I saw the neighborhood skunk tonight. It was about 10:00 and I was pulling out of the driveway and there it was about four houses down on the tree lawn. Just sniffin' around for some bugs. Looked pretty big, too. When I returned, I saw some walkers and wondered what the hell would you do if you didn't see it quick enough and then there it was. Probably get to the other side of the street quickly, I imagine.

Hey, I finally tested my lawn mower for a minute or two yesterday, with the first real usage coming tomorrow. As I mentioned, it is a Craftsman, but the first thing that jumps out at you is how light it is. Now the old-timers would say it's cheap construction and they may be right. Lots more plastic involved. And I'm not sure the bag is as big as my old one, although the emptying of it is much easier. But I must say, the self-propelling is much, much better on the new one. The designers and manufacturers have done a lot in the last 13 years or so.

Meal of Links

SoapNet died. I guess DVR killed the daytime-at-night network.

The FreeCreditReport.com band is breaking up. Relive the bad ones. "Ren Faire" reminded me of a Men Without Hats video. But the original still puzzles me. The guy had his identity stolen, so he had to work at a seafood restaurant?

Here is your World Cup calendar. All in a neat format in Spanish. By date, group, team, venue. Also, a nice read on Maradona. "Hand of God or Brain of Idiot?" for this year's Cup.

How to take photos of a cool place. Without those annoying people interfering.

To channel Tanya Roberts: "The grill is calling." I will get my weekend provisions soon.

HBO has been running this a lot lately. But with the return of the Philadelphia Flyers to the Stanley Cup, you may wanna watch "Broad Street Bullies". I think do they do a great job of conveying how hated those teams actually were. Today, people may dislike the Yankees or Celtics and think they hate them, but back then people HATED the Flyers.

Remember the volcano that erupted in Iceland a while back. There was talk of that even bigger volcano. Well, that looks like it is going to erupt.

Oh, no. As if that wasn't enough bad natural disaster news, here come the hurricanes!

Do you know who Rickey Minor is? I know he's no Simon.

Crime has dropped a lot since the 1970's. And there are some clear reasons for it.

This reporter steals a favorite line of mine. Can you guess which one?

Ozzy, You Devil!



Exercise Yard

A Cleveland fan looks back at Tony Horton. Many great references including Banner Day (Yes, they had that), Camera Day (That, as well) and, of course, the Folly Floater.

Visitor

5 Across: Center of Cleveland? (5 letters) Answer: O'Neal