(Warning: Contains rock lyrics from 40 years ago)

Some music goes beyond the sound that comes out of your speakers. From time to time, these sounds define a cultural or political movement. In a few cases, they become the soundtrack for a generation.

Neil Young wailing, “four dead in Ohio,” still conjures memories of a black and white photograph of a young girl on one knee, panic stricken, next to the face-down body of a student shot dead by the National Guard at Kent State.

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The Super Bowl is Sunday. It is a big deal for football, entertainment, advertising and Saints fans. If you enjoy the NFL, thank Steve Sabol. His stories created it.

Sabol is 67 now. He became famous by turning football into art (according to Joe Posnanski in Sports Illustrated his week). It is a great story if you haven’t read it in the Scorecard section. (more…)

During the holidays I was hit by a moment of revelation while watching Bobby Bowden coaching his last game at Florida State. After his final win, he gave a press conference. He was classic Bobby B. I flipped channels and there was Paula Dean on the Food Network. That is when it hit me; Paula Dean is Bobby Bowden in a wig. They both have the same face, accent, voice, mannerisms and enthusiasm for their profession.

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Speaking of credibility:

I love college football. Always have. But there are parts of it that chew at me. This is one of them:

Rudy, our Jack Russell, has been the subject of many of my stories. Not that millions of people are reading these blogs, but he has become s bit of a celebrity amongst the dogs in our neighborhood. They hang around the front yard waiting to get a glimpse of him. Even cats have begun to stalk him. That’s pretty sad for a cat. (more…)

I heard the man’s name a long time ago – I can’t remember exactly where – but the music he championed was the soundtrack of my life growing up. (more…)

We’re all going to be living on bugs in a few years; you know that, don’t you? Roaches, scorpions, grubs, crickets, worms, crispy, crawly crunchies, they are the answer to the coming food shortage — and that shortage is coming. Read around, you’ll see. I’m trying to wrap my head around that insectful situation now. (more…)

I’ve often wondered if supposed aliens come here on vacation or is this just a business trip? Maybe you have seen a UFO. Or maybe you have even been abducted and probed or whatever the bug-eyed beings do when they snatch up a human. I have talked to people who swear they have seen strange things in the sky. Personally, E.T. has never phoned me, nor do I expect he will anytime soon. But if we’re going to get that call from outer space, the aliens better start dialing soon. (more…)

In case you have grown tired of the endless things available on the web to distract you, I offer you two more: Gizmodo.com and Engadget.com (thank you again, Jeff). Now I can sleep even less because I’m up all night browsing these sites and watching Mythbuster’s Kari Byron snipe a tree in half with a wicked Gatling gun. (more…)

When I was a kid in Montgomery, Alabama, my dad took me to the Montgomery International Speedway on Saturday nights to watch men like Donnie and Bobby Allison race Red Farmer and maybe some shade-tree mechanics from Prattville or Wetumpka or guys from local garages and car dealers or maybe former moonshiners. There I saw the visceral core of authentic American competition in brutal action without the slick, corporate polish. There was no “car of the future.” There was a dented car from the recent past with a huge engine and a homemade paint job. The cars were not yet homogenized into Stepfordish monotony. The vehicles looked like what your mom and dad drove – a Ford, Chevy or Chrysler. The men who drove these bored-out, double-barreled V8’s were hardly spokesperson material. (more…)

We have seen the combinations for years. A new movie debuts and in an effort to wedge it firmly between our attention span and our wallet, the marketing people try to toss out two past blockbusters to describe their film in a catchy sound bite blurb. (more…)

I have always been a sucker for manufacturing processes and I am virtually hypnotized by watching how stuff is made. It seems there are more and more TV programs that cater to my Jones. Maybe it was started by Unwrapped on the Food Network. People wanted to see how MoonPies and Red Hots and potato chips were made. Then Cliff, from Cheers, hit the factory trail with Made in America. Now you can see everything from aluminum cans being created, to skyscraper construction, to entire islands shaped like palm trees getting planted off the coast of Dubai. (more…)

Every night for an hour and a half I attended the university. I learned the best way to tell a joke and how to get rid of my hard Southern accent (or scrape as much of it off my tongue as I could). I saw things a small town kid would never see down on the farm – (more…)

Are you going to eat those fried toenails?

He will.

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In 1998, writer, Stephen King, became a part-time resident of the Florida Gulf Coast. Now he has set a novel there.

Duma Key is Stephen King’s first Deep South novel. A writer friend of mine said, “If you think he was prolific before, watch him now.” I reminded him that King had been in the South for years.

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