An indication I might be a TV savant, finally W. sets a deadline of some sort and why are Miami motorists so angry?

- Not being an NBA fan and following the Association in only a distant, cursory sense, I can't say for sure if the San Antonio Spurs are a thoroughly dirty team, but based on the actions Robert Horry and Bruce Bowen during the past two games of the Spurs’ series against Phoenix, they at least have two really dirty players. In case you missed it, in Game 3 of the series, Bowen was pivoting on the left wing, outside the three-point arc, with the ball over his head when he lurched forward and swung his knee right into Steve Nash’s groin. That blast to the junk was as deliberate and dirty as you can get, and Bowen can’t hide behind his reputation as an agitator and annoyance on this one. That wasn’t getting under someone’s skin, that was blasting him in the package and it’s a crap play. In Game 4, Horry one-upped his teammate by body-checking Nash into the scorer’s table late in the game after the Spurs blew a big lead and it was clear they were going to lose. What a classless, dirty action by Horry. That went way over the line of being physical and tough and landed squarely in the category of thuggery. For a team that tries to cultivate a professional, take-care-of-business reputation, the Spurs sure are looking like a group of common streets thugs this series.

- Back by popular demand, it’s cruise ship disaster time! This story takes us to the frozen tundra of Alaska, where a riverboat-style cruise ship ran aground near Juneau on Monday. More than 200 passengers had to be evacuated from the ship before the Coast Guard could come in and get the boat moving again. Only one passenger was taken to the hospital for injuries suffered in the crash, while the rest of the happy travelers were taken by ferry back to Juneau. I’d like to know why cruise ship companies don’t go ahead and change their emergency procedures signage and literature to read “When an emergency happens” instead of “In case of emergency.” Your chances of a crash, virus outbreak or food-poisoning incident happening are just as good, if not better, than your chances of avoiding these maladies. But at least with most cruise ship disasters, you’re in a warm, tropical climate. This time, you’re freaking Alaska, surrounded by……well, wilderness, snow, glaciers, etc. Do they even have summer up there or do they just move right from winter to the really bad portion of winter and then back again?

- According to the latest installment of an annual survey by Connecticut-based automobile membership club AutoVantage, Miami drivers are the angriest and most hostile, and I’m not sure that result makes total sense. You live in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, with gorgeous weather, gorgeous women and miles of beaches. You’ve got palm trees, great night life, tons of amazing restaurants and a local team in all three major sports leagues. On the other hand, if I was forced to shell out copious amounts of cash to park every freaking day because there’s so little real estate available for parking, I might be a little pissed off too. The results of the survey are based on how often drivers in a city slam on their brakes to mess with tailgaters, run red lights, talk on their cell phones while driving and a host of other dangerous on-road behaviors. Other cities near the top of the list were shocking entries such as New York, Boston, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

- Ok, ok, so maybe that whole destroying the environment and global warming thing, perhaps it really is an issue, I guess. That would be the oh-so-overwhelmingly-enthusiastic attitude shown by the W. administration, which has reluctantly declared that it will decide how to regulate pollution from new motor vehicles by the time our un-esteemed leader leaves office. This comes only after some serious prodding from the Supreme Court, efforts which “inspired” W. to sign an executive order that will “cut gasoline consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles.” Thanks for that, W. Is it any wonder we can't get this tool to set a timetable for troop withdrawal from Iraq? It took the Supreme Court chastising him to get him to do something about greenhouse gas emissions from cars and even then all he would say is that he’ll take care of it sometime in the next 20 months or so. Dude, not being willing to set any timetables or deadlines for anything doesn’t keep people from criticizing you because you’re not officially late or behind schedule (because there is no schedule), it just makes you look like an inept ass who never accomplishes anything of worth.

- Some shocking news from the NBC upfront (a big event where TV networks unveil their lineups for the upcoming fall season, trot out stars from those shows, promote new series, etc.). Andy Barker, P.I. is not returning for a second season! I know, I was floored too, especially since I said before the show even premiered that it had a horrible premise and looked like a total joke based on the promos. Hmmm, you mean a poorly written comedy with a B-list actor based on the absurd notion of an accountant by day becoming an private investigator by night didn’t work? Wow. I can't say as I’m wowed by any of NBC’s new shows being offered up this fall, either. There is one newbie that isn't really a new show as much as a small offshoot of another, Heroes. There will be a small addition to the Heroes franchise, a show titled Heroes: Origins, which will introduce potential new characters to the main show and allow viewers to vote and decide which new characters will be added to Heroes. Other than that, NBC’s new shows will have a time-traveling reporter (borrrrrring), a computer geek who becomes a secret agent (a tired, hack-job rip-off combination of about two dozen other shows in recent memory), and new game show that takes karaoke to a new low, even lower than American Karaoke. And from what I can gather, Howie Mandel will still be around, doing that creepy, bizarre wave/salute/hand gyration thingy he does at the end of every episode of that gawd-awful game show he hosts. Good times all around…………