Cap’n Ken’s Homespun Wisdom

There was a good piece this week in The Advocate (the Baton Rouge daily, not the national gay newspaper) on LSU sophomore running back Keiland Williams. Leslie doesn”t let freshmen talk to the press, so this was Williams” first big moment with the local media. I”m a huge Williams fan. He”s got the potential to be a breakout player this season. And it”s good to get some more context around the guy now that the media blackout has been lifted.

I find it just a little disconcerting, though, that while the 20-year-old Williams commands this level of mental acuity and communication skills …

“Going into the spring I’ve heard comments that (LSU coach Les Miles) has said that I’ll be the guy because that’s how I ended the season,” Williams said. “But we have a redshirt freshman, Richard Murphy. He’s just excellent, great athleticism. And then of course Charles Scott is going to battle, and then Jacob Hester’s going to get some carries. And then I expect (Alley Broussard) to come back for a full year. So it’s going to be extremely competitive, but I’m up for the challenge.”

… the best Leslie can manage is his typical semi-coherent ramblings …

“I’d like to see three guys, three different skills and one guy might assume the first snaps in every game,”

“I’m certain that he it is his intent as it is probably the intent of four guys at that spot”

“Competition is good. He had a nice fall season and I suspect he’ll have a nice spring season.”

Driving the wife to work this morning, some jackass on Marietta Street decided that it would be better for him - rather than waiting 30 seconds for the cars in front of him to turn left - to jump out into the right-hand lane directly in front of me, my wife, Cletus the fetus and my Acura TL. Thanks to my cat-like reflexes, superb driving skills and the TL”s responsiveness, what was almost a fairly significant crash turned into some mild scraping of car bodies - my beautiful TL”s front left against jackass” shitty Nissan Sentra”s right rear:

OK, really mild scraping. But it”s damage to my car and danger to my family caused by reckless behavior. So these free life lessons are in play for the jackass at fault:

- If you”re going to cut into the path of an oncoming car, it”s probably wise to wait for a car that”s about as shitty as yours, not new and much nicer.

- When you recklessly cause property damage and put us in danger because you”re too stupid to stay out of turn lanes and too impatient to wait it out, I”m not going to “settle it among ourselves”, no matter how insignificant you think the damage is.

- The police agree with me. That”s what that citation and court date mean.

- You are never going to get anywhere with my wife - especially in her current condition - by suggesting that she convince me to realize “it”s just scrapes” and forget about it.

- You could have invested 30 seconds at that light to save a moving violation, fine, day in court and higher insurance rates when you saw there was a car coming in the right lane.

So the wife and I were up in NashVegas this weekend to help welcome a new niece into the world. On the local next yesterday morning there was this rather strange bit about the shooting of a Springfield police officer:

Springfield Police Officer Shot
March 5, 2007 12:53 AM

A Springfield police officer was recovering Sunday night after being shot inside a local emergency room.

It happened at the NorthCrest Medical Center. Sources tell NewsChannel 5 Officer Curtis Scott was on patrol, and stopped at the ER. They say a man there started fighting with Scott.

During the struggle, a gun went off. The bullet ricocheted off the floor, and hit Scott in the stomach. Scott was then lifeflighted to Vanderbilt where he was treated for his injuries.

Officer Scott is now back at home and we”re told he”s doing okay.

Police have arrested 31 year old Malchico Gardener.

Read that carefully. The officer was shot in the emergency room of a local hospital and flown to Vanderbilt for emergency treatment. And for wounds that were not severe enough to keep the guy in the hospital for 24 hours.

Quite the PR coup for NorthCrest Medical Center.