My Thoughts
He Says
Scrolling through my X (formerly known as Twitter) timeline, as I do too often these days, I stumbled upon a link to old newspaper columns by Larry King. King, a former media giant, used to syndicate columns in a format that could be described as an X feed for older folks – short, simple thoughts about the events of the day or week in politics, sports or just general news or ideas.
I read through a few of these and thought I might resurrect this column format for the Franklin County Times for a year. At the end of the year, I will go back through the columns and see what the highlights of the year are.
Here it goes:
One question I get a lot is, are we going to do an All-County Team? My answer is usually, No! Why? There is no easy or fair way to put one together for Franklin County. Stats are usually useless because the competition levels are so different from team to team and sometimes stats are artificially inflated against bad teams. I typically see enough of all teams that I could say who the best players were but that would be my own personal bias. So, no, I typically try to stay away from that selfimposed controversy…
University of Miami quarterback, Cam Ward, is the poster boy for what is wrong with college football in 2024 and heading into 2025. If you don’t know, Ward, who transferred to Miami from Washington State, pulled himself from the second half of the Pop Tart Bowl after he broke a personal record even though his team was still in a tight game. An utter act of selfishness and cowardice. He quit his team when they needed him the most…
Ah, the Pop Tart Bowl! Now, that’s what college football is supposed to be about. That is a fun concept. The Pop Tart mascots are the center of the show with their ritualistic birth and death from the beginning to the end of the game, the trophy/ toaster and the cannibalistic eating of the Pop Tart mascot after the game. I can only imagine what the marketing meetings are like leading up to this game…
The 37th President of the United States, Jimmy Carter, died Dec. 29 at the age of 100. Carter, who served one term as President from 1977-1980, leaves a mixed legacy. His presidency was a mixed bag checkered by the Iranian hostage crisis, gas shortages in America and sky-high interest rates punctuating a miserable economy described best in his own speech as a “Crisis of Confidence.” He was also able to broker a peace deal in the Middle East. He lost his re-election bid to Ronald Reagan. His post-presidency was more positive where he was heavily involved building homes for Habitat for Humanity and working as an ambassador for peace…
Personally, I will never forget my Dad taking me to one of Carter’s speeches at Spring Park in Tuscumbia in the heat of his 1980 reelection campaign. This was September 1, 1980, just two days after my ninth birthday. I remember Spring Park being packed with thousands of people. It was HOT! It was so hot that many people passed out from heat exhaustion. I vividly remember Secret Service snipers on the roofs and water tower of downtown Tuscumbia. I still have a picture my mom took of that event…
We also lost Greg Gumbel last week. Gumble, a CBS staple, was one of the best to ever broadcast sports. He broadcast NFL games, the Olympics, NFL Today and NCAA sports. But Gumbel is probably best known as the 25-year anchor of “March Madness” from Selection Sunday to the Final Four…
The New Year got off to a sad start with two terrible incidents. The first being a terrorist attack in New Orleans where a man, driven by ISIS ideology, drove a truck into an early morning crowd on Bourbon Street killing 14, including recent graduates from Auburn University and the University of Alabama. The other incident was a man with mental health problems blowing up a Tesla Cybertruck in front of Trump Hotel in Las Vegas, killing himself but no one else… My son and I visited New York City for a few days to start the New Year. Pro tip: one can go on Jan. 2, see all the Christmas decorations and save hundreds of dollars on flights and hotels. Another way to save — never stay in Times Square area. We actually stayed in Long Island City, Queens, just across the East River. Easy subway ride into town… SEC basketball got underway this week with Auburn and Alabama blowing out their first conference opponents. This year’s in-state basketball rivalry is going to be epic. Alas, we have to wait until late February and early March… High school basketball is about to hit crunch time with final area games and the County Tournament… Winter weather is in the forecast this week. We shall see… Donald J. Trump was certified as the 47th President of the United States on Jan. 6 by Congress. The proceedings were presided over by Vice President Kamala Harris, his opponent… Two weeks in one column. I hope you all have a happy and safe New Year! Here’s to good health, good fortune, and good times in 2025!
