Here's My Picks... and a Commentary

Considering the high temperature hasn't fallen below 80 since I moved down here to Southern Pennsylvania, it is hard to believe that we have almost reached fall and that football season is upon us. It is also hard to believe that in the eyes of a lot of Central New Yorkers, one certain college football team's season is already OVER. The part you can believe is THEY'RE RIGHT.

If we learned anything from last Sunday's Malaise at the Meadowlands that was the Kickoff Classic, it is that here are the improvements the Syracuse Orangemen have made from 2000 to 2001... NONE. If anything, we've gone backwards. Once again, we burned all of our first-half timeouts in the early going. Once again, we were forced to depend on a woozy Troy Nunes and his pop-gun arm. Once again, we stacked up enough flags to keep the NYC area laundromats busy for weeks. I was one of the last holdout Pasqualoni-backers, but even I know bad coaching when I see it. Here is the main difference between Coach P and the man he replaced, Dick MacPherson: Coach Mac would've looked at the last two years and taken the blame for what took place. He would have told the press that he thought the team was more like the Orangemen we saw in the first half of 1999, when SU was one bone-headed Nunes reverse scramble away from 6-0, and not the mess of a team that has gone 8-10 since. Mac would've been upset at his team, and would have told the press that he and they need to improve. What did Pasqualoni do? He closed preseason camp to the media. Which I must say is usually the last desperate tactic employed by a coach who knows he's about to get whacked.

One can only hope in the case of Pasqualoni. We should have seen it coming; these habits have shown themselves all the way back to the Miami showdown in 1992. Why did Chris Gedney wind up on his back on the Miami 3-yard line with no time left and SU's outside shot at a national championship dead? Because we had blown two timeouts earlier in the half, and had one left when the final drive started. We then called that timeout to allow Marvin Graves to go to the sideline and upchuck. But I digress...

One year ago on this same patch of cyberspace, I gave a breakdown of the SU quarterback situation, and said that Troy Nunes was the best candidate for the job. I now realize how slim the pickings were by comparison. Chad Elliott flunked out, Madei Williams transferred, and R.J. Anderson hobbled around on a bad knee and threw interceptions while we heard OrangeFan preach about how he was the savior. R.J. was thrown out there as a redshirt freshman; at least he had a year to digest the playbook (as did Michael Vick at Virginia Tech, by the way). What makes you think, OrangeFan, that Cecil Howard will figure it out in one month as a true freshman? On the other hand, there is the argument that if we are to truly believe that this is indeed a rebuilding year and a lost cause from the start, then what is the harm in starting Howard and letting him take his knocks and learn on the job? This similar tactic was used on a troika of QBs named McPherson, Graves, and MacNabb, and they turned out all right. The idea in a rebuilding year is to try new things (besides all that dumb shifting) and put new younger people in to fix what's wrong, not instead to have the same players making the same mistakes.

This should be considered an insult to the defense, as it is among the best in the nation, with Dwight Freeney causing havoc for opposing QBs and Clifton Smith, Mark Holtzman, J.R. Johnson, and Co. stuffing the run. I even like how that Gaechlin kid looked in the Georgia Tech game, so they're certainly deep in the front seven. Actually, this has been taken as an insult, as one defensive starter (rumor has it that it was Freeney) took issue with the offensive playcalling following the Tech debacle. Not a good sign.

And then there is the kicking situation. I don't know about you, but every time I see Mike Shafer trotting out to try another PAT or field goal, I roll my eyes and fear the inevitable. He didn't disappoint last Sunday, either, as he blew a chip shot field goal and barely made a point after, which he appeared to kick at a 90 degree angle. If he isn't replaced soon, Pasqualoni should be fired for that alone.

So what is the ultimate result of all this? I say 4-8. This doesn't mean that I will not be watching every Saturday, and I won't be rooting for SU to lose (like some people). I have noted in the past that you have to support your team regardless of whether they're good or not, regardless of the heartache that may cause. I still don't believe we deserve a national championship coach or team, but it is clear that improvement is needed here.

At this point, I switch over to the one SU that will likely finish with a winning record this year, that being my alma mater, Susquehanna University. The schedule doesn't start off too easy; apparently Syracuse and Susquehanna use the same schedule makers, because while the Orangemen get #10 Georgia Tech and #8 Tennessee, the Crusaders get to open with two Top 25 teams in Western Maryland and Lycoming. Now, the Westminster road trip is tough enough to start off; the Green Terror are considered a threat to win it all in D-III, but why open the MAC and home schedules with your biggest rival? The game for Stagg's Hat should be at the end of the season, like any other big rivalry game. This has the same potential effect that Florida-Tennessee has every year, that being that one really good team's season gets killed on the third weekend of September, and then you have 8 more games to play. It's even harder this year, as the MAC is one league now, and so the competition is for that 2nd-place finish and the NCAA at-large entry that goes with it. The league title has been handed to last year's national runner-up, Widener, so take that for what it's worth. The two top competitors for that 2nd-place finish are SU and Lyco, and they face off September 15 at Lopardo Stadium. Oh well, nothing you can do about it, I s'pose.

The offensive is high-powered with Mike Bowman back for a 3rd year as the starting QB and his good buddy Mark Bartosic there to catch the passes and perhaps put up another 1000-yard receiving season. However, with a lack of experience in the running game, there's a chance that the offense could become one-dimensional, and unless Bowman suddenly put on 25 pounds (likely answer there being NO), it could be bad for his health. The D still has Troy Sosnovik and Antonio Nash and Dom DeSteno, but this is still the unit that gave up almost 120 points over a three-game span late last year. With the Western Marylands and Lycos and Wideners on the schedule, Tim Briggs better be helping his brother the head coach out a little or this could be a long year in Selinsgrove. It could be worse, though; Wilkes is the only MAC team that SU won't face this year, and they are also a contender for that NCAA at-large berth, along with upstarts King's and Lebanon Valley. If the Crusaders emerge from those first two battles at 1-1 (hopefully the win coming over Lyco), they have a good shot at contending. It may all come down to November 10 (and not just because that is my birthday), when Leb Valley comes to town with two straight upset wins over SU under their belts. I will keep my expectations low, however, and say 7-3.

Now, as I did last year, I will take a guess as to how my high school alma mater, West Genesee, will do. After going 3-6 and 2-6 in '99 and 2000, respectively, Dave Mancuso's on the hot seat, whether he wants to be or not. The defense was the best in Class AA last year despite the bad record, and if they continue to hold up that way, it should give second-year starting QB Eric Cizenski a chance to settle in and contribute. He looked good at times last year, but spotty at others. Experience may be the key, but with the opener against Corcoran coming on the turf at P&C Stadium, it'll be an uphill climb to sectionals. Just like last year, I will say 4-3 and the post-season drought finally ends, now at 13 years (lucky 13, no less).

One last note (the "commentary" I refer to in this week's title)... as much as I don't wish to do this, the guy who was Most School Spirited in the class of 1996 has to let West Genny have it over this new policy barring freshmen from playing varsity sports. The team this most affects is the basketball team, where Jerry Wilcox has built the program around promising freshmen. This is probably the sport where the parents complained the most and provided the impetus for this new rule to be created; god forbid a promising and talented freshman be blocked from playing on varsity because a lesser talented upperclassman deserves the spot on the roster because, well, he played two years on JV, he earned it. I will say this again, WGParent, YOU DON'T DESERVE ANYTHING!!! If the freshman is better and has more long-term potential, sorry but that's just the way it is. This is political correctness gone mad, and a move that I fear will only cause a local Hall of Famer to call it quits and take the program's success with him.

Observations on Chambersburg, PA, Vol. 1

So I'm here in Chambersburg, PA (and if you know me well enough, you know I pronounce that "Pah"), and have been here for a week now. I haven't quite seen the whole area just yet, but there's still enough material to mine so I can give you all a good idea of what this town is like. I'll go perhaps check out the rest of the area on my way down to West Virginia (cue "Dueling Banjos") to buy Powerball tickets... YEAH RIGHT!!! Like I'd waste my time on that. I have two very good reasons for not having any interest in Powerball: 1) it's 1 in 80 million odds, and 2) I've gotten so used to living on meager amounts of money, I wouldn't be able to handle $300 million. I have the vision in my mind of my head literally exploding if I actually won ("does not compute, does not compute...")

So, with that subject out of the way, I can once again prove that this column is as timely as today's headlines, and I can get back to the real focus of this column which is Chambersburg, Pah. Replacing the Riot House (R.I.P.) as my humble abode is a three-bedroom apartment carved out of a very large old house, which I share with two young women (cue the theme to "Three's Company"). My room is in the upstairs (third floor of the building), and it appears to have been originally intended for a simpler time when people's height apparently averaged around 5'2". I am 6' tall, and as such I will be lucky to get out of here eventually with a minimal number of concussions from smacking my head against the lower sloped parts of the ceiling.

In addition to a couple bumps on the head, I also had the pleasure of almost getting my right middle finger chopped off by a rogue newspaper vending box. That's the most important finger, of course; in addition to the obvious uses in traffic, I have found you really can't do SQUAT with your right hand if you have a banged up middle finger. Now how did I do this to myself? Well, there's a story with that and it all goes with my need to be as informed and entertained with my morning paper as possible. See, after reading the Sub-Standard, errrr, Post-Standard daily at my last job, I needed something that would do the same job here in Chambersburg. I started with the local "fishwrap", as Jim Rome would call it, the Chambersburg Public-Opinion. Now, Chambersburg isn't exactly Podunk, or worse yet even Selinsgrove, but the P-O was pretty lacking, other than the local coupons and ads. So, I stepped up a notch and went with the Hagerstown Morning Herald, which costs 50 cents. 50 FRIGGIN' CENTS!!! Don't let the geniuses at the Syracuse Newspapers know that they can charge 15 cents more a day for a crappy newspaper, and that's what this was. Sure it had a more regional slant to it; I do, after all, live within two hours of three other states (those being Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia... cue "Dueling Banjos" again). However, my main beef with this particular piece of newsprint was the fact that there's only ONE PAGE OF COMICS in it. I was raised on two pages, that is my birthright to read two pages of comics a day, dammit, and I'm not going to pay 50 CENTS for only ONE PAGE of comics. So, I upgraded to the Baltimore Sun. Sure, it's not quite local, but it's available, it's 50 cents, and it has the mandatory two pages of comics (although no "Get Fuzzy" which is my favorite strip these days, I'll have to deal somehow... *sigh*). However, it seems that by the time I get to the corner vending box after my morning at work, there's always only one copy left, the display copy. Have you ever tried prying these things out? It is a PAIN IN THE ASS. So on the third consecutive day of doing this, the inevitable happened and it became a pain elsewhere, as in my frustration to yank the paper out I accidentally let the door slip and it nailed my middle finger right on the tip.

The story does turn positive for our hero, folks. Now down to 9 1/2 fingers, I stop over to the local Sheetz to grab lunch. This is something I discovered on my last visit to Susquehanna University, my alma mater (see column #27). Sheetz is a gas station/convenience store, kinda like Mobil/On the Run, but much better. They make something called an M-T-O (Made-To-Order), which is a sandwich/sub/hot dog, prepared practically any way you could have it made, and they'll even make it on a BAGEL for you. I had an egg salad sandwich on a sesame seed bagel, with lettuce, and BACON!!! Why bacon? It was on the menu, that's why! And ohmygod, was it good. That just settles it for me, you're going to have to get a Sheetz up there in Syracuse, or else I'm never coming back, not even to visit (kidding... I think).

Now as to the other rustic charming quirks about Chambersburg. I have previously mentioned how incompetent I am in regard to navigating one-way streets. Well, the downtown area of this city, especially the main routes (11 and 30), is ALL ONE-WAY STREETS. I haven't taken any wrong way turns yet, but it's only been a week. On top of that, you drive down Route 11 South, and that particular one-way street crosses the one-way street known as US 30 West at a circle. Not a traffic circle, mind you, but a normal park-like circle with a fountain in it. And you don't drive around the circle counter-clockwise, you drive around it LITERALLY; if you're in the left lane, you go around the circle on the left side, if you're in the right lane, you take the right side. Bizarre.

Now back to the apartment, where one of the roommates had the foresight to get digital cable once upon a time. Those of you who have digital cable know why I think this is such a great thing; for me, it's two primary reasons: BBC America and the Game Show Network. BBC America means two words: MONTY PYTHON. And after that, you can flip over the the Game Show Network and watch an old episode of Family Feud from the late 70s and laugh at the sheer cheesiness of it all. Paradise, sheer paradise. And we get the Washington stations in addition to the Harrisburg and Hagerstown ones, although if you're sick of Chandra Levy, you may want to avoid their newscasts. The lone exception may be to turn on WUSA and guess whether or not the weekend anchor has had a nose job (I say yes).

After that, the remote takes me over to the NBC affiliate in Hagerstown, and I am confronted with the most annoying thing I have to deal with now that I am just a matter of minutes from Maryland: the Maryland accent. I have often stated to friends that the Maryland accent is the goofiest accent in the world, more so than a Boston accent, more so than a Long Island or Noo Yawk accent. Listening to isolated incidents of pronouncing the letter o as "oo", as in "phoon" instead of phone, is apt to produce giggles. However, as I now see examples of it everywhere (even the weekend weather person has one, and she has a THICK one), I am hoping and praying that I don't wind up with it. It is possible to pick up an accent by being expoosed to it for lawng enough, and frankly I doon't want to have to explain to people back hoome why I cain't talk normal noo more.

So Long, Syracuse!

It comes as no surprise to anyone that I would someday want to leave Syracuse, and to quote Don Geronimo mangling Jimmy Stewart, "Shake the dust off this one-horse town and see the world... Italy, Greece, Bowie..." Well I'm not going to Bowie, but somewhat close. Tomorrow morning I shall load up the U-Haul, and be bound for Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.

OK, please stop asking, I'm of perfectly sound mind in this decision. I can hear you all now: "So you're leaving Syracuse, a town where nothing ever happens for a town where less than nothing ever happens." Well yeah, but see there's a point to all this. I got a better job than the one I have now, so I'm outta here. That's all it was really going to take, after all. No offense to all the friends I've made here, especially since my return here after college (the first return in '97 and second over a year and a half ago). This is a pretty nice town when you slow down for a sec and look around. I've had plenty of opportunities to do that lately, as my car IS IN THE F%&#ING REPAIR SHOP!!! So I've taken the bus to work the last few days, and I've seen about as much of the city as anyone running for mayor lately I'll bet. I saw both the good and bad of this town. I walked around Clinton Square and saw how close they're getting to finishing that (won't get to see it open, though). I saw a nice downtown on a nice day. I also saw vacant store and office-fronts in other parts of downtown, and I rode on the bus through a very depressed West Side. Boarded-up houses, run down houses, a big mess. Sometimes you don't believe how bad things are until you see them for yourself, and it's pretty bad.

As I've noted before, of course, efforts to change things are often rebuffed by the locals, and that's another reason I can't get out of here fast enough. I'm just the latest in an entire generation that is fleeing for better climates, more welcoming climates, ones that are forward-thinking and progressive (and no Rush fans, that doesn't necessarily mean liberal).

Another reason I'm leaving, and perhaps most key is, to quote John Landecker in his last show on WLS (well, his first stint there anyway), "you can guess I wasn't getting everything I wanted". I want to be a DJ. The "big picture" for me of course is to someday attain morning drive superstardom somewhere, or to do a talk show which would be a mix of Landecker, Don & Mike, and Local Talk Host. I wasn't getting that chance here in Syracuse, and the only real way I could do it would be to go across town to another station and another company and radically reduced hours. It wasn't worth it, so I sought my fortune in another market. And as such, I am on the verge of invading market #165, Hagerstown, Maryland. Chambersburg is where the station is, a half-hour north of Hagerstown on the other side of the Mason-Dixon Line. Starting next weekend, I go back to entertaining the masses.

I would like to state some things for the record before I leave, however. First of all, this column sure as hell ain't going away. I have been told on many occasions lately that this is the best way for people I know to get a quick idea of what's on my mind lately or what I'm doing, my various misadventures and such. This won't become a running travelogue on south-central PA and western Maryland, but you all know if the locals do something that strikes me as interesting, I'll write about it here; god knows I did it enough with Average Syracusan.

Nextly (and if that's not a word, I just invented it), I'd like to say how great it was working with some great people in Syracuse. The many members of the staff who have come and gone or were here the whole time that I was at my former workplace over the past 19 months were usually nice people to be around (not always; we all have our bad days, after all). The support was always good and it was generally a great atmosphere to work in, and yes, I am being serious (I can hear the ex-co-workers snickering now). Even Local Talk Host was a pleasure to work with (seriously, PLEASE STOP LAUGHING). Don't doubt that I'll have the occasional thoughts to add to his interactive site in the future, although I won't be able to hear the show.

Which reminds me, I'm sorry to interrupt this lovefest with one of my rants, but I must. The RIAA has done it again, folks. They once again have denied the benefits of the Internet to the millions who use it, first by suing Napster out of existence, and now they have succeeded in preventing radio stations from broadcasting over the Web. They want to be paid double royalties, one time for regular over-the-air broadcasting, and a second time to go over the Net, and that is insane. They have single-handedly prevented local stations from reaching former residents (like myself) or general fans of the radio and music in general from surfing through a variety of other cities' best stations. Instead, the Internet is now solely the domain of Web-based radio, and while some people like my former housemate are thrilled at this prospect, the point is conventional radio stations are cut out of the pie because of greed. And this is what it has all been about from the beginning-- greed. The desire for record companies to squeeze a billion more out of a lagging music industry, which is not lagging due to the Internet, but more due to the fact that most of the music out right now SUCKS. -End of rant-

To everyone I have befriended in my over two decades in this town (geez, that's a long time), I wish you all the best in your future endeavors. You'd all better keep in touch and get down here to visit me (preferably in the winter, we get less snow down in Chambersburg, another plus). To everyone I am about to befriend in the greater Chambersburg-Hagerstown area (definite oxymoron there), you have no idea what's about to descend on your area. LOOK OUT WORLD, HERE I COME!!!

The Back-to-School Primer

It's never too early to think about back-to-school time, especially when they tend to start the back-to-school sales about two weeks after school ENDS. So in that spirit, and also to rub in the fact I no longer have to worry about this stuff cuz I'm DONE with school, I present the authoritative guide to preparing for the new school year. The authority, of course, being me.

First, you need clothes. I know, I know, some of you think school supplies should come first, but trust me, there's no point in even going to school if you are not dressed correctly. The only question is what is considered dressing correctly? I didn't try to figure that out too much in my younger years, and paid dearly for it. So, I went with a standard setup that was guaranteed to never go out of style. Jeans and a t-shirt/sweatshirt/polo shirt. When in the last 40 years have jeans EVER been out of style? Of course, nowadays, they have solved that problem by guaranteeing that if you just wear conventional blue jeans, you are STILL out of style. Now, you gotta wear bell-bottoms or have the slit up the back of the bottom or whatever the hell it is now.

And of course, to be in style is beyond important these days when everywhere you look, people are yelling in your face from the TV that you MUST wear these clothes. Or else. Now all I know is if I'm a kid in high school these days, I don't wanna know what the "or else" is. I have previously theorized (in my very first column, actually) that the way fashion trends are decided is probably through the very scientific method known as throwing darts at a dartboard. Apparently, someone at Old Navy did this and decided, "Hey, let's bring back every bad fashion idea from the 70s!" Cuz sure enough, I see Old Navy ads on TV with people dressed like they just stepped out of the Brady Bunch. Now I know that retro is all the rage, but BAD retro is a totally different thing. And then when you run out of ideas, improvise; after all, though necessity is the mother of invention, laziness has to be the father. In past years, tank tops were the rage, then halter tops, then back to tank tops, so when you need a new fad, well hell, how about tops with ONE shoulder? Bingo, this summer's big fashion trend. Think of it as the fashion version of my earlier theory about cars, the one my dad initially came up with: "if it's not selling, add a door". In this case, if it's not selling, add a shoulder.

Now I should add here that it is much different for college students. Not the fashion, mind you, but the priorities in what to get first for back-to-school. High school students get clothes first, because clothes are most important; college students get a CAR first, because as much as clothes are the status symbol for high schoolers, the car you drive is even more so the status symbol for college students.

OK, now you've got your clothes and/or car, now for the actual school supplies. You gotta have something to carry stuff in, first of all. It won't be a backpack, seeing as how most high schools now believe that all of America's high schoolers are potential Columbine types who carry guns and explosives in their backpacks instead of books and pencils. So now backpacks and gym bags aren't marketed and instead you get carry-ons, kinda like a junior briefcase. Perfect size and dimensions to carry books and ONLY books. Of course, the first time someone smuggles a pistol into school in one of those things, they'll be banned, too, but I digress.

Like the carry-on, many ideas for useful products evolve from the trends of the past. Remember the Trapper Keeper? All of us who went to school in the 80s remember them, we swore by them, lived by them, beat them up, but that was the point. You could beat the crap out of these things and they'd hold up, and they held everything. So, this has evolved to the new fad which is these all-in-one three ring binder thingies that hold everything, cuz they got a zipper around the end, so you can zip it up and keep everything inside. I don't know what it's called, but they're all the rage and a must-have, and they're every bit as durable as that good ol' Trapper Keeper. Plus you don't have to buy the folders with your favorite pop star/celebrity athlete that went inside the Trapper Keeper. That was the only bad part about it, because by Christmas vacation, either the folders had been worn to the point that they fell off the rings or you had to throw them out because you favorite athlete had been traded or your fave pop star had fallen out of the limelight. Betcha those New Kids on the Block folders would fetch a good price on eBay these days, though.

Another prerequisite is the ridiculously expensive calculator. This trend started during my high school days, and the more advanced the class, the more expensive the calculator. The thing has to make graphs, figure out equations, all that good stuff, so that sets your folks back into triple digits. And if it's still like my experience was, you'll get more use out of it creating stupid games with it and playing them with your friends than you ever would actually doing the actual math work.

So now that you've spent upwards of a thousand dollars (most likely of your parents money), you're ready to go back to school, and your parents are rethinking all the happy thoughts they had of you going back to school and being out of their hair for a while. But it's over with and now you go back into the hellmouth that is our modern school system and try to make the best of it...

...for about two months and then your clothes are out of style and your school supplies are missing, given away, or busted/worn and you find yourself hitting your folks up for MORE money....

One Year Later

So here I am starting the second year of this column, and I was sitting here thinking of what to write about, what would be the perfect thought-provoking topic for the occasion, and I came up with the Internet. No, wait, let me rephrase that, don't want you to all think I'm pulling an Al Gore and saying "I invented the Internet". I mean, my topic shall be the Internet. Now I really don't want to bite the hand that feeds me, nor do I mean any disrespect to the over 1000 people who have been fortunate to cross this site in the past year, but seriously, this Internet thing of ours has some serious problems. By that I mean both with the Net and ON the Net.

Take for example the hubbub that erupted over a simple poll question on the website of my soon to be former employer. Over the ten-plus months that I have produced Local Talk Host's show, we have gotten so many negative calls about Hillary Clinton, it really has to make you wonder about the mental state of some people. Now, I certainly don't support her as a senator, I voted for Rick Lazio, even though his campaign press manager ripped me a new one over the phone at one point over something Local Talk Host said on the air. I do not agree with her politics, however, I could never really come to the point where I would blatantly say that I HATE her. Some people do, though; actually, a lot of people, and most of them, curiously enough, in Central New York. So, in keeping with that recurring theme/nightmare, the poll question this week is "Do you hate Hillary Clinton?"

A perfectly harmless question in my estimation. However, one philosophy professor at Syracuse University did not think so. He chose to take umbrage in print in the Sub-Standard, errrr, Post-Standard the other day, with a letter to the editor in effect trashing us for the so-called "hate" we were portraying through this poll question. However, the topper was when the paper, in its infinite wisdom, threw the following headline on the professor's letter: "Why is WSYR Promoting Indiscriminate All-Purpose Hate?" No "are we doing it?" Instead, it's "we're doing it, so why?" So, in keeping with this tempest in a teapot that has been created, Local Talk Host devotes the balance of his show to said letter, and the lines are jammed. Mostly people wishing to defend us, both on the phone and on Local Talk Host's interactive website, which is really cool, because it's true what they say about how in situations like these you find out who your real friends are. However, there were the obligatory yayhoos who were looking for an excuse to harass the host, only since I screen the calls, all they wound up doing was harassing ME. Which led me to go on the air and say the following: "This SU professor doesn't know what hate is, because he's never had to screen calls on this show!"

Anyhoo, the professor fires back by fax (from Paris, no less) today, and includes in his message that he had just revisited the website (probably the interactive one in this case), and was appalled at the hostility therein. He was referring to the myriad posters who rushed to Local Talk Host's aid and called the professor everything from "The Nutty Professor" to a PC Socialist. All of this really leads me to wonder about the mindset of the people who without hesitation express their views online every single day, and in a variety of forums on a variety of topics.

Take for example the number of forums the local litterbox-lining devotes to sports, high school sports, college sports, and the like. Here is where you have the people conducting nit-picking of all kinds of high school programs to the point where they believe that ultimately any problem is the coach's fault and that the coach should always be the one held responsible for any negative, and thus must be summarily canned. Here is where you find the SU fans who respond to positive support of the football team with "we got a life" or "shut up, Pasqualackey".

Then, I go to the local radio posting board, and the newest ratings came out, and the monthly or tri-monthly pissing contest starts between the two Top 40 stations in town, although the "established" one seems to be less a Top 40 and more an Adult station. Anyhoo, on nights like these, you will see one person posting under five different aliases to tell the world how much station B sucks in as immature a fashion as possible. How do I know that this person is using five aliases? Easy, the IP address is on the screen for every message, consider it the "Caller ID" of the Internet. Ironically, when I inquired on said board as to why people do these things, the respondent (who told me that maybe it's different people on the same network) had the SAME IP ADDRESS as the nitwit with the 5 aliases.

Worse yet is this person who makes a point to visit the local news forum every so often and post repeatedly, on nearly every running thread, slanderous comments about Syracuse policemen sodomizing young boys. Not only is it sick, but then the moderators have to go in and delete all the threads these posts appear on, thus snuffing out whatever rational discussion had been previously going on.

And then there's this Code Red "worm" that is causing trouble for computers all over the world. Of course, this isn't the first time that such a problem has occured; viruses are unfortunately a part of everyday life for the computer user. Our local resident computer guru at the radio station puts it perfectly, that if these people were smart enough to create such havoc, think what good they could have done if they had just used their powers for good. Something to chew on...

Consider it something to think about any time somebody throws up some ignorant, ridiculously pointless garbage on your local cyber-gathering place. Sure it's idealistic, but as I have admittedly been one to consider those types of ill-advised public displays of stupidity, it's perhaps a goal we all can aspire to, myself included.