We're still five months away from the election, but it's become obvious which candidate is going to win the Jock Vote.Hints: Wears makeup, fusses over hair, married to a former lingerie model. Noooo, not Hillary Clinton. Donald Trump's delegate count among pro athletes is looking insurmountable.Jack Nicklaus endorsed Trump last week, joining an eclectic list that ranges from Lou Holtz to Michael Waltrip to Dennis Rodman. Before Bernie Sanders supporters start throwing chairs, let me stress that I am merely reporting the news. Cheap Seats has not endorsed a presidential candidate since Warren G. Harding in 1920, and I have every intention of maintaining that policy until my free membership at Trump National arrives. The sports world is not so neutral. The unofficial count of Trump sports endorsers is about 40, which dwarfs the usual amount a candidate gets before Memorial Day.You don't have to be a political scientist to figure out why. Toughness and aggression are fundamental sports traits.
So is painting your body, though orange only goes over well at schools like Florida and Syracuse."This is an atavistic male ideology that survives in the NFL and elsewhere in the sports world," John Hoberman, a University of Texas social and cultural historian, told the International Business Times. To which John Daly would say, "Ata-what?"He's an avowed Trumpster, as are Bobby Knight, Hulk Hogan, Mike Tyson, Rex Ryan, Billy Packer, Mike Ditka, Johnny Damon, Digger Phelps, Brian France, Jesse Ventura, Dana White, John Rocker and Latrell Sprewell, who reportedly tried to strangle a Hillary supporter last week.When asked about the growing list of sports figures supporting Trump, a Clinton spokesman said, "Talk about confirming the Dumb Jock stereotype. If you drag a hundred-dollar bill through a locker room, you won't find anyone who can even spell atavistic."The spokesman didn't really say that, but he would have if my email request to Hillary's server hadn't been deleted by North Korean hackers.
It's hard to say whether celebrity/jock endorsements make a difference in any election. All I know is that if anyone is handed a ballot and asks themselves, "I wonder what Dennis Rodman would do?" they should not be allowed to vote.Ravens offensive lineman John Urschel began work this offseason on his PhD in mathematics at MIT. He got his grades back last week."Four A's," Urschel wrote on Twitter.In other offseason NFL news, Johnny Manziel is not spending the offseason working on his PhD in mathematics at MIT. But he was spotted last week at a pool party at the MGM Grand Las Vegas and is reportedly considering endorsing Donald Trump.A toilet for the visitors dugout at the Oakland Coliseum backed up last week, forcing the Yankees to sidestep sewage during pregame warmup.In related news, plumbers were called to the Great American Ballpark after sewage fumes were detected in the Cincinnati dugout. They were sent home after officials traced the smell to the Reds pitching staff.Oregon has by far the coolest uniforms, according to a survey of 100 top recruiting prospects by Pick Six Previews.
The Ducks got 60 votes, followed by Baylor (8) and TCU (6), with FSU and Maryland each getting five votes.The least popular uniforms belonged to Alabama and Penn State, with 11 "worst" votes each. All of which shows why kids should not be allowed to pick out their own clothes.The unis for 'Bama and Penn State are unquestionably blah, but Oregon has gone too far the other way with its 953 revolving combinations of fluorescent green, yellow, black and white. It reminds me of a lot of weddings in the 1970s.Sure, a lot of guys thought they looked sharp in a light blue crushed-velvet tuxedo with chartreuse lapels. If only they'd gone with a classic black tux, they wouldn't now have to hide their wedding pictures whenever guests come over.My fashion advice to recruits: Have fun in your lime green tuxedos. Just be prepared for your kids to laugh at you one day.A Brazilian newspaper reported last week that 450,000 condoms will be provided to athletes at the Rio Games. That breaks the record of 150,000 set at the London Olympics.The increase was attributed to 250,000 body condoms that health officials recommend should be worn as protection against Zika-bearing mosquitoes who like to pick up strangers at the Athletes Village lounge.
I forgot to mention another reason why The Donald might be racking up so many sports endorsements. He is the only current candidate who's a member of the WWE Hall of Fame. (Jeb Bush, who wrestled as hall-of-famer "The Iron Sheik," dropped out of the presidential race in March.)Trump was a "Celebrity Inductee" in 2013. petition was started five months ago to have him removed from the hall. It has 10,758 signatures, though the WWE says they are fake and it does not respect any organization that engages in such practices.A company called Power Plant Fitness will soon open the first marijuana-friendly gym in San Francisco, featuring brownies and other cannabis-laced edibles. Local ordinances prohibit smoking pot in public places, but the gym say it's just a matter of time until members can do 20 minutes on a StairMaster with a joint dangling from their lips.< Prev Next > Lily In Winter is a sentimental story set in New York and Alabama in 1957 before integration. Lily is a resident maid/nanny in a swank apartment in New York, employed by workaholic parents who have a son, Michael, about 7-years old.
We quickly find out that Michael has a very strong emotional attachment to Lily, in part due to the rigid schedule of his parents. The father is a set designer and the mother an actress. The story really starts when Michael and Lily are in the kitchen with her brother, Booker, and his friend, Chick. Booker has a dream of opening a nightclub in Harlem and, of course, convinces his gainfully employed sister to lend him some money for same. A story of neglect emerges as Michael's father takes off to do a big "design" job and his mother begins doing matinees at the theatre. His father promises to be back for Christmas day, but must leave again Christmas night. Michael goes to his room and puts a pushpin in his map indicating where his father is going. This is the sad way he keeps track of his mother and father. Booker next appears in the living room of the apartment, an area of the home where he should not be, out of the kitchen area. He begs Lily for $2,000 which they both know she does not have in her stocking The loan sharks have beaten him up and he must have the money ASAP.
He has a plan to have Lily take the boy out during the day and leave the place unlocked, allowing him to steal enough from the house to meet the demands of the loan sharks. Lily agrees and takes the boy out as planned but as they near the house, she spies a police ambulance loading someone onto a covered-up stretcher in front of the house. She panics, assuming it is her brother, and heads for the train station with Michael. She bids Michael goodbye and tells him that she must leave and he is to go back home in the cab. He protests, but she leaves him in the cab. Once on the train Lily sleeps next to a window, awaking to find that Michael has sneaked on the train and absolutely refuses to go back home. Lily lets him continue with her until she can get to her folks and get enough money to send Michael back home. In New York, Donna, Michael's mother, has called the police, as she has discovered the burglary and disappearance of Michael and Lily. It is then that we discover the ambulance was for a neighbor next door who had a heart attack.
It was not Booker as Lily had suspected. Police suggest and suspect, as they tell Donna, that Michael has been kidnapped. Lily and Michael reach their destination in Alabama, Lily's home, through various modes of transportation climaxing in a wagon drawn by a mule which brings them to their destination. Home presents Lily with her illegitimate daughter, Louetta, who is about Michael's age, her mother and a dissatisfied sister bored with life in a small town. Her mother informs her that her father has died and she now has to deal with her local problems as well as the one of waiting for Michael to get homesick so she can convince him to go home in about a week. Booker arrives in Alabama with his devious friend, Chick, who talks Booker into making this a real kidnapping and stashing the boy in a hut in the woods. He agrees because it will allow him to give Lily money and help her get away from the Police/FBI, who from phone conversations with Donna and Lily, he and Lily know are looking for her and Michael.
The kidnapping plot fails as Lily, Mazie, the grandmother, and the sister, Ada, quickly convince Booker of his moral error. Booker, convinced, beats up Chick in order to free Michael. The bad Booker is redeemed. Finally, Lily gets Michael to the train station where he thinks they are both returning to New York. Once he is aboard the train, she gets him to accept the fact that he must return. He leaves without the person he loves most in the world, Lily, who returns back to her daughter, intent upon making a life with Louetta. Since Michael has been away, his family has re-examined their workaholic lifestyle and revised their work schedule in order to make Michael the priority. He, therefore, goes back to a warm and loving environment. As Michael travels towards a new life, so does Lily. She makes up for lost time by bestowing all her affection on Louetta, commencing by rocking her endlessly in a rocking chair. We subsequently see Michael in his room moving a push pin to Alabama for Lily.