Tuesday Twitterdeedum

The Saints came marching in last night, and Bill's a happy camper. As he watched the undefeated NFL team from New Orleans nearly decimate the New England Patriots, Bill made the comment that after almost all of his other favorite teams----especially McNeese and LSU---lost over the weekend, New Orleans had better hang in there.

Bill is a McNeese alum; he was president of the college marching band there, and he'll be happy to tell marching band stories from the South to anyone who listens. Bill's always makes a point of letting listeners from other regions of the country know that in the South the marching bands are every bit as important as the football teams.

I've heard this from a few others too, so over the years I believed him. I remember when my colleague John Knowles attended an LSU game where the Tigers were playing Idaho. John's son was on the Vandal team, which did its best that day. LSU prevailed, and John came back telling us about "the noise" in the stadium. He was impressed.

Of course, Bill always follows the Tigers because his mother earned her Master's in library science from LSU. She did that so she could kick Bill out of the Oakdale High School library his senior year. You'll have to ask Bill for the details.

It's kinda like a Willie story I told just the other day for Debbie's enjoyment. Willie was ASB president at Sandpoint High School, so he read the morning announcements. The sound system for the announcements flipped on one morning while I was sitting in front of my first-period journalism class.

Then came a big burp.

My class watched me frown, sigh and sit there disgusted as Willie proceeded with the announcements. He heard from me that night, and the school heard no more burps over the PA system. When I told the story the other day, Willie blamed it on Rusty Irish.

I guess I'll have to quiz Rusty for the "rest of the story." Melissa, maybe you can do that for me. :)

Anyway, teaching moms and their sons sometimes experience a few conflicts, and I'm guessing that whatever Bill did to get kicked out the library his senior year rivaled a burp over the loudspeaker.

Back to football, the New Orleans Saints made Bill pretty happy last night because they still have a chance to play in the Super Bowl and that would make Bill really happy. And, speaking of noise in the South, those New Orleans fans had that Super Dome rocking last night.

It's nice to see that wonderful city bouncing back from the devastation of the past few years.

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On a sad note, I found it hard to hold back tears every time I watched another news story regarding the senseless murders of the four Lakewood, Wash., police officers. With all the horrific things that we hear about and watch every day on the news, it would seem that we'd get hardened.

Fortunately, we don't.

This brutal mass murder of innocents pierced the hearts of everyone in the Northwest. Of course, having relatives living in the area, I also felt a sense of uneasiness about their safety and welfare until I read this morning that the police had finally brought that fear to a close.

At this point, all I've got to say is bless these officers' families and bless all of our law enforcement who go through each day never knowing what horrors they'll face even in the next second or in the most unlikely setting.

Like the military, our police officers deserve our gratitude more than ever after this monstrous crime.