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.

Mute Vitale

I simply cannot take any more of Dick Vitale.

"26 wins, Tubby Smith averaged 26 wins!"

"Sign in the yard, someone put a for sale sign in the yard."

"Full page ad, someone took out a full page ad."

"Kentucky fans, it's that five percent that are bad."

Guess what Dick? Five percent of UK fans may be crazy, but 95 percent cannot stand you. You are an idiot. You add nothing to the games you are calling and could care less about the game unless it is Duke versus North Carolina. You use your time on television to promote your products and push your own agenda. Beyond that, your not even good at what you do. The only thing you are good at is promoting yourself. For the sake of actual college basketball fans, could you find another venue to preach. We really just want to watch the game.

Big Blue Badness

First, let me say that I generally am an unconditional supporter of UK athletics. There are few exceptions. The Midnight Madness ticket distribution debacle on Saturday was an exception.

5:30 a.m. - I wake up feeling pretty good, considering the previous evenings beer intake.
6:30 a.m. - Arrive at Memorial Coliseum. The line looks ridiculous, so I decide to try online at
my office. My wife, who also woke up early, is at home trying to get tickets online as well.
7:05 a.m. - No luck online for me or my wife. Ticketmaster is giving the impression that all the
tickets are gone, but I know this cannot be the case. My wife checks out what people are saying on the Catspause message board. No one on there is able to get tickets through Ticketmaster either.
7:15 a.m. - I decide to walk to Memorial to try to get tickets. The line is still fairly
long, but it is moving pretty fast. I notice that the people who just got tickets are
getting back in line to get more. A guy behind me says that it his sixth time to go
through the line.
7:25 a.m. - I am about 15 feet away from ticket booth. Sandy Bell is standing there and is
checking vouchers.
7:26 a.m. - What the hell is a voucher? Do I need one? I walk past her and nothing is said. I
proceed to the ticket window. The associate asks me for my voucher.
7:27 a.m. - What the hell is a voucher? Do I need one? The girl won't give me tickets. I tell her
that I started in the back of the line. I have waited in line. No one gave me a
voucher. Where am I supposed to get this voucher. I am sent to the back of the line.
7:35 a.m. - I start through the line again. The line is about 5 people wide. About half way
through the line, there is a non-official looking person on the left side of the line
handing out little pieces of paper. If you were on the right side of this line, this is the
guy that you did not see.
7:40 a.m. -I am second in line at the ticket booth. The guy in front of me gets the last available
ticket. As I walk away, a UK athletics official looks at Sandy Bell and says, "I think
that went pretty well."
7:41 a.m. - If that went well, I would hate to see it go badly.
9:00 a.m.- UK Athletics website posts that Ticketmaster is having problems. We are never
able to log onto Ticketmaster.
10:00 a.m.-We go to a Kroger to see if the Ticketmaster booth inside has any tickets. They tell
us the event is sold out.
10:01 a.m. - I start cursing.

At the time of this writing, I am still cursing.

Why it's tough to be a Cub fan

I'm a Chicago Cub fan.

Being a fan of a team that is known throughout the sports world for its reputation as losers flies in the face of sports fandom. Think about it- most people pick teams to cheer for because they are good. See Kentucky, University of. People that don't go to and have never attended U.K. love "their Cats". Something about a long history of winning will do that to fans. Make them jump on the bandwagon, if you will.

But, what about a Cub fan? How the hell does someone decide to cheer for a team that loses? Always loses. Always, always.

Most are brought into the fold the same way they pick their political party or their religious beliefs- because that's what their parents were. And others, like me, are converts. Through some kind of "road to Damascus" awakening, some people get wrapped up in a team.

Maybe when you were a kid, you saw NC State make an improbable run to a national championship in basketball led by a 5-4 point guard and a shooting guard that drained 6 or 7 25-footers per game in an age where the three point line was still just a gimmick for the idiotic NBA. Maybe that made you follow the Wolfpack the rest of your life. That's a good conversion story.

For me, it was marriage. This is not a good conversion story.

I married into the Cubs. My in-laws have been Cub fans their whole lives. My father-in-law has been suffering heartbreaks for the past 60 years. Time and time again, he's gotten his hopes up only to see them smashed into eleventy billion pieces. Like a zealous convert to Branch Davidiansim, I jumped in with both feet after I got married and got lost in the team. And I've subsequently been heart-broken by a dork in headphones that stole a sure out in 2003 and wrote another chapter in the Cubs sorry history.

I'm telling you that story so I can tell you this one-

The Cubs clinched the NL Central last night. It was a division of bad teams, but they won it. And now that they're in the playoffs, anything can happen.

So, this should be good for me, right?

Wrong.

I had tickets to that game last night. The Mrs. and I packed up for a rare night out. We left for the game and hit a traffic jam on I75 that can only be described as a disaster of biblical proportions. We travelled 5 miles in roughly three hours. By the time we even reached an exit to get off the interstate, the game was entering the third inning and we were still 75 miles away.

At this time, we decided to give it up, eat our 30 dollars worth of tickets, and go to a sports bar and at least watch the game. So, since the Cubs aren't a guaranteed television selection at Lexington bars, we opted for Trumps on Southland. A sports bar with a satellite and 30 t.v.s

It was closed. Like permanent closed.

We finally got to watch the last three innings, but there is somthing poetically ominous about our misadventure. Even when things go well for a Cub fan, it still sucks.