We’re all aware of the bru-ha-ha surrounding Sarah Palin’s wardrobe.  “Fashiongate!”  I find two things about this to be quite interesting…

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Was reading the paper this morning, tracking the various amendments that are up for a vote Tuesday.  They somehow were able to add up the amount of money spent on advertising FOR and AGAINST each amendment.  What was interesting to me was the amendment that would increase the allowable amount of money that can be wagered at the various mountain gambling towns around Colorado.  According to the numbers, $7.6 million has been spent on advertising in SUPPORT of the amendment, while ZERO has been spent advertising AGAINST it!  Not a single dollar!  Makes me wonder–did they really NEED to spend $7.6 million promoting this amendment?  Doesn’t sound like anybody really opposes the idea, maybe that multiple millions of dollars could’ve been spent on something else?

Another thought–where does all this money for political advertising come from?  Millions and millions of dollars.  I know, there are people who donate “nickels and dimes,” but isn’t most of the cash generated from the wealthy?  And, doesn’t that tip the balance in favor of those people, regardless of who’s elected, or what’s passed?

One last thought.  Much of the money spenty on political advertising will be WASTED–I’m talking about all the money that was/will be spent on candidates and issues that are defeated.  Makes me think that maybe we should ban political advertising just like we ban tobacco ads.  More and more, it seems like elections are becoming spend-fests–orgies of negative commercials, where the one with the most cash wins. 

From my east coast pal, JT…

“If you had purchased $1000 of Nortel stock a year ago, it would now be worth $49.”

“With Enron, you would have $16.50 left of your $1000 investment.”

“With WorldCom, you’d have less than $5 left.

“If you had purchased $1000 of Delta Air Lines stock, it would now be worth less than $50.  If you had purchased United Air Lines, it would be worth nothing.”

“BUT, if you had purchased $1000 worth of beer a year ago, drank all the beer, and then turned the cans in for recycling, you would have $214.”

“Based on this analysis, the best investment advice is to drink a lot of beer, and recycle. This is called the 401-Keg plan.” 

Amen, JT!  It’s funny, but me and my wife were–basically–making the same point the other night at the dinner table.   What’s the incentive for the average person to even BOTHER trying to save for the future anymore?  If you put your money into money market savings or CDs for safety, inflation will out-pace it and you’ll retire with less than what you saved in real dollars.  If you try to get ahead of inflation and invest in mutual funds, you get what we have NOW–you get taken to the cleaners by speculators skimming your dollars for themselves, and CEOs with “golden parachutes” paid for with our money, their reward for mismanaging their companies finances, and ours along with it. 

So–with that in mind, why not just spend your money NOW?  You can’t beat the system, unless you’re in the top five per cent of income-earners who can afford to pay someone to watch their money FOR them–taking yours and mine in the process.  Trips, cars, big screen TVs, restaurants–why not blow your cash NOW?  At least you’ll get some enjoyment out of it.

Of course, I’m being toungue-in-cheek here.  Sort of.

Mentioned this on my show today, a 56 year-old woman in Cleveland who gave birth to her own grandchildren!  Apparently, the woman’s daugher and son-in-law were waiting through the adoptoin process when grandma got the idea, why not try in-vitro fertilization?–and SHE volunteered to carry the babies! 

I’ve heard of women anxious to be grandparents–”when are you going to give me grandchildren!?”–but this woman surely took that idea to all-time new heights!

Anyway, I mentioned on the air about what a messed-up family tree this family now has, and promptly got an e-mail from Chuck, who had some excellent observations.  Among other things, Chuck pointed out that–technically–the mom is now both mother and older sister to the kids(all girls, BTW), since they were all birthed by the same woman.  The father could technically be considered both the father and grandfather. 

Incidentally, the babies were born a couple months premature, but it appears that they’re healthy and stand an excellent chance of making it.  Amazing, huh?!

I was talking today about watcing field hockey up at Shea Stadium in Highlands Ranch, mentioned the strange cane-like sticks they use to bat the ball around with.  Seems like a fun sport, both to play and to watch.  Hope my daughters consider playing when they get to high school, I’ll be there to watch!

Being a big sports fan with rather eclectic interests, it got me thinking of other, lesser-known team sports that I’m familiar with.  So here it is, my very first top-ten list of Under-appreciated team sports.  Yes, field hockey is on the list…

10) VOLLEYBALL: With the Olympics and beach volleyball, this sport got a bit of a “spike” in interest–[”HA!  I got a million of ‘em!”].  Anybody besides me remember the professional volleyball league back in the 1970s?  Wilt Chamberlain played it in, after his NBA career was over.  Would work better, I think with a time clock rather than a point limit.  Run the clock when the ball is in play, maybe four eight minute periods?

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The cast of the TV show “Dallas” is reuniting–no, not for a TV show, they’re going to do an in-person meet-and-greet with fans!  It’ll be at the original Southfork Ranch in Dallas on November 8th.  You have to buy tickets for this, anywhere from $100 to $1000.  GENIUS!  For the stars of the show, I mean.  No lines to memorize, no make-up sessions or day-long film shoots like they’d have to do for a reunion show.  You just show up, shake hands, sign autographs, maybe do a little Q&A session for 45 minutes.  I bet they roll in a pretty good take, too. 

I wonder why other shows don’t do this?  I’ll bet a M*A*S*H reunion event would do similarly well, maybe even “Happy Days.”

CBS has announced that they’re going to start allowing people to play a special home version of “The Price Is Right” using your CELL phone!  They’ll show a “showcase” item on the TV program, and give a special phone number to call.  When you call the number, you’ll get three different prices, you’ll have to guess which is the RIGHT price.  If you’re right, you’ll be entered into a drawing with all the OTHER correct guessers to actually WIN the prize.

Pardon me if I am underwhelmed.

First of all, what’s to keep someone from making three calls, one call for each guess, thereby guaranteeing that you’ll be in the drawing?

Second, even if you GET the price right, you don’t necessarily win anything–in fact, you probably WON’T win.

Third, you’ll probably have to PAY for the call.  I don’t KNOW this, but I’m guessing the opportunity to generate cash would be too great for a corporation to pass up these days.  After all, people pay to vote for “American Idol” and they don’t get anything out of THAT do they?

They might be able to win me over, though, if they increased the number of choices on the phone-in.  Maybe have seven, or even TEN choices.  That would narrow the number of people in the “correct” pool.   Also, they could limit the time for the call to be placed to maybe sixty seconds.  That way, you COULDN’T make more than one guess.  Now see, THAT would make it exciting–even if you DID have to pay for the call!

Just heard the sad news that “Mother’s” Cookies is out of business–they suddenly closed their doors this week, out of money thanks to higher ingredient and fuel costs.  “Mother’s” was the company that made those pink and white frosted animal cookies with the tiny colored candy dots sprinkled on them.  Who HASN’T spent a few stolen moments groping around inside a bag of “Mother’s” animal cookies just for the joy of it!?  And to think they are no more!  That’s HORRIBLE!

I can remember back when I was younger, in my 20s, I would–once in awhile–get the urge for those cookies, go down to the store and BUY a bag, and eat the whole BAG!!  That was back when my metabolism was much higher than it is now, obviously. 

I need to get down to King Soopers and pick up a couple bags before they’re gone forever.

Former Broncos QB Craig Morton has a new book out, it’s locker-room and sideline stories from when HE played for the Broncos, about 30 years ago.  (That was a DIFFERENT era for pro football, wasn’t it?)  He’s holding a book-signing event, Tuesday October 21st from 7:00 to 8:30 PM.

While most Denver fans remember Craig Morton from his Broncos days, I’d like to ask him about his days in the NFC with the Cowboys and Giants, and then later his stint as head coach of the Denver Gold of the USFL!

Any other USFL fans out there?  I loved that league!  I wasn’t in Denver when the league was around, but I know that Denver fans supported the league and their team better than any other city.  Even the “barrell guy” showed up in his barrell for Gold games!  Remember, the first USFL Championship Game was played right here in Denver, Stars and Panthers, at the old Mile High Stadium!

I really wish that someone would wise up and get another spring pro football league going–some (many?) of us would prefer to watch football all YEAR LONG!! 

Apparently my thoughts–like celebrity deaths–come in threes….

1) I have to laugh (darkly) at all these investment experts all over TV, the radio, and in print, trying to calm people’s nerves about the collapsing stock market by advising us to just “hang on,” and NOT panic, to stick to the good ol’ “buy and hold” philosophy.   These talking heads are BEMOANING the fact that people are rushing to the exits trying to dump their stocks while they still have some value remaining.  I wonder how many of these experts still have stocks in THEIR portfolios?  Probably most of THEM dumped their stocks weeks ago.   Everybody seems to have the mentality that YOU should hold onto YOUR stocks too keep the value up–so I can sell MINE!  It’s sickening.  This Cramer guy on CNN is the worst.  He’s telling everybody that we should’ve done what HE did–SELL.  Same gas-baggery that Mark Cuban spewed after the dot-com blow-up made him a billionaire and left thousands busted with worthless stock–that HE sold.  The problem with this thinking is that if EVERYBODY sold, then who would buy, and at what price?  ZERO is the answer to both questions.  Only the FIRST people out get the fat stock price, the next people out the exits get less and less.  Seems to me like Wall Street is just one big Ponzi scheme, where the last people in get left holding the bag.  Unfortunately for us, the CEO types and fat-cat big shots were the first to protect THEIR investments, while us small-potatoes investors–those of us trying to sock away a little for retirement, without the benefit of having our own personal high-priced financial advisor–get to be the fall-guys-and-gals.  Yes, I feel like a schmuck.  The system is stacked against us.  If we put our money in savings accounts, it can’t keep up with inflation, and we lose out.   However, as we’ve learned in recent weeks, if we invest with Wall Street to try to stay ahead of inflation, they’re more than happy to rip us off. 

>>Wow, did I just write all that!?  Need to take my “chill pill” I guess…<<

2)Once again, the New Orleans Saints have left me heart-broken with another stunning defeat–talking about Monday night against the Vikings.  When Reggie Bush ran back that second punt for a touchdown, I figured they just HAD to win the game–how could they NOT!?  Even with all the unbelievable bad breaks that went against them–like the blatant facemask that was never called–did you see that?  The Vikings guy twists Reggie’s facemask, then punches the ball loose as Reggie’s neck is twisted.  The refs missed the facemask, but enforced the fumble, taking points off the board for the Saints!   However, later, when the Vikings runner fumbled, the refs decided that even though the ball was coming loose, he had “enough” control when his knee hit the ground that they let the Vikings keep the ball!  WHAT!?!?!  The ball is either being fumbled, or it isn’t–what a horrible ruling!!  Anyway, even with all that, I still figured the Saints were destined to win when Bush took that second punt back.  Then they managed to lose anyway.  I’m sickened.  I need to find a different team to follow.  Yeah right, I’ve been saying that for 40 years…

3)Did you see on the news, that local woman who euthanized her dog–and got arrested for it?  I felt so bad for the woman.   The dog had been her pet for fifteen years, but was in very poor health and in obvious misery.  She’s in financial difficulty–like a lot of us–but even worse, she’d had her house broken into recently and had her car stolen, too.  So she couldn’t afford to pay a vet to euthanize the dog.  So she tried to do it herself.  Granted, she didn’t go about it very intelligently: she tried to OD the dog on Xanax pills, and when that didn’t work, she dug a hole, put the dog in the hole, got a hand gun and shot the dog four or five times.  Well, somebody called the cops, and the woman got arrested on a FELONY charge of animal cruelty!  WHAT!?!?!  Can’t this woman be cut some slack!?  I mean, she was SOBBING when the police arrived–she’d just lost her best friend, the dog!  And instead of getting comforted, she gets ARRESTED!?  Am I the only one that thinks this is a little insensitive?

OK…that’s enough outrage for one post, I guess!  A kinder, gentler post tomorrow, I hope…