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Showing posts from March, 2012

Quick, move to Denver

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Back in the day (last century) when it became fashionable to promote some form of agenda in Washington, a group of experts would trot out some data and present it at a congressional hearing. The thrust was ... "by the year 2000 ...." The thinking was, in the 1980s, that "the year 2000" was far enough in the future that speculation on life would be connected to "an estimated 5 million Americans will suffer from ...." Once a week, "by the year 2000, we'll have (a.) no trees (b.) no fresh water or (c.) lots more people with an illness, poverty or too many kids." Sadly for these experts, they all died without having to prove anything and, worse, 2000 came and went. Now what's the "landmark" date for "by the year .... 2010?" Been there, done that. Usually these milestone dates that Congress gets to ponder are in mathematical integers or 10, 15 or 25. Now, we just skip over it and go straight to 2100. Wow, really

Old Mo ... fire away!

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Back in my days as a sportswriter, I heard it all, ranging from the "we overcame a lot of adversity" to all the other inclusive aspects of team play, hard work and selfless dedication. Not much has changed since the 1960s and with the addition of the know-it-alls in the ESPN studio, it's actually gotten worse. Pulling up to hoist a J or raking the glass or deviating in the paint ... all new ways of saying the same old thing. It just sounds "street smart" to have a little hip-hop in your tone. I will watch another NCAA tournament this year with the standard references to dancing, mismatched seedings and overplaying the perimeter. The usual film clip will show 3-point shot after 3-point shot, followed by the coast-to-coast slam dunk, where the guy hangs on the rim. Then we will cut away to the painted faces of the Duke cheerleaders, who will squeal and wave ... and the band will play the old "dun dun dun dun da da, doot doot doot -- go Big Blue!"

Phamlie Photos

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I was going through a box of old pictures not long ago -- we are talking VERY old pictures (like the one on my profile) -- and one of the astonishing aspects of it was clear. I don't know for sure who took the pictures. There are lots of them of my brother and me from back when life was in black and white. There are few photos in the mix of my father or my mother or any of the people who were important to us when we were toddlers. I mean ... almost NONE ... I recall a recent event when somebody tried to take a picture of some children and their mother. "No," she said flat-out. "I don't want to be in the picture." Ya know, I bet my mother said the same thing. And guess what? After all this time, she got her wish. I wish I had a photo of my mother and father from that time. So, let this be the lesson, Mom and Dad. Sometimes the picture isn't about YOU. It's about somebody ELSE who might care about you. Let them take the picture. It does