I mean there’s no hurricanes.  And the humidity is non-existent, except on that rare muggy night.  But we get those rare muggy nights very rarely.

I’d feel a lot better about the whole attack/counter attack thing if I didn’t have a very dear friend visiting the Middle East right now.  Safe travels, Amy, safe travels.

Thanks for your overwhelming response to last week’s column.  Dr. Higgleston managed to smuggle out these product shots of his newest creations, bringing to nine the total number of Cheez-It varieties.  Is that man brilliant or what?  He should be released any day now.  More Cheez-It information is available at, where else, www.Cheez-It.com, which brilliantly bills itself as "Crackers in Cyber-Space."

Of course, no less stupid in the race for "Stupidest Maris Chase Story of the Week" was the take out of Chicago that an Astros pitcher, his team having a huge lead in the late innings, grooved a pitch or two in for Sammy Sosa to knock out of the park, which he did.  Oh yeah, did I mention that the pitcher and Sammy are both Latin Americans?  They’re buddies from back home.  So *of course* there had to be some kind of Hispanic conspiracy!  Stupid, stupid, stupid.  Is this what sports reporting has sunk to?