THE CHICKEN DANCE

As long as the media exists we will always have humor in our lives. One headline today mentioned how mature Kobe Bryant was in responding to an observation made by Michael Jordan as to Kobe's place in basketball history. It was entitled "Kobe takes high road on Jordan slight."

This is a little like reading the letters to the editor page in People magazine and observing one lass vigorously defending the maturity of Justin Bieber.

Jordan apparently had the audacity to suggest that Kobe was in the top 10 of guards in the history of the NBA. Kobe responded, "It's an accurate statement. - - - - - - I'm definitely one of the top thousand."

Sunday, it was Steeler QB Ben Rothlisberger who was being asked in a TV interview why Terry Bradshaw was so critical of him . Bradshaw had suggested in the past that the Steelers "should have dumped" Big Ben and the league should have suspended him for more than -not less than - 6 games, after his alleged conduct in Georgia.

Big Ben's response? "You know what? I'm not sure where all the strong words and stuff came from Terry. I've looked up to him from the day I got here. He's the greatest quarterback in Steelers history."

Looks like both Stern and Goodell are making progress with the verbal abuse issues of their players as well as their encouragment for them to display some maturity.

Of course, it is a bummer for the antagonistic media.

The media - like attorneys - have to find a way to make a buck. The latter group have made it a truism that "anybody can be sued at any time by anybody else". You see. You have your law degree, passed the bar on the 8th try, and are staring at beaucoup law school tuition bills. Trust me, you'll sue your own mother.

The media have their own financial problems. They find themselves in the unenviable position of fighting a rapidly expanding growth of competition. They're seeing seemingly half the country publishing their opinion on some topic or another.

It's Twitter, Facebook, You Tube, etc. I blame permissive parents. Even those nuts who are writing blogs think they know what they're talking about. (and they have lousy grammar too.)

So, the media has to try and make a big deal over anything. Anything that is that might sell a newspaper - get a new viewer to tune in to the 11 o'clock news - or cause anyone over 25 to now desperately want to know just who the hell Justin Bieber is.

I've touched on this before. But, when I was a kid it was "de riguer du jour" (fashionable - I'm behind in my French lessons and need to practice) for at least one kid to stand on the outside of a quickly formed circle and shout at those within the circle.

In the circle were two reluctant kids who he is egging on to fight each other after one made a tackle with a mite too much enthusiasm during a sandlot football game. The critic even had the audacity to call each of them "chicken". Boy, talk about "dissing" someone." But, we were of Junior High age and acted accordingly, usually ending up in a fight.

Now, the guy doing the encouraging was usually tremendously out of shape. In between taunts he was shovelling Jujubes in his mouth , had two boxes of crackerjack as a backup -and definitely had no interest in participating in a fight, even if it was one limited to hurling marshmallows around a campfire. But he would argue to the end that the green M&M's tasted much better than either the tan or the brown ones.

Today, he's probably the editor of a struggling newspaper encouraging a repetition of his successful childhood strategizing. Sadly, in many instances he could also be a member of Congress or the Pentagon trying to identify another country for us to invade - and who has no kids eligible to serve in the armed forces.

So, why do we continue to read and watch while these poor souls play with our heads?

Maybe it's because we're sitting on the couch with a huge stash of jujubes - a gallon of ice cream and can't talk ourself out of repeating those Junior High traditions.

We "dig" that Chicken Dance!