Some parts of the country are apparently slowing going the other direction as far as the economy is concerned. Las Vegas however is not one of these places. It tool me awhile but I think I finally figured out why.

It's not that people don't want to spend money and have a good time it's the this town refuses to change it's mind set. You would think that some places would bend over backward for business. They don't. The reason, not that they're not busy but that the customer is still in the 'I'm the most important person in the World and this is Las Vegas' persona.

In other words, Vegas is a victim of it's own success. By always making the guy who works at Jiffy Lube feel like Steve Wynn when comes into your store your burdened with this mentality whether you're business is doing well or if it's in the tank.

Because sometimes the tribute is better than the real thing

YouTube - Tenacious D - Tribute
Tenacious D Tribute (C) 2001 SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT

Well it is. Others have said it better than me. I'm happy Lane Kiffin is gone. I'm happy that we have a head coach that has a Southern accent and appreciates the tradition and importance of Tennessee football.

I think A.D. Hamilton said it best when he responded when asked how he would describe Lane Kiffin's tenure. His response, "Brief."

Enter Derek Dooley. You can find out enough about this guy anywhere on the web. The most important thing is as I mentioned above. He's a Southerner. His dad was Head Coach at Georgia for 25 years.

The part about this whole thing that I find amazing is not Lane Kiffin leaving for USC but for the three to four coaches who said 'no' to Tennessee. When did Tennessee become the forbidden island? What, a stadium with 108,000 people, high expectations and state of the art facilities is not enough?

Granted, I get why Will Muschamp said no. He's the "Head Coach' in waiting at Texas and Austin, TX is probably a better town for him and his family than Knoxville,TN is. I know, I've lived in both and I would have a hard time arguing the living situation for a family even though I am remarkable partial to Knoxville.

The only other thing that shocked me, and it really shouldn't have, was the fact that the national sports media jumped all over Kiffin going to USC and how good it was for USC vs. how bad he decided to screw Tennessee.

But Kiffin is out and Dooley is in. If he can do half the job is dad did at Georgia we will suck. If he does the same job or better we'll be ok.

Nothing starts your day LIKE  looking at your Blackberry and seeing a staff meeting in 40 minutes. This staff meeting consisted of the announcement that Flash Entertainment purchased a minority stake in the the company I work for.

Add in the lingering effects of not really sleeping for a couple of days and you get the sleepwalking/ no thinking feeling. Fortunately this wore off around mid-day with the hopes that I would leave work early (I didn't).

Top off the day with the news that the football coach you spent the last 14 months defending/warming up to ditched out to go coach at USC. That's called being 'Kiffen-d'

All in all an eventful day.

We always seem to look at the bad side of things and maybe in some ways that's a good thing. We learn from our mistakes after all right?

So now I think it's time to look at a day and say 'hey. that's pretty cool'.

Carl Kassell of NPR news had his last day on the air today. He's still doing other stuff for NPR but I'm not sure how I'll react tomorrow morning when I don't here his voice at the top of the hour delivering the news. He did say something on his final news hit that I thought was amazing. He said, "and the only thing I'm retiring is my alarm clock. No more will I hear that clock go off at 1 in the morning — or 5 after 1, as I like to say, because I like to sleep in."

He said earlier in the broadcast that he's been doing this news segment for 30 years. Can you imagine waking up at that hour 5 days a week for the last 30 years?!

But here's the part we should really celebrate, especially in this day in age. This is a guy that's going out doing it right and having people celebrate the fact. When so many people are laid off or hanging on by a thread this guy is celebrated when he steps down. Hell, the closest's I've been to that is when people bought me beer in Madra Rua when I left WCSC.