Brady Baby

As a New Englander, the Patriots are a matter of significant interest to me, and when I read/see a sports report, I oddly expect the content to have something to do with sports. It was bad enough to have to endure the salacious reports of the quarterback's dating exploits et al., but now this baby thing is just too much. Beyond the utter irrelevancy of seeing this on ESPN, it is distressing to see this out-of-wedlock cross-country birth celebrated. If we must cater to the hero-worshipping desire of kids- of all ages- (and I have a problem with that), is this the lesson we are trying to teach? OK, so maybe this isn't as bad as Travis Henry's nine children with nine different women, and then failing to make his child support payments (further, it seems he first bought a $100,000 car and $146,000 worth of jewelry, supposedly, and then had to borrow some money from the Broncos to make a monthly payment), but it is certainly more high profile. Now if both parents are fine with all of this, great. I do not doubt that a single mother can be a good mother, and maybe a long-distance father may be a positive influence on his son, I guess. But do we really want to teach, and apparently celebrate, irresponsible sex and absentee fatherhood? The intrusion of pop culture onto the sports page is annoying; the celebration of what for many would be moral irresponsibility is disturbing.

Bumper Stickers

Getting tired of the supermarket thing, so I guess we'll skip the fascinating social commentary regarding those that block aisles and hold up the checkout line. Here's a few bumper stickers until I can think of something and have time to write it. Didn't find my favorite from way back when, though: "Jesus saves ... and Esposito scores on the rebound." I don't imagine that holds much meaning for those who think zamboni is a variety of pasta or who were born after the Pleistocene.