Don't Lose Any Sleep Over This

Don't let this keep you up all night, but in 2008, the World Health Organization is set to identify overnight shift work as a probable carcinogen. The graveyard shift causes cancer, hmmm? I wonder how many lawyers have already clipped that article and put it in their files between the “McDonald's coffee case” and the “Twinkie defense”

If the WHO follows through, then Shreveport and Louisiana lawmakers will have the perfect reason to close down the all-night bars and any other open-all-night business: They cause cancer, thereby adding to health costs for all the rest of us – just like smoking in a public place or riding a motorcycle without a helmet.

Does this just apply to work, or does it also apply to those that stay up all night to play? If so, my health conscious children will be surprised to find out that all those years of late nights were just setting them up for the big C. I always suspected they were part vampire - passed on to them through their mother’s side of the family of course. They slept all day, woke up only after the sun had set, and then came home just before dawn.

How many times do we find out that something we have been doing most of our lives is bad for us? We learned in school that the sun gave us the vitamin D our bodies needed. So, I became a sun bathing, sun worshipping kid and ran around without a shirt for years. Now I learn that I am primed for skin cancer. They tell me it’s not if, but when.

How many times does the medical and scientific community pronounce that something is bad for us and then it turns out it isn’t – or that the substitute is worse than the original. Think of butter/margarine, eggs bad/eggs good, etc. – the list seems endless.

I’m still mad about “Gorilla Milk.” Every morning I would mix up some of my Gorilla Milk breakfast drink and head off to work in the sawmill. Made it to lunch OK, I never got hungry or tired. Then Gorilla Milk disappeared. Seems it had saccharine in it and saccharine caused cancer in lab rats. Later they decided saccharine was OK. So they continue to use it today, but there’s still no Gorilla Milk. Drat!

Anyway, I’m not going to lose sleep over the late shift/cancer link. I lost enough sleep over the Gorilla milk.

Not a Trivial Pursuit

Thanks to the efforts of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the Special Olympics was created for people with intellectual difficulties to “develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy.”

To raise needed dollars for their program, the Northwest Area Special Olympics recently sponsored their Trivia Night fundraiser. The El Dorado Casino donated the ballroom, food, wait staff. Mike Whitemain of the El Dorado presented a $5000 check.

When they created trivia games, they created my game. It’s become a family tradition in the evening following a holiday feast. Family and friends soon become enemies as teams are formed and nasty leers are plentiful for the unfortunate player that talks the rest of the team out of the right answer.

So I jumped at the invitation to attend the Special Olympics Trivia night fundraiser. Co directors Charlene Boles Renee Starret, and Mattie Wilson set up a great event. Najahe Hall was outstanding as a host, asking a wide variety of questions- some easy, some hard, and others tricky, a great recipe for fun.

Door prizes provided by local restaurants and businesses were handed out to lucky winners between rounds of questions. The highlight of the night was the silent auction. Items ranged from gift baskets (donated by Benton Middle School cheerleaders, pep squad and 5th graders), jewelry, craft items and LSU, Dallas Cowboy, and Mudbug hockey sports memorabilia, including tickets and several autographed items.

We are already working to improve our team for next year, but even if we don't win we still leave with a broad smile on our faces - as do the Special Olympic athletes.

How to Sell Out the Independence Bowl

If the PetroSun Independence Bowl wants to fill up the stadium, its selection committee should opt for a match up between Texas A&M and Alabama.

Why bring in Texas A&M? Easy, that in itself almost guarantees a sell out. One thing about the Aggie faithful is that they are faithful. Plus, a Texas A&M vs. Alabama game provides for a great public relations story line when Texas A&M’s Dennis Franchione has to face his old school. He deserted Alabama and left it twisting in the wind, when he headed for College Station and the Aggies. And remember with the Aggies you get the bonus of the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band, a huge fan draw in itself.

Why bring in Alabama again, weren’t they just here last year? Yes they were, but this is a new Alabama team. It’s now Satan’s, er Saban’s team. Herds of bugling Alabama fans might come just to seek revenge on Coach Fran. But those “Roll Tide” fans are rolling since their screaming elephants lost their tusks against the University of Louisiana Monroe.

If Auburn’s War Eagle claws the Crimson Tide on Saturday, that tide could become an ebb tide of enthusiasm. Now, you might think that’s a bad thing, but maybe not. If ‘Bama fans stay away that just means more tickets for A&M fans, who will buy them.

Additionally, this match up could give local fans, usually lukewarm to the competing teams, a real rooting interest in the game. After all, what local LSU fan wouldn’t love to have the opportunity to heap our “praise” and “affection” on that guy that jilted LSU for the NFL. That Saban guy is like the philandering husband who left his children’s mother for a trophy wife, only to find out that the trophy wife was an unfulfilling bimbo.

Usually we have 2 teams seeking tickets. With my scenario we have many groups of fans clamoring for tickets: Aggies lovers, marching band lovers, Saban lovers, Saban haters and Franchione haters. Sounds perfect to me.

Polar Opposites: A Tale of Two Players

This is a tale of two players. It’s a true tale about polar opposites. One sacrificed his personal interests for the good of the team; the other sacrificed the good of the team for his personal interests. When they were presented with the scrambled letters A, E, M, T – one found the word TEAM while the other found the word ME.

The first is a boy, who probably thinks of himself as a man. His name is Ryan Perrilloux, a football player blessed with extraordinary talents. Unfortunately, his incredibly well developed physicality is guided by an equally incredible lack of maturity. Everyone recognizes he has the physical tools to become a great football player someday, but it also seems he is unwilling to make the sacrifices necessary to place him on the same plane with other great players.

He has made many bad choices, placing his own immediate interests before the best interests of his team and his own long-range interests. The latest was when he was asked to leave a bar, and he chose to make a scene instead of leaving. That choice led to him being suspended from the team the week before one of LSU’s most important games.

His history of outlandish behavior and the imbalance between responsible conduct and illegal activity endangers his future. If his imbalance causes him to fall off the legal tightrope he walks, he will land on the dark side of the legal system and an even darker future.

The second is a man in all meanings of the word. His name is Glenn Dorsey. He too has been blessed with amazing talent and is widely admired and respected by friend and foe alike. Had he chosen to, he could have entered the pro football draft and signed a contract worth as much as worth 20 million dollars. No one would have faulted him for doing so. Mr. Dorsey chose not to desert his teammates and made the decision to stay with his teammates. Placing the interests of his team far above his own interests, he opted to help his team in its quest for the national championship.

Glenn Dorsey is not the only person to ever do this, nor is he the only person on his team to make great sacrifices. There are many others. People, especially our youth, should aspire to emulate the example he and others like him have set. College athletics, our nation, and the world could use and need more people like him. All would be better off if that were so.