My age is showing & I'm not talking about wrinkles or Depends

I remember this happening on my birthday in 1984. I always thought that the Columbia was the coolest of the space shuttles since it was the first to fly, but the Challenger and the Discovery both launched on my birthday in back to back years (83-84). In 1984 I had just started 7th grade a week earlier at Vail Middle School (where are my other Bulldogs at?) and this particular year my birthday was right before the Labor Day weekend. Now if you'll excuse my Kevin Arnold moment (from the Wonder Years for those younger readers .. great show ... go watch it on tv.com), 7th grade was a really big transition for me. I left my neighborhood elementary, rode a bus to school for the first time, and for the first time ever my bestfriend wasn't in my class. I did however have a sweet pair of kicks - Ilie Nastase Adidas that you can check out below. Some girl tried to borrow them in gym .. I didn't let her!! Nobody .. and I mean nobody .. messes with my kicks!! I enjoy relapsing to my youth more often than Lindsey Lohan to alcohol, so the retirement of the space shuttles in 2011 hit me like a three day bender. It's just another reminder that I'm getting older and the tangible parts of my youth have gone the way of the passenger pigeon ... relegated from the general public to museums (btw .. Martha, the last passenger pigeon, is commemorated by a small statue at the Cincinnati Zoo). Yesterday was the final, pubic emasculation of the space shuttle .. strapped to the top of a 747 with its thrusters encased on an aerial parade route to the Smithsonian. Might as well have called it the "Space Shuttle's Final Flight starring the Eunuch Discovery!" At least now I understand how people older than myself remember the final days of Willie Mays or Johnny Unitas. When something so awe-inspiring is turned regular and is stripped naked of its majesty, there is no joy. There are places I remember ... all my life, though some have changed.

On to more pressing issues ... and by pressing I mean newsworthy. The parents of a six year girl in Georgia are upset the police handcuffed her daughter and transported her to the police station after a tantrum at school. Yeah .. tantrum .. and Katrina was a storm. I'm unclear about what started the 'tantrum', but I do know that during Salecia Johnson's monsoon of misbehavior she threw toys and books at students and at least one teacher, tore a frame from the wall, knocked a self over which struck the principal, and used a paper shredder like a backyard trampoline. She then refused to calm down once the police arrived and continue to struggle and argue with the responding officer. How would you, as a professional educator or police officer, handle this situation?  At what point does protecting the others around Salecia become more important than traumatizing Salecia with a handcuffed ride to the police station? To hear her mother and grandmother describe the scene, the Milledgeville police went all Abu Ghraib on this innocent kindergartener. The pictures of Salecia in the media look as dangerous as a mogwai. I would like to see what she looked like during her gremlin-like tantrum. Using the distorted image from pop media culture's funhouse mirror, some people are trying to compare what happened to Salecia to what happened to a hooded adolescent walking down a street while drinking an iced tea and munching on a bag of Skittles. Just like an aggressive paparazzi should expect a punch from Mike Tyson, people - regardless of age - who misbehave should expect consequences. When you endanger other people by physical actions, you should expect physical restraint to protect the surrounding people. This wasn't "Police Gone Wild!" This was a poorly parented six year old damaging items and people.

 The President yesterday announced new regulations aimed at oil speculators. Most of what he had to say was drowned out by the noise of a low flying 747 with the Eunuch Discovery strapped atop as it circled Washington, D.C. ... or was it the deafening roar of our hard working Congress that made what Obama said hard to hear? The only thing more popular than the President attacking the bifurcated Wall Street/Big Oil devil is Justin Bieber at a 7th grade dance. The only problem - along with the the legal issues of Bieber around girls under the age of 16 - is that we don't have a crude oil supply problem in this country! US oil production is the highest it's been in 8 years, and last year we were a net oil exporter for the first time since 1949!!! The problem is with the oil companies themselves shutting down refinery capacity in the United States due to several factors. US gasoline consumption has decreased every year since 2007 and will only continue as more fuel efficient vehicles continue to hit the road. The 'new' sources of oil in the US and Canada, shale or sand oil, are much heavier than West Texas Intermediate or Light Brent crude oil and require all new systems at the refineries to produce gasoline. Another key factor is the explosion of gasoline consumption in Brazil, India, China and Saudi Arabia. A refinery in one of those four countries provides a much higher profit margin than a refinery in the United States. As for the Keystone XL pipeline, it will bring in the oil from Canada but who will refine it into gasoline?? In the meantime I think it prudent to continue providing close to $4 billion in tax breaks to the big oil companies, like Exxon-Mobil, which made upward of $40 billion in 2011. Baby, baby, baby .. oooohhhh .. I thought oil'd always be cheap .. cheap.

Maj. Gen. Dusty Custer's troops were one short again last night. George Custer was killed on June 25th, and at the current pace Dusty will need more than cavalry to keep him posted till then. Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Louis Braille, and Helen Keller would pose a bigger threat to opposing pitchers than Rolen, Bruce, Stubbs, and Chryan Ludsey. Teflon Johnny Cueto danced out of more trouble last night than Slick Willy Clinton, but living Johnny Dangerously isn't going to keep him in many games going forward. It's hard to be angry with a bullpen that gives up one run in three innings, and Tony Randazzo's strike zone resembled the behavior of the J-Woww, Snooki, Pauley D, and Vinny. I know it's only 11 games into 162. Dusty Custer said the same thing last season. How'd that work out? I know I'm in the minority here, but I didn't have a problem with Dusty holding Marshall or Chapman out in the 10th inning. On the road you need to have someone close out the game, and the pitchers he sent out there are guys you DON'T want on the hill in the bottom of the winning inning. Mat Latos gets the ball tonight. The bats need Pedro Cerrano, a live chicken, and some incense ... or just say FU Jobu and do it for themselves. Come on Red Legs!!

Open gym had 17 players yesterday. Great turnout, and our younger kids are getting better each time I see them. As Dean Smith once said, "the best thing about Freshman is that they become Sophomores. Except Michael Jordan, he is already good enough." Or something like that.

As promised earlier, here is my 7th grade shoe swag!! Ilie Nastase baby!! Hasta manana!!