Weekend Roundup

-Who among us, that's over 20 years old, was not saddened to hear of the death of Don Knotts? I'm not sure what he would have considered to be his dream job, but Knotts brought so much joy into the lives of the American public as the legendary Barney Fife, that he certainly had acquired his dream job as far as most of us were concerned. Some of the episodes of The Andy Griffith Show, are burned into our consciousness as a society. He was Barney. And "One-Bullet Barn" will forever be at the very top of the list of memorable early television characters...along with Lucille Ball's Lucy, James Arness' Matt Dillon, and a few others. I have a son who's at college laying the groundwork for an acting career. If he should be talented, and more importantly fortunate, enough to acquire a part that allows him to bring one tenth of the joy to people that Mr. Knotts did, I will be as happy as a dad can be. Thank you Don Knotts. And, thank you God for putting him in a position to do what he did best.

-The Winter Olympics are over. I wasn't nearly as into them this time as I have been in the past. There was little to get excited about. If the American hockey team had been mildly successful, it would have livened things up. If one of the expected "Wunderkinds" Bode Miller, Sasha Cohen, etc. could have lived up to their billing, NBC brass certainly would have been happier. And we just have a devil of a time finding someone who can ski fast and hit a target with a rifle..don't we? Wow...how exciting is that biathlon thing? And, unfortunately, we won't see Apollo Anton Ohno....don't forget the Anton...now until 2010. That is, unless somebody starts a short-track, roller-derby league.

-I'm hearing that if you have a group of more than 20 people, you can forget about a group outing at a Cardinals game this year. And, starting Wednesday, the Cardinals will be calling everbody on their group outing waiting list to tell them that they can't accomodate them for the coming season. The Grizzlies should reap a huge benefit from the opening year of the new Busch.

-Mardi Gras in St. Louis--Two incidents of damage to property, 200 arrests for minor offenses...mostly underage drinking. Pretty tame. Let me know when it gets rowdy...maybe I'll check it out.

-I was in a trivia contest at the offices of Leinicke Design in Manchester on Friday night. Craig and Connie Leinicke are friends who operate one of the top graphic design and print production firms in the region. Our team won! Woo Hoo! When you win one of those things, you invariably come up with an answer or two that even you are surprized to get right. And there's one that you can't believe you couldn't come up with. For me, it was not remembering the theme song to the Gomer Pyle TV show...I thought it was Hogan's Heroes. And, the one I got right...."What kind of paper was developed in 1857...but wasn't successfuly marketed until 1867?"--(This one was tricky because all of the people on hand were in the printing and graphics business)--Answer: toilet paper

-I had my first extended conversation with an evacuee of Hurricane Katrina Friday night. My wife and I were having a cocktail at a west St. Louis county establishment, and we managed to start up a conversation with a chap sitting nearby. This guy is better off than most of the people who fled the hurricane. He's staying here in St. Louis indefinitely and trying to land a job at Boeing. He's a military veteran...in his late 20's I'd guess...with one bad leg, the result of a partially-opened parachute while on duty in the Middle East. He's in the process of completing his education via the GI bill while the rest of his family, against his urging, is rebuilding their New Orleans home. I asked him how he wound up in St. Louis. He said when the hurricane was headed for N.O. he got in his car and headed north on I-55. St. Louis is where he was too tired to keep going. He's been here ever since. Unlike a lot of the evacuees, he's moving on with his life and trying to make it on his own.

-Interesting to read that possible Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is probably the favorite of a majority of Democrats in 2008. But Democratic strategists are suggesting that she is unelectable because of something called "Clinton burnout". They say all of the old Clinton baggage will be front-and-center again should she get the party nomination. They say Whitewater and all of the predictable stances on issues will not allow her to capture enough of the public's imagination to win. Some of the usual Democrat funding sources are holding back from committing to her because of her perceived "can't win" status.

-And while we're at it...Who will the Republicans run in '08? McCain? Giuliani? Rice? Allen? Wide open at this point.