Championship Calibre Determination
      Tradition and pig-headed stubbornness.
      There are no other explanations.
      Two months into recovery from a four-artery bypass, I went trap shooting. [more ]

For Casinos, 'Six Hour Visitors' Make a Full House
      She's a 77 year old slightly overweight white-haired widowed grandmother from northeastern Pennsylvania who has worked the past 15 years for the state at a minimum wage "Green Thumb"job. But five or six times a year, she and two of her closest friends pay $22 to a bus company that hauls passengers the four hours to Atlantic City. [ more ]

Hard Rock on a Soft Platter
      They put Bette Midler in the Easy Listening section at the chain music store.
      Bette Midler! The Divine Miss M!
      The bawdy comedian who aroused a nation with jokes, tales, and double entendres. [ more ]

Hollywood’s Patriots
      Sandra Bullock and Leonardo DiCaprio each donated about $1 million for disaster relief following the recent tsunami in Southeast Asia. The Steven Spielberg family donated $1.5 million. Jet Li donated more than $125,000; Jackie Chan added at least $64,000. Among several dozen rock bands which donated proceeds of their concerts or made outright donations, U-2 and Linkin Park each donated $100,000; Ozzie and Sharon Osborn donated almost $200,000. At the Laugh Factory in both L.A. and New York, major comedians donated their time, with proceeds benefiting the victims. The Red Cross says innumerable celebrities made anonymous donations. [ more ]

Janet Jackson, George Bush, and No. 524:
There Are No Half-Time Shows in War
      On the day that Justin Timberlake ripped open Janet Jackson's blouse during the half-time of the Super Bowl to reveal a bejeweled breast and create a national firestorm of protest, American Soldiers 523 and 524 died in Iraq. Along with the two American soldiers, 14 were wounded. Also that day, two suicide bombers killed more than 100 Kurds and wounded more than 200. [ more ]

Life is a Trap Shoot
      I know him only as Ray. I doubt he even knows what my name is.
      But there we were, the two of us, sitting on a park bench about 10 yards behind the firing line at the Pennsylvania State Sportsmen's Association annual shoot, one of the largest trap shoot tournaments in the country. [ more ]

Mega-Mouths, Squawkers, and the 'Hollyweird'
      The relationship between the TV networks, both the news and entertainment divisions, and nation’s publicists is incestuous. Most guests on the morning news shows and the late evening talk shows are actors and musicians plugging their latest releases. Some of the guests, however, are writers and editors for mass-market magazines. NBC’s “Today Show” broadcasts stories that first appeared in People magazine. [ more ]