular Island of Dr. Moreau for crossing small dogs and creating some very cute mutants.

I saw on another website that black ones are rare and sometimes command more cash. Regardless, that's crazy to pay $750 for a dog that you and your neighbors could come up.

The Pug would be a little more difficult to find, but they are a dog that I've heard of people looking for because they look like someone smashed their snout with a sledge hammer. Apparently that equals cute. I've never thought much of them because 1) they are house dogs and 2) I've heard that the smashed face causes breathing issues and snoring. It's all fun and games until you have to purchase a C-PAP machine for your dog.

Beagles, on the other hand are quite easy to come by around here. I have a buddy that actually breeds and sells them for rabbit hunting. That being said, if you told me I had to get a Beagle I could have one in a couple of hours and there's a good chance it would be a stray or runaway on the side of the road with means "free."

I suppose the good thing about Puggles is that their noses aren't as smashed so that might aleviate some of the breathing issues and most of them seem to get to the 15-20 pound size of a Beagle. Some call them miniature Mastiffs because of how they look despite weighing 150 pounds less than a Mastiff.

The only thing I've seen on the internet about them is that they aren't hyper lap dogs like Yorkies, which is good, but they can eat you out of house and home if you let them.

Patrick Sparks and 2005-06 University of Kentucky Wildcats look scary.

I came into the office today and found a nice surprise on the wall in my office space. It was a brand spanking new 2005-06 University of Kentucky Wildcats schedule/calendar. It has the 30 years of Rupp Arena stamp, the upcoming schedule and a calendar for next year. It also has pictures of the Cats. It is made up to be a team picture, but you can tell that it just looks like a photo shop job.

The calendar has some interesting photos. It has the three 7 footers all standing together looking gangsta. It has Joe Crawford sitting and smiling a big "I'm glad I didn't ruin my college career by leaving here" smile. Adam Williams is standing there with arms crossed looking like Ian Tomblinson. Ravi Moss and Ramal Bradley look like they are from the mean streets of Hopkinsville and Brooklyn, respectively.

Then we come to Tubby who has a smile on his face, something you do not see during a game and he also has Brandon Stockton leaning on his shoulder. Brandon Stockton knows he needs to lean on Tubby to get himself some playing time during his final season. Rajon Rondo is breaking down an old school Run-DMC arms crossed pose and beside him is Bobby Perry appearing as though he is about to blow. He looks like supa-fly TNT. Sheray Thomas and Rekalin Sims are seen together with Sheray pointing to Rekalin as if to say, "Yep, this is the man who is going to take my job."

Now we get to the most interesting pictures on the calendar. We have Randolph Morris standing with arms crossed and a tiny smirk on his face. He appears to be very proud he has pulled this off. "I made it onto the calendar and I might not even be on the team." Who knows what will happen with Morris, perhaps UK will be lucky and have a Charlie Villanueva situation and he only misses 5 or 6 games. Or UK may get even luckier and he will not be allowed back at all. With the way the NCAA moves we may know before 2010.

Now, we get to everyone’s favorite Cat, especially Sivart. We call him Pat-Pat, Patrick Sparks. His picture is very interesting. He has arms to his sides and a far off, vacant stare that makes me think he wants to do bodily harm to me. Bratch has always claimed that he looked like a serial killer. In this photo he is in full John Wayne Gacy mode. I am becoming so unsettled by it that I may remove it from my area or perhaps burn it to remove the evil from my office.

That is a look at the team photo in my office. I think it gives us a unique insight into the future performance of this team. I see an SEC title and a strong showing in the NCAAs; unfortunately it will end with an Elite 8 finish. Then next year, we will lose Rondo, Morris, Pat-Pat and most decimatingly…Brandon “The Brandon” Stockton. Next year’s photo should be radically different, but as long as Ted Bundy is not in it, it will be an improvement.

Disc Golf update

Since my recent obsession with disc golf, I have made attempts to not blog about every birdie I throw or with every personal record I set. I even hesitate to write this post now, but I must say it is a bit to good to keep.

I have gradually been getting better with my game. Just like in golf, you get a little better overall with occassional self destructions on a hole or awesome shots. I have pared down my game to the point where I shoot for par on every hole. A bogie here in there is expected and accepted and an occassional birdie is great.

Recently, however, I have had the best round ever. It goes beyond breaking personal records. I actually threw for two over par. To give you an idea, I threw 56. Previously my best round was a 61. when I started I was throwing 70-75.

This is a great game. I'm not going to call it a sport or make any kind of overly bold statements about it, but it is fun. I have no doubt at all Bratch would love this game and do quite well. Piccu would do well too and in no time get to a level of talking trash that he is accustomed too.

One thing that is pretty cool and I think would be Bratch's favorite part (as it is one of mine too), is the diversity of equipment. To give you a brief primer on this, there are two types of materials used. The difference is not in how the disc throws but how it holds up over time. Also, as you get into throwing the disc well it takes on this S shaped curve (actually a backwards S for a right hander). So at the end of the throw the disc tails off to the left. There are about ten or eleven levels of distance and within each there are 5 or so discs with a spectrum of how they curve. To add to all the equipment there is the fore hand throw which is just how it sounds. The point of that is that it follows the opposite path of the regular throw or in other words is equal to throwing it left handed.

Between the cool aspects of the equpment for us geeks and the low cost of playing it is pretty great.

HIV Testing: Coming to a home near you?

HIV continuously enters new territories in terms of treatment, prevention, and even stigma. This tiny virus is no stranger to raising controversy, and the home HIV test is no different. USA Today cites several cons to moving the test to home, including the hazard of the response a person may have to a positive test without a physcian or counselor present. Some of you will argue, who cares if the person is going to do something to hurt themselve, then they can wait and do it after they leave the doctor's office anyway. Others may go as far as to say, that one less HIV carrier wouldn' t be a bad thing.

I am an optomist, however. I hope that in our life time HIV will become treatable, or at the very least preventable through vaccination in the near future. I also think that moving the test to over the counter is a huge step. People are more likely to get tested without symptoms if they can avoid going to a doctor's office, but I think that more people could have negative outcomes with a positive test.

Let's face it, no test is perfect anyway. The biggest loss would be the false positive test that leads to a suicide. I recognize that is rare and may be outweighed by some of the positive benefits of the test. Obviously, earlier diagnosis by resposible parties could decrease unintentional spread of the virus.

I can say this too, that it may change the way health and life insurance do things. I am not sure whether or not new members are tested for HIV, but they would most certainly be if there was a home test. If I were to test positive on a home test and were uninsured, then heck yes I would try to hide it until insurance covered me. Depending on how widespread that occured it could mean higher health care costs for all of us.

As you can see from my ramblings, I am neither pro or con at this point; just a reporter.

Spirits, mediums, Ouija boards, and ghost TV.

Halloween is over, but I still seem to be caught up in ghost stories. As I write this I am listening to a radio podcast of the late night radio show called Coast to Coast AM. This is the Halloween edition called ghost to ghost. It is nothing but ghost stories. Some sound fishy, but a lot sound very credible. I have also been watching a show on the Travel Channel called Most Haunted.

Most Haunted is a show that takes place in England and a team of paranormal investigators go to notoriously “haunted” places and investigate these claims. I have to wonder about this show because it seems to rely on mediums and psychics. I do believe that there are such persons that can commune with the dead, but when you see them on TV you automatically want to discount them. Nevertheless, it is a very entertaining show.

The team on this show uses cameras and mics, but they more rely on personal experiences. Personal experiences can be creepy, but they do not show up too well on camera.There are some freaky things that occur on this show that are captured on camera and if you turn out all the lights and watch about six hours worth, you can really get creeped out. I highly recommend this show and I believe that it is airing every Friday night on the Travel Channel at 8 or 9 PM central, check your guides on your satellite or cable guide. If you are curious about spirits then check it out.

On the Sci-Fi channel there is another show called Ghosthunters and it could not be more different from Most Haunted. While Most Haunted uses mediums and psychics, séances, and Ouija boards, Ghosthunters use more technological methods. They use many cameras, recorders, thermometers and other things when they investigate a “haunted” location. Ghosthunters also go into every place believing that it is not haunted and try to prove that it isn’t haunted, which makes it interesting. It is not quite as entertaining as Most Haunted, but it seems to be the most believable, probably because the Ghosthunters never come away with many Holy s#%@!! moments, while Most Haunted has about one or two a show.

I also recommend Ghosthunters, although its second season may have already ended. It usually comes on the Sci-Fi channel Wednesdays at 7 and 11 PM central. These two shows, Ghosthunters and Most Haunted give you both extremes when it comes to proving paranormal experiences and I find myself wanting to believe what I see on both programs.

The reason I am so interested in things like this, spirits, the afterlife, is because of something that happened to a cousin of mine in my house. I have a cousin, and some of you have heard this story a thousand times, that stayed over at my house when we were in high school. My parents were out of town and we were hanging out and watching a tape delayed UK basketball game. At half time, he decided he was going to go to bed and he was going to sleep in my parents’ room.

He went to bed and he kind of swung the door shut, but it didn’t catch. He could tell that it was shut enough that it would not come open, but you did not have to turn the knob to open it. He climbed into bed and was lying on his back, I guess waiting to go to sleep. He closed his eyes for a while and then opened them back up. He remembers looking at the clock and realizing he had just had his eyes closed for about five minutes.

He then looked down towards the end on the bed on the side he was sleeping on and saw a shadow as though someone were down on his hands and knees. He says the shadow started to move towards him like someone crawling on the floor. He thought it was my brother or I trying to scare him, so when the shadow came within reaching distance, he took his hand and swung toward the “face” of whoever it was coming towards him and he said, “Get out of my face.”

His hand went through whatever it was that was there and the shadow disappeared. He was petrified with fear saying he couldn’t move and he couldn’t speak. He was literally scared stiff. He then said he saw something out of the corner of his eye, but as he turned to see more clearly it disappeared. Now, how he was able to put this behind him and somehow go to sleep I do not know, but he did.

In the morning his mom brought his sister to our house to bring him some clothes for church as it was Sunday morning. I had just awakened and was just lying in bed, lounging and I heard her come in. She knew which room he would be in and came down the hall to the door of his room. I heard her knock on the door and tell him she would leave his clothes hanging from the door. She did this because the door was not only closed and latched, but it was locked. My cousin says he never closed the door the whole way, much less locked it. He was too terrified to even get up to lock it after he saw what he saw.

This story has always been one I love telling. Even today if you hear him tell it, you can tell that he was scared to death. A few years later, a group of us were messing with an Ouija board and I asked a “spirit” if what he saw in my parents’ bedroom was a ghost, the board said yes. It also told me it was an 18 year old boy. I never really believed in Ouija boards, I just can’t imagine a kid’s game being a link to the spirit world, so even though it said what it said I never put much credence in it. But I do notice sounds throughout the night. Sounds going down the hall or in my room. Whether they are the “ghost” or just house sounds, who knows.

I do believe in spirits, but I do not know why they are here. Are they lost souls? Have they missed their opportunity to go to heaven or hell? Are these spirits of people who had not found peace before they left their physical bodies? You may think I am an kook, but this stuff fascinates me. The good news is that there are many kooks out there like me, although some are a little kookier than I want to become.

This NCAA Basketball Season, Do Yourself a Favor

The NCAA season is only days away as exhibition games have already begun. Many will follow their Big Six conference school of choice like mindless zombies devouring hours of ESPN Duke love and Dick Vitale quips. Those people will hear Andy Katz say hundreds of times how great some ACC team will be despite their obvious flaws. Those people will miss out on college basketball this season.

I'm not going to clang and clamor about the real athletes who play for love of the game at the DII and DIII levels. I'm talking good, DI hoops. Obviously, I'm a Western Kentucky fan. That's my alma mater and I'm a season ticket holder. But I'm not talking about that either.

Every season in March, we fill out our brackets and we see the teams. Buffalo, Bucknell, Old Dominion, Oral Roberts, WKU, Middle Tennessee, and others. Fodder for the high ranked Big Six schools. But when you want to see a great game, flip over to Fox Sports sometime and watch a game played at the Palestra. St. Joe's is a good example. How good was that team two years ago? Three years prior they had brought nearly the exact cast of characters to WKU's Diddle Arena to beat the Hilltoppers. Let me tell you, they were a good team then.

Dozens of very good basketball teams get overlooked every year because they won't be a top ten seed and that's sad. We'll bypass a matchup between Holy Cross and Lafayette for top honors in the Patriot League to watch UK pound Ole Miss, or UofL humiliate Stetson.

So this season, do something different. Take a little time and learn about mid-majors (a PITIFUL term coined by our good, unbiased friends at ESPN.) Here's some help to jump start you on your way.
1. Read the book, The Last Amateurs by John Feinstein. I just started this book and I already like it after just 20 pages.
2. Visit http://www.midmajority.com/ and read what Kyle Whelliston has to say. It's an extremely great site by a great fan. Whelliston actually attended 100 college basketball games in 04-05. You can read about that too.
3. Visit http://thebracketboard.blogspot.com/ my good friend and fellow WKU alum Cortney Basham runs this site. Cort is a big WKU fan and you'll read his bias in there, but he also is very knowledgable about college basketball in general. Last year I believe he outperformed every ESPN analyst in his bracket projections. (FYI, he has gained the attention of those at ESPN because of that and has landed a gig writing for http://www.southerncollegesports.com )

Enjoy basketball. I by no means am saying don't enjoy Big 6 basketball. I watch it as much as the next guy, but don't be so quick to flip the channell when a mid-major comes on. You may catch the next Wally Sczerbiak, Adonal Foyle, Chris Marcus, or Derek Fisher.

I've said it before, but this is the best show on TV

So if you haven't watched Crimnal Minds yet, then you are letting the best pass you by. I not only say that this is undoubtedly the best new show, but perhaps in the running for my favorite show on TV.

There are lots of mediocre, science/cop shows out there. I like Bones, but it isn't the best. The CSI's other than Las Vegas are descent at best. Crimnal Minds is a bit different with a range and chemistry of characters only comparable to the early seasons of the original CSI. My fear is that as happened with CSI, they will soap-opera-ize the characters at some point. They are no where near that now though, and these characters are awesome. I like the fact that no character really dominates the show. It kind of revolves around the main guy Gideon, but only slightly more than all the others.

People tend to complain that "greg" from Darhma and Greg is on the show. First, off if you really don't like him he is seldom the main focus. Second, if you watched tonights episode, there is no way you can continue to associate him with his former character. This has been a quantum leap for him.

I recognize it is opposite Lost, but if you have the capability to tape this show, then it is worth it. I'll tell you this too, it is a more consistent show than Lost with it's stop go plot. Really, the next time you have nothing but reruns on, check out this show. You WON"T be dissappointed.

Political Musings-Focus on Our Senate

How fortunate we all are to live in a democracy (ok, a representative republic) where our views and concerns are defended by people we elect in three branches of a government forming a system of checks and balances widely considered to be the best political system ever developed.

The proof of how grand our system is can be found in the US Senate. First the lighthearted subject matter:

Kentucky senator Jim Bunning and Arizona senator John McCain are both pushing for Congress to force a tougher steroid policy on Major League Baseball.

My fellow Kentuckians and I know the Republican Bunning as being baseball Hall of Famer and an old whacko who is off his rocker. He provided some levity to last year's senate race when he commented that his opponent, Dr. Dan Mangiardo, looked too much like a terrorist. That gave us something to laugh about because it showed how whacko Bunning had become and made the race MUCH tighter than it would have been otherwise.

John McCain is much more respectable however. McCain we all know as the former POW who is a popular moderate republican, liked generally by both sides of the aisle and considered to be very reasonable. Thus making McCain and Bunning an Odd Couple of Republicans.

Regardless of the motives or respectability of these two men, they have no business telling baseball how to conduct its day to day affairs. We all hate steroids in sports. We all hate inflated numbers and Barry Bonds love affair with BALCo. But what most of hate more is goverment regulating every aspect of human existence. Freedom slips away when government controls everything in some capacity.

Now to the heavier subject matter. Yesterday Democrat blowhard Harry Reid felt the need to make a complete fool of himself and demand the Senate enter into a rare closed session to debate the reasons for going to the Iraq war.

I've said many times before that Congress has no beef here. Whether or not Bush lied is almost beside the point. It is the duty, in this system of checks and balances, of the Congress to declare war, and thus it is the duty of the Congress to determine if a declaration of war is justified. In plainer terms, the Congress should have been trying to verify or disprove Bush's claims BEFORE we declared war, not after the fact. It's too late now.

Further, Democrats are basing this latest Bush bash on testimony from Joe Wilson, who had his own vendetta against Bush just after the Iraq war began. Wilson's statements in front of the National Press Club the other day stated that Saddam Hussein never bought Uranium from Niger because if he had, Wilson would have seen the evidence of that money in a very indigent country. Of course, Bush never said Hussein bought uranium in those infamous sixteen words of his State of the Union address, he said Hussein had tried. And beyond that, that information came from British intelligence. Intelligence that Britain has never backed off of.

So what's the point in all this grandstanding? Simple. It's what politics has been reduced to in these modern times. Its grown men barking at each other like WWE stars in their pre-fight interviews. It's a heavy weight weigh-in and press conference and the boxers are Reid (flanked as always by Chuck Schumer) and Republican Bill Frist. It's petty and frankly, most people don't care.

Congress is wasting more and more tax payer time and money with both of these. One is kind of funny and light hearted. The other is serious and grave, but much too late in coming. We're lucky to live where we do, but how long is our luck going to hold out?

Making the news...

Have you ever just been somewhere when a you just thought to yourself that you really shouldn't be there? I had that feeling today.

Today I attended a protest/auction or auction/protest depending on your particular view. The auction was of a local farmer's land and the protest was because several people believe that he wasn't treated fairly and that his land was basically taken from him.

I haven't looked into this story too much, but I have looked so far as to find out that this gentleman paid is property taxes to the county only occasionally from about '99-'04. The facts, as they seem to be at this time, are that he owes the banks, the government and whoever about $750,000. And he has apparently not made a loan payment or anything for this farm since about 1994 so he's been given about 11 years to work something out, but he claims that he's paid his debt so who really knows.

The local farmer who lost his farm is black and the protest was organized by an organization in Virginia that tries to help black farmers to keep their land through protests and by helping them do any research they might need to help defend themselves legally.

This particular protest was hot. Media everywhere, police everywhere, it was a spectacle to say the least. The farm was quite large and several bidders showed up. It was a pretty solid auction I would say, but I wasn't really paying too much attention. I know that one tract of land sold for over $300,000.

The protesters blew whistles and attempted to make noise so that the hearing the auction and bidding was difficult. They also chanted and held signs. Nothing crazy, just a peaceful protest surrounded by 3 TV news crews, 2 newspaper crews and unless the hat was just for show, a crew from HBO. Not bad for Podunk, KY.

Everything went smoothly and neither the state police nor U.S. Marshalls had to intervene in anyway and most all of the protesters were personable, they knew what they were doing and they knew what they could and couldn't do.

After the auction was finished however, things changed a bit.

The protesters huddled up for a short prayer and those of us with the media just hung out for minute because we needed names and quotes. After the prayer a crew from our local ABC affiliate showed up fashionably late, but somehow jumped ahead of everyone for the first interview.

I was in the small group that had formed around the reporter and her camera man, but I was just waiting for her to finish so I could get the head man's name.

I wasn't paying too much attention to them since all I needed was a name, but before I knew it the reporter was in a shouting match with not only the guy she was interviewing, but 2 or 3 others and more were gathering around us. As soon as that started I figured it wouldn't be too long before the police walked over to make sure that everything stayed civil.

It was at that point that I realized that all of the police left after all of the folks there for the auction had left. Then I look back at the reporter and she was shouting with this crazed look on her face and she was not backing down. In fact, she was throwing gasoline on the fire.

It was that point that I thought to myself, "I really don't think I want be here anymore" followed by "If these dozen or so black men decide they are going to wring this girl's neck, will her camera guy take the beating that I will trying to help her not get killed or will he just take a step back and document her death and my near death for posterity?"

For about 60 seconds or so I was really worried about the situation. It was one of only a couple of situations where I really wanted to be out of there in a hurry and one of about four situations where I feared for my safety.

Luckily cooler heads prevailed and everything ended peacefully. Which is good because I just wanted to get back to work since I was two hours behind on my sports pages.

So now I have to wonder, was what she was doing reporting the news? She almost made the news, but she was definitely influencing the news. That protest was completely and totally peaceful and some of the protesters were even joking around with the police. But what she got on tape was a group of angry black men yelling at a 20-something reporter because she baited them into a shouting match.

I saw the report and they didn't run any of her flare up with the protesters but after she spoke with them she went to the man who just lost his farm and then proceded to anger him to the point that he stormed off and they had to chase after him. They did show a couple of seconds of him on camera shouting after the reporter angered him.

Is this accurately reporting the news? Is this something that she is encouraged to do by her boss or does she think this is the proper way to handle certain stories? Where do you stop before you are introducing too much influence?

I don't really know, but she can take liberties that my editor and I can't afford to take. Sure it would make for good TV, but she works out of a big city and could really care less about what happens in our small town, she may never come back. My editor and I would see some serious backlash if we did something like that. Knowing nearly everyone in town keeps you honest.

Personally, I think that she should have at least treated the farmer with a little more respect. Regardless of whether or not the man lost his farm justly or unjustly, he still lost his farm and then he got to watch as other farmers picked it apart on the auction block. Chances are she was going to get some quality footage regardless of how she approached him.

One thing is for sure, she had better stop to think about who her friends will be if the situation goes bad because of her tactics.

Halloween in BD, 2005.

Halloween has come and gone and it seems as though I am becoming one of those who complain about the good old days. Bratch and I went to a cousin’s house to hang out and hand out candy. We set up shop outside. Our cousin had soft drinks and coffee. She had candy and candied apples. It was a really nice set up. We were camped outside listening to XM radio and making sure that people who drove by knew someone was open for business.

As we were waiting for trick or treaters, my cousin’s husband brought up the fact that he was so disappointed with the youth of today. He said he had driven through town and had not seen one busted pumpkin on the road. I can remember just a few years ago driving through town a few days before Halloween and pumpkins lined Main Street. He was so disgusted, he took his own pumpkin out into the road and smashed it just to get the old feeling of Halloween back.

We all began to reminisce about, “the good ol’ days.” You know the days I am speaking of, the Tales of Halloween Mischief days. My cousin and I found out we had both been checking out the same display sitting by the road away from the house. If we weren’t so much more mature now, yeah right, maybe we would have gone and done something about this lack of vandalism. Instead we stayed where we were and continued to lament.

As the kids started to arrive, we noticed what the kids were using to hold their candy. These were little plastic jack o lanterns. I’m sure you have seen these many times. Not very big, are they? Once again we started to think back on the good ol’ days and we remember having huge bags to transport our loot. I can remember plainly, trick or treating with Merlin and his mom and filling bags the size of paper grocery store bags up and in some cases starting a new bag. We had filled bags and broken the straps that you used to hold them. Those were the days. We would be in a sugar comatose for weeks.

We only had about six kids that arrived last night, including one that was so young they wouldn’t have any idea what was going on. Maybe the city folks get a lot of kids for Halloween, but I have spoken with quite a few this morning who said that besides family, they had not received very many trick or treaters. Are we all getting old and there aren’t as many kids now as there were back in my age group's heyday? Or is this just an isolated incident in the sticks? I am not sure, but it seems as though less kids are getting their fill of candy.

We lamented some more and then it was over. I went home and watched the Most Haunted Live show from Saturday night and then went to sleep. I woke up and besides it being a little darker than I remember, it was like any other ordinary day. I took my shower and gooped my hair and brushed my teeth. As I left my home, I saw a sight that restored my faith in the vandals of Halloween.

I drove past a friend’s house, JoJo, and it was covered in toilet paper. For those who know the place, their were 4 or 5 trees covered in tp. Power lines were covered. His porch looked as though it had been in a snow storm. There were messages painted on the door and windows of the house, it was beautiful. And for those of you who do not know, JoJo is engaged to be married. One of these messages said, “I bet you will be here next year. Ha Ha Ha.” So I am assuming this was an inside job. I am betting coworkers, but I wouldn’t put it past his family. I am sure he saw it, because I believe it was done before he came home from work at around 12:30 PM.

So, we know that at least someone is still into Halloween mischief. I even saw a couple of smashed pumpkins in town on the way to work. It kind of warmed my heart. Maybe next year will be the year to come out of retirement and show these young whippersnappers how to do it.

Bush's latest Supreme Court nominee

George Bush’s latest Supreme Court Justice nominee is a man I think we can all get behind. I don’t know his position on abortion. I don’t know his position on anything really. I just know that he loves to hit the home run.