A name by any other nom de guerre

So last weekend while I was not watching the superbowl I came across yet another name generator.  I remember the old days when you had to plug in the info yourself.  Yes, I know these things are sometimes more than a little insensitive but humor is pain so suck it up.

For example my drag queen name is my own first pet's name & my mothers maiden name. Which would technically make it Andrew McVey which is awkward for reasons only people who really know me know (Andrew was a big black tomcat who used to sleep in my crib, yes it only gets worse).  So I usually say it is Gus McVey; Gus was a smaller gray cat that I actually remember.  I have relatives, (by marriage, okay I might be married to one of them) a brother & sister who could claim Penny & Petey Hauptmann.  Can't you just see that up in lights over some vaudeville theatre?  Appropriate as it happens, the whole vaudeville vibe, I mean.  I also have a friend who would be Princess Gail (& no, she has never met my sister, although this is one of the few that actually works).  & another that trumps mine:  Magoo Doyle.  I even like to think about what my friends are doing to their kids & yes, I mean you mother of the future drag queen Doxy Brennan.  Maybe she could perform with her brother Junie Brennan.  Oh wait, I forgot about the guinea pigs.  & the cat.  It's an à la carte process.

My niece (Osiris O'Brien- winning drag queen names run in my family), recently uncovered the formula for your zombie survival team:  the last band/musician you listened to, the hero of the last video game you played & the hero of the last movie you watched.  Mine were X (same as one of my brothers, I know right?) which segued to the Pogues so it can go either way.  The Sims as it has been a very long time since I played a video game.  Because I am a grown-up.  Also Sudoku doesn't really have characters.  & Sherlock Holmes.  My only hope is outrunning these punks, drunks & cannon fodder.  & Sherlock Holmes.   Osiris gathered together Cher Lloyd, Greg from Hay Day & Elle Woods.  Yup, she's toast.

But you don't have to do all the work any more, now you can use an on-line name generator.  I would wrestle under the name Flighty Callgirl, which seems heavy handed no-pun-intended.  Practice witchcraft as Brigid Toadcackler. 

& last but not least, if I were an animal abusing, pro-football quarterback trying to cover up my treatment for genital herpes so I cold go on to infect groupies with impunity I might call myself
Brigitte Vanuatu. 

Running without

I know I have said before what stuff I run with that makes the whole thing more bearable (lime popsicles, Boudreaux's butt paste, etc.), but I thought I would tell you the things I do without.  Specifically, those things that many a running book, magazine, you name it would imply are commonplace or even necessary:

iPod or playaway or anything that gets between my ears & the sound of the world around me.  This was a new one for me, actually.  Whenever I had used our elliptical I made sure I had something to listen to.  Running in the world, though it turns out things go better when I pay attention.  A big part of this is becasue of the sheer number of people out there with me who are themselves not paying attention.  As most of them are behind the wheel of a car, the odds are in their favor surviving-a-collision-wise, so I like to know when someone is flying up behind me & you can only know that by listening.  //here's a handy little physics trick- if you hear a vehicle behind you but cannot tell if it is getting closer or farther away, listen to the pitch.  If the overall pitch gets higher, the vehicle is headed your way.

light weight running shoes.  My goal has never been to get done faster.  In fact I run with weights in my hands so light-weight would never interest me anyhow.  That aside, I don't seem to have delicate feet that require specialized shoes that do whatever those shoes are called upon to do.  In part this is due to the interval nature of my running (& by running I mean walk 1 minute, run 9-12 minutes.  Or rather stroll breathing deeply 1 minute & then jog chanting I hate this I hate this I hate this 9-12 minutes).  Or even the reality that most of my route is on dirt road so I don't have that jarring pavement-pounded feeling at the end.  Whatever the reason, whatever the cause I have 3 pairs of $50 sneakers & rotate through them depending on how wet it is outside (the oldest pair is for days I know I will run through deep puddles).

a heart or blood pressure monitor.  When it feels like my heart is going to pound right out of my chest, I slow down (don't worry mom, this hasn't happened in months & it was just that one time).  It turns out that the target heart rate for my age is almost certainly 5-8 beats per minute too fast so it is just as well I never aimed for any rate in particular. 

a pedometer.  I admit I would cruise past those displays of snazzy watches that also told you how far you had gone, but I run more or less the same route every day (adding a bit every now & then as my run sets get longer & I need to cover more road).  In the end it was easy enough to drive the route & look at the truck's odometer.  I was glad I did, too, because it turned out that the point on one stretch that mapquest & run keeper & google maps & all of those said was the mid-point actually isn't, if you drive (or run or walk).  This is because one side of that point is very flat & the other side of that point goes up & down what used to be fairly substantial gullies.  When the road was first created, it did not actually connect the two paved roads it now does; it dead ended at the last house.  The road was leveled & lime rocked to that point, but the dirt track that connected this point to the farmers field just a but further on got pushed further still until it came out on the county road.  This extension is not for the faint of heart or faint of suspension, as it can still wash out in a bad storm.  Running-wise, what with having to go down the side of one gully & then up the other side, & then do that again a couple more times, this 1/2 mile is actually more than a tenth of a mile longer than the other half.  Yes, yes, if I had a pedometer I would have known this sooner, but I still haven't bothered to get one.

& last but never least, Nike.  I have managed to avoid plonking down my money on what used to be the premier women's running brand & is now & will forever be those Michael Vick supporting corporate whores.  I know what they said, that they supplied equipment to the league & did not have any control over who used it within the league & my response is if Abercrombie & Fitch can ban fat people from working at their stores & the Situation from wearing their label anywhere in the rest of the world, it seems to me Nike could have said "while we appreciate the league doing us this huge favor of wearing our apparel at no charge to them, we would like you to stop handing it out to every felon on the payroll".  But Nike didn't & they have since gone on to sign Michael Vick to an endorsement deal.  That was Nike's call & they are entitled to it..  Walking quickly past every Nike rack in every sporting goods store everywhere is mine.

Adopt a Shelter Dog Month

Yes, I get kind of tired of these faux-holiday months:  eat a pig month, don't beat your wife month,  take your rabbi to luinch month, & so forth.  Hmmmm, that was a complete accident but maybe you should almost slap your spouse & then take the rabbi for a pork chop...?  No, probably not.

Anyway. 

All these months can get stoopid.  What I think I  like most about them is how stoopid they are.  Until I am just fed up & then they aren't even stoopid-fun anymore. But the thing about these months is there is always one that means something to you, or in this case, me.  I am only marginally interested in National Cyber Security Awareness or Downs Syndrome Awareness & maybe just a bit more interested in Breast Cancer Awareness or Lupus Erythematosus Awareness (not to be confused with general Lupus Awareness Month which is in May).  But there is a big one for me:  October is Adopt a Shelter Dog Month.

There are so many stories, so much alike & so uniquely heartbreaking about shelter animals that I am just not going to enter that now.  Instead I am going to give you a taste of what a foundling dog can be, if someone just takes him home:

When I was a kid it was all about Benji, or Higgins actually becasue that was his name-at-home.  Higgnins was indeed found at a shelter & once this was learned the American Humane Society reported a HUGE uptick in adoptions from shelters.  The subsequent Benji was Higgins's son, who obviously did not come from an animal shelter; Higgins was so beloved by his owner that when the dog died he was cremated & then buried with him (the owner) when he (the owner) died.

Later it was Murray, or Maui a border collie mix also found at an animal shelter, around whom the life of two very busy NY professionals revolved just about the time we got our first dog, Megan-also-called-Piglet.  Her shelter name was Denise & I wanted to name her Dodie & I still think she would have made a fine Dodie, but all the yuppies were naming their daughters Megan so Megan it was.

Most recently it is the dogs formerly know as Bad Newz.  I confess I have not yet read the book about their rehabilitation, but as a person who lives with a pitbull I know that they are individuals just like every other breed & some want to patrol their territory & some would rather eat pizza on the couch.

Sooooo, it's Adopt a Shelter Dog Month.  Chances are your shelter dog won't make you rich, or even pay his own way.  Still, there are lots of wonderful dogs out there who have already been thru the horrible puppy stage & just want someone to rub their bellies.

What would Michael do?

There has not been much talk of Michael Vick lately.  Maybe because football season is over.  Maybe because of the headline-only nature of our news media.  Maybe because of the more recent devastation of one of country's most economically influential eco-systems.  Whatever the reason, it was possible today could pass us by without anyone saying Happy Birthday Michael Vick.

Michael Vick's background is not particularly auspicious.  He was born to an unmarried teenage couple & raised in a housing project.  He parlayed his exceptional skill into a college scholarship, but left before graduation to pursue what was a lucrative professional career.  His would have been a largely unremarkable story in the world of professional athletics, including but not limited to being accused of a felony, had he not included gross animal abuses in his repertoire.  The descriptions of the pleasure he took in...well..let's just say you probably would not want him dating your daughter no matter how much cash he pulls in.

So the direct question "what would Michael Vick do" probably does not need to be asked again.  I thought I would instead take a look at what he could maybe have done differently.  Vick's defenders insist that the kind of people who protest his behavior do not have any kind of inkling of what it takes to make it out of the projects, competing with everyone else who wants to make it out of the projects.  Okay fine.  It is also fair to say that as a white woman I know nothing about the kind of racism a black man could face in the American South.  Fair enough.  So let me present a very short list of other notable black men who got out from under Jim Crow:

Arthur Ashe:  It has been a long time since I have heard his name, but Arthur Ashe was first in lot of things.  He grew up in Richmond Virginia & while not a child of the projects, Richmond was a segregated city & Arthur, a small skinny runty boy was no one's idea of a future star athlete.   He did all the normal things, including serving a tour in the USArmy as well as many extra-ordinary ones.  Before there was Tiger Woods, or even Serena or Venus Williams, there was Arthur Ashe.  He used his position as a world class athlete to promote athletics, setting up scholarship programs, publishing historical research, ultimately earning an EMMY for the production of same.  He died of AIDS, most likely received during a blood transfusion, but not before making a name for himself as an activist, in AIDs awareness, but also against apartheid.  Like Vick, Ashe has a famous arrest record:  he was arrested outside the South African embassy protesting Apartheid & a few years later outside the White House protesting a crackdown on Haitian refugees.

Rubin Carter:  Paterson, NJ is not the deep south, but there is plenty of racism to go around.  Hurricane, as he is better known, was indeed a violent child & a violent man, but he is most famous for the crime he did not commit, largely because of the years he served anyhow.  Upon leaving prison, he left New Jersey, he left the US, but rededicated his life to helping others who had been wrongly convicted.

Too famous for you?  Maybe you need someone a little more every-day-joe?  Okay:

Vivien Thomas:  his grandparents had been slaves & his formal education ended with high school.  His personal ambitions dissolved with the onset of the Great Depression & his plan to become a doctor took a backseat to feeding his family.  He took a job cleaning up after the laboratory animals at Vanderbilt University.  The rest, as they say, is history, but at the time I am sure it seemed like the end of a dream.  With  Alfred Blalock, Vivien Thomas developed surgical techniques & tools that changed the field forever.

Cory Booker:  Actually, Booker grew up in affluent surroundings, prestigious education, the whole package.  His parents were among the first blacks employed by IBM, they were the ones that fought tooth & nail to scramble up.  Booker is notable for scrambling back.  For eight years, starting when he was elected to Newark's City Council, Booker lived in one of the city's housing projects:  no heat in winter, no hot water ever.  He left not long before the demolition crews arrived, relocating to a smaller building in one of Newark's most ravaged neighborhoods.  Early last month, he won another term as Mayor.

& for our final look-see how about someone who did everything he could to escape Jim Crow laws, only to be dragged back down by them:

Charles Drew:  I remember learning about Dr. Drew in a film strip (yes I am old enough to remember film strips) on notable negroes; I think the series was even called Notable Negroes in Science.  The film strip was not trying to be disrespectful, that is what many black people called themselves when I was a child.  Anyhow, Drew was born in Washington DC, a community still infamous for poverty.  Attended school, graduated Amherst, so he must have been studious, graduated  McGill University's medical program, taught at Howard College, but mostly he revolutionized the way blood was stored for transfusions, how the white & red blood cells were removed so that it could be handled as plasma.  Without his work, I know I would not be alive today, nor would my sister, nor just about anyone else who ever needed a transfusion.  Still, what I remember most about that film strip though was his death.  He died as a result of a car accident; he might have survived but the closest hospital was a white only hospital & he was not admitted. 

Everything that everyone of these men did could have been bettered by Vick.  He could have donated money, he could have been a spokesman for causes, he could have spoken at colleges & churches, he could have set up summer camps for kids just like himself.  There is almost no too-small effort he could not have made that would not have made a huge difference.  Instead he worked hard, paid much to make sure that violent despicable life people try to give him credit for outgrowing stayed with him.

I said it did not need to be asked, but I am asking anyhow:  what would Michael Vick do?  As far as I can tell, Michael Vick would do everything he could to keep the violent, limited life anyone in their right mind would work to leave behind with him always.  He reminds me of nothing so much as a turtle; you can take that turtle anywhere in the world & it will never leave it's shell.

Is that all there is?

We took a break (A***** has a real job, can you imagine?), but next week we were supposed to be back with The Monk's Tale.  Then A*****'s job popped up again, but this post was all typed & queued & I figured I would go ahead with it anyhow.  It isn't as though I have anything new to say about the Monk's Tale.

I have read the Monk's Tale.  I have read it thrice.  & all I can remember is it was quite the series of downers.  Wikipedia tells me it is "a collection of seventeen short stories, exempla, on the theme of tragedy".  I was too disheartened to count.  For me it was a waterfall of failure in which the hero's hubris did not play the pivotal role (which makes it not-tragedy in my high school but whatever), it was merely incidental.  As near as I can tell, if you are up on the wheel of fortune, you should kill yourself now because the wheel is just waiting to toss you down & grind you beneath.  Not that you can kill yourself because that is a mortal sin & you will only be making things much worse for yourself.

Did I mention this was the Monk's Tale?  This collection of famous people screwed by fate was being told by the guy you would go to for counseling if you were having some kind of crisis. The nicest thing you can say about the monk is at least he is not overtly corrupt.


As for these list of sufferers, what can I say.  He starts with Lucifer (falling from grace was not his fault - G*d made him that way), moves on through history to Nebuchadnezzar (that whole gold statue worship thing was just a misunderstanding), then Nero (matricide is good-time-party-fun, besides she had it coming) & ends with Michael Vick (those dogs wanted to kill each other).

In the end it took the Knight to say "Shut the F*CK UP you whiny baby", although he said it nicer than that.  He avoided saying what I wanted to say:  Why don't you just kill yourself & shut up about it?

Sick of Vick? Me too

Just a quick quick one:  BET started airing the Michael Vick Project earlier this month & sponsors have already started to withdraw as people contact them & voice their views.  I think I will miss Hershey's the most, but it turns out Diet Pepsi was not so hard to kick (I admit I fell off the wagon when the lunch-place we eat on Wednesdays ran out of all other caff-bevies but I got right back on-no problem).

Sackvick.net has been doing a good steady job of keeping up & so I defer to them on this.  The sponsor list is here &.  Sackvick, net has also been tracking who is dropping sponsorship of this program; I plan to write & say thanks.

Anyone on the fence, or who thinks people should just leave the man alone-he's done his time ponder this:  if he had never committed the crime, he would never have suffered the punishment (he confessed people); if he had never suffered the punishment he would not now have his own television show.

"Show me the money"

It took me a month to settle down enough to write this post & another few weeks to edit it:

Way back when, I sat STOOPIFIED as a ranking member of the NAACP told people that all this objection to Michael Vick was because he was black. Really? It could not possibly be because he shows the signs of an embryo serial killer? Who happens to be black? I admit this pushed a button with me as I have a family member who is convinced that everyone who disagrees with him is an anti-semite. Even other jews that disagree with him are secretly self loathing. That someone might disagree with his opinion (or dislike him for wholly un-semite related reasons) is just not possible.

But back to Michael Vick:  there used to be talk (& maybe there still is) about how animal rights activists were rushing to judgment.  Again - really?  Because isn't that what a conviction is-a judgment?  I remain entirely unclear "what time will tell" except how well he plays football & how much cash that generates.  Or are we waiting to see if he gets caught operating a hobby-dog-fighting ring again or torturing animals again or whatever & then rethinking whether he or not he is might not be such a great guy who was just at the wrong place that one time?

What is starting to come out, though is that a large, financial machine did indeed, rush to judge him, it rushed to judge him rehabilitated. & that, after reading court documents, it would seem Vick had a second chance when his juvenile records were sealed. & had another second chance when his college coaches intervened for him. & has already doubled up on second chances since joining the Eagles, when they argued that drinking in a bar was not in fact a violation of his parole (& opening the door for ANY parole violator busted in the same way to get sprung because a precedent has been set).

I am told that the Eagles & Vick are gearing up for the post-season.  I do not know, I do not take much interest in football (is it like hockey where virtually everyone plays post-season?), nothing to do with Michael Vick.  The other thing gearing up:  high school & college football players crashing & burning (& drunk driving & shoplifting) & every one of them is certain it will all be forgiven.  Why wouldn't they be?

Just for fun I like to google "football player arrested".  Since I started this little game, there are always at least 5 (& often more like 8 out of 10) unique arrests that have occurred within the year.  I thought I would try a few others: Baseball, Volleyball & the famously violent Hockey.  There were only two Hockey player arrests that came up for the previous year: one hit & run & one tried to hire someone to kill his boyfriend.  Volleyball was even lamer.  Baseball, that gentlest of contact sports, is almost on par with Football, though not so close as Basketball.  So what do Baseball, Basketball & Football have in common that Hockey & Volleyball do not?  Very large third party financial interests.

Dear Geico Representative

If you read your own e-mail (which the auto-responses to my messages rather imply that you do not), you already know that our household of Geico customers is leaving your company after 20+ years because of Geico's continued support of the Philadelphia Eagles following their decision to sign Michale Vick.

The e-mail response I did receive stated clearly that the potential new customer is worth more to your organization than the existing customer. I find it hard to believe that anyone would stay in business for as long as Geico has if that were true so you should know: if it was a bluff hoping the anti-Michael Vick sentiments would fade away, it failed. Several of your competitors were delighted to scoop up our business & all gave us reasonable quotes & better customer service.

I hope whatever Geico staffer actually opens this letter takes a good look in the mirror. After the furor over this very poor marketing decision has died down, even if people like us represent only a fraction of Geico's overall customer base, the exodus of long-term, on-time bill paying, non-claim making (we have not had so much as a moving violation for more than ten years) customers means there will be less money in the pot for payroll. The job that gets cut will not be the suit that thought this would blow over; that person will be enjoying Philadelphia Eagles skybox service while you are waiting in the unemployment line.

Happy Labor Day.

Dear Humane Society of the United States

I was sorry when I learned that HSUS had agreed to endorse Michael Vick's return to the NFL before any measure of his rehabilitation could be made. Now that Vick has made clear that he has no plans to attempt sobriety (to refresh your memory, his addictions were the excuse he gave for his actions), I hope that you are reconsidering your support of what was clearly a quick&dirty clean-up so that someone could make some money.

As of right now, any support (financial, volunteer, etc.) that I gave to HSUS has already stopped. I know enough people in the animal rescue world to know that I am one of thousands who have made this decision. I am also business savvy enough to understand that the donation the NFL made to get the support of the HSUS in this debacle must have been substantial. It may even be enough to offset the loss of revenue from small household donors such as myself.

There is no doubt that the decision to take what was offered & prop up Michael Vick for as long as HSUS has will be the decision that defines HSUS well into the future. What is still at stake is whether HSUS is an organization that can admit a mistake was made. Was HSUS a naive but well-intentioned organization that was temporarily distracted by dollar signs & has realized this error OR is HSUS just another corporate entity designed primarily to make money to feed its coffers? Or is it even worse: is the HSUS employee that brokered this deal & received a sizable bonus for his "fund raising" the same person who makes the decision on whether or not to "stay the course"?

When Michael Vick does finally crash&burn (& there is every reason to believe it will be sooner rather than later), the press will have a field day with if HSUS is still the organization that was more interested in rescuing animal abusers than helping the animals themselves.

It seems clear that HSUS is at a crossroads. Is it better to stay in bed with the symbol of everything the HSUS claims to be against because the money is good or get out with some shreds of credibility intact & hope that action generates some goodwill? At this point, these are the only choices left.

National Dog Day

Today is National Dog Day. Of course, where I live every day is Dog Day & I mean that in a good way. I admit it is one of those 'days' I would not have really noticed except of course for the people who remain persuaded that they can convince the Eagles to sack Michael Vick. Many sites that have a "tell the eagles what you think" link have a National Dog Day notice.

It occurred to me that if I am telling sponsors of the Philadelphia Eagles I will no longer be using their products (I am not going to miss Taco Bell at all but we have already said good-bye to Geico, & it turns out Pepsi is responsible for several of my favorite beverages. Oh Well, & so forth, water is better for me anyhow), I should make an extra effort to support sponsors of National Dog Day. So here goes:

Cotton: Oh. My. G*d. Cotton is one of my favorite things! It makes for difficult knitting (sorry cotton) but the most beautiful quilts. Today I vow to purchase several pieces of cotton & several more every week for the rest of the year. Maybe even for the rest of my life.

Dyson: What can I say, I love my Dyson. When our pre-Dyson died & we were shopping for a new vacuum, the salesman estimated that people use 10-12 vacuum bags a year. I laughed so hard I almost choked; we used to use 8+ a month. I would buy another Dyson because of their Dog Day support but...I do not need to! This vacuum is so good it has lived in our 5-dog-house on a dirt road for several years & is showing no sign of feeling the pain.

Crayola: Is there anything better than a box of crayons?!? There may be some bad things about Crayola crayons, but I do not know what they are. I even know that a two year old can eat a substantial amount of them & pass them with no apparent harm. What other toy can do that? I am absolutely going out & buying several boxes of Crayola crayons & then putting them in the school supplies drive box at the library.

There are other sponsors but I do not know much about them, except they keep excellent company.

I do not know how you will be observing National Dog Day, but I will be buying crayons, vacuuming & then maybe a bit of quilting. & of course I will do all of this while being followed around by my dogs. Oh, yeah, I also plan to send another letter (another day, another letter) to another corporate sponsor of the Philadelphia Eagles.

So easy even a dog killer can do it: The Reply

This is what I sent to Geico via their contact web-page:

So easy even a dog killer can do it-

I was very disappointed to learn that Geico is a corporate supporter of the Philadelphia Eagles; we have been faithful Geico customers for well over ten years.

While I realize the decision to restore Michael Vick to the NFL was not a Geico decision there is no question that by remaining a sponsor of the team that signed him, Geico endorses this decision.

I have not yet begun the process of changing our insurance carrier because I think after ten years Geico deserves the opportunity to redress this mistake however I will not remain with a company that supports dog killing for 'sport'.

this is the reply I got:

If you are a policyholder, we thank you for being with GEICO.

GEICO runs advertising spots during many athletic events broadcast throughout the country because we attempt to reach large audiences with our message of excellent coverage, price and service.

As a company and as an advertiser, we do not take positions on the issues that arise among teams or among players.

Thank you for taking the time to contact us.

GEICO Corporate Communications

In less than 20 minutes I had a quote from a Geico competitor that was $22 a year cheaper. Not usually enough to make me go thru the hassle of changing insurance carriers, but I think it will be worth it this time.

So easy a dog killer can do it

I have already said how (un)impressed I am with the NFL's decision to reinstate Michael Vick & now well, I am double dazzled by the Philadelphia Eagles. YesBiscuit! was good enough to put up the link to the Philadelphia Eagles Corporate Partners page. When I looked yesterday there were two standouts we use regularly & well I thought they might need new jingles in honor of this milestone. So this is what I came up with:

So much for being about the better stuff - Snapple
Even a dog killer can do it - Geico

& now I invite everyone to add their own to this page, but more important forward it to the appropriate Eagles sponsor.

I had zero faith that the Eagles will budge even an inch in their decision, until funnily enough less than twelve hours after the YesBiscuit! post, the Eagles took down their corporate sponsors page (although it remains cached here). Let me tell you who I was able to remember (with help from a few other not-Vickers I talk to) : Chrysler, Heineken, two different incarnations of Comcast, Lincoln Financial Group, BestBuy, USAirways, Taco Bell/KFC, Jeep, MasterCard, RiteAid Pharmcy, Pepcid, 7/Eleven, Pepsi, Miller-Lite, Dunkin Donuts, & of course Snapple & Geico. Oh & lets not forget my personal favorite: the American Red Cross. But thanks to For Your Entertainment I can point you to the pre-take-down list.

The unlucky thing about corporate sponsors is if they do not get credit for sponsoring, they do not think they got their monies worth so their logos are all over programs & tickets & their own websites. Anyone who has ever had a staring contest with a freakishly moist-eyed younger brother knows that in pulling the list, the Eagles just blinked. They could not have said "PLEASE do not contact our sponsors" any louder.

For Your Entertainment also suggests that the sponsors were probably blindsided & polite would be the best way to go when writing them (no such suggestion was made when contacting the Eagles directly).

Finally in the fairness of all things...well, fair, I should say A is not 100% with me on this. He is not sure Vick should have ever been banned from playing as the law is the law & MV was convicted, did his time & should be allowed to go on with his life. On the other hand, if the slogan "So easy a dog killer could do it" got well-known enough that they stopped running those annoying ads, well that would be killing two birds with one stone. Or should I say two dogs with the same chain.

//A' s exact words were...let me just fill you in: I said if MV was truly contrite he would have given up some names of others who had been involved & A said "Michael Vick does not live to satisfy you". It is moments like this that I delight in marrying someone for whom english is round-a-bout the third language. Or is it fourth?

Dear Mr. Goodell

It was with no surprise what-so-ever that I read you had reinstated Michael Vick to the NFL, with full reinstatement by week 6 of the upcoming season. I have never heard of a professional sports administrator that did not put $$ above every other standard & no one expected you would be any different. Also, I am sure it is handy for future offenders in the NFL to know "indefinitely" means less than three years.

Living in a Football Is King community, I have heard many arguments for Vick's reinstatement. I think my favorites are: they are just dogs & other players have beaten their wives/girlfriends & not drawn this much attention. I am sure both of these were factors in your decision. Whether we like it or not, there is a perception of complicity when a victim capable of speech elects not to speak.

On the other hand, if Michael Vick had rounded up his exes, put them in cages & forced them to fight to the death, the outcome would probably be somewhat different. In short, it would be out of your hands.

The world of football is plenty big enough that I am confident you will have a full & rich life without being much inconvenienced wondering what the rest of us think of you. Which is lucky because it is not much. As disgusted as I am by an ignorant animal that has never been taught to live in a civilized manner, is in fact rewarded for the damage it does, there is nothing more craven than the human being that profits from that animal's base nature.