Fist-bumping the Dalai Lama, catching up with K-Fat and busting your fist on a fellow athlete's face

- There are good reasons why a college athlete would miss the start of his team’s season: dealing with a serious illness, an injury related to on-court activity or a family emergency come to mind. Sitting out with a dislocated thumb sustained in an on-campus brawl involving several football and basketball players would not be one of those reasons. Someone should have clued Kansas sophomore guard Tyshawn Taylor into that fact, because he will now be out up to four weeks with that dislocated thumb suffered in a rumble Tuesday evening outside of the university's student union building. Witnesses say that players from the two teams were arguing as they entered and exited the building and punches were thrown. Why they were fighting, I don’t know. Sure, the basketball team has historically been much, much more successful than the football team, so there could be some animosity there, I suppose. The problem for Taylor is that he’s the only one who was dumb enough to get injured in the fight, presumably because he doesn’t know how to correctly throw a punch. Kansas coach Bill Self said he did not have all of the details and did not know if there would be any disciplinary action taken against those involved, but go ahead and assume that they’ll receive something lame like a one-game suspension that takes place when Kansas plays some overmatched Division III team that they’ll beat by 60 points with or without Taylor and his felloe Muhammad Ali wannabes. What may work in Taylor’s favor is that he’s not denying what he did. Actually, dude is doing what every person under the age of 50 is doing these days with any development in their life, big or small: slamming it up as his Facebook status. "I got a dislocated finger ... from throwing a punch, so don't let the newspaper gas ya all up, aite," he posted after midnight the day after the incident. He also may have inadvertently chronicled the tension that led up to the fight on Tuesday morning when he wrote, "keep my name out ya mouth for you get smacked in it." A half-hour later, a posting read, "never get outta character ... I'm always a G about it." Later that afternoon, Taylor posted, "n-----s be muggin me ... you know I'm mugging back." From there, it was a mere two and a half hours before the brawl went down. Kansas’ first game isn't until Nov. 13, so there is time for Taylor to recover, but if Self has any self-respect for himself or his program, Taylor won't be playing whether he’s healthy or not…………

- This just in from the Department of the Obvious: Kevin Federline is FAT. For months now, K-FAT, er, K-Fed has been waddling around and showing up at various events and public places looking like the bastard son of Kansas football coach Mark Mangino and Rosie O’Donnell. Seriously, dude has packed on the lbs. and he’s done a great job of it. The problem is that being a FAT former backup dancer/ex-husband of a hack-job pop tart like Britney Spears and the owner of one of the shortest-lived, most inept attempted rap careers in history isn't exactly good for business - no matter what your business is. So in order to shed nicknames like K-FAT, Cake-Fed, Corn-Fed, K-Overfed and Kevin Fatterline, the former Mr. Britney Spears is joining the cast for the new season of Celebrity Fit Club, 
which premieres on VH1 on Feb. 14. Basically, the show ropes in a bunch of has-beens, never-weres and D-list losers who think that being on the show will get them back into the industry by a) helping them lost their flabby physiques and b) getting their faces on TV for casting directors to see. A panel of trainers berates, belittles and pushes these FAT celebrities, kind of like The Biggest Loser only these “celebrities” are people you don’t feel the least bit bad for because they’ve thrown away careers that were, in most cases, at least mildly profitable and eaten their way right out of the entertainment world despite having so much to lose. Other cast members for the seventh season of Celebrity Fit Club will be K-FAT’s ex -girlfriend Shar Jackson, Bobby Brown and actress Nicole Eggert. For anyone who was unfortunate enough to behold Cake-Fed’s portly physique when he showed up at a Miami pool recently, I sincerely hope that you didn’t get that image burned into your retina and that this guy is able to lose enough weight that no one is ever subjected to that type of torture again…………..

- The images coming out of Australia yesterday were truly stunning, almost like something out of a low-rent sci-fi movie. When a ginormous dust storm swept through parts of the country on Wednesday, cities and towns were engulfed in a reddish haze. Sydney was among the cities turned an odd reddish hue, with citizens left to look out their windows or up at the sky and wonder exactly what was going on. Some of them even took the day off work to avoid the dust storm mess. The dust storm had rolled in by the time most citizens woke up in the morning, which had to make some people wonder if they had actually woken up or if they were still caught up in a bizarre dream. In some places the red dust was so thick that residents couldn’t even see their neighbors’ homes. Health officials in Sydney warned residents to stay in indoors if possible, especially if they had asthma or heart and lung conditions. "Avoid spending too much time outdoors due to the high particle levels and hazardous air quality," the New South Wales Department of Heath Web site said. The Sydney Harbour Bridge, one of the city’s best-known landmarks, could be seen obscured from view and cloaked in a blanket of red in pictures taken during the dust storm. Ambulance crews were kept busy throughout the storm by calls from people who had trouble breathing. The cause for the storm and resulting red haze was identified as strong north-westerly winds which blew the dust overnight to Sydney and regions west of the capital, according to the country's bureau of meteorology. As the day progressed, the dust blanket moved north onto the Queensland capital of Brisbane and kept on moving north, eventually clearing populated areas and passing out onto the open seas. Now if only Jimi Hendrix were still around to write a song about the red haze…………

- I have a new favorite mayor and it’s none other than Memphis Mayor Pro Tem Myron Lowery. Mayor Lowery was on hand when His Holiness the Dalai Lama arrived in Memphis Tuesday to receive the National Civil Rights Museum's Freedom Award and Lowery helped make it a truly special event not just for the Dalai Lama, but for everyone. When greeting His Holiness, Lowery didn’t settle for a handshake or a bow. No, he went straight for the go-to greeting for anyone who’s not 70 years old and out of touch with the world - the fist bump. "Here we also have a tradition," as he showed His Holiness how to fist bump. Yes, dude fist-bumped the Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of the nation of Tibet. "You say you've got a sense of humor," Lowery said, "I've always wanted to say Hello Dalai." So while the visit may have been special for the Dalai Lama because he has admitted an admiration for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who was murdered in Memphis, it will also be a special memory because Memphis is where he learned to fist bump. "Dr. King, although I never met, but I heard his sort of motivation, his determination, his service for civil rights," His Holiness said during his first visit to the city. While there, he also blessed the Mississippi River with a white prayer scarf and stopped by the statue of Tom Lee to pay respects. All of that is well and good, but my favorite part of this story is that a mayor saw one of the most respected spiritual leaders in the world, a mythical figure in his corner of the world, and he decides that it’s about time the Dalai Lama learned how to fist bump. Well done, Mayor Lowery, your city should be proud…………

- Well done, students at the University of California-Davis, well done. While students at schools nationwide are getting dicked over by their colleges and universities with ever-increasing tuition costs, not every school can say that some of its students took off their clothes and assembled for a "naked rally" to protest those exorbitant tuition costs. That’s what happened on the UC Davis campus Tuesday, when dozens of students took off their clothes and gathered to make their voices heard in the hopes of drawing attention to a proposed 30 percent fee increase across the UC system. But while the increase would affect all state universities, I don’t see students at UC-Berkeley, UC-Santa Barbara or UC-Irvine taking their clothes off to make the point that they don’t like the hike. These lazy bums need to take their cue from the students at UC-Davis, who gathered with signs reading "I'll put my pants on when Yudof resigns," (a reference to UC President Mark Yudof), "The Naked Truth: UC Thinks I'm A Ca$h Machine," and "Don't Strip the Student Body." Better still, the protestors say that the "naked rally" in Davis is just the beginning of their planned protests. Today, students, faculty and staff will be holding strikes and walkouts Thursday at all UC campuses. Big ups to everyone taking part in these protests, because colleges and universities continue to masquerade under the guise of being havens of higher learning while all the while they’re just another business looking to squeeze every possible dollar out of anyone within their reach. People need to take a stand against them and not take their act lying down, so these protests are a good start………