Thursday thoughts...

Hey kids - sorry been slammed at work and be out every night this week.... so, been a bit out of it.

The pollen count is in the 5,000s in Atlanta and every car is yellow. It's just been brutal this week - everyone is getting hit by the pollen bug and it's no fun at all. Waiting for it to rain to wash the first shot of pollen away, might happen Saturday but I am not going to hold my breath.

Good story in the AJC today about car washes making money off of the pollen count being so high.

Final Four in town this weekend and this place is going to be a zoo. Traffic alerts are already at high and people are being told to stay away from the area by the Georgia Dome unless you have tickets. I am taking my father to the game on Saturday - it'll be fun. To be honest, if he didn't want to go - I would rather stay home and watch. We are in a sky box and it's a corner angle of the basket. Tough to judge depth and angles of shots. Unless you are in the first 10 rows down low, it's not a great place to watch a basketball game. But the NCAA doesn't care about that - it's all about how many butts can we put in seats and how much crap can we sell at the game. If it were at Phillips Arena, now that's a totally different story.

I like a rematch of the football title game in OSU-Florida. They played in hoops in Gainesville and the Gators killed the Buckeyes. But Greg Oden isn't the same player and OSU is a better team. Technically its a neutral floor - but the Gators will own the crowd and win back-to-back titles. Just hope Billy Donovan is smart enough to stay away from the Bluegrass State.

And for a new feature on the Barkan Dawg - it's called the Moron of the Month. This is the equivalent of the Mike and Mike Just Shut Up Award, just taking it to a proper level for this space.

The winner of the first Moron of the Month award is Michael Ray Richardson. The former NBA player was suspended for the rest of the CBA championship series for anti-Semitic remarks.

Check this out from the story on ESPN.com:

"I've got big-time lawyers," Richardson said, according to the Times Union. "I've got big-time Jew lawyers." When told by the reporters that the comment could be offensive to people because it plays to the stereotype that Jews are crafty and shrewd, he responded with, "Are you kidding me? They are. They've got the best security system in the world. Have you ever been to an airport in Tel Aviv? They're real crafty. Listen, they are hated all over the world, so they've got to be crafty."

And he continued, "They got a lot of power in this world, you know what I mean?" he said. "Which I think is great. I don't think there's nothing wrong with it. If you look in most professional sports, they're run by Jewish people. If you look at a lot of most successful corporations and stuff, more businesses, they're run by Jewish. It's not a knock, but they are some crafty people."

Go read the story - other great lines from him...

So congrats Michael Ray ... you win the first MOM award!!! Who will be next? Only time will tell - but have faith folks, there are a lot of morons out there.....