Guess what’s back in all of its pomp and circumstance?  College football.  Fans included.

Guess who’s back for year four with all of her picking prowess and expertise?  Abby.  Her fans included.

Abby and college football. Red beans and rice.  Our President and leadership.   Well, two out of three isn’t bad.

Abby starts year four having won more bones than she lost in each of her first three years, a record worth wagging your tail about. Remember one bone hypothetically represents an $11 wage to collect $10 unless it’s a money line bet which can have very different odds that we will post.   Now we go to the picks.

1.  Georgia + 3 v Clemson (Game played in Charlotte, NC) —  Abby’s going big right out of the chute.  She feels strongly that this is Georgia’s year to win the SEC and howl loudly in the playoffs.  Plus UGA is one of her favorite mascots.  She loves barking underdogs.   A straight-up win wouldn’t surprise her in the least, but there isn’t too much value in +$135.  Two bones.

2.  North Carolina -5 1/2 at Virginia Tech — Can NC unseat Clemson as the ACC Champion?  Yes.  Mack Brown returns a Heisman candidate at QB and 18 starters from last year’s team.  Two bones.

3.  Army +2 1/2 at Georgia St.— This will feel like a home game for the Army after 20 straight years of serious business.  Either you stop their unique running attack or you don’t.  Georgia St. won’t.  One bone.

4.  Rice at Arkansas -20 —  This one is simple.  Rice is a very bad football team.  Arkansas is getting better monthly under Sam Pittman.  His offensive line will control the ball for 40 of the 60 minutes in this game and wear the Owls out.  Two bones.

5.  Texas Tech at Houston pick — It’s put up or shut up time for Dana Holgerson in year three with his fat $4 million per year deal with Tillman Fertitta.  He’s redshirted many and has gotten many more from the transfer portal.   He starts off 2021 on a high note.  Take the Cougars in a close one.  One bone.

On a hunch take LSU at UCLA under 66 points.  LSU’s 2020 much-maligned D will be much improved in 2021.  And, expect LSU to run 55/45.  UCLA will not have much success throwing the ball either.

Woof!

To vax or not to vax, or booster or not to booster, or mask or not to mask, those are but three of the questions Americans ask.

And, now the workplace is emboldened.  Mandates commeth.

Afghanistan?  Don’t even get us started.

We need a good dose of the best medicine known to man(and woman)kind in times like these.  Laughter.  To lighten the mood, other than hydroxychloroquine, what would that health nut Dr. Rodney Dangerfield have prescribed?  If he were still with us, he’d likely recommend as follows.

1.  Don’t get married.  “My wife and I were happy for twenty years, then we met!”
2.  Don’t drink too much.  “My doctor told me to watch my drinking.  Now I drink in front of the mirror.”
3.  Exercise, but only when appropriate.  “I asked my old man if I could go ice-skating on the lake. He told me, ‘Wait until it gets warmer.’”
4.  Be compassionate.  “My uncle’s dying wish was to have me sitting on his lap. He was in the electric chair.”
5.  Be realistic.  “This morning when I put on my underwear I could hear the Fruit of the Loom guys laughing at me.”
6.  Try to maintain a social life.  “A girl phoned me and said, ‘Come on over. There’s nobody home.’  I went over. Nobody was home!”
7.  Compassionately consider the ramifications of childbearing in these tough times. “When my old man wanted sex, my mother would show him a picture of me.”
8. Enjoy your work.  “I worked in a pet store and people kept asking how big I’d get.”
9. Get regular checkups.  “I went to see my doctor, ‘Doctor, every morning when I get up and look in the mirror I feel like throwing up. What’s wrong with me?’ He said, ‘I don’t know, but your eyesight is perfect.'”
10.  And follow the docs advice.  “I tell you, with my doctor, I get no respect. I told him, ‘I’ve swallowed a bottle of sleeping pills.’ ‘He told me to have a few drinks and get some rest.'”
11.  Ensure you’re in good mental health.  “Last week I saw my psychiatrist. I told him, ‘Doc, I keep thinking I’m a dog.’  ‘He told me to get off his couch.'”
12.  Keep your chin up no matter what.  “I remember I was so depressed I was going to jump out a window on the tenth floor. They sent a priest up to talk to me. He said, ‘On your mark…'”

The information age: the time in which information has become a commodity and is quickly and widely disseminated and easily available through the use of television and computer technology.

Ah, those were the good old days.  The Information Age seems to have quickly and widely devolved into The Misinformation Age.  What’s that?  It’s when anybody says anything to anyone and the text, vine, vibe, blurb, tweet, or take takes off as if it has wings and merit.

In fact absorb Dr. Scott Gottlieb’s thoughts on CNBC this early morning as he was interviewed by Andrew Ross Sorkin (anyone who uses their middle name in full has an outsized ego and issues, but we digress).  Dr. Gottlieb served as the 23rd Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from 2017 until April 2019 during the Trump Administration.

Gottlieb said:

1. He believes that the Delta variant has spread by a factor of 10x greater than what the CDC is reporting in positive case results weekly across the US.  In specific terms, that’s a million positive results, not 100k.
2. He believes that booster shots should have started 3 weeks ago, and acutely so for the elderly.
3. He expects the variant to spread rapidly to the north as it “likely” has peaked in the south.
4. He also reasons that the UK is about three weeks ahead of us and has seen their caseloads drop from their top.  He expects a similar curve here in the US in about three weeks as well.

Here is what he didn’t say.

1.  He is a paid contributor to CNBC.
2.  He sits on the Pfizer Board of Directors.

While you are digesting that, note that on Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “AC360,” Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said that localities like Los Angeles County that are bringing back mask mandates are doing so “to protect the vaccinated as well as the unvaccinated,” and to prevent the “unvaccinated or vaccinated people with breakthrough infections from transmitting to others.”

Got that?  That’s covering all of the bases.

And, lastly, the job of the CDC just got more daunting.  In a leaked internal email it acknowledges the increased transmission percentages by the vaccinated.  Somehow it must continue to emphasize the efficacy of the vaccine, encourage booster shots, and acknowledge that vaccinated breakthrough individuals are carrying viral loads equal to and in some cases greater than the positive tested unvaccinated.

Three weeks ago Pres. Biden emphasized that the vaccinated need no longer wear masks.  This week Madam Speaker Nancy Pelosi began fining those in the House that don’t.  Clear enough?

Covid-19 has mutated into the Delta variant.  That is info we can trust.

The Information Age has mutated into the full-blown Misinformation Age.  That is info that we can also trust.

What to believe?  What to believe?