Tim Russert, RIP

Friends, I'm sad, as perhaps you are, by the news of journalist Tim Russert's sudden death.
Here's the story.
Aside from his keen journalistic skills, I admired him equally for his apparent soft touch and for being a "regular" person. So often, you see people at the top of their respective professions walking around like gods--with great arrogance. Russert seemed to have his feet on the ground.
NBC's Brian Williams called him "aggressively unfancy." I like that.

A dream state

So just now I had a massage.
If you are in the Columbus area, may I recommend this place.
My mom gave me a gift card at Christmas and here we are in June ... But, better late than never.
What a dream. Yet, if you were to touch my arm or leg right now, you'd skid off. She put this oil on that makes me feel like a walking can of Pennzoil.

A butter bean sandwich?

Visiting with a friend today, the conversation turned to good veggies out of the garden. He then told me that he used to eat butter bean sandwiches as a kid. So of course I Googled it and here's what we got:
"Cook big speckled butter beans the night before. Mix them with chili sauce to make a paste. Place this between two pieces of white bread."
My grandmother and her sister-in-law, as I recall, ate tomato sandwiches in the summertime. But I'd never heard of the butter bean variety. You?

Verbs and the candidates

Now that we have the Presidential field narrowed to the requisite two, it's time for the onslaught of verbs.
Such as:
Obama challenges McCain on ...
McCain takes on Obama's ...
Obama fires back at ...
Obama says he'll fight for your .... ("fight" is a particularly popular word among politicos. They're fighting? For ME?)
McCain: Bring it on!

I say we have a contest. Between now and November, let's see how creative we can be in predicting verbs the candidates will use against the other, or verbs they use in addressing the public.

Foot in mouth disease

Don't know about you but I started my day insulting someone I'd just met.
It was at an early meeting (early for me: 7 a.m.), and I'd barely had coffee. Another man introduced me to this guy--both live in Savannah--and I said, "Oh, aren't you one of those guys who's retiring?" (A meeting yesterday contained announcements of some retiring clergy and apparently I got this guy's face confused with another one. Or maybe both were wearing bow ties.) Oops. The younger guy says he's about eight years from retirement, thanks very much.
Even after apologizing profusely, I still felt guilty, so I wrote a check after the breakfast for the organization he represented.
I've always fancied myself a morning person, given that I go to bed before most people I know. And yet my brain doesn't wake up for awhile in the mornings.
What about you, Internet? Are you morning people or night people? I think we have had this discussion before. But I have been awake for so long (or so it seems), I can't remember.
Stay cool.

'Hot' Olympians?

This is slightly offensive to me. (OK, more than slightly.)
Apparently it's not enough to be an OLYMPIC ATHLETE; you have to be drop-dead gorgeous, too.
Eighty-eight made the list for this story.
Wonder what all the other ones are thinking? (Maybe: "I hope that everyone who knows of my athletic ability is blind"?)

Big Brown booted

Big Brown, the heavy favorite to win today's Belmont Stakes and thus the Triple Crown, failed in his attempt.
Not sure yet what happened to him.
Click here for the Reuters report.
A 38-1 odds horse, Da'Tara, took the title. His jockey is Alan Garcia.
My next question: How do those jockeys stay so SMALL?

Photo by Reuters.