Forgotten panties were attention-getter

As watched the morning news on Monday while waiting for my youngest daughter to head to surgery to repair some damage to her shoulder, I also watched the people around me in the waiting room. They seemed disinterested in the happenings being discussed by the talking heads on television.That is, they were disinterested in most of the happenings being discussed.President Barack Obama gave a speech at Notre Dame University on Sunday at the school's graduation ceremony. That was a hot topic for the talking heads. I think they said 27 people were arrested for protesting the president's appearance at the Catholic university. The people arrested protested because his views on abortion were in direct conflict with the views of the Catholic church. Like I said, it was a hot topic. It took up nearly 15 minutes of the news program on Monday morning.I watched the program and listened to what the talking heads had to say. It appeared to me that those people around me were ignoring this major news story. Not one of those people looked up to see what was on the television in that waiting room.The next item being discussed on the television news program was concerning the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, saying in a recent news conference that the Central Intelligence Agency had lied to her about the torture methods being used to extract information from enemy combatants at the Guantanamo Bay prison. She did not exactly say the CIA lied, she just nodded when asked if the CIA had lied. The comment - rather the nod - starteda firestorm of controversy. Republicans, fellow Demorcats and CIA Director Leon Panetta. Panetta was extremely critical of Pelosi's comments - or nod - saying, "CIA officers briefed truthfully on the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, describing the enhanced techniques that had been employed." Panetta says CIA documents confirm the truth was told to Pelosi. He also sent a memo to CIA employees to encourage them saying, "Our task is to tell it like it is - even if that’s not what people always want to hear. Keep it up. Our national security depends on it." He further stated in the memo, "My advice - indeed, my direction - to you is straightforward: Ignore the noise and stay focused on your mission. We have too much work to do to be distracted from our job of protecting this country." His words apparently insinuated that Pelosi was not interested in the truth nor interested in protecting our country. Like I said, the news story was controversial and should have grabbed the attention of the viewing audiance.I looked around the room and not a head, other than mine, was watching the talking heads discuss the topic. I was wondering what was wrong with these people? Those were two news stories that should have been of great interest to people wishing to keep up with what was happening in our country on this day. But no, no one watched or seemed to care.Then a news story came on about a 16-year-old female student at Sickle High in Tampa, Fla., who was captured in a photograph in the school's yearbook sans panties. Every head in the room turned to focus on the story being told. One woman even got up from her seat to get a better view of the television. It seems the student decided not to wear underpants on the day the photograph was taken because she did not want her panty lines to show. Instead, according to the story, something else of her anatomy showed. The television blurred the specific area in question. The student's mother wants all the yearbooks recalled and reprinted without the photo that has caused her daughter to miss school for over a week due to embarrassment. to me, it was stupid story that should never have made the news at any level - locally, regionally or nationally. But, there it was and everyone was watching.The mother feels the photo will ruin her daughter's life. The photo will follow her throughout her life. Her daughter will never be able to face the other students in her school. The administration says it is a shadow that is seen in the photograph and nothing else. The administration says the student should return to school and laugh it off. The student's mother says the school and its officials are exploiting her daughter by distributing the yearbooks.I could not care less about the story, but it was the item that people were watching int he waiting room at Jack Hughston Memorial Hospital on Monday morning. Several made comments about how silly the story was. Others in the room said the yearbook should be reprinted. I guess they do not realize the cost involved. If anything, and I am not syaing anything should be done, the school officials could use a permanent marker to blackout the area of the photograph that is causing the stir. I do not know what can be done to remove the photos on the Internet that are being distributed by several sites that show the area of the photograph without a blur. Back in my high school days - before the dinosaurs left the earth - there was a photograph in my senior yearbook showing a portion of the anatomy of a basketball player hanging from his shorts. How the photograph got past the students and teachers who prepared the yearbook is beyond me. But, it was there and is still there today. That student's parents did not demand the school to recall and reprint the yearbook. Everyone just laughed it off - even the basketball player. However, that was then. Times have changed. Honest mistakes were forgiven. And the news media had better things to report.Yes, it is an embarrassment for the young girl, but maybe she will learn a lesson from this event and wear her underpants from now on. If her mother had taught her that to begin with, there would be no story. And, maybe, the people in the waiting room on Monday morning would have continued to ignore the morning news show all together.

I would choose fantasy over reality

If there is one thing on television I cannot stand, it is reality programs.
Why on earth would anyone want to watch reality television programs? I know about reality. I live reality every day of my life. And let me tell you, reality stinks about eight out of every 10 days.What I want is fantasy. Oh, to dream a dream, to live fantasy is much more appealing.
In reality, bad things happen. In fantasy, bad things happen, but they are not reality. Take for instance, the television program "24" is fantasy. Jack Bauer kills a lot of people and saves the world every season. Jack is a hero. You go out and kill a bunch of people, even enemies of the United States, and see what you get as a reward - prison time.
Now, prison time would not be so bad if it were like the time spent in prison on the television show "Prison Break." Michael and Lincoln have been on the run for three, or is it four, seasons now. They were in prison and then they were out and back in again. They are trying to destroy the "company" and get their normal lives back. That's real fantasy when you have to endure being in prison, escaping from prison and avoiding capture by the "company." The program ends this week forever and I am sure the world will be wonderful again for Michael and Lincoln. They will go on to live life to its fullest.
Speaking of "Life," that is another television program filled with fantasy that has apparently ended - cancelled just when Charlie was about to figure out why he had been set up and sent to prison. There's that prison theme once more. Why are television writers so emamoured about prison life? Anyway, Charlie was framed by fellow police officers for murder. He lost his family, but was awarded millions of dollars by the City of Los Angeles. Money can heal a lot of old wounds, but Charlie was still trying to solve the mystery of why he was set up. I guess we will never know the reason since the show has been cancelled.
We do know why Sam was such a nut case on "Life on Mars." That was another cop show that has now been cancelled. Sam was a police officer in New York City who was hit by a car, went into a coma and awakened in 1973. It was a very confusing program to say the least, but very interesting to watch. Sam knew things the other police officers did not know - things about technology that had not yet been invented. He had to watch himself to avoid being sent to the nut house. But the network that ran the program had the good sense to give it an ending instead of leaving us all hanging. Sam's nickname, the one he was given by the cops in 1973, was "Spaceman." That is what he was in the end. He was an astronaut who was placed in suspended animation while on a trip to Mars. When he awakened in the final episode, everything made sense. He was just dreaming.
It seems television is always repeating itself season after season. Remember "Dallas" and Bobby Ewing's death? The Bobby Ewing character died. A season later, he was back on the program. It was a dream. Everything we watched for a season was a dream - just fantasy. I cannot remember exactly how much of what we had seen for a season was part of the dream, but I guess we just wrote off the whole season, backed up a year and picked up from there. When Bobby's father Jock Ewing died, I expected that to be a dream too, but that actor died in reality. But, I think, they did try to change actors and continue the character, but later decided the new actor was trying to dupe the other characters into believing he was the real Jock Ewing - if you can fake being a fake that is.
This brings us back to my feelings about reality television programs. The only reality television programs I watch are news programs and about half of the news offered on those programs is fantasy. The recent controversy over the opinion of "marriage" by Miss California Carrie Prejean at the Miss USA Pageant has received way too much television coverage. Prejean said she believed marriage should be between a man and a woman. Some people found the opinion Prejean expressed to be offensive. Those people feel same-sex unions should be recognized as marriage and not refered to as "civil unions." Now, that, I find to be pure fantasy.
Most married people will agree with me. I've been married for over 25 years. There's no way you can convince me that whether it is marriage between a man and a woman or between two people of the same sex that it can ever be refered to as a "civil" union. That's just not reality and it is not fantasy. That is just pure fiction.

Weekend was a special time

Swine Flu, tornadoes, water balloons, bad barbecue and a busted water pump – that pretty much sums up my weekend. It was not one of the better weekends of my life. But, it was a lot of fun.
I was supposed to make a quick trip to Montgomery on Friday to watch Glenwood’s girls play in the opening round of the Alabama Independent School Association Class 3A playoffs and then return home to Phenix City to watch Central High’s girls play in the opening round of the area tournament. Half of that went well. I watched the Glenwood girls beat Prattville Christian 10-0 in that first game. As former President George Bush said, “Mission accomplished.”
The other half of my mission on Friday was a bust. I did not return home to watch Central’s girls. They did not play. The Alabama High School Athletic Association decided it was in the best interest of our state’s student-athletes not to play because of the fear of the spreading of Swine Flu. Several Huntsville area schools shut down last week because of a couple of suspected cases of the disease. The AHSAA decided to err on the side of caution and postpone all weekend events, including the state baseball playoffs and state track and field meet. It was a good decision though several media outlets have now stated that Swine Flu is not as deadly as the normal strain of flu we battle annually. Still, it was a good decision.
So instead of watching more softball on Friday, I attended the Relay for Life at Garrett-Harrison Stadium. As far as I could tell by the number of people on hand when I got there, it was by far the biggest Relay for Life in several years.On Saturday morning, I headed to Alabaster to watch my youngest daughter and her fellow Chattahoochee Valley Community College Lady Pirates at the Alabama Community College Conference state tournament. It was not the first round game I had hoped for. CVCC played by far its best defensive game of the season in a losing effort, 1-0 to Alabama Southern. The Lady Pirates played well on defense, but their offense was not what they wanted.
Because of the loss, the Lady Pirates did not play another game on Saturday. After a mid-afternoon meal at a local wings restaurant, the team returned to its hotel for the evening. It was spent at the hotel’s pool, which was indoors. The parents sat outside on the patio – me included among the group. That’s when we discovered what an evil bunch of children we had raised. It seems that sometime between the time we left the restaurant and returned to the hotel there was a stop at a store that sold water balloons. They purchased 400. The attacked the each other, the coaches and, of course, their parents – me included.
Before the night was over, I was soaked. The other parents were also soaked, but we all forgave the children and wrote it off to just plain old fashion fun.Game 2 of the tournament for was scheduled for Sunday afternoon. CVCC faced Central Alabama Community College in that one. CVCC led 1-0 through the first three innings and maybe should have had more runs. The bats were livelier than they were on Saturday. However, the weather did not cooperate.
The tournament officials ran all the teams off the fields and out of the park because severe weather was on the way. It was, but only for a short while and mostly to the north of the location of the fields. The games were rescheduled for Monday morning. Being good parents, and hoping to be in attendance for what might be the last softball game of our children’s’ lives, we stayed over another night.
Bad move. The girls bought 450 more water balloons and intended to use every one of them. Fortunately, most of the balloons wound up being used to attack a group of electrical contractors by the pool. The group, which works on power lines after being dropped on platforms to work on those lines from helicopters, seemed to enjoy the attention they received. They got soaked as well.
But, before we returned to the hotel from the softball fields and before the new balloons were purchased, we ate at a barbecue restaurant in Alabaster. Now when you refer to a barbecue joint as a restaurant, it is not a barbecue joint. We have joints in Phenix City that serve up the very best barbecue a human could consume. The place, the restaurant, we stopped at does not compare - unless you use it as a bad comparison for what barbecue should be. Heck, these folks served cheese muffins as an appetizer. What’s up with that? And the place did not have even a fingertip container of yellow sauce. It just wasn’t my kind of barbecue. But if you remember an earlier column I wrote about an experience at a barbecue place in Aiken, S.C., do not get the idea that this new place removes that one from the top, or bottom if you will, of my list of places to never, ever, ever eat barbecue. This place was not that bad. It was bad, but not that bad when you factor in the free cheese muffins.
We finished up the Sunday game on Monday and returned home. We got all the way to Opelika before the water pump on our vehicle decided to lock up. We had to be towed home.
It was a very bad, but memorable weekend. I had to deal with Swine Flu, tornadoes, water balloon attacks, bad barbecue and a busted water pump, but I will forget all that and remember the fun I had spending time with friends and our children. Years from now, I have been told, the girls will not remember the scores of the games they played, but they will remember the fun. I certainly hope they will. It was, whether they want to admit it or not, a special time - one to be cherished forever.