My Favorite Presidents Are Hamilton, Jackson, Grant And Franklin

Congratulations to Matt Kenseth, the winner of the rain shortened Daytona 500. Winless last season, Kenseth took the lead of the race just as a crash occured behind him, bringing out the yellow caution flag. Minutes later, it began to rain and the race was declared official a short time later. The race had several wrecks including a controversial crash that occurred when Dale Eanhardt Jr., turned Brain Vickers into the wall, taking out many of the front runners including Kyle Busch, the obvious class of the field. Kevin Harvick and A. J. Almendinger finished second and third respectively.

The Stimulus Bill recently passed by Congress contains a provision that any new construction spawned by the bill must use American steel. China is already protesting that this is "Protectionism." Since there is most assuredly a trade deficit as to what China exports to America as opposed as to what they import, I really don't care if it is protectionism. In fact, I think the U. S. Congress should enact more BUY AMERICAN bills. If this is protectionism and it stimulates the American economy, the so be it and China can kiss my ass!

Chris Brown is a (c)rap star who recently beat his girlfriend, singer Rihanna, on a street in Los Angeles, California. He was arrested February 8 on suspicion of making criminal threats. In his recent statement about the incident, he said, "Words cannot begin to express how sorry and saddened I am over what transpired." I can only assume that these words were written by his publicist since most of the language of crap performers are limited to, "Ho" (ebonics for the word whore) and "mother-f**ker."

This Date In History: 1804; American naval officer Stephen Decatur leads a raid into Tripoli harbor to burn the American frigate Philadelphia, which has been hijacked by pirates. 1923; Howard Carter opens the sealed doorway to the burial chamber of the sarcophagus of Tutankhamen. 1930; Nylon is developed by scientists of E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, Inc., headed by the American chemist Wallace Hume Carothers. 1959; Fidel Castro becomes prime minister of Cuba following his overthrow of Fulgencio Batista.

Pictures Of The Day: My Granny often displayed her favorite bird to Grampa. Since then, birds have always fascinated me going back to my childhood when matchbooks used to have pictures of birds on the covers and I would tear them off and collect them. This practice obviously did make my father very happy, but Mom was quick to defend me noting that I was more interested in the birds than playing with fire. Satisfied that I wasn't smoking and would not burn the house down, my parents saved the covers for me and gave them to me when the matchbook was empty.

Sadly, as I got older and women became more and more a part of my life, I quite often did play with fire and have been burned more than once. Since that time, I no longer play with matchbooks, but I am still wont to play with fire every now and then.

Birthdays: Gaspard de Coligny, Huguenot leader 1519, Ernest Haeckel, German biologist and philosopher 1834, Geraint Evans, baritone 1922, John Schlesinger, film director 1926.

Printable Things I Never Told You: 1) When I was younger, I played amateur Jai Alai and won several tournaments. 2) I once (once) dated a girl who referred to her breasts as "Bert and Ernie.") 3) I am self taught on guitar, piano, keyboards and bass guitar. 4) Maroon (and shades thereof) is my favorite color. 5) My brother, Kirt, and I once bailed out of a moving 1953 Chevrolet when a green tree frog jumped from the dashboard onto the face of our friend Ronnie, who was sitting in the middle. The driverless car continued rolling for a city block with Ronnie sitiing in the middle of the front seat fighting the frog. Ronnie was not amused that we abandoned him in his time of need, but our family adage in the face of adversity has always been, "women, children and the Sullivan Brothers first."

The Hits Just Keep On Coming:

A young and beautiful woman gets into the elevator, smelling like expensive perfume. She turns to the old Italian woman on the elevator with her and says arrogantly, "Giorgio - Beverly Hills, $100 an ounce!"Another young and beautiful woman gets on the elevator and also smells of very expensive perfume. She arrogantly turns to the old Italian woman and says, "Chanel No. 5, $150 an ounce!"About three floors later, the old Italian woman has reached her destination and is about to get off the elevator. Before she leaves, looks both beautiful women in the eye, farts and says "Broccoli - 49 cents a pound.

"One morning a local highway department crew reaches their job-site and realizes they have forgotten all their shovels. The crew's foreman radios the office and tells his supervisor the situation. The supervisor radios back and says, "Don't worry, we'll send some shovels, just lean on each other until they arrive."

A gynecologist who had lost interest in his medical practice decided to change careers and enrolled in auto mechanic school. He performed well in the course but was still shocked when he got an off-the-chart 200 on his final exam. He asked the instructor to explain the grade. "I gave you 50 points for taking the engine apart correctly," the teacher said, "50 points for putting it back together correctly -- and an extra 100 points for doing it all through the muffler."

That's it for today my little hummingbirds. More on Wednesday.

Stay Tuned !