There were two news-making plane crashes this past week. Miraculously, no one died in either one.But while the passengers of a US Airways jet were overjoyed to see rescuers in the frigid waters of the Hudson River, a pilot named Marcus Schrenker was much less happy.Schrenker, flying over Alabama last Sunday, radioed that his Piper PA-46 turboprop was having trouble. He said his windshield had imploded. Then, without telling air traffic controllers, he parachuted out, leaving his plane to fly on auto pilot until it finally crashed in the Florida Panhandle.
Beware the assistant coach.He can be as seductive as ice cream, or as bitter as vinegar.He can startle you with quick success, or break your heart with constant defeat.He can sprout like a giant before your eyes, or shrink in stature and skulk off in the sunset.But one thing you always can say about an assistant coach - when elevated to the position of head coach: Nobody knows nothing.So don't tell me Jim Schwartz is a great bet for success to lead the Lions, or I will tell you the same was said of Rod Marinelli, who just finished an 0-16 year.
Here's something I'd like to see on Thursday. George W. Bush, being sworn in for his second term as president, then shaking hands with a few dignitaries.And everyone goes home.
Before we close the book on the college football season, I wonder if you had the same feeling I did watching Florida trounce Ohio State for the national championship. It didn't leave me cheering. It didn't leave me satisfied.It left me depressed.
Marion Jones is reportedly out of money, out of work, nursing one child and raising another. She lives in a modest house, having sold the others she once owned. She was forced to give back her Olympic medals. She is banned from track and field, her sport. She was charged with crimes, pleaded guilty, and despite her plea for mercy, a judge sentenced her to jail Friday - six months, for lying to federal investigators, mostly about her steroid use.This is more than a "fall from grace," as analysts have called it. This is a cannon shot. This is a sonic boom.
And what if Chris Webber became a Piston? It could happen. The Pistons would like it to happen. Hey, any team that could pick up a guy of Webber's talent - or what's left of it - for the price of chewing gum by NBA standards would be crazy not to.And so the Pistons might.And wouldn't that be something?
I'm sure winning the lottery is good for something. But that something obviously isn't marriage.Take the recent case of Robert Swofford, a postal worker in Florida. He had been separated from his wife for three years. That's a long time to be separated. That's longer than many marriages. You figure that much time apart, you might as well finalize it. But they never got around to it.Then Swofford won the lottery. A fat $60 million. And wouldn't you know it? Just like that, his wife served him with divorce papers -- and claimed half of his prize.
PASADENA, Calif. - Here came a linebacker. Here came a nose tackle. Here came a cornerback. Here came another linebacker.It's supposed to be the ocean that smacks up against you in these parts, but on Monday it was the Southern Cal defense that crashed like waves against Michigan quarterback Chad Henne, over and over, chasing him, knocking him down, until you half expected some "Baywatch" lifeguard to come flying out of the stands to save him.No such luck.
Mitch Albom writes about running an orphanage in impoverished Port-au-Prince, Haiti, his kids, their hardships, laughs and challenges, and the life lessons he’s learned there every day.
