Ric Flair Makes Congress!!! WHOO!

Thank you Representative Sue Myrick of the 9th District of North Carolina, for her speech of earlier today! WHOO!!!!!!!!!!

Can you help this congregation??

This church is part of the denomination of the church I pastored for nine years. They have made a great decision in the face of this battle to keep the historical building, but need to finish the inside work in order to finish the project.

They are doing lots of fundraisers and more (read article), but they can still use our help.

Click HERE to go to the website of New Ipswich Congregational Church, in New Ipswich, New Hampshire to read the stories and learn how you can help!

Thanks!

Apparently Ben Bernanke Couldn't Sleep This Night....

Economic 3rd-shifters rejoice! Hillary's on the case!

At least he's smart enough to try to blow up privately.....

....Bill Clinton, that is.

Big Brother 9's Big Baby!!!!

Good Lord. I thought my kids could throw a fit.

James, before winning POV AGAIN, throws the biggest hissy fit in the world, after catching Sheila in a fib. Now, it's fine for James to come out from his room (where he overheard Sheila) and call her on it in front of the other guys.

To then come back with two MORE fits, including an explosion directly at Sheila (heard by everyone west of Denver) was hissy city. He cries and complains no one is with him, no one wants him to stay.

It's a GAME, here to beat the REST of them. You're supposed to be an island, ultimately. DUH!

Sorry. Can't handle six year-olds in the house.

March's Winning Numbers.....

.....9, 10, and 20.

Not a stellar first quarter. But it's not a recession!

I hope!

BREAKING: Keith Olbermann has never listened to Rush Limbaugh!

My comedic evening fodder, Keith Olbermann (you know, the guy who has the same five people on as "guests" every night), thought he was REALLY funny and witty tonight!

He couldn't believe that Rush Limbaugh had, during his "Operation Chaos" on his radio program, possibly caused a "Democrat" to win a future Congressional election!

Here's the deal: Rush tells Mississippi listeners, hey, go vote for Hillary in the Democratic Primary. Keith thinks that Rush didn't know that, in Mississippi's 1st Congressional District, if you crossover, you then couldn't vote in the Republican Primary two weeks later.

This, he says, means up to 3,000 voters who may have voted for the more "conservative" Republican won't (how does he know a number??), thus the more "moderate" Republican would get the victory.

THEN, he adds, what's more, the Democratic Congressional nominee is actually "more conservative" than 85 percent of the Republicans in the District. (Based on what? The Huffington Post Index?)

Therefore, Keith's conclusion, to his glee, is that Rush may actually help vote a DEMOCRAT into the House!!! Watch Keith's eyes gleam! See him foam in victory! Too bad it's not in HD!!

NOTE TO OLBERMANN: If you ever listened to Rush, you would know that Rush doesn't push for getting "Republicans" into Congress. He's all about "CONSERVATISM".

If the Democrat is conservative, all the better!!

I am not so juvenile as to call Keith a "worst person" like he does.

I'm just calling him out on some facts.

BB9: The Goodbye Girl.......

.....will be Chelsia or Sharon.

Let's see, Chelsia got so "ga-ga" over being with James, and now she's realizing that it was a mistake to let him back in.

A little late to figure that out, I'm afraid.

Sharon, on the other hand, is nothing more than a puppet. Tonight she said, "There is no "I" in team."

WHAT?!? Memo to Sharon: They broke up the couples weeks ago and NO ONE wants to help you get to the $$$!!! Joshuah has her drinking serious Kool-Aid.

But I think she will get the reprieve. Chelsia goes, because:

1) James is actually easier to deal with than Joshuah
2) James can't win everything

P.S. to CBS: If you're going to bring anyone else from Big Brother history back, PLEASE make it Erika!! :) :) :)

25 Years Ago: March 26, 1983 was a GREAT day!!

It was a Saturday. A beautiful Saturday. My Dad took me up to Charlottesville so I could participate in the Virginia High School League's Annual Forensic Competition.

Two weeks previously, just before NC State's miracle run to win the ACC Tournament, I finished a surprising second in the regional competition, qualifying me to go to the state tourney. I was pleasantly stunned!

So, I worked and worked and poured over my 3 X 5 cards containing what few notes you get, and it was best to do it from memory, so that you tell a compelling story and make a compelling argument as to whatever your speech's premise may be.

Mine was an expose on the trials faced by college sports regarding graduation rates, drugs, and the "failure" of the student-athlete due to outside forces (and sometimes inside).

The event was held at the University of Virginia.

NC State beat Virginia 81-78 two weeks earlier to win the ACC Tournament and get the automatic bid into the NCAA Basketball Tournament.

So I, a HUGE Wolfpack fan, give this speech, on the UVA campus, on THE DAY NC State and UVA face each other for the 4th time that season; this time in the West Regional Final with a trip to the Final Four at stake.

After the speech I remember listening to some of another game (Louisville/Kentucky)on the radio. Then Dad and I went to the award ceremony, and I was STUNNED to hear my name called as winning 3rd place in the Original Oratory category. I got up, went down the aisle and picked up my medallion (which I definitely still have!!!), then went back, sat down, and looked at Dad. He looked at me. It was a "proud" moment and neither one of us had to say a word. :)

Then, headed home, I'm trying to decipher Dick Stockton's call of the frantic final seconds of the game on CBS......then I hear the best sentence of the day:

"NC STATE WINS!"

I went nuts! We're going to the Final Four!!!!! AND BETTER YET, WE ENDED UVA'S SEASON AND THE CAREER OF OUR FOUR-YEAR NEMESIS, RALPH SAMPSON!!!!

To this day I've never taken credit for my presence at UVA that day having anything to do with that 63-62 final score. Don't plan to. I went to UVA and did my job, then THE CARDIAC PACK went on the same floor as UVA and did theirs, too.

What a great day. :)

I'm a sub! Quicker than I thought!!!

....I "officially" became a substitute teacher in my home county's school system yesterday, after completing their orientation.

A long-time friend is in administration at one school and told me with Spring Break next week, most teachers will be around afterwards, not having vacations or doc appointments scheduled, etc....except for the sicknesses, you know.

The phone rang at 7:52 this morning. It was my friend.

"Can you be here at 11:30?"

"When does the day end?" (I had a 3:15 doctors appt. across town)

"2:30."

"I'll be there."

...and I proceeded to nervously attempt to nap for a couple of hours, even dreaming of being at a school which was connected to a local record store (as in next door to each other, and when I picked up some checks from an employee thinking they were the school's, come to find out after walking out the door, they were for the record store, and that's when I woke up....)

Go figure!

Three hours with 20, 21 fourth-graders. I got everything from:

"You sweat alot!"
"You sound like you worked in the circus!"
"You sound like a voice that should be on a computer!"

to.......

1) the usual one kid attempting to "fall ill" around test time (who magically felt great 45 minutes later upon time for recess to commence). :)

2) the several who attempt to tell you in their spin how their teacher would handle everything (politicians start young!)

....and overall it went fine!

Though, after only three hours with them, I WAS BEAT!!

NOTE TO SELF: Wait until you spend ALL day with a group of them!!! Hee hee......

New adventure! We're off and running! Now, I wonder if the phone will ring tomorrow.......

Matt leaves the Big Brother house before climbing the "roof of victory"....

Matt...roofer from around Bah-ston (I can do that because my father's side of the family is from Maine, and they talk like that.).....

....controller of Natalie's emotion on Big Brother since moment one......

....who, honestly, put up a good last defense to his housemates showing that Ryan shouldn't be getting "free passes" for what he's done to them during the game....

....still was voted out last night when the six remaining houseguests split 3-3 (deft move by Sheila, not wanting to be the "decider", thus having Natalie go off on her).

James? Your move? Precious moment of revenge! And it was done.

Matt was genuinely disappointed he didn't win, which was interesting to see, as was his comments on Natalie (she needs to realize he ain't the one).

I immediately told wifey that Matt leaving will empower Natalie, because she'll take all her energy of sadness and channel it into getting James or one of his cronies out of the house ASAP.

Sure as I said it, I turn on the late night feed overnight, and Natalie is on, roughly, a 45 minute diatribe to Adam, the new HOH, about who to evict. It got to the point where it wouldn't have surprised me to hear Adam simply yell, "SHUT UP!"

Anyway, Adam was packing for his new digs and decided to already speak to the others and get the "pulse" of the house.

Adam winning HOH is the best thing that could happen in this game right now, as he has been, to me, the strongest player. Don't play your cards until you're forced to. Now we will begin to understand what makes Adam tick.

Who are you ready to toss out?

James or Joshuah are on my clock.

P.S.----Julie Chen.....were they a wild pair of boots or what? I honestly wondered how much her feet sweat during an hour wearing those things under the lights....

Thank you Final Four and ESPN!!!

WOW!

"Kinda live" blogging ESPN's tourney special Sunday night and posting the Final Four choices of their experts has EXPLODED the number of visits to ATW!

Thanks to all of you who have come by, and I hope you found the information accurate and helpful.

Come back often! You never know what goodies are in store!

P.S.----Dang! Kent State? 10 points in one half?!? That's got to be so disappointing.....

Obama, his pastor, his race, and Ashley.....

Senator Barack Obama made what some pundits thought had to be "the speech", to try to put the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, his pastor, and his extremely controversial pulpit rants found all over the media, "behind him", as behind him as possible, of course.

The entire transcript can be found here, so you can decide for yourself. I do urge you to read it, then make your own decisions. And the questions brought up by Obama's speech are deeper, more profound than, "will you disown Rev. Wright?"

I'll make one observation:

Ted Kennedy had Chappaquiddick.
Bill Clinton had Monica Lewinsky.

When history writes its chapter on today's Obama speech, I believe the following will be said

When history is written, Senator Obama won't be looking "vis-a-vis" at the two previous sentence.

Barack Obama will NOT have Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Today Obama's superior oratory skill contained much, much more. Whether you agree with him or not, today, he brought substance. Period.

---------------------------------

P.S.---I am a pastor. Do you honestly think every member, every parishoner in the church I pastored agreed with everything I said or preached??? Heck, no!!! No, I cannot compare my actions to Rev. Wright's (thank goodness!), but I can say that I understand it's perfectly plausible....expected honestly....for people to disagree with their minister!

Now, the REAL question: who gets the million dollar interview with Rev. Wright???

Got fingerprinted lately?

I haven't. Until tomorrow. :)

It's part of the process of becoming a substitute teacher! Hope to be helping the kids of our world very soon.

Stop laughing. I can help them. Really. Honest!

I said stop laughing!!!

Thank you.

Fed cuts, bulls buy, tech winners.....and Liz Claman

When the Fed announces a rate cut, I call my wife at 215pm at her workplace (a credit union) to inform her of the amount, then get her take on it. When the 3/4 point cut was announced today, we watched the Dow go from up 300 pts. to up only 150 in a matter of ten or fifteen inhales and exhales. We both figured it would not get much better, and could be worse.

Oops.

Dow finishes today up 420 points! Good day for tech stocks, even real estate companies had a good day (that's gotta give someone some hope somewhere!)

Now, time for the overseas ripple effect and see what 9:30am tomorrow brings. Meantime, those of us STILL unemployed just want to cut through all the speculation, figures, et al, and get a job. It's a great feeling to know you are feeding your kids.

And in closing, Fox Business brings me the information I need and the personality and looks of Liz Claman. CNBC's loss is Fox's gain. Whoo hoo!

March Madness Games on Richmond 3/20/08

Click HERE to see the schedule from CBS6 in Richmond for our local game broadcasts on Thursday. AND, read the info on the page, too, so you don't end up calling the poor receptionist on Broad Street.

Remember to get your VIP Pass (if it's not too late) and watch games not aired locally online!!!!!!!

Your Announcers for this weekend's games in the Big Dance!!!

Thanks to our new friends at Awful Announcing......

Click here. Also note the extra shout-out to fans of Gus Johnson, in case you are a big fan. Having him with Len Elmore is excellent!

I also look forward to Kevin Harlan and Dan Bonner. Bonner is a local boy (UVA grad) who CBS has used for many years in the first two rounds, then normally has him do the Division II championship game. Maybe one day, he'll make the Sweet 16!

Verne and Raf hit the air Friday (MMMMMAN TO MAN!!!), and I must admit, the fact that I don't see James Brown's name on the roster for this weekend is a good thing. He didn't do well as play-by-play guy at the regionals last year. :( But I do love JB!

Gary Hart: Wrestling Loses Another Great One

I knew him as the nasty manager of the Great Kabuki, the Great Muta, and for his time in World Class Championship Wrestling (we got their weekly show for a time in the 80s).

Read this, and you'll learn more about Gary Hart, who sadly passed away Sunday at 66.

Big Brother: Is there any beer left???

Sheila, for the first time that at least I have witnessed, may have let a little too much about her slip out last night.

And....maybe it's because she may have let herself have a little too much to drink.

She was rather bold in her thoughts about herself, her game-playing techniques, and even her past to a few fellow houseguests, which surprised me. The closer she has played to the vest the better so far, in my view. You know, "let 'em think I'm just a middle aged woman in a game with all these 20-somethings and I have nothing to offer in the wisdom or strategy department....".

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!! (Don't want Power of Veto results? Stop here!!)
Or, finally, maybe it was because she was celebrating the fact that James won the Power of Veto, and TOOK HER OFF the chopping block.

James replaced Sheila with Matt. So, indeed, one of "the boys" will go home Wednesday, unless that stupid alarm sounds again.

The alarm needs to sound at 1am ET one night, with people waking up to check the 24/7 feed or reading blogs for spoilers to find out that something huge happened and they missed it!

Oh, well. It is the "ratings alarm" after all. In TV, aren't they all?

More Final Four Picks.......

From ESPNU's version of Bracketology......

Adrian Branch: Louisville, Kansas, Memphis, UConn (wow!) He didn't get to give us his final.

Andy Katz: UNC, Kansas, Memphis, UCLA (all four ones again!) UCLA over Kansas.