I have been racking my brain lately - and yes, this does require stretching it out on a medieval instrument of torture (it actually feels good for the first few turns) - not for column ideas but for Christmas gifts. How could I not be after Black Friday, Gray Saturday and Off-White Sunday? What they say is true, if you don’t have your gifts chosen by Taupe Thursday then you must not really love your loved ones.

They say one of the joys of parenting is being able to re-live your childhood by playing with your children. You get to re-read classic tales like “Hop on Pop,” a book which my 2-and-a-half year old son, Colin, has just recently decided to take quite literally, play games like Hide and Seek, color and use some of the eight million toys, many of which are battery operated, annoying and/or noisy, that people have bestowed upon your child in the hopes of driving you as completely bonkers as their children drove them.

Halloween was a over week ago, but the candy that little Colin amassed will be with us for a long time to come. If you love candy (and who doesn’t?), slap a monkey costume on a toddler and watch the goodies come rolling in.

Football is a sport with a proud tradition and with the rising popularity of websites dedicated to football at all levels, football video games and radio and television networks dedicated to yearround football coverage, the football fan has a wealth of information at their fingertips at all times.

On Sunday, July 1, I decided to get in my car and travel up I-85 to Greenville, SC. I wanted to see the ball park that some had called a “mini Fenway” and the Greenville Drive, a single A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox (my favorite team). If I went on this particular day I would also get to see Sandy Creek graduate Brent Brewer play. Brewer is the starting shortstop for the West Virginia Power, a single A affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers.

The Frederick Brown Jr. Amphitheater hosted Southside Slugfest II Saturday night and the place was packed with people watching grown men battle each other in hand-to-hand combat inside a locked cage.

There is a song called “Life Is A Highway.” It was originally recorded by Tom Cochrane of Red Rider and then remade by Rascal Flatts and put on the soundtrack for the movie “Cars,” which I have watched umpteen times since giving it to my son for Christmas, but that is another story.

Scene: The White House, with a white picket fence around it and a tire swing in the front yard. Daddy is sitting at the table enjoying a lemonade while he listens to the ball game on the radio.

I grew up in a suburb of Boston and one of my earliest memories is of listening to Johnny Most call Celtics games on my transistor radio while I drifted off to sleep. This may seem unusual for anyone who had ever heard Most’s trademark, rusty nails on a chalkboard squawk, but his calling of names like Bird, McHale, Parrish, Ainge and Johnson, as in Dennis, better known in Most-speak as DJ, was like a soothing mantra for a little boy with hoop dreams.

If you have ever read my movie reviews, you know I am a fan of horror movies. I even put one of them, “Slither,” on my list of top 10 films of 2006. I started 2007 the way I ended 2006, by watching a movie, and I can honestly say that the most recent film I watched was one of the scariest I had seen in awhile.

As a parent, I have left many of my old haunts behind and picked up a new set of stomping grounds. Gone are the days when I could pop in to a bookstore for a long, leisurely browse and maybe enjoy one of those phenomenal gingerbread lattes at Starbucks.

I like horror movies as much as the next guy. O.K., I probably like them a lot more than the next guy and that is why movies like “The Grudge 2” tick me off. It shouldn’t exist, but it does and it laughs at you, while not giving you one iota of a reason for its existence while you are watching it. It has no compelling story to complete, no fun character to follow, nothing left in its arsenal after the first one and yet here it is.

It hit the papers last week that a school in Massachusetts banned the game tag from recess.

As I read the story, I thought, why couldn’t this have happened somewhere like Delaware. It embarrasses me that this happened in my native state. I couldn’t believe what I was reading at first and then, upon further review, I could definitely believe it. This is just the latest in a war on childhood, a war that featured a salvo against dodgeball several years ago.

Temperatures soar in Iraq and U.S. soldiers suit up and admirably do their duty, trying to quell the seemingly unending insurgence and periods of civil unrest and merely survive until their tour of duty is up.

I got back from my first trip south of the border on Sunday night and I am no worse for the wear.

No Montezuma’s revenge and no really bad security stories (although taking the sippy cup that was filled with bottled water from the airplane after we got back to Atlanta is a bit much).

I was recently released from what amounted to a monumental waste of time.

No, I’m not talking about a viewing of Rob Schneider’s latest film, nor am I talking about the umpteenth discussion of Mel Gibson’s apology to people of the Jewish faith on the Fox News Channel.

Each year I try to get to a Braves/Mets match-up. As the Braves rivals in the NL East, the Mets series always seem to have lots of drama and are typically lots of fun. I was at a game a number of years ago when Brian Jordan hit a walk-off grand slam against Armando Benitez and that remains one of my best memories at a ballpark.

Like many in my generation, I discovered the martial arts, specifically karate, thanks to a wise old master named Mr. Miyagi.

Today I would like to talk about a scourge that has affected nearly everyone in the known universe: The Wiggles.

They are not a new threat to the sanity of adults everywhere, but I have only recently felt the dastardly effects of the uncannily catchy tunes from four “mates” from Australia, and I feel that it is my duty as a journalist to warn everyone who may not know about this quasi-rock band and their non-threatening (but mind-crushing nonetheless) brand of comedic mayhem and musicality.

My Friday mornings used to be very laid-back and peaceful. Things here at the office tend to be very relaxed on Fridays compared to the other days during the work week, so those mornings typically involve a leisurely breakfast while perusing my e-mail and numerous newspapers.

It has been 19 years since Superman graced the silver screen and fans of all types of films, especially films based on comic books, had to be wondering, does the world need a new Superman movie? Need it or not, “Superman Returns” was made and is in theaters now. But how does the man from Krypton stack up in a world that is now used to seeing fantastic and amazing feats from mutants, vigilantes, super-heroes, fellowships and boy wizards?

While this week marks a big week in my household because we are celebrating two birthdays, it is also huge as Friday marks the beginning of the 2006 World Cup. I know there are a lot of soccer fans in this area but I also know that a lot of people around here don’t “get it” and that the nation as a whole may be collectively yawning about this event. Whatever side of the fence you are on about the World Cup, I urge everyone to support the United States squad and give this amazing athletic experience a chance.

Those flowers I planted - burned to a crisp.

So, here's the next thing I need to research - the proper watering of flowers, plants, lawns, etc.

Sorry this is a little late, but planting the flowers got rained out on Sunday morning and things began to pile on top of each other.

It was a Thursday evening a little over a year ago, and I had just finished checking baseball scores on the Internet and was ready to go to bed. My wife, Sabine, stopped me for before I changed into my raggy, blue Umbros and told me she thought her water just broke. We called the midwife and she told us to come on in to the hospital.

Though a decision has yet to be made in Gwinnett County over whether the Harry Potter books should be allowed to remain in the libraries of schools in that county, I would like to suggest some other titles from the Accelerated Reader list of Gwinnett County schools that should be removed.

April is a great month. One could even argue that it is the greatest month of the year.

April gives us the end of the NCAA basketball tournaments, the beginning of the Major League Baseball season, the Masters, longer days, warmer weather, a free large iced tea with the purchase of chicken strips on the Chick-fil-A cow calendar – the list goes on and on.

I read a lot of newspapers, both in print and on-line. These are just some of the stories that found their way on to my radar and got me thinking.

We all know that George Washington chopped down a cherry tree and then, stating, “I cannot tell a lie,” admitted to his father, or some authority figure, that he had in fact, chopped it down.