In response to a message I got from my newly-married friend L-Mo, yes, the episode of My Life on the D-List where Kathy’s dad cry did make me tear up. That episode was genuinely touching and emotional. Be sure to check this blog for future episodes of me emasculating myself.

___________

No, seriously…

A former Marine took down and lectured a bank robber as he waited for the police to arrive.

An 87-year-old Utah man disappeared from his home and turned up 48 hours later — in Pennsylvania.

An enlisted Bronx man and his wife allegedly hired a hitman to shoot the man in the leg so he wouldn’t have to go back to Iraq.

A man burst into a BBQ near the Capitol in Washington, D.C. and tried to rob everyone. He ended up staying and having a lovely evening.

__________

The second half of the Fanhouse’s ranking of the best quarterbacks in the SEC.

Could smarmy Dan Patrick be replaced on ESPN radio by the even smarmier Keith Olbermann?

A Milwaukee TV station is reporting that the Packers are reportedly interested in a deal for disgruntled Chiefs running back (and fantasy football God) Larry Johnson. By the way, this is the stupidest name for a sports blog that I’ve ever seen. Only in broadcast…

NFL.com’s Vic Carruci looks at the players most in need of a comeback in ‘07.

New York Magazine’s look at minor league baseball in the area. I’ve always believed minor league baseball games were much more fun than a game in a Major League stadium — not to mention less expensive. One of my favorite ballparks ever is Victory Field in downtown Indianapolis. It’s a quaint, clean stadium set against the skyline of downtown Indy. Great place to watch a night ballgame.

It’s going to cost Pitt $100,000 to rip up a custom made tile of its old logo in the Petersen Events Center. Someone in the athletic department is OCD.

The Indianapolis Star’s Bob Kravitz takes a parting shot at F-1, who announced it would no longer host its U.S. Grand Prix at the Indy Motor Speedway. Having lived in Indiana and in the Indianapolis area for more than half of my life, the F-1 race always finished third, to the Brickyard and the 500, in its relevance and importance to Indianapolis. Indy will be fine without F-1.

The Colts have de-activated Corey Simon, putting him on the PUP list — and he’s not even sure why.

The State (Columbia, S.C.) takes a look at the best and worst things that could happen to Clemson coach Tommy Bowden in ‘07.

There’s some static between Kevin Durant and his agent over Durant’s shoe deal.

Mark Cuban has applied with Major League Baseball to purchase the Chicago Cubs. This is great for the Cubs but I would love to see Cuban take off a slumping franchise, say the Pirates, and turn them into a winner.

Great New York Times story about the cross earing worn by Barry Bonds.

__________

Well-rounded news…

Valleywag’s Nick Denton on why Facebook isn’t the new Google.

LA Weekly’s Nikki Finke takes on Hollywood PR maven Mike Sitrick’s promotion of the new torture flick ‘Captivity’.

Thunderstorms and iPods are apparently not a great combination.

Apparently the CEO of Whole Foods Market has bigger problems than using an alias to pimp his stock on a messge board.

Florida Gov. (and Republican) Charlie Crist said the state will lower its CO2 emissions and make use of alternative energy sources.

Pop Candy’s favorite things this week include Bottom Line favorite Top Chef.

One story in particular had been yelling at the radio this morning. It’s this Oklahoma football story and how the program has to vacate all 8 of its 2005 wins stemming from the dismissal of Rhett Bomar and J.D. Quinn prior to the start of last season. I simply don’t think the punishment is enough. I think the program should not vacate the wins, they should forfeit them. All the teams they beat in 2005 should be credited with wins that includes their bowl game. Secondly, they should be put on probation.. no bowl games this year or next. The NCAA has to take a firm stance and let these football factories know that they need to keep an eye on their athletes. The programs have to be held accountable for the actions of their players. This story really makes you wonder what is going on with the Oklahoma Athletic Department. This is the second time in two years that the NCAA has come down with major sanctions against one of its cornerstone programs (former OU coach Kelvin Sampson was punished for making too many phone calls to recruits prior to his first season at IU).

___________

No, seriously…

How valuable is parking in New York? Try more than your house. Yet another reason living in the Big Apple is atrociously overrated, same goes for Boston.

A Connecticut man is being spared jailed time after spiking the grape juice of a local church with dish soap.

The British military has denied that they intentionally released man-eating badgers in Iraq.

__________

Eli Manning took a shot at departed Giants running back Tiki Barber yesterday. Finally, I think for all the complaining and sniping Tiki Barber did during his last two years in New York, it’s nice to see someone call him out. I just didn’t think it would have been the near-catatonic Eli.

The New York Rangers have rewarded goalie Henrik Lundqvist with a raise. So let me get this straight, the Rangers can give Lundqvist a raise, sign Scott Gomez and Chris Drury and still afford to keep Marty Straka, Brendan Shanahan and Jaromir Jagr? This story typifies my continuing frustration with Sabres management who just don’t seem to understand the modern free agency market in the NHL. They were mad that Edmonton made an offer to Thomas Vanek. THEY’RE TRYING TO GET BETTER! That’s what good teams do in the off-season.

West Virginia running back Steve Slaton has sights set on a national championship and says he’ll stay in school as long as it takes. My guess? Championship or not, he’s out of Morgantown after this year.

The New York Daily News’ Mike Lupica says A-Rod would be crazy to stay in New York.

The early season forecasts aren’t good for Purdue or IU.

What kind of season will ‘07 be for Steve Spurrier?

Interesting L.A. Times piece about new USC QB Mitch Mustain. I think Mustain will be the Drew Henson of USC, a semi-notable playing wearing a headset and a ball cap. The school is consistently recruited top talent at QB and having to sit this year out could put him behind Mark Sanchez and freshman QB Aaron Corps.

Marlins president David Samson is emphatic in his claim that Ichiro’s contract with “ruin baseball.”

The Fanhouse on what IU needs to do this season to move forward from the passing of Coach Hep.

Pete Carroll says LSU head coach Les Miles didn’t slam the Trojans; he slammed the teams they play.

Darius Miles is a nice guy.

The Memphis Grizzlies have signed a deal with Darko Milicic. At this point, I don’t think anyone has any idea what this kid can do. I’ll be interested to see how he performs in Memphis if he can get consistent minutes.

Fanhouse’s 6-12 ranking of the SEC’s quarterbacks.

Oklahoma is planning to appeal the ruling handed down from the NCAAPre yesterday.

Hoosiers’ at no. 8 in “Premature” basketball poll.

__________

Well-rounded news…

Bush 86’s press conference joke.

The nation’s largest union of firefighters is appealing to Americans not to support the presidential bid of former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Entertainment Weekly interviews Stephen Colbert about his upcoming book.

The 20 best and worst celebrity blogs.

USAToday’s Pop Candy blog wants to know about your favorite band t-shirt. Mine’s an old Bush t-shirt, circa Razorblade Suitcase, with Gavin Rossdale’s mug on the front that I found at Goodwill in Terre Haute.

A tough story to read. An interview with the man who was involved in the car accident that killed David Halberstam.

Author and Bottom Line fav Chuck Klosterman is planning to write a sports book.

Digg founder Kevin Rose sounds off on the controversy over DiggNation’s parent company Revision3, suing a user who pirated episodes of the FREE show. This story is hard to swallow for me. I enjoy DiggNation, I kind of think Kevin Rose is a psuedo-intellectual, pseudo-artsy, pretentious moron but I find the show enjoyable. And I have a hard time dealing with the fact that they threatened legal action against a guy who pirated the podcasts when they themselves have talked openly about their own piracy on the show. If only Architecture in Helsinki did a song about hypocrisy than maybe Kevin would quote lines from it on the show while name-dropping the band.

__________

Favorite Story of the Day

Whole Foods CEO John Mackey is alleged to have gone on a Yahoo! stock market forum under an alias to pimp the company’s stock and trash talk rival companies, particularly Wild Oats. Well done, John! I mean can’t all over-priced health food chains get along?