Click it or explode

NASA released today its presumably final report on the Columbia disaster of 2003. They found several astronauts weren't wearing their seat belts when the accident happened. Is that the biggest passing of the buck ever? Hello, the freaking space shuttle exploded?

It's the people, stupid

My job affords me opportunities that most people don't get. Some are perks - not as many as you think – Brighton doesn't perk-colate like you might think. I did get a yellow and black Western Union backpack a few years ago that I swear I'm going to remember to take home.
More importantly, I get the chance to meet interesting people. With my move into a management position, I fear those chances are going to dwindle, which only make me savor those chances more.
This morning, I got to talk with Isidor Dominguez. You might have seen her house on the front of the Dec. 24 Brighton Blade in a ball of flames. She doesn't want your pity or self-pity either, insisting there are people worse off than her. That's hard to believe when your house burns down five days before Christmas. She says she is heartened by the generosity of the people of Brighton who have stepped up and helped and especially the unidentified man who stopped and pulled her away from the burning house. I'm always amazed by people's strength in the face of such adversity. I wish her well.

Well, hopefully I'll be a little more regular (no fiber jokes here, please. This a kids show) now that the holiday season is over. I hope Christmas was wunnerful for you as it was for me. All I had to do was put aside the ugly incident of cutting myself with my new Swiss Army barbecue grill knife on Christmas Eve. It was just a small cut made while I professed to my parents how much faith they had in me to buy me such a large knife ... there goes next year's chainsaw. Christmas was just as it should be – lots of great time spent with family, plenty of Mountain Dew and the unending battle to unwrap my daughter's toys from complex Chinese-packaging.
The end of Christmas can only mean one thing ... credit card bills. OK, not what I was going for. I was thinking more along the lines of New Year's resolutions. I have a ton. I always do. Most of them I don't share because it makes failure so much easier to handle. I'm excited about a new year at the paper, my first full one as managing editor. We have such a tremendous group here. They work so hard. I'm anxious to tighten up these once rock-hards abs, hopefully with the help our new Wii fit. I always like the sense of renewal a New Year brings – a chance to wipe the slate clean and not drink anymore ... or any less. I'd love to hear your New Year's resolutions. I promise to personally point out how each one is fallible – just one of the services we offer.

It's good

I feel like a kid this time of year. I love Christmas and the feeling of hope and renewal I get from this time of year. And I know, for many of you, this year hasn't been that great – layoffs and budget woes. But on Christmas Day, it feels like, at least for a little while, everything is good. I just want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and, if I don't get the chance, a very happy New Year.

Lovely weather for a traffic jam together

Thoughts and reflections for a Wednesday morning while I ponder the things I won’t be saying in this year’s Christmas letter.
• I don’t mind the occasional Christmas jingle but is holiday music any more annoying than when you’re stuck in traffic?
• I was compelled last week to find that man heading to Philadelphia and cram his homemade pumpkin pie down his throat.
• I won’t mention in the Christmas letter that I got Tasered at Chuck E. Cheese for stealing a child’s tokens.
•We had my oldest daughter’s birthday party Saturday.
• Great time but, from now on, I think I’m going to charge a battery admission
• Bring two Double A batteries or stand outside.
• I’m pretty sure we now have stock in Duracell.
• There also won’t be any mention in the Christmas letter of me falling off the neighbor’s roof trying to steal Christmas lights.
• Hey, the economy’s tough. What’s a guy to do?
• Don’t like artic cold front as a descriptor for our recent weather?
• Try brutally cold.
• When I was shoveling Sunday morning, a cloud punched me in the face and took my wallet.
• A new study says we shouldn’t be so hard on sleepy teenagers. Instead, blame it on the early school start time and their circadian rhythms.
• Or the fact that they’re up till 3 a.m. posting web photos of themselves cavorting in a Kentucky Fried Chicken dish sink.
• You think I’m kidding.
• Google it.
• I also will exclude from my Christmas letter that my boss recognized me for superior procrastination.
• No, wait.
• After that brutal cold front roughed me up Sunday, I was thinking about other ways to stop global warming.
• Wear more parkas.
Have a good week. Enjoy the holiday music.

Those dreaded, naughty words

Thoughts and reflections for a Wednesday morning while waiting for a good deal on a flat-screen television.
• I got out of my car at the grocery store the other night and a mother was berating her child. “That is a terrible word. That is the worst word you could ever say. You are getting your mouth washed out with soap.”
• I think he said “bailout.”
• It never ceases to amaze me the numbers of reporters local television stations send out to tell you it’s snowing.
• Part of me agrees with going where the news is.
• But the other part says we should stop pandering to color-blind people.
• Auto executives tried to make amends for their corporate jet gaffe by attending congressional hearings last week via hybrid cars.
• A day late and a dollar short.
• I would have preferred to see them take a jalopy to Washington together, singing, “Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang.”
• Other words that kid might have used?
• 401K
• If you saw the Tom Brokaw interview with President-elect Obama Sunday morning, Brokaw suggested that we tag an additional tax on gasoline to fund research on alternative energies.
• Obama wisely worked around the question. You don’t want your approval rating in the dumper before you even get in the White House.
• In fairness to Brokaw, he’s working on a new book, “The Brokest Generation.”
• My daughter found great joy the other night lining up her small, plastic Nativity set on the tracks of the train circling our Christmas tree.
• The trick is to get everybody off the tracks before the train gets there.
• We lost one cow.
• Other words that kid might have used?
• Turkey leftovers
• Reading the Rocky Mountain News as a child stoked my interest in journalism. Naturally, I’m sad to see its future in doubt.
• Not as
worried as I am about that many coffee addicts being out of jobs.
• Expect Starbucks to jack up their prices in preparation.

No, these really are my priorities

Wouldn't it be easier to just bail them out?

WASHINGTON - Taking aim at a BCS system he said "consistently misfires," a member of Congress planned to introduce legislation Wednesday that would force college football to adopt a playoff to determine the national champion.

Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, the ranking Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, didn't specify what sort of playoff he wants -- only that the BCS should go.

No, Brokaw, no

I touch on this briefly in my column this week but Tom Brokaw suggested to Barack Obama during an interview on "Meet the Depressed" that since gas prices have now gone back down, we should put a tax on gas, bring it back up to around $4 and use the excess revenue to pay for alternative energy research.
Obama wisely pointed out that gas prices aren't the only problem facing American families - ie: layoffs, hour cutbacks and foreclosures.
There is a main flaw with Brokaw's argument, other than I now think he is a complete maniac. So, we shoot back up the price of gas again with this tax? What happens in summer when the oil companies bump up their prices again (as they coincidentally always do during the summer travel season. We could logically be paying $8, $9, $10 for a gallon of gas.
Please, Mr. Obama, don't put Brokaw in the energy cabinet.

P.S. If you haven't signed up to be a follower yet, I don't know what's wrong with you. I really don't ask that much, do I?

Thank goodness

I know this is a common gripe of mine but thank God for the Denver media taking the extra effort this morning to let me know it was snowing. I'm just thankful I caught the news or I may have barreled out of my garage in the convertible and drove 90 MPH to work with little regard for the bad conditions. I could have been seriously injured without being reminded that the roads were bad. Needless to say, I was prepared.

Arming yourself for Black Friday

Thoughts and reflections for a Wednesday morning while pondering why select-a-size toilet paper never caught on.
• I’m all for Black Friday madness but when did people start bringing guns to toy stores? Taking Tickle Me Elmo at gunpoint doesn’t really capture the spirit of the season for me.
• A San Antonio man who rammed his truck into a woman’s vehicle on a highway last week told police he crashed into her while going more than 100 mph because God told him “she needed to be taken off the road.”
• That’s defensive driving.
• Do you think God could intervene and get me a closer parking spot at the mall?
• Select-a-size underwear wasn’t that big of a hit, either.
• They’re saying “brain-fingerprinting” could replace metal detectors as the security method of choice. Apparently, it looks for behavioral intent.
• Does this mean I have to jump around like a chicken?
• I’ll take off my shoes.
• It could be a real insult if they conduct a brain fingerprint and don’t find anything.
• Select-a-size fruitcake never made it to the shelves.
• There are two Denver radio stations that have been playing Christmas music since June.
• Apparently, the only caveat is they play that horrible song by Paul McCartney at least 12 times a day. Respectively.
• I got so confused watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. It was like a combination of the Tony Awards and the Today Show all wrapped up in one miserable ball.
• Where were the floats?
• And there was more lip-synching than a Britney Spears concert.
• A University of Utah study finds that drivers who talked on cell phones missed their designated stops about half the time and frequently drifted out of their lanes.
• This explains why they’re on the cell phone.
• They’re lost.
• Select-a-size socks weren’t that great.
• My toes always hang out.
• It was so nice of the government to announce we’re in a recession and have been for a year.
• Was it really necessary to share that information now?
• Do you people just like watching the Wall Street numbers plummet?
• An Denver-bound airliner with a shattered windshield landed safely at Kansas City’s airport Monday.
• You can’t escape gravel trucks anywhere.

Snownado

Hey, it's 11:10 a.m., Wednesday morning and the city of Brighton is testing its tornado warning sirens. How do we know it's a test? As a colleague pointed out, the city would never sound the sirens in the event of a real tornado!