One thing I have yet to see mentioned elsewhere, but which I was stunned to note whilst sitting on my couch, was that ABC ("is this a mistake?" I wondered at the time) actually allowed the UT marching band onto my TV set! I am so, so, so sick and bleeding tired of big name rock/country acts with dancers and smoke bombs and lip syncing and what-all-else during these games, when all of these Div. IA schools have fantastic bands (many on scholarship themselves) who work like dogs rehearsing and travelling with the teams and put on simply fantastic shows, and we never, ever get to see them anymore, because some yahoo network program director thinks that America has to see the Rolling Stones drag their tired old butts out and pretend to play. Save it for the NFL, and let me have my college football experience, dammit! Let the band play the national anthem, too; I was listening to Lee Ann Rimes on the radio singing the anthem before the Orange Bowl and had to turn it off, it was so damned bad. At least the band would play the actual melody. You can save the militaristic fly-bys and rah rah shoutouts to the troops, too; puhleeze. Want to show our boys we love them? Bring them home and let them watch the games in their own living rooms, just like us.

Nice of you to give kudos to Keith Jackson; every fall for the last 5 years I've known I was listening on borrowed time, but I so hate to see him go -- he IS college football, to me.

Oh, puh-leeze, MUST you hold Alex Rodriguez up as the standard to which all professional athletes should aspire? The man is an overpaid whiny brat, who demonstrated for the world to see during that 2004 ALCS that he is not above taking a cheap shot, which is to say, cheating, when the chips are down. So spare me, please. Find someone worthier of our esteem.

For my money, the best calling going on isn't on TV at all, but on CBS radio, where you can hear John Thompson Jr. giving fabulous (and sometimes hilarious) analysis. I heard him call the first Georgetown game, and you wouldn't even have known he had a dog in that hunt until it was over. If CBS could just stick with one game at a time (yeah, I know this is not possible), I'd turn the sound off and turn on the AM radio.

Mr. Keillor has touched a nerve in some people, as well as a funny bone in others. BBD broke my heart, thank you so much for the lovely and loving description of your mother!

Although my son certainly did not have a conventional upbringing, I do think I was a good mother (unlike some of the moms these sad letter-writers have described), and to prove it I have sent GK's latest off to my son in college. He always used to like listening to PHC with me, before he became a teenager and contemptuous. We'll see what comes of it, what with all that college tuition and those creative writing classes!

Had to weigh in on this one. After viewing and reviewing (after I caught my breath) the tape, I could only come to one conclusion: damn, that was the bravest thing I've ever seen. What Colbert did was so stunning, so courageous, so audacious. He got up in front of a room full of smug, self-satisfied people who were NOT going to like what he had to say, with the President himself sitting mere feet away from him, and he did this marvelous, stupendous thing, and he did not flinch, not once, even though he had to know they were going to loathe him for what he said, that the fallout was bound to be brutal. Talk about Daniel in the lions' den. This was, truly, speaking truth to power. No, of course if wasn't FUNNY. How the hell could it possibly be FUNNY? But it was sublime. Thank you, thank you, Stephen Colbert.

In this day and age? I'm astounded you managed to find one; I can't remember the last time I saw a Catholic priest wielding a censer (or if he did wield one, know how to use it correctly). Usually one has to go to the local ANGLICAN church for the whole "smells and bells" thing.

Silly rabbit! Ovcon 35 is about to go generic, and this is the ploy the geniuses at Pfizer came up with to prolong its life as a third-tier drug. My gynecologist clued me in to this when she (with some embarrassment) handed me some samples so that I could avoid the hefty insurance co-pay. I can't testify to its chewability, tastiness, or anything else -- I just take it with water, the old fashioned way, with the other morning meds.

Yeah, King, isn't it time you got that kid a job at ESPN?