You have to grab their attention. It was the first rule of what we called “tease” writing in the television news. You give the viewer a taste of the story, but you tease them with an element that peaks their interest and makes them keep watching. The same applies to the first line of any written piece whether it be a novel, a short story, or even a newspaper or magazine story. Attention spans are shorter than ever. Competition for eyeballs is intense. Always lead with your best shot. A writer wants to draw the reader in and that first line has to set the hook and make the reader want to know more. It can be action. It can be obscure or even puzzling. But it has to get them in the door.

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The US Supreme Court heard arguments this week in a case that could effect many businesses and customers. It’s called 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis. Lorie Smith, a website designer in Colorado wants to expand her business to include wedding websites. Smith is a devout Christian and doesn’t want to do business with LGBTQ customers who engage in same sex marriage. Colorado law prohibits most businesses from discriminating against that community. Smith claims forcing her to do business with these customers violates her right to free speech. Liberal Justice Sonya Sotomayor argued that a ruling in favor of Smith would be the first time the Supreme Court had ruled that “commercial businesses could refuse to serve a customer based on race, sex, religion, or sexual orientation.” Chief Justice John Roberts said the court has never approved efforts to compel speech contrary to the speaker’s belief. The five conservatives on the court gave impression they were leaning toward ruling for Smith. Not a surprise.

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The World Cup is the rest of world’s Super Bowl every four years. The passion and excitement generated by soccer in the rest of the world, where it’s more accurately called football, is part of people’s national identity. We have our own football, baseball, basketball, and hockey, which I think we stole from Canada. So we can spread our commitments around. Many other countries only have soccer. But the World Cup does bring out millions of American fans. Thousand have travelled to Qatar which may be one of the worst places on earth to hold such an event or any event. More on that latter. Faced painted and flag wearing fans here at home are jamming into sports bars in the middle of a weekday. I guess they’re working from home. Team USA has made it into the round of 16, the knock out bracket, lose and go home, for the first time in years. They play The Netherlands on Saturday at 10am. Sports bars will be opening early.

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We didn’t get the Red Wave. But we got the Big Crack. The turnout for this mid-term election was huge, and political landscape shifted. Yes, the Republicans did make some gains. The House is still undecided, but will likely go for the GOP with a much smaller margin then they hoped. The senate is hanging out there with Arizona and Nevada races too close to call just yet. If they split between the parties, the runoff in Georgia between Democrat Warnock and Republican Walker will determine who controls the senate. We have to wait until December sixth.  Donald Trump was the big loser. He endorsed crazy MAGA candidates in the primaries who even fellow Republicans thought would be losers in the general election. There was a big miscalculation in all important Pennsylvania.

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It will be a long off day for Phillies fans. They will be hoping the Phillies can now beat the odds and come back from being down 3 games to 2 and pull off what they all thought was an impossible dream of winning the World Series. The good news it’s a day we won’t have to listen to the never ending sound of John Smoltz’s voice. He has brought the art of color analysis to the breaking point. Not hearing him go on and on about the movement, direction, and thinking behind of every pitch by both the pitcher and the batter will be a close second to celebrating a Phillies championship. There is not a second of silence. Once the play by play guy, Joe Davis, and how is Joe Davis calling the World Series, stops talking, Smoltz starts talking about the last pitch and what he thinks the next pitch should be. The drone of his pitching philosophy is like the the sound of your neighbor’s lawn mower as your trying to watch the game.

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While Phillies fans are understandably out of their minds over the Phillies going to the World Series, I’m a little out of my mind over the Yankees not going to the World Series. I know there is a universal dislike, putting it mildly, in Philadelphia for anything connected to New York. Although, I think we may come in second to Philadelphia’s feelings about Dallas. The Phillies were the underdog getting into the playoffs and once they got their chance, they were magical. Rhys Hoskins hitting clutch home runs. Gene Segura slapping that single to right and, of course, Bryce Harper hitting the home run that will  go down with the Philly Special as one of the all time moments in Philadelphia sports history. I was simultaneously watching the Yankees in their playoff run, or should I say, their playoff trip and fall.

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We’re one month away from the mid-term elections. Candidates have been spending millions of dollars saturating the our television and radio with back to back attack ads for weeks. The choices have never been been this stark or dark. I was shocked to see a story in the Philadelphia Inquirer over weekend on why some voters in Pennsylvania are still undecided. There is no gray area in the big statewide races here for the US Senate and governor. In the senate race, there is TV doctor, millionaire Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz endorsed by Donald Trump whose position on abortion has gone from pro-choice to anti-abortion just like Trump’s. Oz didn’t live in Pennsylvania until recently so he could run and has never held political office.  The Democratic candidate is Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman. He is also the former mayor of the small western Pennsylvania city of Braddock. He wears a trade make hoodie and is accused of being soft on crime. A classic conservative versus liberal match up, and there are many other issues on which they hold polar opposite positions. How can you be undecided?

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Attorney General Merrick Garland is one of the most important and most scrutinized people in the country. He is under pressure unlike any Attorney General in history. He will make the decision on whether to indict former President Trump on charges ranging from interfering with and trying to overturn the election of 2020 to the violating the Espionage Act and obstructing justice for taking classified, secret and top secret documents to his estate at Mar-a-Lago. This has never happened before in American history. It comes at a time when the country is seething with hate and mistrust between the political parties that are getting ready to start serious campaigning for the midterm elections. These elections will determine who controls congress and many expect will be followed by Trump announcing he will run again in 2024.

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It was the hug that captivated us. Made us tear up and we should all learn from it. It happened on a Little League baseball field in the heat of the Southwest Regional final playoff for a trip to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, PA. Kaiden Shelton was pitching for the Texas team against a team from Oklahoma. With a two strike count on Oklahoma’s Isaiah Jarvis, the most frightening moment in baseball happened. The pitch was high and hit Isaiah on the ear flap of his helmet. He went down clutching his head as his helmet flew off. There was the horrified  gasp in the crowd and then the moment of silence as everyone prayed Isaiah would get up. The umpire bent down and the coaches ran out. After a few seconds, Isaiah sat up. The coaches helped him to his feet. He seemed to be fine and trotted down to first base as the crowd cheered in relief.

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They’ve taken away a woman’s power over her own body. They’ve allowed just about anyone to carry a concealed weapon in public making us all less safe. They’ve restricted the EPA’s ability to go after carbon emissions and fight climate change. Now, they may be going after the heart of the democracy, our vote. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case in the fall that could continue to lead us down the very dark path that we began walking over the last few weeks. It’s a North Carolina case, Moore v Harper, that could change how elections are run and who has the power over your vote. It’s being brought by the Republican controlled state legislature. If the court finds in their favor, state legislatures would have independent power over federal elections, which state courts could not review.

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