Author Archives: Kent Sterling

Here’s How kentsterling.com Works, and What We Write About

by Kent Sterling

Not true that this post serves as an excuse to display the only professional photo that will ever be taken of me.

I wrote a post Friday about some rumored recalibrations of the staff in the sports department of the Indianapolis Star, and as a result people there have asked about the journalistic ethics of reporting rumors, so I thought it appropriate to write about what this website does, how it operates, and what qualifies for posting.

At the very minimum, this will give users an accurate expectation of what happens here.

This is not a newspaper. I write about those things in which I have interest in the areas of sports and the media. This is not a who, what, when, and where site. It’s more about why. We don’t cover press conferences much as they rarely illuminate. What a coach has to say after a game holds very little interest for me. The coach almost never wants to be there, and the reporters almost always don’t want to do anything but induce a quote to fill a whole in a game wrap or column.

I am not a stickler for revealing sources. As long as I am certain that what has been told to me is true, I am comfortable writing it whether or not the sources want to be on the record or not.

When rumors are posted, they are clearly identified as rumors. In the Star post for example, in the headline itself, the word ‘rumors’ is used. When rumors are relayed in that post, that is how they are clearly identified.

More than anything else, that post was a warning to journalism school students to give them an understanding of how the media game works. There remains a misconception among the young that media can be a stable source of income, and they need to know what they are getting into. I hope everyone at the Star and elsewhere enjoy fruitful and secure careers. That almost never happens, but it is still worth hoping for.

Speculative journalism is a contradiction in terms, but speculation is interesting to me, so we speculate, and we do it with as much circumspection as possible.

What’s the most fun to me is helping people tell their stories. I don’t want to know what people know – I want to know why they wanted to learn it. There is a great book that was written by a friend of mine, “The Talent Code”. The author, Dan Coyle, writes about why people get great at different things. That’s fascinating to me. When I talk to an athlete, my interest is in who they are and why they do what they do, not where they are going to school or whether they are going to sign a new contract.

The decision to go to a gym to shoot at 11p is interesting. How many shots the guy hit is not.

This site is more sportstalk than sports section.

If you are looking to kentsterling.com for inverted pyramid dry reporting, you will not be happy here.

I report nothing as fact unless I’m as certain as I can be about its veracity. Two sources is a good rule, and I follow it unless I get a first person account, but the majority of the time the facts are not in doubt when I write a post about something in the news.

Someone else’s work is never passed off as mine, and to make sure I don’t inadvertently pirate someone’s words, I avoid reading about a topic before I write. I’m a subscriber to the Star, but never read it until I’ve written in the morning.

I hope the rumors I heard about the shuffling at the Star are wrong, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t interesting or inappropriate to offer as content in the context of an admonishment of soon-to-be professional media content providers.

And most importantly to me, what’s offered here always reflects an honest opinion, not some contrived effort to stir the pot. I am not paid by the page view, and have no interest in driving use through manufactured grandstanding.

Kentucky basketball fans have accused me for a long time of badgering them in order to boost attendance. They also believe I hate Kentucky. Both are ridiculous. I’m not a fan of how John Calipari builds a team, but that disdain has nothing to do with statistics or hatred for a university.

As a rule, I am ambivalent about teams, but passionate about the people playing. I used to be very team oriented, but after getting to know some athletes, it became clear that I was rooting for laundry, and that’s a waste of loyalty.

That should align your expectations with reality. Kentsterling.com is a place where I write what interests me, just as a sportstalk show is a place to say what’s interesting.

Rumors of Shake-up Swirling at Indianapolis Star Sports Department

by Kent Sterling

Mike Wells of the Indianapolis Star came on the Grady & Big Joe Show today, and told them that he will be sliding from the Pacers beat to the Colts beat. Mike Chappell will remain with the Star, and will also continue to cover the Colts.

Other changes are expected, with rumors that David Woods and Terry Hutchens to be taken off their respective Butler and Indiana beats.

The Star plans to reach outside the market to fill Wells’ spot on the Pacers beat, and what all of this means to Phillip B. Wilson, the always outstanding Phil Richards, and new blood Zak Keefer who has established himself as a very good writer is not known – at least by me.

This may also mean, according to a source, that the Star will hire both a Notre Dame and Purdue beat writer. One of the complaints about the Star’s sports department has been a lack of Purdue presence. For years, the Star has relied upon work from the Lafayette Journal and Courier for coverage of the Boilermakers.

I’m glad Wells is moving to the Colts, as he will do an excellent job breaking news there as he has always done with the Pacers. I’ll miss his reporting on the NBA. He had become one of the best trusted NBA guys in the country.

The media landscape is constantly changing, and if you want to know why reporters, anchors, and radio hosts are always talking about whether they will be employed next week, this is the reason.

Management evaluates and changes based upon an ever-evolving set of criteria that lend themselves to subjectivity. One manager’s A-List staff is on another’s short list for termination. That’s the life people in media sign up for, and still the journalism schools are filled with young eager minds destined for lives of insecurity.

The media itself has changed on a tectonic level over the past decade with online delivery through tablets, smart phones, Twitter, instagram, YouTube, facebook, pinterest, and other apps being exceptionally important – in many ways more than the withering newspaper.

Here’s a tip to j-school students – build a brand, be diverse, and say yes to everything. Learn to shoot, perform, write, edit, interview, and tweet effectively. You will never have more time to be able to invest in becoming valuable to prospective employers than you do know.

If you can’t do it all, you won’t be able to get a job to do any of it.

Collin Hartman Talks About His Decision to Play Basketball at Indiana

by Kent Sterling

Collin Hartman likes to cut down nets, and did it four times last year for Cathedral.

There are a lot of people who see inkling IU freshman Collin Hartman as the sixth member of a six-man freshman class. Hartman is not among them.

Cathedral enjoyed his talents for four years as he did a lot of the little things that team needed to win. The Fighting Irish made it to the Indiana state championship game last March in large part because of Hartman being the glue/shooter/rebounder for the team, and he hopes to do the same in Bloomington starting this fall.

The thing about Collin when you meet him is that he’s confident without arrogance. He believes in his ability to contribute heavily at IU, understanding that after Jordan Hulls, Victor Oladipo, Cody Zeller, Christian Watford, Remy Abell, Maurice Creek, and Derek Elston said goodbye to the program, someone needs to put the ball in the hoop. Why not him?

In this video, you get a look at the kind of kid Hartman is, and why the 6’6″ freshman believes he and IU are a perfect fit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSFd9suPU9E

Twitter Standings for Indiana Coaches & Teams

by Kent Sterling

Over the past your years, Twitter has become the way many Americans share and receive their news. It has turned millions into pundits, and pundits into brands. It also serves as a free and easy way to share a message for teams battling for the eyes, ears, and wallets of fans.

For those who enjoy posts like this, click here to follow @kentsterling

There are some nice stories below, particularly the great job the Indianapolis Indians do.

So who is doing a great job of building their brand in Indiana?

Basketball Coaches

Tom Crean – 119,563 (Crean tweets positive messages relentlessly, and once in a while vents a bit – I like the venting)
Brad Stevens – 38,187 (Brad tweets once a week on average – mostly in program congrats tip tweets)
Mike Brey – 11,894 (Mostly innocuous stuff about the ACC and program)
Matt Painter – 5,829 (has not tweeted since December 9, 2009)
Frank Vogel – Not surprisingly, he does not have a Twitter feed – at least not one I can find)

Football Coaches

Brian Kelly – 92,776 (Kelly posts Irish related links, greetings, and platitudes every third day or so)
Kevin Wilson – 16,085 (Mostly go IU stuff, and camp information. There are hashtags and links anywhere, so my guess is that Wilson is likely unaware that he has a Twitter account. Either that, or he took a course on tweeting.) [ed note: Evidently, Kevin is very conversant in tweeting and writes every tweet himself. I was told that by Jeff Keag, IU Football SID in an email.]
Darell Hazell – 111 (Can’t believe this is the real account. @CoachHazell declares itself to be the “OFFICIAL Twitter account of Purdue Head Football Coach Darrell Hazell” but no one has ever tweeted from that account, and it has only 111 followers)
Chuck Pagano – (Understandably, he has been a little busy%2

NBA Finals – Non-Timeout by Popovich with :50 Left Leads to Family Argument

by Kent Sterling

My son wanted Popovich to do this with :50 left – I did not.

There aren’t a lot of arguments in this house. I was trained in arguing by some of the best at the art during holiday dinners when I was a child, and verbal duels takes me back to the darkness of the Nixon vs. Roosevelt donnybrooks between Dad and my Mom’s mom. Those were the Ali vs. Fraziers of political brawls.

Last night, my son said that Spurs coach Gregg Popovich should have called timeout during the possession prior to the hook shot Tim Duncan missed down two with :48 seconds left. I disagreed.

I never played basketball beyond the eighth grade, and Ryan has played thousands of games, including four years at Loyola of Chicago, but I still felt that a timeout would have given the Heat a chance to get centered defensively, and the result would have been a lower quality shot than a five foot hook by the only hall of gamer on the Spurs roster.

Ryan believed that the Spurs were exhausted, and needed the time to regroup.

I said that timeouts always favor the lesser prepared team, and that was the Heat.

Ryan doesn’t like arguing, and so after several tense minutes we agreed to disagree.

Sportstalk radio is all about sharing perspectives, and sometimes those thoughts lead to a dispute – hopefully a friendly dispute – because there is no definitive correct answer to many disagreements.

Bob Knight believed in playing man-to-man defense. Jim Boeheim goes 2-3 zone exclusively. Knight would almost always avoid taking timeouts late in the game, believing that his team knew at a higher level what they were doing than their opponent. Coaches today would call timeouts prior to every offensive possession if they could.

In baseball, I would watch stunned as Jim Leyland would sacrifice bunt in the second inning of a scoreless game when he managed the Pittsburgh Pirates. Earl Weaver waited for three-rum homers and great starting pitching to carry his Baltimore Orioles. Both are among the top 20 all-time managers.

In football, Tony Dungy was a great defensive coach who favored the mostly passive Tampa 2 alignment. Buddy Ryan was the architect of the most dominating defense in the history of the NFL, and the Chicago Bears played the smash mouth 46. Both were among the best ever.

Who’s right and who’s wrong is a great source of debate, and there should never be a winner.

That’s what makes sportstalk a wonderful format for radio. There is always something to talk about for people who examine the games.

As long as everyone walks in with the understanding that sports is not math and theorems are not used to decide whether Chris Bosh can or should be dealt this offseason. Like politics, arguments are mostly subjective, and math can be used to bring clarity or clouds.

By the way, I’m quite certain that I was right that a timeout should not have been taken.

The last word is still something of value in this house.

Miami Repeat as Champs as Spurs Wither Down the Stretch to Lose 95-88

by Kent Sterling

As the game remained close well into the second half, it seemed the Miami Heat were waiting for the moment to unleash the hounds of war and assert their will.

The Spurs fought with pride, but like the Spartans at Thermopylae, the opposing horde was too much to take on when the fighting became serious. It got serious when Mario Chalmers knocked down a banked three-pointer to end the third quarter.

The well-defended shot set the stage for a slow but steady death the city of San Antonio and the Spurs will never forget.

The Heat slowly built a lead as the fourth quarter began, gave most of it back, and then with the game in the balance with :48 left, Tim Duncan missed an open right handed runner to tie that missed, and his put back didn’t drop either, and that was that.

LeBron James was typically amazing – if that contradiction in terms is possible – scoring an NBA Finals career best of 37 points and grabbing 12 rebounds in 45 rugged minutes. Dwyane Wade held his own by chipping in 23 and 10.

Those totals were predictable, but what the Spurs didn’t count on was Shane Battier’s 18 points. His 6-of-8 shooting from beyond the arc was as spectacular as it was unexpected. Battier scored that many points once this entire season in a very similar effort against the Denver Nuggets, November 15th on 6-of-7 shooting.

Miami never relinquished the lead earned by Chalmers three-pointer, and although the game was always within reach, it never really seemed like the Spurs were going to be able to scale the mountain. Sometimes a four-point deficit seems like 12, and tonight was one of those nights.

Tonight, Pat Riley’s Heat will celebrate, and tomorrow the decisions will begin. Will they stay intact for the 2013-2014 season or will they try to deal Chris “Shemp” Bosh, who scored 37 points less than James, and 18 fewer than Battier – zero to go along with seven assists. His contract is punitive for whoever might pull the trigger, but as long as Donald Sterling (no relation) draws breath, there is always at least one sap willing to destroy a team to land a big fish, even if he’s a carp.

Hell, the Pacers found a taker for Jermaine O’Neal’s bloated deal, so maybe James and Wade can find a way to get Bosh off their backs.

And for the Spurs, this will likely be their last rodeo configured as they are. Manu Ginobili was actually very good tonight until he wasn’t, and that was the fourth quarter. He made 1-of-4 shots, and committing all four of his turnovers.

Kawhi Leonard scored 19 and boarded 16 missed shots, establishing himself as a budding star. He he 21-year-old for whom the Spurs dealt George Hill to the Indiana Pacers was the best player on the floor for the Spurs as he will probably be for a generation. Maybe in 2027, we’ll be talking about Leonard with the same reverence used for the venerable Tim Duncan.

Danny Green made the most threes in NBA Finals history by the end of Game Five. Tonight, with all the chips in the middle of the table, he went 1-of-12. If he hits shots the way that Battier did, the Spurs would have been champs, but there is a lesson here for youngsters – heat eventually cools. Nobody can continue to hit 65.8% (25-38) of his threes for very long.

The plusses for the Spurs:

Kawhi Leonard is a 21-year-old nightmare in waiting for the rest of the league.
Manu Ginobili gave fans a look at what he used to be one more time.
The Spurs will be $18M under the salary cap and $30M under the projected luxury tax threshold.

Tonight belongs to the Heat, and whether this two-year run becomes three will depend upon the moves made by the Pacers, Knicks, and others in the Eastern Conference, as well as the health of Russell Westbrook and the aging body of Duncan and Tony Parker.

Lot’s of time to debate all that. The draft is a week from tonight.

Miami Heat Third Wheel Chris Bosh Should Stop Talking

by Kent Sterling

Time for Chris Bosh to shut up.

NBA players in Toronto are harmless. No one pays any attention, even if they say stupid things. Forgive me if I missed how self-impressed Chris Bosh was up in the hinterlands of the NBA

Now that he has moved to Miami where microphones and cameras are everywhere, Bosh’s inane chatter is impossible to avoid. His rants about fatigue and money have outed him as a random access quote machine. That’s good for the media, but terrible for a temporarily famous fellow who might eventually have to work for an honest wage.

It’s not that Bosh is stupid, he isn’t. It’s that he just doesn’t know what consequences exist for saying whatever pops into your head.

When Miami Heat fans decided they didn’t want to watch their team lose to the Spurs, and witness the postgame frivolity associated with the crowning of an NBA Champion on the road, many left prior to the Heat ending the need for any celebration by coming back from a five-point deficit with less than a half-minute to play, Bosh took umbrage, “For all those guys who left, make sure you don’t come to Game 7.”

“We only want the guys who are going to stay in the building for the whole game. You never give up. People gave up on us. They can stay where they are and watch the game at home,” Bosh said.

After a Game Five when Spurs forward Danny Green scored 24 points on 6-10 shooting from beyond the arc – a total Bosh has not reached since March 15th – to run his three-point shooting to 25-38 for the finals, Bosh was asked about Green’s performance. He answered, “He won’t be open tonight.”

That Bosh was right, and even blocked Green’s attempt to tie the game at the end of overtime, but the confidence rang hollow as Bosh is rarely responsible for defending Green.

There is a tendency for those who crave attention to say silly ill-considered things, and Bosh falls into that category.

There are people in sports who have earned the right to make proclamations on behalf of their team. Derek Jeter is a guy worth listening to. LeBron James too. Tom Brady and Peyton Manning say things worth hearing. Bosh is not that guy, and will never be that guy.

James, Bosh, and Dwyane Wade are like Jack Nicholson, Jim Belushi, and Robert DeNiro. If a microphone was thrust into the midst of that trio, you would hope that Belushi would know to defer to the others.

Bosh should concentrate on outplaying someone rather than talking. Until he can stop Roy Hibbert or Tim Duncan, he should self-impose a media boycott.

He would be better off, and so would we.

New England Patriots TE Michael Hoomanawanui Is Either Last Standing or Next Up

by Kent Sterling

Michael Hoomanawanui is the last man standing among Patriots tight ends.

Not sure who I feel worse for today – New England Patriots tight end Michael Hoomanawanui or brand new U.S. Ambassador to Libya Deborah Jones.

With Patriots tight ends dropping like the recently laid off ESPN statistical gurus, Hoomanawanui is either falling up the depth chart toward a position of significance, or is a short timer at the #1 spot while Bill Belichick searches for options to replace Obama Care’s best customer Rob Gronkowski – who had yet another surgery Tuesday, and Aaron Hernandez – who is being investigated in connection with the execution style murder of Odin Lloyd early Monday.

On today’s show, 1070 the Fan host Dan Dakich said Hernandez has been a “bad guy” since college, where he played for Urban Meyer, a close friend of Dan’s.

The latest on Hernandez is that three cars rented in Hernandez’s name have been searched by police. One of those cars was found not far from where Lloyd’s body was found. Another had been returned to an Enterprise rent-a-car branch Tuesday with a broken mirror.

The girlfriend of Lloyd is the sister of the woman with whom Hernandez is living.

In other damning news, Hernandez is being sued by a friend who asserts that he lost his eye after being shot in the face by the tight end after the two visited a Miami strip club in February.

Just as businesses can answer the challenge of maximizing profits by either increasing revenue or decreasing expenses, the trip up and down an NFL franchises depth chart can be made through physical improvement or attrition by those occupying the the spots above.

Regardless, Hoomanawanui’s stock has risen as those above him have faltered.

The soon to be 25-year-old is entering his fourth season as a tight end out of Illinois. A 2010 fifth round pick of the St. Louis Rams, Hoomanawanui played in St. Louis for two years before being waived by Jeff Fisher. He signed with the Patriots for 2012, and was re-signed for 2013.

Gronkowski and Hernandez were the best tight end combination in football, and getting on the field at all appeared to be a long shot before injuries and mayhem were inserted into the equation.

Hoomanawanui is likely either hiding in his basement praying that the recent curse plaguing Patriot tight ends doesn’t find him, or he’s in a casino because no one has ever gone from fighting for a roster spot to being an unquestioned starter so quickly, and good luck that profound must be exploited.

It’s possible that Gronkowski will recover from his most recent surgery for the regular season opener, and that Hernandez had nothing to do with Odin’s murder. Hoomanawanui would resume in his role as blocking tight end, but that sure seems unlikely.

In this even-steven world we live in, bad things for one yields good for another. That’s an indifferent and pragmatic assessment of life, but it’s undeniable.

If you see Hoomanawanui in a casino, bet like he does. If you see him alone in a field, scan the skies for a meteor headed for the spot where he’s standing. And if you are near Ambassador Jones on the streets in Tripoli, run like hell.

By the way, I welcome new Twitter followers. No spam, just passionate sports stuff @kentsterling

Game Seven – Seven Things the San Antonio Spurs Need to Do Tonight to Beat the Heat

by Kent Sterling

This is what’s at stake for tonight’s winner.

The Spurs chances to win a fifth World Championship were at 98.6% with :28 seconds left in Game Six. Now, there are a lot of people saying the odds are now reversed in the Heat’s favor.

A lot of good things have to happen for the Spurs to win tonight, and run from South Beach with the Larry O’Brien Trophy in their clutches.

On the plus side for the Spurs, they are 48 minutes away from winning it all. The Bad is that they were one stop or two free throws away less than 48 hours ago.

More good news for the Spurs, they haven’t followed a loss in the 2013 NBA Playoffs with another loss. Even better, the Heat haven’t won two in a row since game five of the Bulls series and game one of the Pacers series (seems like three years ago).

Outstanding news for the Spurs – they are 14-3 on the road in potential clinching games. The awful? The third loss happened Tuesday.

The Spurs have an experienced and dominant first ballot hall of fame power forward in Tim Duncan who might have a little left in the tank. Unfortunate that he’s countered by the best player of his generation with an energy pack that never empties.

Here are the seven things that must happen for the Spurs to find a way to finish off a team that somehow believes after one trip to the winner’s circle that they are destined to be champions again and again

Good Manu must show up. The guy who turned it over eight times on Tuesday better have been exorcised, or this series is over.
The Spurs need to limit points off turnovers. If the Heat are allowed to score in transition, they are impossible to beat. In Game One, the Spurs only turned to ball over four times. If that happened again, the Spurs win. I can’t believe that’s possible, so what is absolutely necessary is to control the damage by getting back on defense to stop easy conversions.
Tim Duncan needs to play a full game like he played the first half Tuesday. He doesn’t need to score like he did, but the energy he brought was old school Tim Duncan. That guy lifts his team. Duncan played more minutes Tuesday than he’s played in a game since 2008. Healing a 37-year-old body to the point where it’s ready for another 40+ minutes of sprinting and pounding doesn’t normally happen in 48 hours.
Tony Parker needs to hit shots. He was 6-for-23 Tuesday, but that was a function of a dedicated effort by the Heat to keep him from being the efficient guard that he normally is. The Spurs need to find a way to free him up to create – easier said than done.
Someone unexpected needs to score well, just as Danny Green did through the first five games of the series, and how Mario Chalmers for the Heat did in Game Six. Similarly, the Spurs need to stop Chalmers or Miller from beating them. The Heat defense on the interior is soft, so why not Tiago Splitter? Why not? Because he can’t defend against the Heat.
Make Dwyane Wade beat you. Whether Wade is hurt, tired, or ambivalent is anyone’s guess, but he hasn’t been very good in this postseason. LeBron James seems not to play as well when Wade is on the floor, so giving Wade some opportunities might diminish James as an asset. That’s a stretch that defies logic, but these are desperate times that require odd extrapolations.
Gregg Popovich needs to find clever methods to rest necessary components and limit bench exposure. Somehow, the bench needs to hold its own, but that’s a tough ask. As Popovich tried to buy minutes for Duncan and Parker at the end of the third period and into the fourth, the game completely changed. Duncan was pulled with :39 left in the third with the Spurs ahead 75-63. When Parker sat to begin the fourth, the Spurs led 75-65. When Duncan returned with 9:22 left in the fourth, the Spurs lead had shrunk to 79-75. As Parker reported with 7:35, the lead was down to 82-79.

Basketball isn’t a complicated game – create space offensively, limit second chance points, and take care of the ball. That is a recipe for winning regardless of the combatants. The Spurs succeed from possession to possession at doing those three things, they win.

Can’t wait to see if they are able to get that done.

By the way, I welcome new Twitter followers. No spam, just passionate sports stuff @kentsterling

Story About the Perfect Imperfection of My Marriage

by Kent Sterling

Just finished an online episode of “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” with Jerry Seinfeld, and at the very end, Jerry tells a one line story about marriage that he finds a perfect representation of a happy marriage. The wife says, “I thought it was a wonderful joke, and I’m sure everyone else did too.”

Seinfeld’s takes on that line is that the joke the husband told was awful, but the wife isn’t going to beat the husband up over it. Guest Sarah Silverman says, “That’s what love is.”

It better not be.

My wife and I were on vacation over the weekend in Florida with some friends, and while getting lunch one of the 10 people in our party asked if any of us had a dietary condition that would require a special consideration for dinners. I was among some old friends and others I had just met. A smart person would have inferred from the question that one of the people I was not acquainted with has a food allergy.

Not me. When the questioners eyes met mine, I said loudly and clearly, “All my food must be gluten free!”

The college student I had just met raised her hand to give me a high five, and said, “Hey, I’m gluten free too.” I explained that if anything I have a Tourette’s Syndrome derivative that causes me to blurt out ridiculous untruths around strangers, and am in fact very pro-gluten.

Later, I may have overcorrected by talking with this very kind and decent girl about friends who are pro-gluten and asking about her challenges. This portion of the program was far too similar to the behavior of outed bigots of the 1970s excusing their offending comments by saying, “It’s okay, I have a lot of friends who are …”

The next time my wife and I were alone, she sternly asked that I stop saying things that are potentially off-putting until we know people for more than 90 seconds. It was certainly not a, “Hey, honey, I thought the ‘gluten-free’ riff was very funny, and it seemed to amuse everyone.”

If she had, I would have wondered if an anvil had fallen on my wife’s head. Love isn’t about fortifying courage needed to offend others and okaying the acts of a buffoon, but doing the tough work necessary to stay in our lanes. I have no need for additional encouragement to cross the line, and Julie is most helpful with occasional glances and comments that bring me back to center.

Love is about honesty, not the avoidance of conflict. As long as both a husband and wife are comfortable with the knowledge that they sport a few flaws, smooth sailing should ensue. For prickly, sensitive, and/or heavily armed spouses, I would go with Seinfeld’s plan.

As for me, I’m better about knowing when I am about to say something potentially offensive, but still lacking in the impulse control to keep the noise where it belongs – in my own brain – out of reach of strangers. I’m talking less and less at large tables filled with people, but still have a long way to go. With Julie’s help, I may somehow eliminate feet from my diet by 2047.