So, who's next?

The FW ... of emails never ceases to amaze me. It seems that everything goes around and around and back again. This one, however, was new and amusing. It comes from that vast netherland of whobeyons. The topic was that the people you always need to call when your techno-problems are out of hand are usually in that faraway land of India, where the high-technos are waiting. This particular photo (one of three but representative) is allegedly from India. And we wonder, the story continues, why we bother. Perhaps it's better in the suburbs.

I confess to having almost no fan loyalty to the National Football League. I guess the closest I ever got was in the 1950s when the old Cleveland Browns were on TV every Sunday. Black and white and not much fanfare. Jim Brown was a bulldozer. Other teams, other cities. We got the Browns, or else. Now, I have no idea which team would qualify as my favorite. I know one that won't and another that gets my support, just because of the former. I'm rooting for the Jets this year. The Colts gave up and tanked their game and gave NYJ a chance to make the playoffs. What justice might occur this year if the Jets survive this absurdity and go on to win the Super Bowl? If you can't root for the underdog, why bother? The Colts are an embarrassment.

This is one of those made-for-CNN stories that just always seems to happen someplace in Nebraska or Kansas. It hasn't fully played out and I'll keep an eye on it. Kansas girl says Superman lifted vehicle off her OTTAWA, Kan. (AP) A Kansas mother is praising a neighbor as a "Superman" after her 6-year-old daughter told her he somehow found the strength to lift a car off her. The alleged "Superman," Nick Harris, 32, insists he doesn't know how he conjured up the strength to save the girl, who didn't require much medical treatment. It's usually called adrenaline. The car somehow backed over the girl in the driveway and pinned her. Other details were not so clear, as to who was driving and how Harris happened to be nearby. In any case, the cops think the story is legit and believe the girl, whose parents would naturally be inclined to smell a national TV camera crew heading their way. Or the National Enquirer. Little Ashlyn Hough becomes America&

I generally pay attention to baseball, generally because the game is slow enough and patient enough to let somebody like me catch up to it. Baseball is not unlike a soap opera. What happened 30 years ago still is being considered as a part of the plot. There is a blogger who goes by the handle of riverfront76 who has somehow crunched the numbers (either he did it or he used somebody else's methodology) to construct a list of the top 100 Cincinnati Reds players of all time. I have no idea how this was done but it includes some guys named Hippo and Doc, Huey, Dewey and Luis ... people who played before I was born. Others, guys you probably heard of. The No. 1 player in Reds history is predictably Pete Rose, ahead of Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, Barry Larkin and Frank Robinson, in that order. I doubt we needed the list as compiled by a saber-metrics operation to come up with this group of names, though Edd Roush and Heinie Groh are also in the top 10. Huh? You need to know your Reds hist

There's a battle going on again between some parents who are standing up for the fragile underdog (their own kid) against the evil Nazi regime (the school) and ... by GOD! ... they don't think they need to yield on principle. It's about little Tater Tot, (Taylor) whose long flowing hair violates school policy. Ma and Pa say the dress code violates the kid's freedom of choice and he agrees, despite being 4 years old and not quite ready for kindergarten politics. BALCH SPRINGS, Texas (AP) The parents ... are battling a suburban Dallas school's decision to segregate their son because his long locks violate the district dress code. Taylor Pugh again found himself facing in-school suspension. The Mesquite school district is keeping Taylor in the library apart from his classmates because his floppy hair falls in his eyes and extends below his earlobes and shirt collar. There are significantly fewer episodes of victim abuse than we really believe, but there are as many

A few years back, I endeavored to create an original Christmas story every season. Along the way, I gave up on that and the reasons escape me. But this is one that I saved. THE GREAT CHRISTMAS BIRD/2006 Long, long ago, perhaps you have heard The story they tell of the great Christmas bird. His feathers were white, his beak it was full In truth, he was simply a lonely sea gull. Each winter, they say, more often than not He’d fly over rooftops to see what was what. He ranged up and down and from far and from near Just checking to see if we had Christmas cheer. He swooped down this chimney and sooty and black, Crashed in like a dummy, fell flat on his back. He sat there in darkness, a pitiful sight Couldn’t tell him from the dark of the night. No tree in the foyer, no lights in the hall No holiday spirit, no … none at all He brushed himself off, aimed for the sky He’d be out in a minute, at least by and by. He flapped his great wings, set his com

This just in from New Bedford, Mass. It seems that witnesses were abundant and video cameras trained to catch the horrible, despicable crime just as it occurred. Nope, Joshua Linhares couldn't avoid his fate. And well he should not. After all, he was accused, convicted and condemned for ... running over and killing a mother duck walking her 12 ducklings across a Massachusetts mall parking lot. Somebody actually counted the little ones. Josh gets a year probation and the life-ending scar of having been ridiculed as perhaps one of the most evil people since the Salem witch hunts of 1988. Witnesses say Linhares deliberately drove at the ducks, turning sharply and speeding up. Surveillance video from nearby stores supported their account. Mr. Stalin ... er, Linhares said he didn't see the ducks because he was distracted by a woman waving her arms at him. He says he left the scene because he panicked. I know I would if I'd just run down a mother duck in a parking lot. What exact

Consumer group Good Guide contends that Zhu Zhu Pets hamsters are unsafe. They could be killers. Apparently the consumer group says the toys have too much antimony in them even though the manufacturer Cepia LLC of St. Louis, says that's a crock. Of course, the toy (aimed at 3 to 10-year-old kids) would be the most popular on the must-have list this winter. Good Guide says it's flat-out dangerous because of the antimony, one of those chemicals that hangs around wherever consumer groups exist. Careful, some of it could be on your shoes. Or your cat's fur. Or in the paint that's on the toy that your kid shouldn't be eating. GoodGuide CEO Dara O'Rourke said his group bought three of each of the year¹s 30 hottest toys and tested them multiple times. Antimony was measured at 93 parts per million in the hamster's fur and at 106 parts per million in its nose. Both readings exceed the allowable level of 60 parts per million. O'Rourke also suggested the Zhu Zhu

The annual holiday season comes complete with a long list of "we wish you a happy ... (then they fill in) whatever, depending on your religion." Say, just because your religion decides to celebrate the holiday season during the holidays, doesn't mean you have to pretend you give a damn about Kwanzaa, Hannukah, Hoopteedoo, or the more fashionable Interstellar Let's Be Ethnically Equal Promotion of Warmth and Joy. Better known as "the intrinsic period just after Black Friday." It is about the money, isn't it? Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. Refinance now while our low rates apply.

Verizon sends out an amended terms of agreement article for all of us. We are more than just a little happy they made this decision, and I wonder how many witches gathered around the cauldron to construct this major policy edict. 1. If you are on a term plan and Verizon ceases offering service to your location prior to the end of your term commitment, you will not have to pay an Early Termination Fee. Darned nice of them, I say.