Thoughts

Some thoughts as we head into December and the Christmas holiday season.

Remember when Black Friday was just that, the Friday after Thanksgiving?

If they keep moving in farther and farther ahead, the Christmas shopping season will so be starting the morning after Labor Day.

If I had a vote, which I don't, my choice for this year's Heisman Trophy, presented to the top college player every year, would be Notre Dame's Manti Te'o, the brilliant linebacker.

Te'o's the best player on the nation's best team, so there should be no argument as to why he's Heisman elibigle, even though the award usually goes to an offensive player.

My runnerup for the Heisman would be spectacular Texas A&M freshman quarterback Johnny ("Football") Manziel, the most exciting player in the country.

Watching the morning television news on Thanksgiving Day, I saw a Walmart worker being interviewed. He was explaining why he and his co-workers were planning on hitting the picket lines in a wildcat strike because employees had to work on Thanksgiving Day. Thinking of the millions of other Americans who had to work on the holiday, plus the millions of Americans who are out of work in these difficult economic times, I couldn't help but think that this worker, instead of picketing, should be down on his knees and being thankful he has a good job. Too many people would be glad to trade places with him.

The Rolling Stones celebrated their 50th anniversary as performers recently. Doesn't give me much "Satisfaction" that I remember the year they came upon the musical scene (1962) like it was yesterday.

Come to think of, that was the year I graduated from high school, so it was only yesterday.

All the items in The Twelve Days of Christmas, add up to more than $104,000 this year. That's up about six percent over last year. Guess I'll pass on the Partridge in a Pear Tree this year.

The NFL has instituted a program called "Play 60", designed to motivate youngsters to get at least 60 minutes of healthy exercise a day. Remember when kids didn't have to be prompted to go outside and play? If they had a day off from school, they'd be outside from sun up to sun down. And parents couldn't be happier.

My choice as college football coach of the year? Again, I'd head for South Bend and award it to the Irish's Brian Kell. Runnerup would be Ohio State's Urban Meyer.

Seventy teams will be going to 35 bowl games this postseason. I'm old enough to remember when only eight teams were eligible for four bowls - The Rose, Cotton, Sugar and Orange. I liked it better the old way. Too many teams with poor records get rewarded with the bowl games, and it cheapens the postseason.

Ninety five dollars for a ticket to see last Monday's matchup between the 3-7 Eagles and the 2-8 Panthers. Please give me a break.

It would be fitting if one of the Hurricane Sandy victims in New Jersey or New York hit the Powerful jackpot, and then turned around and shared his winnings with all his affected neighbors. Probably won't happen though. But $500 million could rebuild a lot of damaged homes.

What took the experts so long to realize that those inflated bounce houses that we see at kids' parties and festivals, could be dangerous?

Youthful TV actor Angus T. Jones went on a religious rant earlier this week and called the show he stars in, "Two and a Half Men" nothing but "filth". Guess it's not filty enough for him to back out of his contract, though. The 19-year-old reportedly makes $300,000 and episode. Now that's what you call filthy money.