Lotsa Little bits vol. 21.

ITEM:  Recently got back from a pleasant morning walk.  Pure blue skies, cool temps.  Far from last night's journey that was split between the first half of Mosquito War III and the second half of Revenge of Old Man's Colon.  Scrappy's favorite part came at our new "dog park".  It's basically a fenced-in area with a hoop to jump through, a ramp to climb over, and a tunnel to explore, along with benches for mom or dad ( you were expecting Cedar Point?)  The premise being give the puppy some sans-leash time and meet and greet fellow canines.  Scrappy is still learning the fine art of canine interaction, so I haven't had him in with a group yet, but he has roamed it solo, and frankly was much happier when I put the leash back on and he could explore the rest of the neighborhood.

This morning, though, he met at the fence a Basset girl who came loping up the way Scrappy does when you bring him a snack.  They touched noses and Scrappy spun around like a dancer.  She, however- as most Bassets do- looked like she was nursing a hangover.  I fully intend to let him do a meet and greet before the summer's through- as soon as I'm comfortable that it won't be a doggie catastrophe.

ITEM:  My friend Nain, in addition to blogging about her adorable terrorist Aubrey, is also a member of the legal profession and writes for her local legal paper.  Having subscribed to her posts, I am getting quite a cross section of modern jurisprudence.  For example, one story dealt with Frosted Mini-Wheats.  Apparently a few years back, they ran a commercial touting a report that claimed that children eating their product for breakfast were like 29% more attentive in school.  Of course, when you flesh something like that out with stats, you'd better be able to stand behind them.  Unfortunately for FMW, they couldn't and now there's a class action lawsuit that will be paying out damages to those who claim that the "unprovable" claim caused them to buy the product.  Eat your Mini-Wheats, Junior, there's gold in them there bowls!

On the other hand, you also get stories that really make you think, like a recent Supreme Court ruling.  Boiling down to the gist, the dude was being questioned (without benefit of Miranda) and at a certain point the cops asked a question that he went silent rather than answering.  I gather at this point he was Mirandized and eventually put on trial.  In the trial, his silence was used as evidence, and he was convicted.  They appealed, saying his silence was protected by the 5th Amendment, but the High Court ruled that since he hadn't been Mirandized, he would have had to actually verbally assert his Fifth Amendment rights, and since he did not, he was not protected.  The dissenting opinion thought that it should have been obvious BY his silence that he was asserting those rights, but the majority said that he had to be advised of those rights first.  Hmmm... I don't know about this one...

ITEM:  I'd just like to say a couple things about the basketball game last night.  First, while I will NEVER root for a "money talks" team like the Heat, I have to say how disgusting it was to watch the Spurs turn into a group with no clue how to play basketball.  They stopped rebounding, took only stupid shots, and blew a 12-point lead in OT.  Look at the film, Spurs, of the 4th quarter and tell me if you deserve to win.  The other thing, ABC has got to be the WORST sports network of all time.  Let's take a sporting event with pushing, shoving, and sweating, give it a fancy cursive logo as if it were Breakfast at Wimbledon, and then focus so totally on one team and one player that there is no doubt about your lack of neutrality ( or professionalism).  Just because Brent Pusberger likes a team doesn't mean the whole WORLD does.  That's why it is called a league and not "the Miami Heat and some guys they beat up on."

ITEM:  Bobby and Al, help me out here.  This has been a BAAAAD week for Philly in the news.  First, people are killed when a stoned excavator driver knocks a building down the wrong direction.  Then the dude that just did a workplace inspection of the site kills himself ( anyone out there smell payola?)  But now, we have a guy who settles an argument in an assisted-living home by CASTRATING one of the participants- a paraplegic, at that!  Good grief, people!

ITEM:  Finally, I have one thing to say about the Aaron Hernandez deal.  Quick fill-in:  Cops searched the home of the New England Patriots star in connection with a rental car, a dead body, and an associate of his.  ABC news ( about as reliable as ABC sports, so get yer grains of salt) claim Hernandez was "at first uncooperative".  I don't have any idea of guilt or not, but I will say this- how long do you figure Hernandez has left in Bill Belichick's "squeaky-clean" environment?  I'd say it's roughly equivalent to the chances of ABC running a close-up of anybody but LeBron James more than once every quarter.