Detroit Free Press

NEW ORLEANS -- So let's say Jerry Rice is coming straight at you, and, uh-oh, Joe Montana is looking his way, and ...

NEW ORLEANS -- There ought to be a rule. No one who has even rooted for the Detroit Lions should be allowed to ...

NEW ORLEANS -- "Hello, Doc.""Why, Mr. Elway. You're back.""Yeah.""Something wrong?""Kind of.""Want to talk about it?""Guess so.""Lie down on the couch. Now then, is the press bothering you again?""A little bit.""You feel suffocated.""Well, I--""You are overwhelmed.""Well, I--""They're asking what kind of Halloween candy you gave out. They're interviewing your milkman. They're picking through your trash, hoping to find what brand of toilet paper you use."

NEW ORLEANS -- Wait a minute. Am I missing something? Since when did George Perles become Mr. Desirable?The way ...

LAKE TAHOE, Nev. -- Let us begin today's ski lesson at the chair lift, where I am standing with my friend, who, ...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Well, I'm sure the Denver Broncos were very happy to make it back to the Super Bowl. But had their AFC championship been played after the NFC title game, instead of before it, they might have changed their minds. They might have told Cleveland, "Listen, uh, you guys go instead, OK? We have a dental appointment."

I never got much out of reading Thoreau. Maybe because I read him in high school. An urban teenager doesn't exactly fall for a guy who moves to the woods and talks to squirrels. I do, however, remember one line he wrote. It struck me when I read it and it has stayed with me all these years: "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation."What did he mean by that, I wondered? Did grown-ups really have it so tough? Quiet desperation? Such contrasting words. Like "dying hope." Or "deafening silence."Or "I didn't mean to hurt my babies."