The Pope Speaks

Thomas County Central High School's sports teams have long been known as the Yellow Jackets or for women's sports the Lady Jackets. I found out first hand on Sunday just how fierce this very tiny insect can be. We have been out of town on the weekends for much of the summer traveling, ironically, to watch my daughter play Lady Jacket softball, so I haven't had much time to work in my yard. This past weekend we had some time off before the school ball season started so I took the opportunity to complete some long planned tasks in the yard. We have woods that run along our property line at the back and side, so I decided to clear out some of the overgrown brush along the side wood line.  I was using electric clippers with a long extension cord that I had tied around my waist leaving enough slack to maneuver the clippers through the brush.  This is a trick I learned long ago after cutting through too many extension cords. Even though it was extremely hot I was making ...

Today many parents are discouraging their children from entering a Fraternity when they get to college.  I would say that most of these parents were either not in a Fraternity or had a bad experience with a Fraternity while in college.  There have been many negative things written about Fraternities, but I would like to share a personal experience that I had with the brothers of Eta Theta Chapter of Sigma Chi at Georgia Southwestern College and advocate for the positive influence that a Fraternity can have on a young man. My Dad was one of those parents that did not believe that Fraternity life was a good part of the college experience.  I say that, but looking back on the situation he never once discussed it with me and later I found out that he to was part of a Fraternity while in school.  I guess I just believed, for whatever reason, that I had to lobby my father and sell him on the idea that joining a Fraternity could be a positive experience, so before I ever a...

This is my happy family. The occasion is my brother's graduation from flight school circa 1984. The family traveled to Ft. Rucker, Alabama to a military ball to celebrate my brother's achievement. This is the story of how I ended up in this photo when I  was not supposed to be within a country mile of the celebration. My brother Clay, that's him on the far left, was supposed to line up a babysitter for me, that's me, shortstuff in the middle.  The baby sitter fell through and so my parents had to resort to plan B.  I am thinking that this military ball was a must attend event because none of my sisters were willing to sacrifice a night of revelry to stay with me at the motel.  So the decision was made, I am sure against my mother's will, that I would be trusted to stay at the motel room by myself while the rest of the family went to the ball.  Looking at this through the eyes of parents of today, this seems like a really bad idea, but it was a di...

If you have been watching the lead up to the NFL playoffs this weekend you might have noticed that the Jets and Patriots and Ravens and Steelers have been passing barbs back and forth all week.  The Ravens' Terrell Suggs had a T-shirt made up that basically gives the Steelers the finger.  The Steelers' Hines Ward (former Bulldog) says the Ravens have a bounty on his head.  The Jets' Antonio Cromartie says that Tom Brady is an #$$ #Ol$ and Patriots receiver Wes Welker uses the term "feet" or "toes" seven or eight times in a three minute interview in a brilliantly understated jab at Rex Ryan's wife who allegedly made a foot fetish video. All of this nastiness got me to thinking, where did trash talk begin and what is its' purpose. I don't know how far back trash talking goes.  Babe Ruth's famous "called shot" where he points to the stands where he is about to hit a home run, could be considered trash talk.  I am sure that the pi...

This is my first blog entry and I thought that it would be appropriate to talk about the Auburn Tiger's National Championship run this year. I am often asked why I am an Auburn fan when I didn't go to Auburn as a student.  I grew up as an Auburn fan because my Dad was an Auburn fan.  He attended Auburn in the 1950's when it was still called API (Alabama Polytechnical Institute) and just missed Auburn's last National Championship in 1957.  I am thinking that the 1957 National Championship didn't mean as much in those days.  They didn't have ESPN non-stop coverage of every nuance of the game and it was much more regional.  In 1957, Auburn was on probation (a running theme with the program) and could not play in a bowl game but the voters in the AP voted before the bowl games anyway and Auburn was awarded the Championship.  Auburn had some other great teams before 1957 also, but many of those teams were before the really voted a champion.  My fascinatio...