One coach drops trou to inspire his team, asking for a beatdown and irony for Segway's owner

- It’s hard to find good role models for kids nowadays. That makes this next story all the more curious. When a man like Boys and Girls High School (N.Y.) volunteer assistant football coach William Miller is watching over and leading your children, I can’t see where parents or administrators need to have a single concern. Who, when the going gets tough, doesn’t want their assistant football coach dropping trou and mooning the crowd and the referees? I know that’s the kind of role model I want in my life. Yet somehow Miller has been fired after exposing his backside to opposing fans following an altercation with school safety officers and referees during a game Saturday? I don’t get it and I’m not sure how in good conscience New York City Department of Education spokeswoman Margie Feinberg can callously announce Miller’s termination by Boys and Girls principal Bernard Gassaway after the incident. "He's a volunteer, he's not a DOE [Department of Education] employee," Feinberg said. "So the principal can ban him from being an assistant coach." If the principle is a moron, he certainly can. Look, I realize that coaches are important figures in the lives of the players they coach. That being said, what lesson do you want your kids learning? To just roll over and accept it when an official screws them over? Miller was pissed about a controversial call late in the fourth quarter of Boys and Girls' 16-6 loss to Campus Magnet in a Public Schools Athletic League game in Queens. Not only has the school overreacted, but so has the league. PSAL commissioner Alan Arbuse, who was at the game, announced Sunday afternoon "an investigation is under way." Boys and Girls head coach Barry O’Connor could also face discipline after he and assistant coach Clive Harding engaged in a shoving match with school safety officers after officials ejected both coaches from the game. But neither of them showed the competitive fire that Miller unleashed when he approached Campus Magnet fans behind a fence on the side of the field, dropped his pants and mooned them. The entire mess stemmed from Campus Magnet’s two-point conversion attempt after scoring a touchdown to take a 14-6 lead in the fourth quarter. On the try, Campus Magnet running back Raeshawn Lewis was apparently stripped of the ball as he crossed the goal line but officials decided that he had crossed the goal line with possession of the ball and awarded Campus Magnet two points. That was huge because it meant that Boys and Girls would need to score twice to win or even tie the game. The conversion had barely been ruled good when the Boys and Girls coaches went ape sh*t. They began screaming profanities at the officials and within minutes, five school safety officers rushed the field and pulled out their handcuffs. The game officials eventually ejected O'Connor and Harding and called the game, awarding Campus Magnet the victory with 3:49 remaining. When Campus Magnet fans heckled the ejected coaches, Miller responded with his bare-butted salute. Once again, so much for teaching kids what a competitive spirit truly is…………

- There are just certain things in life that you don’t do and if you decide to do them, you’re basically asking for an ass kicking. Spitting in a person’s face is one such thing, throwing a drink at someone is another and showing up anywhere - and I do mean anywhere - dressed as Elmo is another. So zero sympathy points for the tool who walked into the Guitar Center at the Winter Park Village, Fla. dressed as Elmo on Saturday afternoon. This idiot strolled into the Guitar Center at about 3 p.m. Saturday while taking a break from an appearance at a children's event at the Winter Park Village. He scarcely made it through the door when a man walked in, took one look at Elmo and went straight after the furry Sesame Street character. The two men brawled, punches were thrown and the attacker actually broke several of his fingers in the process. Elmo was actually able to fight off his attacker despite not having opposable thumbs and the assailant was apprehended and taken to Florida Hospital Orlando, where he was treated for the broken fingers and temporarily detained for a mental health evaluation. Police say no children saw the fight, but hopefully anyone who dares to dress up in a furry, oversized mascot costume will see this story and take heed. If you’re working as Elmo (or any other furry mascot-like creature) at a children’s event and you want to take a break, then you change out of that ridiculous outfit, into normal clothes, before you go anywhere else. Because if you don’t, some brave civilian is going to spot you and issue a five-fingered reminder of why people hate mascots and that’s something none of us needed reminded about……….

- Segway……irony lives here. There’s just no other conclusion to draw when the owner of a company that produces to stupid-looking, made-for-lazy-bums, two-wheeled motorized vehicles falls off a cliff and dies while riding one of his company’s vehicles. James Heselden is the owner in question and he has died, apparently in an accident involving one of his upright two-wheeled vehicles, after falling into the River Wharfe in northern England some time late Saturday or early Sunday. Heselden’s body was pulled from the river Sunday afternoon along with a Segway-type vehicle. Police say the incident is not being treated as suspicious and Heselden's family said in a statement that "there is absolutely nothing to suggest it was anything other than a tragic accident.” The statement continued, "Our family has been left devastated by the sudden and tragic loss of a much-loved father and husband. The exact circumstances of the accident are still being clarified and will, of course, be the subject of an inquest." Heselden was actually an extremely successful businessman beyond Segway, serving as chairman of Hesco Bastion, a company that manufactures protective walls used by military troops. During his life, he was extremely philanthropic, having donated 10 million British pounds (nearly $16 million) to a local foundation earlier this month, raising his lifetime charitable giving to 23 million pounds (over $36 million). Unfortunately, he seems to have died making a mistake with one of the very products he should have known best………

- It’s amazing how some recording artists can go into the studio with crappy, inane lyrics that they (or typically some professional songwriter working for them) have taken weeks, months or years to write and belt out horrible vocals that have to be auto-tuned in order to sound even mildly passable and other artists can go into the studio and ad-lib all of the lyrics on Caleb Followill has admitted in an interview for a UK music magazine that all the lyrics on the band's new album were ad-libbed. According to Followill, he hammered out the improvised lyrics during the recording process and figured he would change them later if need be. However, when he attempted to make the revisions later on in the recording process, he was unanimously vetoed by the other members of the band. "I didn't write lyrics," he admitted. "I went in and ad-libbed, I free-floated everything. The closer it got to the end, I felt like, 'Man, you didn't do your job.' I kept thinking, 'When I go back and redo the lyrics, then I'll get it. But when I went back in to try to do that, everyone was like, 'What are you doing? You can't change those lyrics. Those are the lyrics.'" So what gave him the needed boost of confidence to stick with the album as it was? Apparently it was that which inspires all men and inflates their ego with pride and confidence: the approval of a woman. When Followill played the album for his girlfriend, model Lily Aldridge, she loved it. "I played her one song, and when I did, she looked at me and went, ‘Why haven't you played me this? What are you scared of?'" he said. "Before you know it, we had listened to every song, and she just loved it. That gave me the confidence to say, 'All right, well, maybe I'm in my head too much'." The rest of the world will have a chance to see if Aldridge knows what she’s talking about when 'Come Around Sundown' is released on October 18………..

- Throw another entry into the battle royale that is the tablet computer market. Japanese tech giant Sharp announced has joined the fray, announcing that it would launch a 5.5-inch and a 10.8-inch tablet named Galapagos, as well as an electronic bookstore in December. However, Sharp has no intention of challenging the iPad here in the United States, as its tablet will go on sale in Japan only. Both version of the Galapagos will feature Wi-Fi communication and are Android-based. Those who opt for a smaller, easier-to-wield version will have a 1024 x 600 LCD screen, while the larger version will sport a 1366 x 800 pixel resolution. There will be three color choices for both devices: red, silver and black. The LCD screens on both will be color as opposed to black and white, but Sharp made it clear in announcing the Galapagos that the device is intended first and foremost as an electronic reader. To that end, in December, Sharp will launch its e-bookstore, which will boast an “Automatic Scheduled Delivery Service” for periodicals as well as delivery of free trial versions of Sharp-recommended content. The e-bookstore’s library will feature about 30,000 tomes at the time of its launch, with plans to add movies, games and even music over the course of the next year. But just because Sharp isn’t looking to tangle with Apple in the U.S. doesn’t mean the two won’t do battle, as the iPad was introduced in Japan four months ago, and Sony has recently launched new versions of its three e-book readers. Still, Sharp expects to sell 1 million units of the tablet and is has held discussions with Verizon in the United States about a possible overseas launch……….