Breakfast of Champions

I love a good book. As a kid, I owned all the Matt Christopher books and called the Encyclopedia Brown series a favorite of mine. In middle school, it was Dean Koontz novels. High school led me to read a lot of sports non-fiction and classical literature. College years was more sports fiction, New York Times Best-Sellers, and religious and philosophical texts. Now a days, I don't read as much as I would like, but it's mostly popular fiction and various books on management, baseball and philosophy. One book that I missed (regrettably) was "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs" by Chuck Klosterman. My boy John suggested it to me one day and I recently picked it up a few weeks ago. Last week I cracked the paperback open and wow, it's changed me.

Klosterman is my kind of guy...not only does he rock the thick-framed glasses, but he loves pop culture, is extremely witty and his commentary is hilariously scathing and sharp. The book's various irrelevant subjects include Klosterman's disdain for soccer, the coolness of the uncool Billy Joel, Guns N' Roses tribute bands, how the Sims video game shows "even eternally free people are enslaved by the process of living", the Celtics-Lakers rivalry (the chapter I'm on right now), and how John Cusack has ruined his chance with women. And that's only the first half of the book that I've read.

If you are a pop culture junkie, this collection of essays is a must-read.

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Last night, a light on my dash lit up with a little orange glow. It read "MAINT REQ'D". I never took auto shop, I've never stepped in Detroit, Michigan and I darn well can't even change my own oil, so suffice to say, I'm clueless when it comes to cars. What does this cryptic message mean? I can only assume "maintenance required", which means I need to take my baby to a Honda dealer pronto. But if it actually stands for "maintenance requested," well, then it's just a request. A suggestion, really. A suggestion I will not honor. I will drive another 53,000 miles until that orange hue goes out!

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How 'bout them Jayhawks? If I was a betting man, I woulda laid the money big on Memphis...then again, my brackets had more Ls than Laverne's sweater collection.

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A recent Gallup Poll had me shocked: One in six Democrats would not vote in November if their first choice for president wasn't on the party's ticket. Sure something to be said for standing by your vote and I respect people who don't always tow the party line, but to blatantly just not vote because you are anti-Hillary or anti-Obama speaks volumes of the apathy (and future) of the Democratic Party.