The mid-week penalties have been announced by NASCAR.

If you don’t follow racing closely, Tuesday is always known as penalty day for NASCAR. That’s when the higher ups in the sport sit down and decide what the penalties will be from any weekend infractions. Many teams sit on the edge of their seat wondering what will happen. Depending on the infraction, some wonder about losing a Crew Chief for a race or two, the loss of points, or even a lighter wallet. Sometimes drivers are placed on probation, and other times, there’s simply a slap to the wrist. True to form, NASCAR have announced their penalties for the week, this time taking aim at Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards.

Just as a refresher here, the drivers were under the magnifying glass by NASCAR as a result of some on track incidents after Saturday night’s race in Bristol. Carl Edwards pulled off the famous, or maybe infamous, bump and run to shoot past Kyle Busch in the closing laps of the race and take the win. For a full description of what transpired Saturday night you can find it here in an earlier blog entry I entitled Do Unto Others…

So, what happened yesterday when NASCAR handed out their penalties. In my opinion, once again, NASCAR wimped out…

Read on …

When a freebie prize, really isn’t a freebie prize.

Oprah was pounded for this a few years ago when she gave out so-called free cars to her studio audience. Obviously everyone in the audience were thrilled to hear the news they were getting a free car just for showing up at a taping of an Oprah show. But, what they didn’t know, was they had to pay the taxes before taking delivery on their free car. Suddenly, free wasn’t so free. Oprah really took it on the chin for that one. There was an outcry of — How can Oprah stick it to her audience like that!? — It makes me wonder how many people didn’t end up getting their so-called free car simply because they couldn’t afford to pay the taxes on the car.

While Oprah took it on the chin for her actions, I wonder if anyone has ever questioned Ty Pennington and the Extreme Makeover people. Everyone loves to see Ty, his crew, and anyone else gathered around for the “big reveal” scream — “Move that bus!”

But, what happens when Pennington and his crew leave? Is free really free?

Read on …

As usual, there’s lots going on in the wonderful world of news today.

On a very local level, I was greeted by a police road block on the way to the radio station this morning. New York State Police, along with Wayne County Sheriff’s Deputies, spent most of the night investigating an accident just up the street from the station. Of course the Democratic convention is underway in Colorado. Last night was ladies night, but it was also a big night for Senator Ted Kennedy. It doesn’t matter if you like him, or don’t like him, I think Senator Kennedy needs a big round of applause for appearing on stage in the midst of his health issues. He looked good and he certainly sounds like he’s not going anywhere as he declared he plans to be involved in the government of the future.

But, aside from all of those stories, there’s also ample information for those gathering at the water cooler through the day. With that in mind, and if you’re looking for a few stories to share around the water cooler today, I’d like to help out with what I call the Water Cooler News. Stories for today include;

• Old People Insulted By Road Sign
• Resident Gets A Bang Out Of Homemade Biodiesel Fuel
• Trailer Park Drug Raid Yields Two Dumb Dudes

Read on …

The dust has settled, the smell of rubber has dissipated, and the crushed sheet metal is ready for straightening. Another NASCAR weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway is in the record books, and once again, what a weekend it was. Bristol is always a big show for race fans. The short track packs in some 160,000 fans. It’s called the Thunderdome for a reason — it’s usually very loud once those 43 cars fire up their engines after hearing the famous words — Gentleman…start your engines!

Aside from the racing action, the fans set a new world record for the largest crowd to do the wave at a sporting event. The Guinness folks were on hand as the green flag dropped to signal the start for the fans to take part in the gigantic wave. Now that some 160,000 fans successfully kept the wave going all the way around the stands, the Guinness people have record the new world record. It might stand for quite some time too since very few sporting events draw such a big crowd.

Then, with the record in the books, it was time to drop the green flag for the drivers. With just three races left until the final Chase for the Championship starts, there’s a lot on the line for some drivers who are clinging to one of those top 12 spots to get into the Chase. Bristol always provides door to door, rubbin’s racing excitement. But, as usual, some of the rubbin’ was simply uncalled for. I addressed the situation in an earlier blog post called Do Unto Others Sunday morning.

Sparks flew after the race as Kyle Busch was once again mad, proving that he’s a sore loser, decided to use his car as a weapon. When the race was done, Busch decided to use his car as a weapon and rammed into the winner, Carl Edwards. Busch was called to the NASCAR hauler for his actions, and I hope penalties will follow.

Of course while Busch’s actions are totally irresponsible, some reporters are calling it a rivalry. As for me, I’d like to ask the question — Is this a rivalry or is this simple stupidity?

Read on …

Do you ever get tired of the same old same old news. You know what I’m talking about. News about politics, gas prices, Olympics. Whatever it might be, sometimes we just get tired of doom and gloom news. It’s also especially hard to talk about such stories around the water cooler at work.

Well, have no fear, it’s time to give you something I call The Water Cooler News so you’ll have something a little more interesting to chat about around the water cooler today. Stories for today include;

• Mother Celebrates Birthday By Helping Son Rob Gas Stations
• Wife Beats Up Husband With Tomatoes
• Senior Citizen Shows Teen Who’s Boss
• Naked Man Steals Pick Up Truck

Read on …

There was a time when cheating brought with it the stigma of embarrassment, turning a person into a social outcast. There was a time when the phrase cheaters never prosper resonated in the minds of people looking for integrity, causing them to think twice before cheating, and in many cases, stopped a person from cheating. But, such is not the case these days. Instead, cheaters seem to be exalted. As a matter of fact, cheating seems to be expected in many arenas.

Barry Bonds*, the poster boy for cheating with steroids, gets defensive when it’s pointed out that he cheated all the way to the record books. When he found out his record breaking baseball would end up in the Baseball Hall of Fame with an asterisk
on it, Bonds* said if the ball is placed in Cooperstown with an asterisk on it, he would never set foot in the building. Reality is this, Bonds* shouldn’t even be considered for the hall of fame. Pete Rose will never be named to the baseball hall of fame because of gambling. If Rose will never find himself in the hall of fame, why should Bonds* show up there.

What does all of this mean? Apparently the phrase cheaters never prosper has morphed into cheaters are made hero’s.

Read on …

American swimmer Michael Phelps entered the record books over the weekend winning his eighth Olympic gold medal as his swim team won the 400 meter medley. With the win, Phelps surpassed the previous record held for 36 years by Olympian Mark Spitz. Facing reporters following the race Phelps said it was not an easy feat. Commenting on the accomplishment he said, “Everything had to fall into perfect place. If we had to do this again, I don’t know if it would happen exactly the way we wanted it to.”

Leading up to the record breaking swim by Phelps, all eyes seemed to be on the Olympics wondering if he would topple the 36 year old record. Now that it’s happened, will people still watch the Olympics? Do people really care about the Olympics? In the big picture, do more people watch the Summer Olympics, or the Winter Olympics? I have no idea what the answer is to any of those questions, but I do know one thing for sure, the first modern Games have been around since 1896.

Since the Games started, many events have come and gone. Some good, some bad…

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Flying the friendly skies has been costing more and more for quite some time. Of course if you fly the friendly skies a lot, you also know the skies aren’t always friendly. There are long lines at check in, long lines at security, and long lines while boarding! Then, there’s the fact that for a long time airlines have stopped offering any kind of food or drink on flights. They say it’s all a matter of cutting costs and making it more affordable to fly. Have you checked the price of an airline ticket lately? It’s hardly affordable. Of course since few airlines offer food during flights anymore, there’s always some guy sitting nearby who decided buying some kind of hot, spicy and smelly food from the terminal would be a good idea for the flight. Give me a break!

Now, making matters even worse, many airlines say they’re trying to off-set the high price of fuel, but charging extra, for what should be part of the flight. That’s right, it all started as a way for airlines to supposedly make up for lost dollars because of high gas prices. But, now this is really getting out of hand and it’s time for airline passengers to say “enough is enough.” Many airline carriers now charge for checked luggage, and in some cases they’re even charging for soft drinks, coffee and even that little bag of three peanuts.

But JetBlue has gone even further in the cash-grabbing-ways of airlines by no longer offering free pillows and blankets. That’s right folks, if you fly JetBlue and want to take a nap on a pillow, it will no cost you!

Read on …