These just in:
“High School Musical 3” is in theaters. Clay Aikens gives it two pinkies up.
Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens has been convicted of fraud and corruption; the Anchorage airport is named after Ted Stevens. But the bathrooms are named after Idaho Senator Larry Craig.
Are you excited about Halloween? I am. I’m going to borrow my Aunt Myrtle’s mink coat and go as that thing on Amy Winehouse’s head.
Athletes are becoming involved in the campaign. The Cleveland Brown’s Brady Quinn endorsed John McCain. And if getting the support of the backup quarterback of a 3-4 team doesn’t win an election, I don’t know what will.
It turns out Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have six nannies, one for each child. You can read about it in Brad and Angelina’s new book on parenting titled; “Why It’s Far Better To Be Us Than You.”
Sarah Palin has quite a collection of nicknames: Caribou Barbie, Bible Spice, Hockey Mom, and my personal favorite: Tina Feyk.A minor league pitcher, Julio Castillo, was indicted on two charges of assault for throwing a ball that hit a fan. Thank goodness nothing like that could ever happen to the New York Mets, they couldn’t hit a fan if they tried.Since you asked: Did I mention that my bestest buddy as a kid is World Series closer Brad Lidge’s uncle? Howie Detmer was quite a pitcher in his time. A little wild but he could throw smoke. In fact, Howie loved the expression “throwing peas” which meant the baseball was so fast it looked like a little pea to the batter, which he did. Howie, like Brad Lidge, threw peas.
We used to come home from school for lunch and I think I ate lunch at the Detmer’s house as much as mine. Mrs. Detmer, bless her soul, made my second favorite peanut butter and jelly sandwich next to my mom’s, bless her soul. For decades later people joked about how fast I ate and how slow Howie ate. Howie’s older brother, Tommy, a truly funny guy, was dumbfounded when he found out how many cavities I had.
“How can you get cavities if you don’t chew?”
To this day I maintain that Tommy Detmer was the only person who, A, nicknamed his mother "Toots" and, B, got away with it.
Howie was/is a big guy –we battled over who was taller until high school when he shot past me by a good three and a half inches to six five - and Brad Lidge definitely got the Detmer athlete gene from his mom, Debbie, a beautiful blonde cheerleader in her days at New Trier, I might add.
Howie was ahead of his time. They didn’t have closers back in the day, as the kids say, but he would have been a great one, no doubt. And I am guessing Brad Lidge is named after Howie’s cousin, Brad Fox, who was quite a baseball player and punter as well. He won a scholarship to Stanford.
The Fox’s and the Detmer’s had quite the athletic legacy at New Trier in Winnetka, Illinois.
And Brad Fox's younger cousin, Debbie Fox, named after Howie’s sister - for those following along at home - was another beautiful blonde New Trier cheerleader, a class older than me. As I once mentioned in here, Debbie Fox was the eye-scorching angel who did me the honor of shamelessly flirting with me in front of the entire school during a varsity basketball game.
During a cheerleading break, the aptly-named Debbie Fox sat on the bleacher directly below me and leaned her back against, uh, me using my legs as her royal arm rests. Yow. Let’s just say my social standing wasn’t the only thing that went up.
Hello.
Ahem. Sorry. Why did I have to go there? (Que: “Memories” closely followed by “Glory Days” and, of course, Jimi's "Foxy Lady")
Congratulations to the Detmers, the Fox’s and the Lidge’s.
And bless you, Debbie Fox, wherever you are.
P.S. To this day, the names of the terrible trio of Howie, Alex and Duncan - our third Musketeer, Duncan Judson - strike horror into the hearts of any surviving Crow Island Elementary School teachers circa the late sixties.
