Seems like just about every day for as long as I can remember now, someone somewhere says something ... a slip of the tongue, maybe, or perhaps a statement or phrase that until recently has never raised an eyebrow ... and virtually the entire country goes apeshit.
Somebody's fired at times. On other occasions, we have red-faced, bulging-veined politicians (you Libs know who they are, too) demanding apologies, if not resignations. Boycotts are threatened. Lawsuits even.
Perhaps you have, perhaps you haven't heard about a little dust-up in San Antonio a couple of days ago. Texas A&M and Penn State and their fans were gathered in the Alamo City for a bowl game. At some event, a pep rally perhaps, one of the A&M "yell leaders" (a male cheerleader of sorts ... it's what they do there, and it's very dark, so don't ask) screamed to the Aggie faithful that 81-year-old Penn State coach Joe Paterno was "on his death bed" and "someone needs to find him a casket."
The world immediately began to end. Texas A&M officials knocked over old women and stepped on babies in their haste to apologize and assure everyone that the kid was sent home immediately and likely would be castrated so that he could not pass on his obviously defective genes. (OK, I took some liberties with that last part.)
The story shot to the top of Yahoo's and MSN's news pages. It was No. 2 on our Web site at work (only because Tony Romo apparently urinated at 10:30 that morning and usually does not do so until 11, and we're all about the freakin' Cowboys).
It even made the national evening news! (Paterno, not Romo.)
So the next day, when the teams held their individual news conferences, reporters from everywhere flocked to Penn State's hotel. Breathlessly, they awaited JoePa, as the legendary coach is affectionately known, no doubt hoping that he'd announce, at the very least, that his team was playing in protest against an obviously sub-human opponent.
Paterno entered the room. Cameras whirred. Reporters elbowed one another, jockeying for position for the chance to ask THE QUESTION.
JoePa's response?
"I think everybody has to take things with a grain of salt," he said. "Some young guy went up there trying to be funny. Maybe he's accurate, I don't know."
Dunno about y'all, but I'm rooting for Penn State in this game.
Just because.
(Imported from Dec. 29, 2007)
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