Some shrewd observations, amounting to very little!

It has been some time since I last blogged, my excuse being I was doing research on some new and interesting subjects. I feel I owe it to my many(at least 5 or more) readers to offer some stimulating pieces of information. So, lo and behold, buckle your seat belts because it is going to get good today. We are going to talk about sex, sports, movies, presidents, triathlon, my 50th high school class reunion(yep you read it right-50 years), and various other trivial stuff.

Let's start out with sex first, since it seems to be a very popular subject. My attention was drawn to the subject by the Texas Tech University school paper called, "The Daily Toreador." Since I do my swimming at the Tech aquatic center I am exposed to all of this college culture, which includes co-eds outfitted in extremely tight fitting, skimpy swim suits. I figured out a long time ago that in the winter the co-eds are not as good looking as they are in the summer. Reason being, the real swimmers come to the pool in the winter to actually work out, while in the summer they come to "lay out." Since I am there to put in thousands of yardage I really don't have time for this type of eyeball wasting. Sorry, got a little off track here but now back on with the headline on the Toreador that got my attention. It said, "Love is in the air as we explore Sex at Tech, " pages 6 & 7. Now being intrigued by the subject and wondering what love had to do with sex I immediately turned to the articles and here is what I learned(remember this is a school of higher learning, not Harvard or Yale mind you, but a really good school): The two pages are graced with 4 inch letter headlines that say, "SEX AT TECH," WOW what a way to start. So, I am going to assume from this headline that someone has sex at Texas Tech, whether it be the faculty, students, coaches, employees or a combination of both, visitors such as myself, or maybe even group things. Advancing further with the headlines of the subjects discussed, here are some samples and short bits from the articles. SEX ED TEACHES ABSTINENCE ONLY-There are at least two things one will learn about sex in Lubbock schools. How to do it, and that one shouldn't. The Lubbock Independent School District uses an abstinence-based program to teach students about sex, said Jack Booe, assistant superintendent for secondary schools. Greerman comments: My son, now 44 years old, married with 3 kids, serving as a Diplomat for the United States, and a product of the LISD system made the following comment to me when he was 16. I ask him the question if it was time for us to talk about sex, his reply was, "yea, what do you want to know about it?" That was the end of the conversation. So, I guess the system works. Next headline, MEDIA STEREOTYPES LESBIAN, GAY COMMUNITY FALSE-Some gay TV shows have shown an interesting integration, by trying to integrate straight families into gay communities. In real life, that tends to be the opposite, and gay couples try to integrate themselves into their predominately straight families. Most gays and lesbians are closer to their next door neighbor, not somebody from "Queer as Folk." Next headline, SELLING SEX: AD EFFECTIVENESS INCREASES DESIRE-here are some comments from an assistant professor of communication studies, concerning this subject. "The saying sex sells has been used time and again to describe the media's marketing principles, and in addition to being overly cliche', the phrase is something of a misnomer. "The point is that the overt message is sexual, or sexuality sells, but they are not talking about the actual act." Greerman comments-go figure on this one, why Pizza Hut would think watching Jessica Simpson show her wares would make you want to eat a pizza is beyond me. But, it must work since Pizza Hut sales are up! Next headline-MORE THAN BIRDS AND BEES-The birds and bees talk may be considered a childhood staple, yet many Texas Tech students have mixed feelings about the moment they first learned the facts of life. While some students had parents that ventured into a formal discussion, others discovered the falsity of the "baby bearing stork" story on the playground or in the classroom. Greerman-the birds and bees thing never set in with me, couldn't quite figure out what one had to do with the other. On the stork story neither of my parents tried that one on me either. Guess I picked up my knowledge of sex the old fashion way, from my peers. They seem to know a lot about it. Next headline-PORN LEADS TO UNREALISTIC SEX IDEALS-Threesomes and girl-on-girl action with a little bondage thrown in for good measure might sound like a realistic sexual fantasy, but experts on this subject say real sex and pornography should never be connected in the same sentence. The continue with, "first of all, porn is not realistic, it's totally exaggerated, and most of the time, the women are fake." Greerman-while this article had at least 800 words in it I think the un-realistic statement sums it up. The only thing I felt that was left out was the fact that the expert quoted in the article only dealt with the "woman" side of porn as being unreal. What I have found in my very limited(believe it) exposure to porn is that the "man" side of the story is also un-real. To think every man shaft is the size you see in porn movies is also very un-realistc. Possibly this expert was a man or something, and just didn't notice. Next headline-VIRGINITY WORTH THE WAIT FOR MORE THAN CHRISTIANS-Virginity may not be just for Christians any more. Virgins are saving themselves because of religious conviction, but there also are many other reasons to remain sexually pure until marriage. The only place where sex will be what it's supposed to be is in an environment of a total trust and a total commitment relationship. Greerman- assuming this is all true, let's consider pregnancy, disease, and maybe going back to the first article above on abstinence.(Boy this is getting heavy). Next headline-DATING BARELY BREATHING, BUT NOT DEAD YET-The 1950's may have been a half century ago, but Kalee Johnson, a sophomore political science major from Arlington, said the ideals of dating from that time should not have faded away. "There was more emphasis on the guy picking the girl up and paying for her dinner," Johnson said. "It's a nice gesture, and it's really hard to find it now." Greerman-well being from the 1950 era I am probably somewhat of an expert on the dating game. But what this lady forgot to mention were other terms of the day, i.e. "going steady" these were the words used to describe, that is my girl stay away. There were signs all around of what this meant and how you could identify a steady couple, first, she was wearing something like a football letter jacket the guy had worked very hard for, second, she or he wouldn't dare talk or be seen with the opposite sex, third, when they were in the car together she sat so close to him she was nearly on the other side, fourth, breaking up was somewhat like divorce, very emotional and everything had to be returned, etc. Enough said about all this, let's move on and let the modern day daters, do as they wish in their dating practices(their going to anyway).

In reading the sports pages I am always amused by the way they describe how another team defeats their opponent, i.e. "Raiders tackle "Huskers", that is Texas Tech basketball beating the Nebraska Cornhuskers, not football. Texas Tech visits "hot" Baylor team. What does this mean, they just got out of the sauna, or what? Tech baseball weathered out." "Sabbatini keeps control at Riviera," you guessed it, a PGA tour event. ""Arkansas races past Florida," but it was basketball not running. " "Oklahoma sneaks past Iowa," basketball again. "Boone powers No. 1 Connecticut past slumping No. 11 West Virginia," "Wyoming upsets No. 19 BYU," "Sooners clinch Big 12 title with blowout over Aggies," "How many points will Kobe get?" Greerman-who cares? "Wade, San Antonio capture All-Star skills contest," Captured??? "Badgers bounce Levelland," Lions crush Mt. Carmel."

More sports: Get the current(February) Sports Illustrated(not the swim suit issue, you perverts!) and read the, Life of Reilly, Beyond the Pale, it is about the ALL WHITE Wyoming State University men's basketball team. It discusses the prejudices, etc., that they are experiencing. Must read, but too long to copy word for word here. Go buy it or steal it from your dentists office! Don't mistaken it for the swim suit issue, it is not the same and they are real easy to tell apart.

More & More sports: When Bode Miller pulled all of his little(you know about being drunk while skiing down hill and all) off the wall tricks, for publicity sake before the Olympics. The CEO, Jim Scherr, of the US Olympic Committee was ask if he would be disciplined for his remarks and antics. Mr. Scherr's answer was, "hey it is all about the medals, what the athletes do on their own time is their business." Just a refresher, Mr. Miller was supposed to win 5 gold medals in skiing. Well wonder what his response would be today since Mr. Miller hasn't come close enough to a medal to recognize one if it was stuffed down his throat, with two shots of Vodka.

Health stuff: This comfort food is anti-cancer: Cabbage and other cruciferous vegetables are linked to less risk of lung, breast, stomach and bladder cancers. Greerman-never have really taken to liking cabbage, especially after driving a truck hauling cabbage to Dallas. After 6 hours on the rode, then having it unloaded, I smelled like cabbage for a week. But with all the new recipes, other than cole slaw, for cabbage, I think I will create a taste for it. Dr. Weil recommends it.

Healthy Aging: saw two famous people this week that are still practicing their professions with great enthuiasm, Zig Ziglar, 79 and still motivating people with his experienced style, plus Richard Simmons, age not given but must be over 50, one of the original on TV fitness guys.

Movies: "8 Below"-excellent, well done Disney movie, "The Pink Panther"-excellent, but if you don't like Steve Martin you will not like it. He has been criticized in some reviews for making Inspector Clouseau look like a complete klux, interesting since I thought that was what it was all about. I like Steve Martin, so I liked it.

Put in 20 words or less your reaction to this:"New Orleans spends $2.7 million for Mardi Gras resurrection." It would appear to me that they have better things to spend their money on!

In the future I will present some "firsts" from our American Presidents, but right now I offer this: Other presidents, aside from our current president, who have stepped over the line with presidential powers relative to war. Abraham Lincoln-suspended habeas corpus, tried enemy sympathizers in military tribunals, Woodrow Wilson-pushed anti-sedition law, Franklin Roosevelt-ignored neutrality laws to aid allies, interned Japanese-Americans, Richard Nixon-ordered spying on U.S. annti-war activists, expanded Vietnam War to Cambodia. DISCLAIMER: I am not a George W. Bush fan and I believe he will go down in history as one of our worst presidents, he will make James Buchanan(the president who always comes out on the bottom) look like the smartest of them all. Only time will prove my feelings.

Within the past few days Marti completed the sanction request for Buffalo Springs 70.3, Buffman & Squeaky, Tri Raider and Iron Girl Texas, with USA Triathlon(all races under the BSLT Triathlon Inc., banner). There is no indication that these sanctions were denied because of the USAT/WTC split, so maybe we have a deep french kiss and make up between the two. No announcement has been made, but we know there have been some favorable and positive talks going on. Have your USAT card and picture id ready!!!

In conclusion for today, I was notified a few days ago that there is going to be a 50th High School Class reunion from my ole Littlefield, Texas class of 1957. This will be interesting since I am not much on this type of thing, but have committed to go. Can't wait to see how old everyone else is!!(Joke).

Off to the Texas Tech Aquatic Center pool to watch, I mean swim yards and yards.

greer

My wish for the day!

Sometimes I wish I was a celebrity for just about a day or maybe a week or maybe even a month, but no longer. Here's my thought on this and why it is my wish. I just got through reading Tom Arnold's blog site of his trip to the Super Bowl. I didn't really search this site out nor I am a particular fan of his, but I just saw it pop up on AOL and decided to visit Mr. Arnold's(since I don't really know him I will call him Mr. one time, then it will be Tom) site and see what he had to say. Well I do admit I love his sense of humor and I kind of enjoyed what he had to say, but what really gets me is that he can say just about anything, use just about any kind of language and it is thought of as "cute" and "entertaining," plus he is not banned for life for saying bad words(I can't put them here because this is a family site and I promised Marti I would stay clean mouthed). Another example that is real close to home on this happened at the Annual USAT Race Directors Conference in Colorado Springs last month. There were three guest key-note speakers, each speaking on separate days. They offered quite a variety in professions and background, one being a nationally syndicated cartoonist, one being a former professional bicycle racer(now one of the head commentators on OLN Tour De France) and the third being a former track/bobsled Olympian, now Olympian commentator on NBC. While all of their presentations were very good and entertaining what I noticed was the former bike racer used the word "man shaft" when talking about Jan Ullrich, the famous bike racer from Germany, and the track/bobsled person used the f--- word in her presentation. The cartoonist was completely Mr. Clean jeans, but very entertaining. There usage of these words didn't bother me at all and the rest of the crowd laughed till their sides ached, so I guess it didn't bother them either. But, I recall last year at the same conference in San Francisco I took the podium as the Interim Executive Director and when ask how Marti and I were handling being apart while I did my job in Colorado Springs, I simply said, "well we are able to meet at events across the country and do a little honeymooning during the weekends." Well, is that well put or what? Obviously not, since someone sent an e-mail complaining about my filthy mouth on the podium. The funny thing is that if that person really wants a potty mouth I can really do the job right. However, I really didn't see anything wrong with what I said, even thought it was a little cute, but lo and behold some do gooder race director thought I was bad news. So, I know if I had been a celebrity that would not have happened and they would have thought it was real cute. Maybe some day!!