Selected Short Subjects - Irene, Steelers, Pirates, John Grisham, Bob Pompeani, and Harry Truman

The big story of the weekend was, of course, Hurricane Irene and what it would do along the eastern seaboard of the USA. Having family members and friends along Irene's path certainly gave us cause for concern, and we never like to see our beloved Outer Banks getting ravaged. The good news is that family and friends survived with minimal damage so we are thankful for that.

Putting those concerns aside, you marvel at the performance of the national media during such crises. Seeing reporters in their colorful rain gear and studio talking heads practically salivating over the possibility of DISASTER and TRAGEDY occurring would be laughable if it wasn't in such poor taste. On Sunday morning, Anderson Cooper was on the scene for CNN somewhere in Manhattan, and he practically weeped when the studio weather babe said that Manhattan had already seen the worst of Irene. "You mean this is as bad as it's going to get?" he cried. His disappointment was palpable.

And for what it is worth, no on site reporter could compare to Dan Rather's performance a few years back when he lashed himself to a telephone pole to make his on-the-scene report. No, none of these guys today could carry Dan's journalistic-equivalent-of-a-jockstrap!

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Watched the entire Steelers game on Saturday night. It's old news now, but what a performance by Antonio Brown!!

Looks to me like the Steelers have what it takes to be an offensive juggernaut, and that they will score a lot of points. I worry about how they might fare defensively. Lots and lots of key players over age 30, and some of them considerably over age 30, on that side of the ball. We shall see.

Injuries became the key story of the game on Saturday with the key one being the broken arm of Byron Leftwich, which has put him in IR for the season, and this reemphasizes how vital it is that Ben Roethlisberger stay healthy for the Steelers. Charlie Batch and/or Dennis Dixon might get you through a game or two, but if #7 goes down for an extended period of time..... don't even want to think about it.

The other key injury was Markice Pouncy injuring the same ankle that kept him out of the Super Bowl last February. Reports are that he will be okay, but you hate to see that happening.

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Those of you who are friends on Facebook saw my comments about the hero-worshipping play-by-play announcing of Bob Pompeani on Saturday night. You can hear his thoughts: "Wow! I'm really broadcasting a STEELERS game. Golly gee!"

Nauseating.

Also, nauseating was his comment late in the game when yet another Steeler, back-up rookie tight end Miguel Chavez, was injured. After wailing and gnashing his teeth all night about the injuries to Keenan Lewis, Casey Hampton, Pouncy and Leftwich, his comment about Chavez was "well, he wasn't going to make the team anyway."

Very compassionate, don't you think?

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Read the latest paperback release from John Grisham, "The Confession." Typical Grisham in that you start reading, immediately get hooked, and can't stop until you're done. In this one, an innocent man sits on death row in Texas, scheduled to be executed in four days. In Topeka, Kansas, a several time convicted sex offender now on parole walks into a minister's office and says that he is the real killer, and he wants someone to know so that the execution can be stopped. Now what happens?

Lots of great characters - the defense lawyer, the minister and his wife, the death row defendant, assorted cops, prosecutors, judges, news reporters, family members. Great stuff and a most compelling story. You gotta read it. Once you start, it'll only take you a day or two to finish.

Are you like me when you read a book and do you try to picture who would play whom if they made a movie out of the book. I have George Clooney as the lawyer, Ben Afflack or Matt Damon as the minister, maybe Will Smith as the convicted killer. What do you think?

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The Pirates continue to slide. A week ago, when they were down to their final 40 games, I laid out some short range goals for them for the remainder of the season:

• Go 20-20 in those games. They are 4-7 through the first 11 of those final 40, and it is a bad looking 4-7 at that. They need to go 16-13 in the last 29 games. They have 17 games against the Cubs, Astros, Marlins, and Dodgers. Maybe they can do it, but not likely, I'm afraid, not with how they have looked in the last week.




• Finish ahead of the third place Reds. They are now five games behind the Reds. They do have three games left with Cincy, so this one could be achieved, but it won't be easy.




• Go 4-3 in their remaining games with the Brewers. They went 2-2 in the four game series with Milwaukee last week. They need to go 2-1 in the last series of the season with them. Why it won't happen: Those three games are in the Pirates' Miller Park graveyard. Why it might happen: It's the final three games of the season and the Brewers will be concentrating on the upcoming playoffs.

One thing to note is that if the Bucs go a mere 10-19 from this point, they will finish at 72-90, a 15 game improvement over 2010. That's a significant accomplishment, but still disappointing after the heady days of July when the team sat in first place.

*****

Just started reading a very interesting book last night about Harry Truman. This is not a heavy historical tome, but it makes some fascinating commentary on American life, culture, and the entire concept of Ex-Presidencies. That's just a teaser for you. I'll give you a full review when I finish, which should be sometime this week.