The SoapBoxers

Throwing a bunch of unrelated threads into this article.  Consider it an article casserole.

I’m in Iowa, so I’m hearing a lot of political ads these days. One of the most frequent seems to be a Rick Perry spot in which Perry says that if congress doesn’t pass a balanced budget “I say we cut their pay in half.”

This ad seems to underscore the God complex that seems to be prevalent with many (all?) presidential candidates. They don’t seem to realize that there is a separation of powers, and they can’t simply step in day one and impose their will upon congress (or the nation).

However, all presidential candidates have a big ego, almost by definition. If you think you’re qualified to lead the country, you likely have a pretty healthy ego.

Joran Vander Sloot, a suspect in the killings of Natalee Holloway and Stephany Flores, is suing Chile for $13 million, claiming that his human rights were violated when he was extradited to Peru. He goes on trial for the killing of Flores in January. If he’s found guilty, he might not have much need for $13 million. His lawyers, on the other hand, can probably find a way to spend their share.

Syracuse assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine has been fired amid allegations of sexual abuse. I doubt that this will be the last case we hear about. With tens of thousands of head coaches and assistant coaches at the college level, it’s almost certain that there are at least a handful more predators lurking.

The Rockies traded catcher Chris Iannetta to the Angels on Wednesday. As a fan of Iannetta, I was a bit disappointed. Although Chris never posted a very strong batting average, his on base percentage and power numbers were very good for a catcher. If he can ever find a way to hit .260 on a regular basis, he’ll be an offensive force.

My advice to Denver Bronco fans – enjoy it while you can. At some point, Tim Tebow’s penchant for winning ugly is going to turn into losing ugly. it’s been a nice run, but it’s still a pretty small sample size – be wary of extrapolating.

I’m going to be a huge fan of Georgia football this weekend. I’m hoping the Bulldogs can hang half a hundred on LSU, to knock the Tigers out of the top two in the BCS. If LSU does win, and proceeds to lose a close game to Alabama in the BCS title game, expect LSU fans to gripe when Alabama is crowned the national champion. They’ll likely ponder this question: “Isn’t an LSU win at Alabama more impressive than an Alabama win on a neutral field.” That’s an interesting point.

Can Barnes & Noble’s new $250 Nook tablet win a head to head battle with the Kindle Fire?  Probably not.  However, the Nook does provide support for ePub files (the Kindle does not) and also has a microSD expansion slot.  Personally, I’d still lean toward the Kindle, but I think the Nook tablet is a solid option as well.  Barnes & Noble also offers free in-store tech support (although I haven’t tested the quality of the support), something that Amazon obviously can’t do.

A couple of bowl-eligible teams are attempting to set records.  UCLA will face Oregon in the Pac 12 title game – only because USC is banned from participating.  The NCAA has granted a waiver that would allow UCLA to play in a bowl game even if they lose to Oregon and finish with a losing record of 6-7.  If they’d lose a bowl game, they’d finish with 8 losses … as a bowl team.

And in Champaign, Illinois, the Fighting Illini are also bowl eligible at 6-6.  That doesn’t sound terrible … but once upon a time, the Illini were 6-0.  If they were to ride their six game losing streak into a bowl game and then proceeed to lose, I think they would be the first bowl team to ever finish the season on a seven game losing streak.

Of course, I can’t find definitive proof of this (they aren’t the sort of records people keep track of), but surely I’m right …

Christmas is around the corner, and people are turning to the internet more than ever before.  I’m a big fan of Amazon … are here are some gift ideas from the big A.

OK, that’s my motley selection of Christmas ideas from Amazon.  Are there any cool items you would recommend?

[Editor’s note: this story originally ran in 2009 as a two part story.  This year, it’s a rerun, but I’m giving it to you all at once.  A few very minor changes were made.  This story is part of a trio of holiday stories  – you may also like What’s In The Chili (Halloween) and Mrs. Claus and the Christmas Mistress.]

“Oh, Kate, you didn’t have to bring anything,” said Erin, as she gave her friend a kiss on the cheek.

“Oh, it’s just a pumpkin pie. You and Kevin prepared the rest of the food – this is just a token of our appreciation.”

“Well, we definitely appreciate it,” chimed in Kevin. “Pumpkin pie is my favorite. Let me grab your coats. Dinner is ready to be served.”

Kevin hung up the coats while Kate and Tom followed Erin to the kitchen. The smell of turkey, stuffing, corn, and potatoes wafted through the air.

“Everything smells so good. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year. What’s not to like about a national eating holiday?” laughed Tom.

Their hostess grabbed the carving knife. “What part of the turkey do you like, Tom?” she asked.

“I’m a leg man.” Tom held his plate out, and Erin slid a juicy drumstick onto it.

The four friends took their places around the table and began passing around bowls of food. Kevin took a large portion of mashed potatoes, topped the mound with stuffing and corn, and poured a river of gravy over the top. Tom grabbed two slices of Erin’s famous corn bread, and Kate served herself an extra large portion of the delicious cranberries. Erin herself appeared to play no favorite – she took equal portions of each dish.

The foursome began their feast, and a pleasant silence enveloped the room, punctuated only by the sounds of chewing and an occasional burp. During the second helping, the eating began to slow a bit, and conversation resumed.

“Stetson’s going to light up the Sharks,” proclaimed Tom, in between bites of turkey.

Kevin smiled politely. This was not the time to stoke an argument about the relative strengths of the Sharks and Cougars. Tom was a complete moron for believing that the Cougars were on the same level with the Sharks. In the grand scheme of things, it really didn’t matter very much, though.

“He definitely had a good week against Cleveland. We’ll see if he can maintain that sort of momentum. Rookie quarterbacks can hit some bumps in the road.”

“This isn’t just any rookie,” exclaimed his friend. “This is Frankie effing Stetson, number one draft pick in the whole world.”

Erin interrupted Tom’s idol worship. “Does anyone have room for a slice of Kate’s pie?”

In spite of the large meal, everyone seemed to have just enough room for one slice of pumpkin pie. Tom loosened his belt a notch while Erin popped up from her chair. She returned to the table with the pumpkin pie, as well as a container of Cool Whip.

“Awesome,” said Tom. “There’s nothing better than pumpkin pie with Cool Whip.”

After everyone had finished their pie, Erin began to collect the dishes. Kate stood up the help her while the guys headed to the living room to watch football.

“It’s under control, Kate. I’ll handle the dishes. You can go watch the game.”

Kate put up a feeble protest before joined the men in front of the big screen TV. By the time that Kate had finished the dishes, all three were sound asleep, thanks to the turkey and wine.

Erin gently shook Kevin to wake him.

“Kevin! It’s time to get started.”

Kevin hopped up from his easy chair and walked to the closet. He returned with ropes. He bound Tom’s hands and feet together while Erin secured Kate in a similar fashion.

Erin returned to the kitchen and pushed aside a fake wall, exposing two large hidden compartments. She pushed open the two large doors before joining Kevin back in the living room. Kevin had sliced off Tom’s clothing, leaving the man as naked as when he entered the world. As Kevin hefted Tom’s body and took the first few halting steps toward the kitchen, Erin grabbed the knife and cut Kate’s clothing so that it could also be easily removed. A minute later, Kevin returned, grabbed Kate’s still-slumbering form, and made another trip to the kitchen.

Kevin slid Kate onto the grate and closed the door, locking it into place. He hit the button to activate the wash cycle. Tom and Kate were bathed with pulses of water, cleansing their skin perfectly. Kevin hit the button to activate the next cycle.

Tom began to regain his consciousness a bit. He was certain that he was smelling a very strong scent of butter. Butter? Where was that smell coming from? Three seconds later, Tom felt his body be assaulted with streams of hot, liquid butter. What the hell? The wine was having a very strong effect on Tom, but he was slowly coming to the realization that something was very wrong. He realized that he was flat on his back, with his hands and feet tied together. He was trussed up like a pig! There was something in his mouth. He couldn’t place the flavor at first, but soon realized that it was an apple. He felt the room slowly start to heat up and came to the realization that he was being cooked alive!

Tom tried to scream, but was unable to dislodge the apple. He struggled against his bonds, but could make no progress. He was wedged tightly into the oven and had limited mobility. Before long, Tom had been overcome by the heat.

“Go watch the game,” said Erin, giving Kevin a kiss. “Things are under control in here. It will be several hours before supper is ready.”

Kevin plopped down in front of the TV just as the second half was beginning. The Sharks had fallen behind 21-0 in the first half, but this was not to be a good day for Tom’s golden boy, Frank Stetson. Stetson threw four interceptions in the second half, lost a fumble, and was sacked four times. Kevin laughed at the meltdown of the rookie quarterback. Tom really didn’t know shit about football.

After the Sharks had won the first game of the day and the Miners had steamrolled to a win in the second game of the day, it was time for supper.

When Kevin got to the kitchen, Erin had his plate ready for him. A big helping of potatoes, corn, stuffing, and gravy, along with a big chunk of drumstick a la Tom. On her own plate, Erin had a smaller bit of Tom’s leg, as well as a bit of white meat from Kate.

“I always did think turkey was a bit overrated.”

The baseball owners and players have reached a collective bargaining agreement, meaning that there will labor peace for a span of at least 21 years.  As a fan who still has nightmares of the 1994 season, I’m ecstatic that there is a deal in place.  I’m anxiously awaiting for the CBA to be publicly available, so that I can print out a copy to read at my leisure.  (No, I’m not kidding).  Maybe MLB can throw baseball junkies a bone and put out a Kindle version …

The new CBA will result in some changes to the game I love.  Some of the changes are great; some aren’t.  Here are my thoughts.

Blood testing for HGH (human growth hormone) – I’m in favor of any rule that makes it more difficult to cheat.  I’d have even gone a step further and allow this to be expanded to include any drugs which are banned by MLB, including ones that are not currently banned.  Banning a substance without testing for it is pointless.

Revamping of free agent compensation – I have railed against the existing system for many years, and I’m glad that people finally listened to me.  Instead of the old Elias statistical rating system – which used seemingly arbitrary stats – teams will be forced to make a qualifying offer to pending free agents in order to be compensated if the player is signed by another team.  The qualifying offer must be the average of the top 125 salaries – currently, this would be about $12 million.  This makes sense to me – if you’re willing to sign a guy to a $12 million deal, he clearly has value to you.  In the past, there have been some odd situations where the Elias system put unreasonable values on players.  This ended up hurting the players – including my friend’s brother one year – because no team was willing to pay the compensation, which in turn limited the number of bidders for their talents.

Penalties for exceeding recommended bonuses for draft picks – Team can now lose future draft picks if they exceed MLB’s recommended bonus for that spot in the draft.  Every year, some guys fall down in the draft because of signability concerns.  Teams high in the draft don’t want to pay big bucks, so they drop down to a team willing to pony up the cash.  Penalizing these teams is a Rube Goldberg solution to the problem.  The most logical thing to do is simply allow teams to trade draft picks.  Currently, baseball teams can’t trade picks, nor can they trade draftees until one year after they signed a contract.  I guess this is to protect GMs from making dumb trades … but if you need that sort of protection, perhaps you shouldn’t be a GM.

Houston moves to the American League – Houston will move to the AL to create six divisions of five teams each.  This really sucks for Astros fans, who get stuck in the bad league.  Why not send the Brewers back to the AL?  Oh, right.  Because Bud Selig acts in the best interests of the Brewers, the team he formerly owned.

Expanded playoffs – One thing I love about baseball is the fact that it’s hard to get into the playoffs.  Only eight of the thirty teams make it.  In the future, this will get expanded to ten teams.  The two wild card teams will face off in a one game playoff – already being called the “coin flip round” in some circles because of the silliness of a one game playoff series.  This could create a situation where a weaker team is at a significant advantage in the one game playoff.  Imagine that the Red Sox nip the Yankees for the AL East title – 105 wins for Boston and 104 for the Yankees.  Both teams used their best pitchers in the final days of the season, due to a strong desire to stay out of the coin flip round.  The second wild cards goes to Tampa, which wins 91 games, 4 more than the next closest team.  Tampa spends the last week of the season getting its rotation in order for the playoffs.  The result?  The 91 win Tampa team sends its ace to the mound against the #4 starter for the Yankees.

By claiming a trophy on Monday, Detroit’s Justin Verlander threw another can of gasoline into the age-old debate: should pitchers be eligible for the MVP award?

Detractors who say pitchers – in particular, starting pitchers – should not be eligible generally give the same reason.  A starting pitcher plays in only one in every five games.  In 80% of games, he has absolutely no impact on the game. 

I’m firmly in the camp that believes that pitchers should be included in the MVP voting.  I think that some people overestimate the involvement of the other position players.

Within a typical game, there are around somewhere around 250-300 plays.  In general, the critical piece of the play is a pitch (125 – 150 per team per game).  Sometimes the pitch is hit for a homer, sometimes the pitch is a 99 mph heater for strike 3, sometimes the pitch is high and outside for ball 2.  Regardless of the result, the play involves the pitcher putting forth effort.

Let’s use the low estimates of 125 pitches per team per game, or 250 total pitches.  If the pitcher goes 7 innings, he’ll participate in roughy 7/9 of those 125 pitcher, or 97 pitches.  That’s 38.8% of the plays.  Of course, the pitcher only plays in 20% of those games, so we divide that number by 5.  Thus a starting pitching should be actively involved in 7.76% of plays over the course of a season.

That sounds pretty low, huh?

Designated hitters are eligible for MVP consideration.  I’ll pick on the DH because I hate it and wish for it to be abolished.  The DH will typically account for about 11% (1/9) of his team’s at bats.  However, he plays 0% of the time on defense, so he’s involved in 5.5% of plays.  Should we remove DHs from MVP consideration.  (Better yet, abolish it altogether?)

The DH isn’t the best example, of course.  Let’s look at a shortstop.  In the course of the game, the shortstop might be record a “chance” (baseball term for a putout, assist, or errror) on six plays and glove the ball twice more on plays that go for hits.  That’s active involvement in 8 of 125 defensive plays, or 6.4%.  Average that with the 11% (1/9) of offensive plays, and the shortstop’s involvement is 8.7%.  More than the pitcher, but not appreciably so.

True fans might be jumping ahead of me here.  The catcher, of course, is involved in probably 75% of defensive plays (exceptions being balls hits into play and foul balls) as well as 11% of offensive plays – a staggering 43% of all plays!  While that’s true, in the vast majority of those case, the catcher is the tertiary actor.  I’d argue that it’s harder for the pitcher to throw a pinpoint strike, and harder for the hitter to hit the ball, than it is for the catcher to catch the ball and throw in back to the catcher.

What’s my point?

My point is that a starting pitcher might only play in 20% of a team’s game, he has huge influence in those games.  Verlander giving up no runs and two hits over eight innings has more impact than Albert Pujols going 1-4 with a single.  Look through the game log of any hitter – there are tons of games where a good hitter does very little to help him team.  Perhaps as high as 80% 🙂

I’m pretty sure I just heard Evan‘s head explode with surprise.

I’ve long been a proponent of dumb phones, putting battery life above features.  If they made a rotary dial cell phone that would last for a month on a battery charge, I’d probably own one.

This has been a year of change, though.  A year ago, I firmly resisted eBooks.  Now, I’ve completely gone over to the dark side.  Not only do I own a Kindle (a gently used third-hand model), but even reviewed the Kindle Fire and other new models.

Have I done a complete 180, ditching my dumb phone for an iPhone 4?

Nah.

While most people use both aspects of a smart phone – the “smart” part and the “phone” part.  In my dual traditions of frugality and non-conformity, I am not.  What I purchased, in reality, it a portable WiFi device.

What did I get?

I got a used Palm Pre.  Lazy Man thinks they are the bee‘s knees, the banana’s pyjamas, and the best thing since sliced bread.  Aside from irresponsible behavior when it comes to baseball – following a team in the inferior American League – we actually see eye to eye on quite a few things.

Earlier, Lazy Man had me convinced to jump on the Touchpad clearance sales, but I was late to the frenzy and came up short.  The Pre is much smaller (cell sized), but also runs the WebOS.  Since I’m a tech guy, I enjoy learning new OSes.

But why?

I’ll be able to check sports scores anywhere I can get a WiFi connection.  Yes, that’s the main reason.  Should come in handy when doing yard work – or even sitting on the couch – or at a location where WiFi is available.

In addition to being a net device, I can also use the Pre as a reader.  I haven’t found a way to load actual Kindle books on it yet, but I can load ePub books.  Not surprisingly, the first book I loaded was Jules Verne’s classic Journey to the Center of the Earth.  Perhaps a bit surprisingly, this was also the second book I loaded.  When I noticed that the first version was the Hardwigg version, I immediately sought out a Lidenbrock version.  This is one of my very favorite books, and I find it very jarring to not have the Lidenbrocks in the book.

The next time I’m stuck in a long line at the grocery story, I’ll just pull out the Pre and read.

I’l searching for a decent Blackjack game I can load via PreWare.  The one I currently have has pretty weak graphics and treats the Ace as always being worth 11 (instead of 11 or 1).  That’s a pretty big flaw in a blackjack game.

Early thoughts

It was more difficult to get past the activation screen than it should have been.  It would have been nice to see something like “activate later”, but I had to flash the rom, run some Java tools, and reboot into developer mode just to get the Pre to a state where I could actually get to the main screen and load software.  Luckily, the Pre community has a lot of helpful documentation, but it was still a pain in the rear.

I also haven’t yet found a way to deactivate the “phone” portion of the Pre, since I will never need to use it.  For the moment, I have at least taken the phone app off the dock and have the Pre set to be on Airplane Mode.

It would also be nice if there was a decent way to get access to the App Catalog without activating the phone.  It seems that there’s a way to do this by jumping through some additional hoops, but I just wanted to get online fast, so I took the route with fewer hoops.

Other than using my wife’s iPhone on occasion, this is my first experience with a touchscreen phone.  The LCD seems to pick up finger prints really easily.

Grade

I’d give it a B- so far.  The grade would probably be an A- if not for the extra steps to get the Pre working.  I know very little about WebOS, but seem to be figuring out things are I go.  I keep having to remind myself of the gesture area at the bottom of the screen (touching in this area triggers a variety of actions).

The hotel’s restaurant was nearly deserted on a Tuesday night – just a handful of loners stuck in this God-forsaken place on business trips.  Ah, the places people go for money, thought Charlie, as he pulled open the door and entered the establishment.

He loosened his tie and took a seat.  A few seconds later, the sole waitress came over and handed him a menu.  As she leaned over to fill his water glass, her low-cut blouse afforded Charlie a pleasant view.  After a moment, he re-directed his eyes to the menu.

“What’s good here?” he asked.

You are, he thought to himself.  He noticed the name on her name tag.  Cheri.  Perhaps you could be mon chéri, oui?  Charlie absent-mindedly fingered the gold band on his finger as he entertained fantasies of the lovely waitress.

” – and the ribeye is very popular, of course.”

Charlie realized this his daydreams has distracted him from Cheri’s description of the specials.  He pulled himself back to reality and enjoyed the real-world vision of his dream girl.

“Yes, I’ll go with the ribeye,” he said, recovering his composure.  His eyes followed her across the room as she gave his order to the chef.  When she glanced back toward him, he turned his eyes to the television, appearing to be engrossed in the news.

Did she just give him a wink – or was it just his imagination?

The ribeye wasn’t bad, considering the locale.  As Charlie finished the last of his bourbon, the waitress brought out his check.  He gave her a generous 30% tip, and charged the bill to his room.  He hated to part company, but perhaps he would bump into Cheri again.

At first glance, it appeared to be a credit card – but Cheri noticed that it was a room card.  It would be easy to just take the card out to the front desk … but Cheri could also provide some personal service and return the card personally.  The gentleman had charged the meal to his room – room 319.

She had caught him giving her long glances – or had she?  Had fifteen years of marriage given her an active imagination for such things?  Cheri tossed the card into her apron – she could make a decision at the end of her shift.

Cheri spent more time than usual counting her tips.  She held the stranger’s card in her hand.  Should she go up to the room?  Her husband wouldn’t be home tonight.

The elevator chimed as the doors opened.  Cheri turned left and walked a few steps.  She stood nervously in front of room 319.  Then she made her decision.  The card slid into the door and the small light flashed green.  Cheri quietly opened the door and entered the dark room. 

The room’s occupant was asleep in the bed.  He hadn’t waited up for her.  Was this all a misunderstanding?

In for a penny, in for a pound, Cheri thought.  She kicked off her shoes and began to unbutton her blouse.

A moment later, Cheri slid her nude body into bed next to the stranger.  She reached down to awaken him.

Charlie awoke with a start.  When a momentary fog cleared, he was looking into the eyes of the beautiful waitress.  Sometimes dreams do come true, he thought, and moved to embrace her.

Cheri left the room as the sun was beginning to peek above the horizon.  If she hurried, she would still be home before her husband.

Charlie checked out of the hotel around nine.

“Hey Charlie,” said the woman behind the counter.  “Did you and your wife enjoy your date night?”

About a month ago, I had the idea to develop a line of apparel for the electoral college – celebrating the (non-existent) academic and extra-curricular departments within the college.

I ran the idea past a bunch of people.  Nearly everyone liked the idea.  I’m always juggling a lot of ideas at the same time, but I had enough positive feedback to greenlight this idea.

Since my art schools are best described as “pre-kindergarten”, the first step was to work with a graphic designer.  I chose Peter of LogosForWebsites.com.  Not surprisingly, Peter’s specialty is designing logos for websites.  I made initial contact with him to verify that his graphics would work for apparel (the biggest issue being the physical size of the image).  He assured me that this was not a problem and told me that he’d be able to get started on a certain date.

I spent a few more days fleshing out the design elements.  Then I went back to LogosForWebsites, paid for the logo, and handed off the specs to Peter.  Peter quickly responded, letting me know that a few people had skipped ahead of me in line by paying for their logo after I had made my initial contact with him.  That’s perfectly fair.  The other people paid, so they deserved to jump ahead of me.

Peter was able to quickly develop the logo, with minimal revisions.  I was quite happy with the logo. Peter is very easy to work with and has very good turnaround times.

I slapped the logo onto a shirt and developed about 15 different designs – Electoral College Intramural Luge, Athletic Department, Cheerleading, Glee Club, etc.

I chose Zazzle over its competitors mostly because it’s very easy to create similar designs by simply changing the text.  This was a big requirement – I can spin up a new design in about a minute.

Within the first week, we had sold five shirts.  In the interest of full disclosure, I’ll point out that I bought two shirts, Lazy Man bought two, and Martin Kelly bought one.  Still, there was good buzz building, and I was confident of some future sales, especially as the election drew near. I thought the shirts turned out well, and the quality (Hanes) of the actual shirts was good.

About a week later, it came crashing down.  Zazzle yanked my designs after a complaint from a trademark holder.  Did my logo too closely resemble another logo?  No – it was removed because it contained the text “Electoral College”. 

Yes, someone has a trademark on the use of the term “Electoral College” on t-shirts and other apparel (here’s the info on the patent and trademark web site.)

I  was stunned.  Electoral colleges date back to the first millennium A.D.  How could someone trademark a common, everyday term and exclude anyone else from using it on a t-shirt?  I wasn’t the only one to have designs pulled from Zazzle.  Some of the other designs merely mention the term on the text of the shirt.

I was greatly  annoyed at what I considered to be an abuse of the system, but I went back to the drawing board.  I asked Peter if he could tweak the logo to remove the text Electoral College from it and create a few versions of the new designs. Within an hour (I said he was fast), I was ready to go again.

I put up new designs on the site.  This time, the college in question was Electoral State.

Then I did something to test Zazzle.  Within the item descriptions, I referred to the school as Electoral State College and within the “tags” (search criteria), I use Electoral College.  You’ll note that the trademark is quite limited in scope, and I’d argue that neither of these uses violates the trademark.

Within days, the design had been yanked again.  When I made my case to Zazzle, the response was that I was not allowed to use the term “electoral college” in the image, text, description, or tags.  They seem to be granting the complaining party far more rights than the trademark itself conveys.  This seems strange, since I’m a customer and the complaining party is not.

I’ve put up a new set of designs, without using the offending text in the descriptions or tags.  Perhaps the third time’s the charm, but the dream has lost much of its shine at this point.  One thing is for certain – if Zazzle yanks these designs, I’m closing down the shop and going elsewhere. It’s even possible that they’ll throw me out because of my contentious responses. I stay professional in the responses, but take a very adversarial tone.

Where can you find my designs?  Go to ElectoralCollegeGear.com.  Wherever I end up (Zazzle or somewhere else), this URL will redirect to the current store.  Want a shirt for the underwater basket weaving team instead of the cheerleading squad?  Click the customize button to easily change the text.

This is our third article on the topic of Jerry Sandusky’s arrest and the subsequent impact on Penn State.  That’s a lot of virtual ink for our little publication to give to one story.  However, nearly every writer on the staff is a pretty big sports fan, and this is one of the biggest sports-related stories in recent years – it warrants considerable coverage.  You might even see 1-2 more stories today, as I sent a couple of emails late last night soliciting articles responding to the breaking events.

Last night, heads began to roll, as Joe Paterno was fired after 46 years as head coach at Penn State and university president Graham Spanier was also fired.  I doubt these will be the only people fired. 

Here are some questions about the scandal.  These are presented as they pop into my head, and are not intended to be in order of importance.

What are the rioters thinking?

I understand the mindset of sports fans.  I’m a huge sports fan myself.  I spend much more time thinking about how to abolish the designated hitter than I do comparing the tax plans of Ron Paul and Herman Cain.

However, when the same news story involves kids getting raped and a coach getting fired, the coach is not the victim.  Focus on the kids.

What did Graham Spanier know?

Spanier insists that he knows nothing.  But if he really knew nothing, would he have been fired?  If he was fired without just cause, he’d have a great case for a wrongful termination lawsuit.  I can’t imaging that the trustees would be dumb enough to walk into a lawsuit.  (However, I’ve been wrong about that sort of thing before – sometimes state officials really ARE that dumb).

Interestingly, Spanier is president of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS).  If he is removed from this role, will this cause any changes to the BCS?

What did McQueary Tell Paterno?

There’s a discrepancy here.  McQueary says that he told Paterno the details of the shower encounter between Jerry Sandusky and the young boy.  When Paterno spoke with Athletic Director Tim Curley, he says that McQueary told him that Sandusky was fondling the boy or doing something of a sexual nature.

Was Paterno downplaying Sandusky’s activities?  Is McQueary lying?  Is Paterno lying?  Was there a misunderstanding?

However, the point becomes a bit moot when you consider that McQueary then met with Curley and VP Schultz (in charge of the campus police).  Regardless of what Paterno told Curley, McQueary had the opportunity to give his full story to Curley during that meeting.

Why didn’t McQueary stop the assault?

That’s a great question.  The only thing I can say in his defense is that perhaps he was in shock and temporarily lost the ability to make good decisions.

Why didn’t anyone go to the cops?

Another great question.  I heard Mike and Mike on ESPN raise a good point on this issue.  VP Schultz was in charge of the campus police.  Perhaps McQueary and Paterno saw his involvement as police involvement.

It would have been better, of course, to go to the police.

Why did Sandusky have access to university facilities?

Finally, an easy question.  He negotiated a status of coach emeritus, which gave him access to the facilities.

Why did Sandusky retire?

Sandusky stepped down in 1999 shortly after Paterno told him he would not become head coach at Penn State.  The official reason for Paterno’s proclamation was that Sandusky was spending too much time with his charity, and would thus would not be able to devote sufficient time to a head coaching role.

Is is possible that Paterno’s real reason was that he knew what Sandusky was doing and didn’t want to put a pedophile in the head coaching role.  (Isn’t it also interesting that the sitting head coach is making decisions on the future coach instead of the Athletic Director?)

Is it possible that Sandusky’s frustration at losing his shot at the head coaching job served as a trigger to his criminal activities?

Did Sandusky create The Second Mile charity just to troll for victims?

That’s a scary thought, isn’t it?

Where’s the grand jury report?

http://www.attorneygeneral.gov/uploadedFiles/Press/Sandusky-Grand-Jury-Presentment.pdf

It’s raining and snowing today in Iowa – with a nasty windy making the weather even less pleasant.  Winter is right around the corner.  Winter is my least favorite time of the year, but there are some creature comforts that can help get you through the winters.  Here’s a list of items you might consider giving to loved ones as a winterizing gift.

(Disclosure: we earn a commission on the sale of any of these items).

	A Kindle.  Whether it’s the $79 model (at left) or the high end $199 Kindle Fire, spending long hours curled up on the couch reading on a Kindle is great way to pass time when there’s a blizzard howling outside.  If you’re not sure which model to buy, I gave my thoughts in a previous article. If you’re the frugal sort, you can justify the cost by looking at the vast amount of public domain works you can download for free. While you’ll pay more for a Kindle version of a book than used paperback, you can also tote around hundreds of books on a Kindle – much lighter than a backpack filled with the paper version.  Also easier on the environment. If you’re looking for a good book to get you started, I’d suggest Lawrence Block’s short story collection, Enough Rope.  This is a massive tome with lots of great stories.  I already own hardcover and paperback versions, and am tempted to buy the Kindle version.
	An electric blanket.  Blanket + Heat = Good.
	Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns.  Nothing screams “warm weather’ like baseball.  Watching this 20+ hour miniseries might make you forget that it’s cold outside.
	Portable DVD player.  Want to watch movies without disturbing everyone else?  Nab a battery-powered DVD player.
	Or, if you have money burning a hole in your pocket, you can drop $2500+ on a 65 inch 3D TV.  Hey, it’s currently $400 off, so you’re basically making money when you buy it.
	I stubbornly cling to the belief that I should be able to remove the season’s snowfall with nothing more than a shovel.  If you’re not bound by such convictions, a snow thrower makes life much easier.  You can spend a little money ($99 for the Toro snow shovel) or a lot ($2000 for a Husqvarna 27 inch two stage model with power steering).
	Always have a set of jumper cables in the trunk of every car you own.  They should last for many years, so resist the temptation to buy the cheapest set.  Buy a good, heavy gauge set (lower number is better).
	Unfortunately, the best jumper cables in the world are useless unless you can get a jump start from another car.  A portable jump-starter doesn’t have that limitation.  It’s a portable, rechargeable device that charges your battery from its own battery.  One caveat – make sure to keep it charged. If you’re constantly having to get a jump start, verify that the problem is the battery (rather than some part of the charging system, such as the alternator) and get the battery replaced.  Most people can replace a battery themselves.  While a battery isn’t exactly cheap, trying to stretch the battery’s life to save a few dollars is a bad idea – as you’ll find out if you get stranded.  Over its life, a battery will likely cost you less than $20 per year.  If you have any concerns that the battery is dying, replace the sucker.
	If you must be outside in the cold, some hand warmers might help you avoid freezing to death.  Buy the 40 pack and have enough to get you through the winter.  Well, through December, maybe.
Electoral College Campus Security by ElectoralCollegeGear See more Electoral college T-Shirts	Picked up a hoodie to stay warm.  With the race for the White House heating up after Christmas, a nice Electoral College themed hoodie might be appropriate.