Oops, I did it again? or $$ ain't everything

Huge police operation takes Spears from home to hospital
Story Highlights
NEW: L.A. Times: Britney Spears placed on "mental health evaluation hold"
NEW: Hold prompted by call police got from Spears' psychiatrist, Times reports
Police radio traffic: "The package is on the way out, " says L.A. Times reporter
For second time this month, Spears taken to a hospital

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A police motorcade the length of a football field escorted troubled pop star Britney Spears to a Los Angeles hospital early Thursday to get her some help, a law-enforcement official told CNN.

Okay I will take over from here. Who gives a flying rats netherregion? I go against my rant by ranting about this but it is my hope a person that follows this non-relevant individual "news" will read this rant and mabye jar a cobweb loose and realize; "Hey this might not be important." Britney Spears; if not a millionaire and at one point a fantasy of many males (even I liked the Crazy video [a lot]), would just be considered a bad mother and poor employee and would have been fired and have lost custody of her children already. But, in this world we reside in, the more outrageous and less talented the individual the more "interesting and newsworthy" they become. So, she still has a recording contract and can not show to court but still be considered for custody. I hope B. Spears gets her stuff together just so I don't have to see her on news, internet, newspapers or hear about it from someone that thinks she is a current issue. When you make Kevin Federline (why do I know his name?) look like the responsible one, well... the thing speaks for itself. So, coo-coo ca-choo Ms. Spears, take a bow and let's move on to important issues... Like who is pregnant in Hollywood? Now that is truly newsworthy!

What? It is not? Oh come on!!

Last note: this is an actual headline from CNN.com-
Many make millions off Britney's escapades

Spears exclusive photographs can go for $10,000, even $100,000

To Klive Jr.: The little girl in Man on Fire is really Bette Davis re-incarnated. She frightens most people but she can act. And more importantly, the lady playing her mother looked fantastic.

Hefty Lefty Gets Super-Sized

I could care less about Tom Brady's foot, the Scruples that live in Bill Belichick's sweatshirt, or the half time show of the Super Bowl (unless there will be some Janet Jackson type stuff going on). However, I am very thrilled about Jared Lorenzen being in the Super Bowl. You may know Jared as the former U.K. quarterback and the guy in the Subway commercials. What many people don't know, however, is that J-Load's physical stature is commensurate with his reputation in the Big Apple.

Jared Lorenzen has become a fixture in the Broadway theather scene, doing cameos in Broadway hits such as Rent and The Lion King. Jared also enjoys the New York restuarant scene, and his deft palette has earned him a renowned culinary reputation. Mix in the rapier's wit and funloving personality of Mr. Lorenzen, and you basically have a Big Apple media darling.

Lorenzen's success has begun to filter back to the Bluegrass, as many now consider him to be the living embodiment of the commonwealth. From his childhood days in Edgewood, to his college days in Lexington and on to the Big Apple, Jared has taught us how to shake it with that Kentucky since of swagger.

So here's to the Big Guy in the Super Bowl. Good luck Jared!

Edwards Says 'See Y'ALL Later'

Jon Edwards has dropped out of the presidential race, citing that his gut-wrenching accent was too much for the American voters to overcome. Edwards decision came one day after a non-delegated drubbing in Florida by Team HillBill.

In God's Party, Rudy Giuliani is also expected to drop out of the race today after his loss in Florida, proving that even old people can tell when someone is bat-sh#t crazy. Mr. 9/11 is expected to announce his endorsement John McCain.

Not Always Smooth

Ramel Bradley's legacy as a Kentucky Wildcat may not be that of glory, considering what the U.K. teams that he's been a part of have accomplished. After all, Ramel was a member of what many believed might be Kentucky's best recruiting class ever. A group that included McDonald's All-Americans Randolph Morris, Rajon Rondo, Joe Crawford; a recruiting class that was rated as the best in the country. Those three players, along with Ramel, were supposed to be the building blocks for several national championships in U.K.'s near future.

Unfortunately, things didn't exactly go as planned. Kentucky did manage to make it to the Elite Eight that year, held together by the leadership of Chuck Hayes. Shortly thereafter, the program began to crumble. There were so many things that happened, I will opt to just list them.

1. Something that needs to be recognized about Tubby Smith's best recruiting class are the two classes that surrounded the 2004 class. 2003 Class: Bobby Perry, Sheray Thomas, Woo, and Shagari. 2005 Class: Jared Carter and Rekalin Sims. With the exception of Sims, there really isn't even a role player in this group.
2. Joe Crawford tries to leave during the 2004-2005 season.
3. Kelenna Azubuike leaves after the 2004-2005 season.
4. Randolph Morris tries to leave after the 2004-2005 season.
5. Randolph Morris misses half of the 2005-2006 season.
6. Rajon Rondo leaves after 2005-2006 season.
7. Rekalin Sims leaves after the 2005-2006 season.
8. Adam Williams leaves after the 2005-2006 season.
9. Shagari Alleyne leaves after the 2005-2006 season.
10. Do you notice a trend here.
11. Tubby Smith leaves after the 2006-2007 season.
12. The horrific start to the Billy Gillispie era.

Weathering all of these unfortunate events, you have Ramel Bradley. 'Smooth' has been through it all, and sporting that crazy smile along the way. As Kentucky has seemingly (hopefully) turned things around this season, Ramel has grown into a complete team leader. Everybody knows that Smooth has always had the emotion of leader, but now his play is backing it up.

Ramel Bradley may not be recognized in the annals of U.K. history with the same regard as the Unforgettable's, but his contribution and dedication to the program should be remembered.

In recognition of his play in last weeks' wins over Tennessee and South Carolina, Ramel was named as the S.E.C. Player of the Week.

Senior Bowl Blues

The Senior Bowl didn't exactly go as planned for the four Kentucky Wildcats that took part in the game. Wesley Woodyard probably came out of the game in the best shape. The S.E.C.'s leading tackler led the south squad with six tackles, although Woodyard missed a key tackle late in the game.

Rafael Little started the game for the south squad, and even carried the ball on the south's first offensive possession. In the practices leading up to the game, Rafael won a lot of praise from the coaches and scouts. During the game, Little made a poor decision on choosing to catch a punt that was going over his head. After bobbling the ball, he did manage to make up several of the yards. Unfortunately, Little did not return to the game in the second half after sustaining an injury.

Jacob Tamme also started for the south team. Tamme made the first reception for his squad, but shortly after was involved in a Colt Brennan interception. Tamme finished the game with two catches.

Andre' Woodson had a tough go of things in the Senior Bowl. Andre' was the second quarterback used by the south squad. After reportedly struggling in the practices throughout the week, Woodson made two key mistakes during the game which may have hurt his draft status. The first being a fumble and the second by taking a sack in the end zone for a safety. Woodson did throw the south's first touchdown. Most analysts are now predicting Woodson to be taken in the second round of the NFL draft.

Long time reader...

What's up Cleveland!!! What? Oh, hey Lexington, I am a long time reader, 1st time blogger, so bear with me as I get my flow correct. That being said, I will try to contribute a fresh-ish vibe to this blog, while holding up the high bar set by the fine gentlemen that started this blog.

On with the show!!!!

In the vein of the great movies that have been out, I will go with another Denzel action piece. Man on Fire. Brief summary via IMDB:

In Mexico City, the former CIA assassin and presently an alcoholic decadent man John Creasy (Denzel Washington) is hired by the industrialist Samuel Ramos (Marc Anthony), with the recommendation of his old friend Rayburn (Christopher Walken), to be the bodyguard of his young daughter Pita (Dakota Fanning) and his wife Lisa (Radha Mitchell). Pita changes the behavior of the cold Creasy, making him live and smile again, and he feels a great affection for her. When the girl is kidnapped Creasy swears to kill each one responsible for the abduction.

Kick back and check this one out. Great lines, great music and Christopher Walken.

Senior Bowl moments, W. Woodyard played great, Tamme had a couple of catches, Little ran alright and Andre had a good touchdown pass but fumbled and took a safety. Most importantly, the UK players were sporting some new looking decals on their helmets. Is that a sign of new merchandise? We will let you know when we find out more news.

That is my final word.

Training Day

Continuing my series of examing movies that have been out for a while, we look at "Training Day".

This movie is awesome. Denzel is a great actor, but he's almost always in a role where he's the typical good guy. In this film, he is most assuredly not the typical good guy.

He plays an undercover cop that has to take a promising young police officer (Ethan Hawke) around the block a few times to see if he can cut the mustard as a narc. Denzel spends the whole day messing with Hawke's head and driving him around some of the scarier parts of town, trying to see if he has what it takes to deal with the drug dealers and users of the world. His tactics are unethical. His language is crude. He is a bully. And, he has a pimptastic ride.

In short, he's awesome.

Ethan Hawke's character struggles with the reality that being a narc means having intimate knowledge of drugs and perhaps bending the rules of good police officering every now and then. But, in the best scene in the movie, the situation Hawke struggles with most will have you leaning forward on your couch and hoping like hell he can extricate himself from one of the scariest and most tense couple of minutes of cinematic history.

If you watch this movie and don't think it's one of the best you've ever seen I'll come to your house and give you ten dollars.

Last Chance

Tomorrow you can see Andre' Woodson, Wesley Woodyard, Rafael Little, and Jacob Tamme in U.K. helmets for the final time. All four players are on the South team in the 2008 Under Armour Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama.

The south team is being coach by the staff of the San Francisco 49ers. Andre' Woodson will have some familiar faces at wide receiver, including Andre Caldwell of Florida and Early Doucet of LSU. Also playing in the Senior Bowl for the fourth straight year will be Louisville's Harry Lloyd Douglas.

Andre' Woodson has been named by analysts as being the best quarterback playing in the bowl, which also includes Tennessee's Danny Ainge and Michigan's Tom Brady. Louisville's Johnny Unitas and Boston College's Doug Flutie are not playing in the game, both of whom are currently predicted to be drafted before Woodson.

Mr. Pearl - Meet Mr. Clyde

In the words of U.K.'s football team, last night's basketball performance made me 'Believe' for the first time this season. The team not only showed improvement, but actually played pretty good. Gillispie's addition of the shadow man on defense worked brilliantly, and we were able to hold ourselves to only 12 turnovers on offense.

Perry Stevenson had his best game of the season, if not his career. Mahatma Gandhi once told me that four scorers are better than three. Last night, Perry Stevenson proved that to be a noble truth. PPat had his standard awesome game, which led Billy Clyde to refer to him as 'a star, he's just a star,' in the post game Sportscenter interview. Ramel was money at the free throw line, and J.C. hit some big threes when we needed them.

It was an all-around team effort, and one we sorely needed.

Hi, We're Wildcat Textbooks!

I know that we probably have somewhere around 5-6 loyal readers of this blog. However, if anyone reading this article got here because they googled "cheap textbooks and witty banter", let me give you the down-low on the goings-on here at this bookstore. See, we are kind of small-time on U.K.'s campus, but we're looking to change that. In this article, I hope to explain what it is we do here, while giving examples of what befuddles the living hell out of me about this industry at the same time.


First, ever since I've graced the University of Kentucky with my presence, whether as a student or as a bookstore employee, all I've ever heard about is how expensive textbooks are. Now, this has become more interesting to me since I came to Wildcat Textbooks. The reason is we do everything we can to sell the cheapest textbooks on U.K.'s campus. As a matter of fact, only three times was our lowest price guarantee even in doubt and all three times we adjusted the one to two dollar difference to retain the title of "least expensive bookstore this side of the Mississippi".


None of that surprises me - it's fun to scrounge around for the cheapest books, even if it's more work. What does surprise me is the number of people who still go to the bookstore that's found in the student center even though their books are far, far more expensive than ours. This will all change as we enter our second and third years here at this company, but right now it's frustrating. For instance, if I have one more phone call where a person says "I've looked EVERYWHERE for this book - do you have it there " I'm going to crawl through the phone and give them an atomic wedgie. Why do you have to tell me you did everything you could to NOT call here and get the book? I have a dog, maybe you could come by the house and kick her.


Jesus.


My point is, if the prices are that damn important of an issue, then y'all best start coming here to get your books and stay away from the store with the wall to wall carpeting. Our books are so cheap it stinks to high heaven in our store every time it rains because our roof has holes in it the size of those found in JFK conspiracy theories. And we have no carpeting of any kind. So there.

Lofton's Last Laugh, Tyler's First.

Bruce Pearl and his overly talented Tennessee Volunteers come to Rupp Arena tonight to beat up on our little kitty-cats. Over the past four years, this game has become a yearly reminder that Tubby Smith was a terrible recruiter. However, this year's Tennessee team will not only feature Chris Lofton, but also former UK recruit Tyler Smith. You may not remember Tyler Smith, but he was Tubby Smith's whiff #7 in an attempt to find someone to play inside with Randolph Morris. In this episode of Kentucky recruiting mishaps, the Wildcats were beat out by mighty Iowa for Smith's services. Tubby even doctored a family tree in an attempt to form a relationship with Tyler, but the raging nightlife of Iowa City proved to be too much of a draw.

After averaging 15 points, 5 rebounds, and making the All Big Ten Freshman team, Tyler decided to transfer home to Tennessee to be closer to his ill father.

Also keep an eye out for J.P. Prince, a relative of Tayshaun.

SWEET SIXTEEN

I'd like to go ahead and get one thing out in the open before I proceed- I'm a pretty big fan of cheerleaders. In fact, I married a former cheerleader. So, when I heard the University of Kentucky Cheerleaders won their 16th National Championship this past weekend I felt compelled to write a quick note about it.

The squad was nervous only because they had to go first. In the cheer world this is a little tough because you can't sit back and watch the others to see what you have to beat. On the other hand, when you go out and put up a good routine like our beloved Cats, you get to put the heat on the rest of the competition. Sure, it's nerve racking to sit around and watch once you're done and unable to influence the outcome any further, but when you're as dominant as this squad it doesn't matter.

He's No Joke

As with the theme of this year in UK sports, good football news has trumped bad basketball news over the weekend. Joker Phillips, UK's offensive coordinator, has been named as the next head coach of the University of Kentucky. Joker will take over after Rich Brooks retires, which is estimated to be sometime around the year 2011. This is great news on several levels, and I applaud Mr. Barnhart on his foresight in this hiring.

Reason #1 - Rich Brooks is old, and old people tend to retire. You can't say enough about what Rich Brooks has done for this program. With the added continuity of Joker at the helm, Coach Brooks' endeavor to resurrect the Kentucky program will not falter after his departure. Oregon has been good since Coach Brooks left the Ducks, and hopefully Kentucky can do the same.

Reason #2 - The reason why Louisville is not good at football right now. Kentucky is not a destination school for football coaches. If we hired an outsider after Brooks' departure, a reasonable amount of success at Kentucky for the new coach would provide the opportunity to move on to bigger jobs - see Petrino. Joker bleeds blue. He is from Kentucky, and he played for Kentucky. This is where he wants to be, so hopefully success won't make him jump ship.

Reason #3 - If Barnhart had not of acted now, another school would have hire Joker as their head coach.

Two Things You May Not Know About Joker Phillips

1. He lives on the same road as our regional clothing director, Ricardo Chuevroni. Although, probably not for long.

2. Joker's wife mows their own yard. Let's see how long that lasts.

Book Rush Bonanza

Book Rush: The term used in the college textbook industry to describe the first week of classes for a college semester.

It's finally over. Yesterday was my first full day off work since December 26th, and it was long over due. I slept until 10:30a.m., ate a huge lunch at P.F. Chang's, went and saw Juno, took a nap, and watched Kentucky get beat again. It was a pretty glorious day.

Overall, the book rush experience (our second at Wildcat Textbooks) was very positive. Our in-store sales were good, and our online sales were through the roof. The best thing about working at Wildcat Textbooks, however, is that most of our customers leave happy. Nobody enjoys buying textbooks, but students do appreciate finding the cheapest books, which is why we are here. Our goal this semester was to provide the absolute lowest textbook prices UK's campus. We sold two thousand different titles, and after it was all said and done, only two customers were able to find a single book cheaper at any other store.

The long hours of book rush inevitably brings about chaos, fatigue, elevated tempers, and drama. The spring 2008 book rush was my 18th as an employee, and it had a sprinkling of all the usual ingredients (crazy customers, concerned professors, lying/cheating publisher sales reps, and moronic coworkers). Don't get me wrong, 99 out of 100 people that walk in our door are perfectly stable, pleasant human beings. When thousands of people come into your store in the course of one week, however, you get your share of people who are full-time residents of Crazy Town. This year we also decided to throw a guy in a gorilla costume to add a little flare. In the end, the spring 2008 book rush was a success.

This past Friday, we celebrated with margarita's and a Dora the Explorer pinata. In the words of Mahatma Ghandi, it was a hoot.

A Letter In The Kentucky Kernel

The following is a letter to the editor that appeared in our fair University's student newspaper on Friday, January 11. I will run it in its entirety with my own comments in blue at the appropriate times.

This style of e-commentary is based on firejoemorgan.com, a very entertaining blog.

Away we go-


Eliminate UK Athletics Department to save money

In 2003, Vanderbilt University eliminated its athletics department on the basis that athletics had gotten too far away from the university's core mission: academics.

Good for them. A few things I know about Vandy - it's an expensive school, it's gym sucks, and a woman that ranks as one of the smartest, prettiest, and kindest in the world graduated from there.

Today, the Commodores' men's basketball team is 16-0 and ranks 13th in the nation according to The Associated Press, while the Wildcats, with their highly paid athletics department administrators and gold-plated practice facilities, are 6-7.

"gold-plated practice facilities" - I get it- UK's new practice facility is fancy and by god the program is not living up to it. Now, I'm starting to detect a little bitterness here, but let's go on a little further-

The solution to UK's budget problems seems simple to me: instead of raising student tuition again - a devastating proposal that will hurt UK's drive to a top-20 ranking - UK should follow Vanderbilt's lead and eliminate its athletics department.

So, this fellow thinks that if UK gets rid of the athletic department there will be more money for the university.

The problem with that thinking is the university pays nothing toward the athletic department.

The athletic department is 100% self-sustaining - something I found out in 2.34 seconds after doing a google search. 3.4 seconds later I found out that the athletic department gives UK president Lee Todd a minimum of one million dollars for non-athletic scholarships and other campus funding per year.

Let me repeat- not only does the athletic department cost the university nothing to run, it actually gives the university a minimum of one million dollars a year.

Doing so would not only save money,

Doing so would cost over a million dollars a year,

it would be a huge boost to the morale of UK professors who have long resented UK's emphasis on athletics.

This may be partially true, since some in the academic world may not care much about sports. But by and large the faculty I know pretty much cheer for their current employer, as well as their alma maters' sports teams. I don't know how huge a boost to their morale it would be to get rid of the athletic department, but if we did and the minimum of one million dollars a year was lost every year, some of them may be out of jobs and have their morale significantly un-boosted.

Vanderbilt is a fine school for UK to emulate

True. Vandy is a fine school to copy- why, one of their graduates is a person I know to be one of the finest human beings in the world. They also are ranked as the 26th best university in the country by the Times of London and 19th by U.S. News and World Reports.

- and they have proven that they can still be winners on the court.

Damn right they've proven it on the court. Vandy's basketball team has 7 NCAA championships, has more wins than any other team in the history of the NCAA, and has... oh, wait.

Those are UK's numbers.

Vandy has, uh, well they're off to a good start this year. I'll take a wait and see on emulating their basketball program, if you don't mind.

(name withheld by the goat)

Lexington resident

SEC Domination

LSU's whoopin' of The Ohio State National Championship Doormat in the BCS Championship game propelled the SEC to a stellar 7-2 bowl record for the year. The SEC has now won back-to-back national championships in basketball and football, proving once again to be the most dominant conference in college athletics.

Immediately following last night's game, ESPN's Sportscenter reported that the Duke / North Carolina basketball game is only weeks away, and that the matchup is the best rivalry in all of sport. When Dick Vitale was asked about LSU's victory, he reiterated that fact that Tubby Smith averaged 26 wins a year and that someone put a sign in Tubby Smith's yard. President Bush congratulated the Bayou Bengals this morning by emphasizing an Ohio State victory would have only emboldened the enemy, and that LSU would be wise to stay the course.

A Loserville Lickin'

I will admit that yesterday's battle between UK and UofL was about what I expected. Still suffering from a football hangover, this years basketball saga has become a bit of an afterthought for me. We are not a good team. Once this is accepted as fact, the losses really don't sting that bad. Even though we were spanked by a coach that I despise as a human being and possibly the most unlikeable group of Louisville Cardinals in the history of the institution, I'm not really smarting from the game.

Give the Devil His Due: On a coaching note, I will say that Pitino did win the battle. UK's four guard lineup threw off Louisville's game plan in the first half. Pitino adjusted accordingly at half time, as UK's line up was rendered useless in the 2nd half.

Now we move on to the SEC, and what an interesting 16 games it will be.

Big Day in the Bluegrass

It's always a big day in the bluegrass when Rick Pitino brings his ego back to Lexington. Things haven't exactly gone as planned for the boys in blue this year, but a victory over the Cards would definitely brighten the spirits of the big blue nation.

If you are like me and having a bit of trouble getting excited about the game, just take a visit to slick Rick's website, http://www.rickpitino.com/. If the music doesn't get your inner spirit bumpin', maybe you need to invest in one of Rick's highly acclaimed self-help books. -- Don't know where to eat, just check out the revered one's restaurant reviews. Have questions about life, god, where to get some killer hair implants? - Visit the ask 'Ask Pitino' section.

Nothing wake's up the bluebloods in the lower level like Pitino. Who knows, if we are lucky, he might even put Richie in!

Andre the Giant

This post pays homage to my childhood WWF hero and to my favorite UK football player of all time, Andre Woodson. Today, I was fortunate enough to spend some time with the latter.

As I have mentioned before, the past two years of UK football have been a transformation, not only for the football program, but also for me as a Kentucky fan. Basketball may be king in the bluegrass, but this year's senior class brought a sense of euphoria to the commonwealth not experienced since 1998's basketball championship.

Naturally, an element of stature resonates with a group (senior class) that rises above severe adversity and succeeds at an incredibly high level. However, I found Andre to be as humble and sincerely nice person as any I have ever met. The future NFL player also found it appropriate to spend a little time with My Old Kentucky Gnome.

Quick Hit on the Bowls

• The SEC is now 6-2 in bowls, with LSU / Ohio State remaining for the national championship.
• Appalachian State is arguably better than the Florida Gators.
• This is the 3rd year in a row that the Heisman winner has flopped in his bowl game.
• Andre Woodson broke the record for most touchdowns in school history, beating out Jared Lorenzen by a doughnut.
• Kentucky's victory over Florida State is the biggest bowl win for the Cats since the Great Lakes Bowl.
• Bowden, Bowden - The Cats have now beat Bowden Jr. and Bowden Sr. in back to back bowls.
• Who did Louisville play in their bowl game?
• Nashville is a better atmosphere for a Kentucky game than anywhere in the state of Kentucky.