19 years ago today

you know the story: her name was claudia. she was a heroin addict. she told us she'd been clean for 15 years, and i thought, "christ, i won't last 15 minutes."

that was nineteen years ago.

young and foolish

michael phelps has had a week long mea culpa for smoking pot at a college party during his three months off from swimming. i sincerely doubt that smoking pot before, during, or after getting in the pool enhances phelps' performance in any way. (it might make it more wacky, i don't know: "wow, dude! i'm underwater! i'm high and i'm underwater!") phelps couldn't very well deny it: some upstanding young college republican student* took photos and sold them to a british tabloid! (when do we get to meet him?)

on the other hand, the new york yankees' alex rodriguez has spent a long time now denying using any kind of performance enhancing drugs. oops. until today. today, in an interview with espn, a-rod finally fessed up:

“Back then it was a different culture. It was very loose. I was young, I was stupid, I was naïve.”

hey, a-rod, what about last week, when you were still denying using performance enhancing drugs? what about this interview with katie couric, from 2007? (or wait. were you loose, stupid and naïve then, too?)



as someone who was once loose, young, stupid, naive, and a number of other things, i can relate to feeling pressured into giving "the right" answer and, well...bending the truth. or ignoring it altogether. can't we all? but once you decide to...well, to not be stupid and naive anymore, one would hope you can take responsibility for not only your mistakes, but for the dishonesty in covering up those mistakes.

*c'mon – you seriously think a college democrat would do something like that?

what, is it 1950?

michael phelps smoked some pot. at a college party in columbia, south carolina. a british tabloid newspaper published a photo of him doing it. (how those college kids at didn't notice the british guy with the camera wandering around the party...well, they were smoking pot.)

we get this reaction from the united states olympic committee:

"We are disappointed in the behavior recently exhibited by Michael Phelps. Michael is a role model, and he is well aware of the responsibilities and accountability that come with setting a positive example for others, particularly young people. In this instance, regrettably, he failed to fulfill those responsibilities. Michael has acknowledged that he made a mistake and apologized for his actions."

quite honestly, i think wally needs to be grounded, don't you ward?