Dateline: New Orleans

Once a Muppet fan, always a Muppet fan. Jake and I have watched every episode of the first three seasons of the Muppet Show on DVD. (My favorite is the one with George Burns.)

At FAO Schwarz you can create your own Muppet Whatnot, a Muppet extra. Way more fun than a Star Trek red shirt, plus you don’t have to explain to your son why he didn’t get beamed back up.

$129.99 from FAO Schwarz
(Note: Beginning some time this year, Disney parks will also offer these.)

Fourteen years ago on the night before I got married, I handed my groomsmen long cardboard boxes. When they opened up and saw authentic Louisville Sluggers, they said “cool.” When they realized their own names were engraved beside the logo, they started acting like 12 year olds on the first day of little league. 

Living in Louisville, you see a lot of personalized bats standing in the corners of offices and dens, and yet I still don’t have one of these babes. Gonna have to change that pretty soon. Just noticed there’s one with a red/black color scheme!

$57 from sluggergifts.com

After I wrote a story earlier this year about the merger of white and black congregations in Louisville, publishing giant LifeWay asked me to write how the combined church was using the company’s materials successfully. “Urban curriculum works for church in transition”

Oh, and a sidebar: Two churches become one in Louisville

Here’s a great read if you’re interested in stories about redemption, football or the willingness to make a difference.

The Ballad of Big Mike, by Michael Lewis

It’s a digest of the book on which the movie “The Blind Side”is based. Now you and I don’t regularly write 11,000-word assignments, but one of the things that makes this so interesting is the multiple perspectives Michael Lewis gives to the story. Not just Sean and Leigh Ann Tuohy, but principal Steve Simpson, pro football scout Tom Lemming, tutor Sue Mitchell, and high school football coach Hugh Freeze. Great stories are worth the investment in that extra interview to get another perspective, another anecdote, another quote. Enjoy.