The P.A.

Apparently, Joe Stieven has gotten caught up in the “nastiness” of the political season that has taken the airwaves hostage. He is in full-swing this election year by slinging his own bucket full of mud. His target is credit unions. As is usually the case with those who choose to toss mud balls, Joe is misinformed and, as a result, he has missed his target.

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A new guy started on Monday. We’re all pretty excited. He’s a talented leader, but what we’re really hoping for is his help to our trivia team. The company trivia team is not near as good as our bowling team. Our trivia expertise in bowling vernacular would be the equivalent of ten frames of gutter balls.

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Super Bowl XLVI is behind us.  Dieting lies ahead.  Consumption on football’s national holiday is somewhere between gluttonous and excessive.  The exaggerated picture of the crazed fan with food all over his face holding a roasted turkey leg in one hand and a stein full of grog in the other is really not as exaggerated as you may think.  Boy, do Americans love their Super Bowl Sunday.

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Every once in awhile, the Good Lord provides us with contrasting moments within a relatively short window of time. So close together, in fact, that we are able to quickly discern the antithetical extremes and make a decision as to which one fits and which one is something distant and unproductive.

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Pages 35 and 36 of this past week’s St. Louis Business Journal caught my eye.  Page 35 dealt with the pressing question of “What’s your favorite beer?”  And page 36 was the continuation of an article dealing, in part, with the rising cost of college tuition.  “Hmmm,” I thought…“Beer and school – the two greatest costs to young people.”

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I find myself in airports waiting to jet my way to another exotic destination (like Oklahoma City) often enough that, every once in awhile, I end up in a conversation with a pilot.  On one particular occasion, I remarked that there must be a lot going on in the cockpit given all the gadgets, dials, screens, levers, etc., etc.  Given my unsophisticated and rather juvenile description of the tools of his trade, he was able to discern that I was just being friendly as opposed to being interested in what truly happens in his office at 30,000 ft.

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Compassion is something we could all practice with a little more vigor.  I was thinking…Jesus was really, really, really good at compassion and, after that, we all sort of fall in line.  Some of us are compassionate at a really high level – grandmas and Mother Teresa come to mind, but what about the rest of us?

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Nielsen is the company that measures lots of stuff.  They are probably best known for figuring out what TV shows we watch the most.  If you made it on the Nielsen’s Top Ten list, TV executives could charge astronomical advertising rates to companies to sell their wares on your show.  Let me go all old-school on you for a second: imagine the rate for a commercial on the Ed Sullivan Show the week the Beatles debuted!

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Ho, Ho, Holy Cow!  What in the wide, wide world of sports is going on out there?  Has shopping become some sort of extreme sport?  Folks running over one another for a pair of retro Nike Jordans is crazy.  The madness must stop!

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My kids are grown.  During their teen years, they started getting cash for Christmas because for years Santa would bring them the wrong color sweater or the wrong Nike shoe.  They would show something less than gratitude over Santa’s mishap(s) and, as a result, Santa would grin and bear it and call us later that night to discuss his frustration.  I bet other parents have experienced this phenomenon associated with the teenage years.

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