So what kind of wine with hotdogs?

Opinion

Discussion

July 9, 2008

Dwain Walden The Moultrie Observer Wed Jul 09, 2008, 10:10 PM EDT

Im amazed at what some people will do for attention. Often the events have absolutely no socially redeeming value.

So this week, a father and son posted a video online of the two of them shocking each other with a stun gun. The son has been sent to prison because it was determined that he stole the stun gun from a police car. He pleaded guilty to possession of an electric weapon.

Now I didn’t know it was illegal to possess an electric weapon. But obviously if it was stolen from a cop’s car, the issue has greater dimension. I guess it depends on how you use an electric weapon. For instance, when I carve a ham, I use an electric knife. But I think using it as a weapon would require special circumstances and advance preparation. If you get into a knife fight in an alley, the chances of finding a plug-in would be slim to none.

Then comes Kent Couch who reached his flight destination Saturday in a unique excursion that involved a lawn chair with helium-filled balloons attached. He flew across Oregon and landed in Idaho. Idaho is a good place to land. There aren’t a lot of people there so your liability is reduced exponentially. I use the word exponentially occastionally when I have no formula for an exact number.

Flying in a lawn chair with balloons tied to it sounds like something out of a “Roadrunner” cartoon or a child’s coloring book. I once flew in a hot-air balloon. It was powered by flames from a propane tank. The basic difference between a hot air balloon and a gas grill is some nylon. And we had the added assurance of propellant in that there were two politicians aboard.

It’s very humbling to realize that you are 2,000 feet up in the air in what amounts to a picnic basket on steroids. Imagine how humbling it must be to fly across a state in a lawn chair.

Again, I see no socially redeeming value in Mr. Couch’s ride nor mine. I never said that I haven’t done some stupid things as well.

Then comes Joey Chestnut who held on to his hotdog eating title this week in an unprecedented overtime against Japan’s Takeru Kobayashi, a six-time winner.

I just don’t see the point. What do you prove when you gulp down 59 hot dogs in 10 minutes? It’s not like you can enjoy the relish or decide which is best, brown mustard or yellow. And certainly you can’t put up a case for the best wine to go with such fare. At least when those people run in front of the stampeded bulls in Pamploma Spain, the bulls have an opportunity to rid our planet of idiots who breath valuable air and take up precious parking spaces. (Socially redeeming value.)

Now I’m not here to say that everything we attempt must be of Mother Teresa strength. But if you are going to do something really stupid and post in on You Tube, you might want to think it through and make sure it didn’t involve a cop’s car.

Here’s a thought: With all the money Wiley Coyote spent on ACME products in those Road Runner cartoons, couldn’t he have just ordered some pheasant under glass? There should be more seminars on “thinking things through.” We might even get into fewer wars that way.

(Dwain Walden is editor/publisher of The Moultrie Observer, 985-4545. E-mail: dwain.walden@gaflnews.com)

Text Only

Opinion

The sky is falling! The sky is falling!
Remember back in the early sixties when people were digging bomb shelters in fear of the “Big One” being dropped on us? I recall how an alarm would go off at school, and we would get under our desks. What a joke! Get under our desks when one entire wall was glass!

February 8, 2012 1 Photo
Outpouring of love
Dear editor:
What words can be added to so many that have been said in prayer and praise for our Haley? We have witnessed an outpouring of love and sacrifice for our families, and we truly cannot express our feelings of humility and gratitude.

February 8, 2012
Rant and Rave for 2/09/12
February 8, 2012
Were we really shocked by the half-time cheap shot?
There’s an old saying, “Go to bed with dogs, wake up with fleas.”

February 7, 2012
Honor sacrifices
Dear editor:
When the Declaration of Independence was signed, we as a Country, The United States of America, were declaring our Freedom and Liberty.

February 7, 2012
Rant and Rave for 2/08/12
February 7, 2012
What's at stake here?
Dear editor
It looks like one of my worst fears is about to happen. With President Obama’s withdrawal of all American troops from Iraq it appears the democratic government we set up in Iraq is getting ready to come apart. The Shiites and Sunnis are at each others throats and the Kurds and Turkey are already shooting at each other. Iran seems to be paused to take up the vacuum we will be left and obtain a nuclear weapon. In 2007 the Democrats were clamoring for President Bush to get our troops out of Iraq.

February 6, 2012
Rant and Rave for 2/07/12
February 6, 2012
Hold the parsley — Give me the food
Occasionally I will watch one of those food shows on cable television. I find them more curious than I do entertaining. And sometimes, with only 100 channels at my disposal, I have to settle for curious.

February 4, 2012 1 Photo
'No' to incumbents
Dear editor:
Joe Biden came to Cowtown (Ft. Worth) to raise funds for his boss Obama. Picked up $125,000 from some "Fat Cat" liberals, part of the millionaire's raising Obama's teleprompter fund to over $225 million.

February 3, 2012
More Opinion Headlines

Should candidates for county positions have to run for a party's nomination?

Grandmother pleads guilty in child's death

Opinion

Search Results

Discussion

So what kind of wine with hotdogs?

Should candidates for county positions have to run for a party's nomination?

Site Map

Contact Us