Family jewels

Looks as though wearing a cup all those years while playing baseball and fast-pitch softball was a good hedge against the day when I come down with senile dementia or cancer or type I diabetes (unlikely at this point, but I did wait till almost 50 to part with my appendix). Heck, I could already use some shiny new cartilage in my knees.

Still, this new knowledge does complicate playing serve and volley. If a hot shot comes back, which area gets the better protection of my racket - my head or my family jewels?

Burying the lead

If you read deep in the Boston Globe today, you'll find this:

Yesterday, Senator John F. Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, said that a delegation from China, one of the biggest producers of the gases linked to global warming, told him at the international climate-change conference that it was ready to cut greenhouse gas emissions if the United States first set mandatory reductions of its own - a plan the Bush administration has consistently rejected.

Duhbya will be gone in 13 months and 8 days. China will still be there spewing out carbon dioxide, while Duhbya out to pasture will release only relatively small amounts of methane spiced with sulfur compounds.

If the Chinese aren't faking - which they could be - maybe there is a solution that governments could contribute to.