"One toke over the line..."

Caught a snippet of a local sports talk show this morning only because I couldn't hit the XM button fast enough. Two hosts were rattling on about Michael Phelps and the photograph of the great swimmer smoking grass.

This is "three strikes" one said. The other, gravity weighing down his words, chimed in with something about how this might not prevent him from buying a wrist watch Phelps endorses, but "it would be close."

Question: How do they interview folks for these talk radio positions? Do they sit them down in a chair and ask them to say the dumbest thing that comes to mind?

It sure isn't on the quality of their radio voices. Apparently critical thinking skills don't enter the picture. No interest is taken in reporting skills. Vocabulary isn't a criterion.

The first caller after this duet rant is a guy worried because his 15-year-old daughter is a Phelps fan. Phelps is a role model for her, he says. Whoa! This guy needs to check his own medicine cabinet because his behavior and his wife's behavior will be, without a doubt, the most important role models that kid has. And, if he thinks she won't encounter plenty of weed smoking role models among her classmates, well, he must be living in a bubble, the 1800s, or South Overland Park.

Gene Krupa's career in music was ruined by a marijuana bust. He was one of the hottest drummers of his time; just listen to him swing on Sing, Sing, Sing. (This will put a smile on your face -- maybe the greatest drum solo in jazz, particularly the Carnegie Hall performance...) But in 1943, one toke was more or less a career ender. Today... I'm sure Phelps and his people are already working on his public rehab.

OK, here's one more thing Krupa could do with a match. Enjoy.

--Lofflin, feeling cranky