I think it's a commentary on how numb we've become to mass killings with guns when my newspaper plays the death of three police officers in Pittsburgh on Page 12 and The New York Times puts its report on Page 15.
If Michael Steele lasts out the year as Republican Party chairman, I'll buy him lunch on Jan. 2, 2010, at Tio Pepe's.
Now that the University of Maryland, Baltimore County chess team has won its fifth national championship in nine years, coach Alan Sherman should conduct seminars on his recruitment methods. And Gary Williams should sign up.
Nobody asked me, but ...
"Bat-killing fungus" sounds goofy, but it's not a source of amusement. A lot of people are horrified by bats and probably wish them good riddance. Not me. I once had 125 of them in my attic and, while they didn't become pets, I learned the benefits of bats while a pleasant bat guy from Fells Point plucked them off the chimney and released them outdoors. Bats are a benefit to anyone who detests mosquito bites. The average Eastern bat, such as those threatened in Maryland because of the spreading bat-killing fungus, can eat hundreds of mosquitoes on a summer night. Estimates I've seen - how would you like to have been the grad student who counted them? - range from 1,000 to 3,000 'skeeter-sized bugs. And they don't charge for the service.
Nobody asked me but ...
The best ticket to anything around here this week would take the holder to the NCAA Frozen Four at the Verizon Center in our nation's capital - the men's national collegiate ice hockey championship. People love the pro game, of course. But, for my money, give me the college game. And the story of the week: Bemidji State has made the semifinals for the first time, along with Miami of Ohio. (Both were the No. 4 seeds in their four-team regional playoffs. As Bill Murray put it in Caddyshack: "What an incredible Cinderella story.") The other two teams are from Boston University and the University of Vermont. But I'll be rooting for Bemidji and have been doing so ever since seeing them lose a hard-fought NCAA regional a couple of years ago. Go Beavers! Put Bemidji on the map. (I mean, outside of Minnesota.)
Nobody asked me but ...
Scrabble is not an easy game to pick up after being away from it for several years. I'm learning that this spring, as I play for the first time in a long time and the first time online. My opponent is an impressive, experienced and confident adversary named Sally Thorner. Losing badly the other day and concerned about the score, I asked my opponent, "When is this game over?" She replied, "Before it began?" Ouch.
