Saw this book in the checkout lane today:
Living Longer for Dummies
I’m not sure what to make of this.
First, I don’t think it’s a known issue for the dummy community.
Moreover, I can’t say that extending the lifespan of a known dummy is a good idea in any case.
I did note, however, that the book was quite short.
I next wondered if anyone had thought to write “Ventriloquism for Dummies”.
Sadly, someone had.
Days after Steve Spurrier was reprimanded by the SEC for complaining about football officiating, Tennessee’s Phil Fulmer has been added to the pillory for daring to speak out.
Laughably, he was cited under a “Code of Ethics” that prohibits public criticism of league officials. One has to wonder how long *that* concept would stand up under First Amendment scrutiny.
Fulmer apologized, of course, saying, “I should have worked through the SEC office channels to express my frustrations.”
Now *there’s* a winning strategy. Just ask Steve Spurrier how well that’s worked for him over the years. Ask LSU how much the apology they got for the blown call at Florida earlier this year has helped their ranking in the polls. Ron Zook might have a comment or two as well.
Rivalries aside, the SEC is comprised of some of the best educational institutions in the nation, schools that spend real resources striving to portray themselves in a positive light to enable them to fulfill their academic missions.
What the SEC *can’t* afford is prime-time reinforcement of the Mayberry, RFD stereotype already attached to schools in the South. Yet when a coach dares to complain, the league’s imperious, smack-down response invariably gives just that.
The problem with “working the system” is that the core issue never gets addressed: Officials are demonstratably making mistakes, big ones, that are affecting the outcome of league games. Surprisingly, some of the coaches are a bit miffed about that.
A better path for the league might be to pay more attention to what is *causing* the coaches to speak out in the first place. I think I can speak for every team out there when I say that they want to win, or lose, honestly and fairly.
The Ol’ Ball Coach embraces the best idea yet for dealing with the issue: Do away with the concept of ‘league officials’. Let the NCAA establish the metrics for officiating competency and provide the personnel to call the games.
Sounds like a plan.
I cling to intellectual honesty,
the way a drowning sailor
in tempest-tos’t seas
clings to a double suite
on the QEII.
Shots from one of Florida’s longest-running shows, the 27th annual Gainesville competition, are up on the site; and with that the season is over. whew!
I was in a blur for most of the show from pain and medication (inner ear), but managed to get a couple of decent shots. Enjoy.
I updated the Perl and PHP engines for the site, and that broke practically everything.
At this point I’ve got a lot of it back up, including all the 2006 show shots, most of the individual shots, the Perl-based site search and several ancillary functions.
I still have the modeling shots, mini-shoots, and stock photos to do, and I haven’t been able to figure out the problem in the contest schedule yet. So I’ll be looking for hidden problems for a while.
Thanks for being patient.
Got most of the public site fixed, including the Atlantis memorial site and the contest search page— the global variables I had been using had been disabled for security by the update. Still have work to do on some of the maintenance pages, but I think we’re back in business.
Just noticed that the mail page function hasn’t been working for some time. Seems to be up again. Sorry about that.
Shots from the 2006 All South competition are up on the site. Even managed to fit in a mini-shoot with Tammy Jones after prejudging; she was planning to compete but couldn’t because she’d won the show last year. I’ll get those up as soon as I can but they’re at the end of the long long list of Things I Still Need To Do Right Away.
And what a day for a motorcycle ride!
Anyway, enjoy.
Now Donald Trump is in trouble for flying an American flag.
Palm Beach officials, proving they’ve learned little since the 2000 election travesty, said the 15-by-25-foot flag makes the town look like “we have an Okeechobee car dealer”.
The reality is, it makes the town look like they have a patriot.
If the officials want to harass someone, maybe it should be the car dealers that are leveraging patriotism for cash.