Dumbing Down and scoring!

A couple of thoughts on my mind today.

Stephen Colbert had a bit last night about a new version of Scrabble which will allow proper names. Surprisingly, it will not be called "Scrabble for Idiots, Morons, and People who Drool on Themselves". Players of real Scrabble are outraged, as they should be, as this is another sign of the dumbing-down of modern life. I hope the new game has an electronic way to add up the score for the dolts who will play it, since they will likely be unable to add up the score themselves. I imagine my sister will bring this new game to Mom's next Xmas in an effort to finally beat me at Scrabble. Last year she brought "Super-Scrabble", which turned into a financial disaster for her.

If you are interested in brilliance instead of dumbness, then it is time to acquaint yourself with the amazing Lionel Messi. With the world cup coming up this summer, you will find yourself forced to pay some attention to soccer, which means you should know who the world's best player is. There is no doubt it is the deceptive little Argentinian, who plays his club football for Barcelona, and if you weren't an American you would already know him. Yesterday he put up 4 goals against Arsenal, making one of the world's better clubs look like a bunch of amateurs. If you see that Barca or Argentina are on TV, you've got to see Messi tieing defenders in knots. And, for those of us who have to lie about being tall, the fact that he is only 5 foot 5 makes it even better.

Speaking of scoring, Tiger Woods will tee off tomorrow for the first time since we all found out that he was playing more than 18 holes every day. While clearly Tiger has been naughty, lets remember that he is just a golfer. Tiger never claimed to be a bastion of morals, marital fidelity, or anything other than outstanding golf. It's not like he's a politician who ran on moral values, or a religious leader caught with a harem of young boys. He's just an athlete. His transgressions were against his family. Maybe we think less of him, but at this point we would have to be fools to think that athletes are anything but flawed people, just like the rest of us. As far as we know, he hasn't cheated at golf......unless, the suddenly spoken rumors about Tiger and performance enhancing drugs turn out to be true. I actually began to wonder about this about 2 years ago, when I realized how big his upper body has gotten. Nobody ever mentioned his Barry Bonds-like muscle gain until he got caught cheating on his wife. Now, the media have stopped fawning and seem willing to ask that question. Interesting!