LCborn

Well, maybe...but in baseball, over the last 5 (10?) years there's been Farragut and then everybody else...and D-B is in that "everybody else" group.

Ty and Tony, I couldn't be more pleased! I am very happy for the Ads!

That would insure that baby's got back.

Well, 'round here it's "fixin to go to the Wal-Mart" Not all festivals are named "after a fruit, vegetable, grain, insect or animal." There's a ramp festival. Ramps ain't really any of those things. Ramps are a completely different life-form. And if any o'them thangs seems unusual to ye, I gotta ask: where'in is it you'uns is from? Ya'll sound Yankee.

ROFLMAO! I'm hoping it is West Tenn.

Oh, LOL, no! I mentioned that while I was reading it, my first thought was that Mr. Brown must have been beaten by nuns. My second thought, while reading all that stuff about how women are excluded from the Catholic church, was, "What part of the Catholic church is it that doesn't venerate Mary?" And of course, Leonardo stuck Mary Magdelene into the Last Supper--now which disciple was it that he excluded? LOL. It's not really good research, it's just good conspiracy theory. And fun fiction.

I'm with ya on Ma Walton (cute) and Morticia Addams (weird cute). Hop Sing, though, is just too freaky for me. That's kind of Brokeback Bonanza.

Yeah, I hear ya. My Pappy was at Normandy and my kids are 18 and 21. It's a scary time.

Well, yeah. Same applies to the police--most people are arrested for dollars. To which criminals, or to which foreign governments, are you willing to give your dollars without resistance?

Europe was completely changed by the crusades in part--perhaps most profoundly--because the crusades pre-empted moslem aggression. (Note that Magna Carta was not important for Europe but only for England and her later colonies.) I recognize that the moslems believe that the crusades were aggressive wars against which they defended their territory. Thing is, it was only their territory because of their prior aggressive wars. The Pentagon Papers were overtaken by events. After the Tet offensive, the Viet Cong were largely eliminated as an effective force. The NVA was decimated during the Tet offensive. We won on the field but gave up politically. Saigon fell in 1975. That was seven years after the Tet offensive and two years after we withdrew. Saigon fell not to regional insurgents but to tanks driving down from the North. Viet Nam was a mistake, yes. Not because we entered the conflict; but because we fought with the wrong tactics and because we cut and ran on an ally. Millions of people--millions--died in Viet Nam and Cambodia because we lacked the cojones to live up to our commitment. I hope that we do not do the same thing in the Middle East.

Good points, ERA. I sometimes wonder if we aren't misguided in worrying about Iran's nuclear capability. It might be more fruitful to worry about how we're going to respond to Israel's response to Iran's nuclear capability. After all, our worry is about the mullahs lobbing a nuke into a carrier battle group; the Israelis have to worry about that nuke getting lobbed into Tel Aviv. I wonder, who's going to be more aggressive? Will we bomb Iran? LOL--if it comes to that, you think our F-18's will arrive ahead of or behind those F-16's with the Star of David on their wings?

Ummm...one thing...teachers aren't federal employees. A state could decide to pay them differently without affecting, say, the congressional, military, CIA, or FBI pay scales. Of course, I get part of what you are saying. I hear you! I mean, we've done things the same way for many years, so it is imperative that we continue to do things that way no matter what the current situation. It would be ridiculously liberal of us to modify the law to meet contemporary needs. The logistics would be crazy, too. The pay scale is part of a constitutional amendment, so we'd need that whole 2/3ds approval by the states to change teacher salaries, right?

That's a dodge, not an aswer. "We can't pay teachers in critical fields more than we pay teachers in non-critical fields because the Garfield Administration said it wouldn't be fair!" Who knew the Garfield administration was so prescient. "It is against the law"...well, God forbid that a law could be changed to make things better in education. OK, let's got with a hypothetical...I know this is from way out in left field...but, supposing the law could be changed...I know, it's a crazy scenario, but humor me...given the shortage of teachers in math and science...what's wrong with a math/science teacher getting paid more than other teachers? If it means schools will be better in math/science?

Well...uh...where did I say that? By your logic, is it fair to say that you are against spending any money at all on defense? So, you want to entirely eliminate our military. Don't you know how disastrous that would be for the world?

I had an outstanding coach--John McKamey of Sullivan East--and I had good parents. In particular, I'm grateful that my folks let me succeed or fail on my own. I feel blessed, too. I hope that in 20 years my kids will feel good about their Pappy.

What a great job by Coach Pharr. What a great job by the Farragut kids to hang in there and get better through the course of the season. What did the Admirals finish, third or fourth in the district in the regular season? And they were second in the district tournament? And second in the region? Wow. The Admirals' ship is leaving some pretty good teams in its tournament wake.

Reading that made me cross my legs. I can't see June Cleaver doing that (just to relate it to another topic). "Oh, Beaver, would you please take your father's privates out to the trash?" Nope, can't see it. Roseanne, maybe. Peg Bundy, yeah. But not June or Samantha or Mrs. C. Then again, Samantha could just make them disappear or fall to the floor with a thud. (Or maybe a boink; Darren wasn't really macho enough for "thud.")

Sure, for you it's like cannibalism.

Exactly right. Some people don't seem to get the idea that as long as you are blaming somebody else for your failures, you can't fix whats making you fail.

Yeah, well, but after 16 years of following baseball teams around it's been sort of a strange spring, for me. My ex has separation anxiety for the kids and I have separation anxiety for dirty uniforms. Go figure. Give it 6 months and I bet you forget the fundraisers and just remember the games. Give it 5-10 years and your memory--and mine, too--will be so bad that you--and I--will be ready to start all over for the grandkids.

Don't underestimate the sacrifice. Men love ribs.

That has to be evaluated case-by-case.

Oh, please! No camera could ever be that fast.

Simmer down, simmer down. I haven't seen the movie, but from what I've read they were sheep-boys, not cowboys. Puts me in mind of the joke about why Scotsmen wear kilts.