Football and Whatnot

It's a murky morning here in Paradise With Barking Dogs. The sky is gray-water blue with no sun in evidence apart from the day being light enough to see...stuff. Stuff like a couple of humming birds trying to suck nectar off the window glass two feet to my right. Get outa here birds, you're bothering me.

It's nice, for me anyway, to see football back in the news. While controversy rages over Denver drafting Tim Tebow, a quarterback lacking, the experts say, pro skills, I made an observation that I'm sure mainstream media would prefer to dodge. To wit, a white guy was the first pick in the draft. Twenty black guys were then selected before another white guy made the board. That twenty out of twenty two ratio didn't hold up throughout the draft, but the players chosen after that were still mostly black men. What does this mean? Not much, really. Who cares what colors the players are? I know I don't, but then...apparently, some do. I read an article the other day saying that running back Toby Gerhart, who finished third in the balloting for the Heisman Trophy honoring college football's best player, would probably be drafted late because he was white! The perception among NFL insiders being that if he is white, he can't be as skilled. When I was a kid and the NFL was young, the exact opposite of that perception was the norm. Of course, racial bias was endemic throughout the U.S. in those days. It's kind of fun to see this 180 degree turn around in thinking even if it is only in sports. Before I leave the subject of the draft, I need to point out that the Denver Broncos did draft a Walton to play center for them. I don't know what color he is, but with a name like that he can't miss.

And now a further chapter in the why I love Panama category. Four of us went to lunch at a new restaurant in town. Its name is Cultura and it serves "tipico" Panamanian fare. We each had a bowl of soup, a breaded chicken cutlet, rice, beans and a salad. Three of us had beers, two Heinekens, one Balboa, the fourth an iced tea. We all left sated and satisfied, declaring everything good except the background music which was a little loud and intrusive. We will sit further from the speakers next time and there will be a next time because...the bill came to a whopping $17.69! Nice.