Tim Ellsworth

Tyler/Newman posted a link to this game a couple of days ago on Open Blog Friday. I thought I’d draw a little extra attention to it. If you need some time to kill, give Notpron a chance. It’s described as “the hardest riddle available on the internet.”

It’s addictive, so don’t start if you don’t want to waste a bunch of time. You’ve been warned. Post here if you have any hints to offer, or if you’re desperate for help. Maybe some kind soul will have mercy on you and give you a hand.

I’ve updated my post on the Mississippi church accused of banning black people from attending. The newspaper has updated its story with a denial from church members that they took such action.

Let’s keep any discussion with that post.

From AP:

As CBS prepares to launch a new season of the hit reality show “Survivor,” this time featuring teams divided by race, enraged city officials are saying it promotes divisiveness and are calling for the network to reconsider.

“The idea of having a battle of the races is preposterous,” City Councilman John Liu said Thursday. “How could anybody be so desperate for ratings?”

For the first portion of the 13th season of “Survivor,” which premieres Sept. 14, the contestants competing for the $1 million prize while stranded on the Cook Islands in the South Pacific will be divided into four teams — blacks, Asians, Latinos and whites.

Liu, who is Asian-American, said he was launching a campaign urging CBS to pull the show because it could encourage racial division and promote negative typecasts. He and a coalition of officials, including the council’s black, Latino and Asian caucus, planned to rally at City Hall on Friday.

In a statement, CBS Entertainment, which is part of New York-based CBS Corp., defended the ethnic twist, saying it follows the show’s tradition of introducing new creative elements and casting structures that reflect cultural and social issues.

Legitimate concerns here, or a mountain out of a mole hill?

Hat tip: Nick

Only three days left before the baby comes. We’re checking into the hospital first thing Tuesday morning, but the surgery may not be until around noon or so. I’ll try to post an announcement that afternoon.

My column this week is about Pat Summerall, and the story of his life, as told in his new book “Summerall: On and Off the Air.”

I took this picture when I was a junior in high school, and it’s still one of my favorites.

Is it “shirt sleeves” or “short sleeves”? I often hear people refer to short-sleeved shirts as “shirt sleeves,” but that’s not entirely accurate, is it? After all, long-sleeved shirts have sleeves, too.

I’m terribly vexed.

After intially expressing acceptance over a court ruling allowing football coach Marcus Borden to pray with his players, the East Brunswick school district has reversed course and will appeal the case.

I’ve blogged about this case several times. Go here for the most recent post, which includes links to the older posts.

I haven’t read “Touchdown Alexander” by Seattle Seahawks running back Shaun Alexander. But Seattle Post-Intelligencer columnist Jim Moore has a little to say about it.

I found a couple of parts interesting:

When Alexander asked me if I liked it, I said yes. But we’re different. He’d rather be in a church on Sunday; I’d rather be in a sports book. He’s never been drunk, never acted on lust, never had sex before marriage, and I’ve never … met anyone like him.

A quote from Alexander:

“I’m not a religious person,” Alexander said. “I love Jesus Christ and I’m obedient to the Bible. … Every day I want to grow closer to the Lord. By honoring my wife and helping her do the dishes and staying with the kids on Wednesdays, it’s more about honoring the Lord than being religious.”

One more excerpt from Moore’s column:

You probably knew this, but if you didn’t, Alexander did not so much as kiss his wife until they were married, fearing what it might lead to if he did.

“It was hard, crazy hard,” Alexander said. “If you’re really attracted to someone and you play games like that, you open up a gate that you’re not going to stop. I don’t think God intended sex to be turned on and off. We’re not built to turn that off.”

Alexander sounds pretty solid. I may have to get the book before long.

From the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal:

Twelve-year-old Joe recently asked Jesus to live in his heart.

Yet the church where Joe accepted his Savior not even two weeks before will no longer allow the biracial boy to enter.

On Aug. 6, during its scheduled Sunday night business meeting, Fellowship Baptist Church in Saltillo voted not to accept blacks within the church. More specifically, the congregation also voted Joe out and said he could not return.

That evening Fellowship Baptist did not just say goodbye to Joe and an entire race of humans. With that decision the church’s pastor, the Rev. John Stevens, resigned, and at least one other family decided not to return to the Baptist Missionary Alliance congregation that averages 30 people.

These church members will have much for which to answer when they stand before God. What a despicable group of people.

“For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” — Galatians 3:26-28

UPDATE: The story has now been updated, with the church members saying there was no such vote taken. The newspaper didn’t add a new story, but instead just updated the story linked above.

Leading astronomers have decided that Pluto is not a planet.

Forbes editor Michael Noer wrote a story arguing that women, careers and marriage don’t mix well.

Guys: A word of advice. Marry pretty women or ugly ones. Short ones or tall ones. Blondes or brunettes. Just, whatever you do, don’t marry a woman with a career.

Why? Because if many social scientists are to be believed, you run a higher risk of having a rocky marriage. While everyone knows that marriage can be stressful, recent studies have found professional women are more likely to get divorced, more likely to cheat, less likely to have children, and, if they do have kids, they are more likely to be unhappy about it.

His colleague, Elizabeth Corcoran, offered her rebuttal that men play a role in the success of a marriage, too, and that career women can have happy marriages.

The essence of a good marriage, it seems to me, is that both people have to learn to change and keep on adapting. Children bring tons of change. Mothers encounter it first during the nine months of pregnancy, starting with changing body dimensions. But fathers have to learn to adapt, too, by learning to help care for children, to take charge of new aspects of a household, to adapt as the mothers change.

So guys, if you’re game for an exciting life, go ahead and marry a professional gal.

Read both articles in their entirety here. Who makes the more convincing case?

From FOX News:

An impending birthday has caused many a rational person to do something a little out of the ordinary. Some people buy a sports car. Others get themselves a significantly younger significant other. Sarah DiMuro decided she needs to get it on — for the first time ever.

DiMuro, a self-proclaimed 29-year-old virgin, says she wants to lose her virginity before her 30th birthday on Nov. 7, and she’s enlisted Jane magazine to aid her in her quest to get busy, the New York Daily News reports.

DiMuro is calling the whole process “my adventure.” I’d call it shameful and degrading.

Jose Vizcaino: The missing ingredient

A USA Today story earlier this week describes some of the racial insults that Dusty Baker and other African American players and former players of the Cubs have dealt with.

Former Cubs center fielder Corey Patterson and former reliever LaTroy Hawkins last year received similar abuse to what Baker is getting. Cubs right fielder Jacque Jones, who had a baseball thrown at him during a game, recently got a threatening early-morning phone call.

Hawkins, now with the Baltimore Orioles, had Major League Baseball security open much of his mail last season when he was with the Cubs. He was stunned by the hatred.

“I thought that stuff was over 30 years ago,” says Hawkins, who grew up in nearby Gary, Ind. “I had never been exposed to it. … I couldn’t believe people were dropping the ‘n-word’ on me. People calling your mother a raccoon or you a porch monkey. You can only take so much abuse until you fight back.

“The same thing happening to me is happening to Jacque. To have people threatening to harm us over baseball games just doesn’t make sense.”

It’s one thing to be disgusted with a manager and players. It’s another to stoop to death threats and racism. How pathetic and classless.