If you're one of those folks who are wondering what all the heated words between Lester Aradi, Largo's police chief, and Wayne Shelor, the public information guy for the Clearwater police, were all about, let me fill you in.
There won't be any gun play.
There will be ball play.
What it's all about is a fund raising venture to help a Clearwater officer and his family. They have a four month old baby who was born with some medical problems. Corrective surgery is planned for this summer.
So you get it. Some money would help, and prayers, too.
The occasion will be the fourth annual Charity Softball Challenge that will bring together teams from Clearwater and Largo April 20 - next Friday - at 4:30 p.m.
Folks who show up can make it a doubleheader because the Class A Threshers will take on the Sarasota Reds at 7.05.
Proceedings take place at the Bright House Networks Stadium, a jewel of a ball orchard located where Drew Street meets U.S. 19.
And get this - for the ticket price of $16 a head, you get the games and a repast of hot dogs, hamburgers, cheeseburgers, pop corn, chips, ice cream, and soft drinks - all you can eat and drink - from 6 p.m. to 9 at the Hot Corner Cafe.
The way it works is that $5 of every $16 goes to police charity. Last year, the event raised $3,800.
To promote the affair, Aradi and Shelor, usually well mannered fellows, have been engaging in some trash talk, derogating the undescribed skills of each side.
In the early going, they played their roles well and when asked what was going on, what was all the nasty talk about, they merely said, "We'll settle this later."
That was all make believe, designed to draw interest.
This is the time of heart pounding, blood racing days for high school seniors who have applied to college and await the
verdict.
In fact, there's a nice commercial on TV where the news comes and the applicant, a young woman, is afraid to open the envelope. Her Dad does and he plays it grim for a moment. Then there is the big grin and a hug. It kind of touches me.
The fact that almost 21,000 of the approximately 23,000 kids who applied to Harvard this year got a thumbs down really emphasizes, to me, misplaced importance.
Kind of lopsided, wouldn't you think? I mean, 91 percent denied? Harvard College accepted 2,058 students for the class of 2011, winnowing them out from the 22,955 applicants. It's the lowest admission rate in history.
That, I think, is just a little too elitist. But that is what the kids are up against these days. The myth grows that if one does not go to the oldest and best college in the country they might as well give up on any idea for a successful life.
Nonsense.
The whole idea is overblown.
Harvard, we all know, selects premier students these days; to illustrate -
Get this - Applicants to Cambridge this year included about 3,200 kids who got perfect SAT math scores, 2,500 who scored perfectly on the SAT verbals. Among the applicants were more than 3,000 who ranked first in their high school class.
Subtract 2,058 from those numbers alone and it tells you that more than a 1,000 outstanding students didn't make it and won't be going to Harvard.
Is that a big loss to them?
I hope they don't think so.
There are many examples extant to demonstrate that some really chowder heads have experienced Harvard.
I don't know what it is like around the Yard these days, but whatever goodies are available at Harvard are available
elsewhere, too.
Nil desperandum.
