Et cetera – GOOD MORNING FRANKLIN COUNTY
By Staff
Today is Friday, November 26, 2004. It is now only 29 days until Christmas. Expect partly cloudy skies today with a high of 57 degrees. On this day in history:
1789 – The first national observation of Thanksgiving is held.
1865 – The book Alice in Wonderland is published.
1922 – Charles Schulz, creator of the "Peanuts" cartoon, is born.
1941 – President Franklin Roosevelt declares Thanksgiving an official holiday in the United States.
1975 – Lynette Fromme is found guilty of attempting to assassinate President Ford.
1982 – Howard Cossell gives up announcing professional boxing matches due to his disgust with the state of the sport.
PLAYOFFS CONTINUE
Congratulations to Red Bay and Russellville on big wins in the playoffs last Friday night. The third round of the state high school football playoffs gets under way this evening. The Red Bay Tigers will travel near the Georgia line to Randolph County to play Woodland. Russellville travels to Huntsville to take on Buckhorn. Both games will kick off at 7:00 PM.
AND THEY'RE OFF
Today marks the official beginning of the 2004 Christmas shopping season and it will probably be a mad house out there today. Just in case you need some suggestions for some little ones this year, here is the latest list of "Hot Toys" for this season:
1) They're Back! Cabbage Patch Dolls
2) Bratz
3) V. Smile TV Learning System by V-Tech
4) Ms. Pac-Man TV Games by Jakks Pacific
5) VideoNow, a color video player by Hasbro
6) Bandai's Tamagotchi Collection
7) Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper Dolls
8) E-L-M-O by Fisher-Price sings and dances to a rendition of YMCA
9) Hershey's S'mores Maker
A COSTLY SWING
If you ever got into a fight at school that swing you took probably cost you a trip to the principal's office or a couple of days of suspension. That does not even come close to the cost of some swings taken by members of the Indiana Pacers basketball team at a recent game.
I'm sure you have seen the video of the big fight last Friday night at the game between the Indiana Pacers and the Detroit Pistons. It was ugly as fans and players got into what some people have called the worst brawl in the history of sports. The final outcome was a season long suspension for the Pacers' Ron Artest and 25 to 30 game suspensions for Jermaine O'Neal and Stephen Jackson.
Keeping in mind that the suspensions are without pay, I have calculated the number of swings each player took that night along with the loss of pay. Here is what each swing cost the three Pacer players:
Ron Artest: Lost salary – $4.99 million; Swings – 8
Cost per swing – $623,750
Stephen Jackson:Lost salary – $1.63 million; Swings – 7
Cost per swing – $232,857
Jermaine O'Neal: Lost salary – $4.11 million; Swings - 3
Cost per swing – $1.37 million
Those figures will probably go up once lawsuits are filed by fans who were at the game. Needless to say, those were some expensive swings. Needless to say, the whole incident was needless.
Richard Parker is Minister of Students and Education at First Baptist Church in Russellville. You can e-mail him your comments at RParker@russellvilleFBC.org.
