Let’s get right to some of the thoughts that have been rattling around in my head:

— I always assumed that one of my all-time favorite flicks, “The Shawshank Redemption” was filmed in the state of Maine. After all, ‘Down East’ was where author Stephen King set the book and he lives there year-round. Imagine my surprise when the elder Swampette and I drove by the actual prison used in “Shawshank” in Mansfield, OH, of all places-the Mansfield Reformatory. Who knew?

— “Zihuatanejo.”

— The Swampettes and I got to see the Pistons/Sixers Playoff Game 5 at the Palace last week. That was one of the noisiest venues I have ever been in for a sporting event-almost as loud as UD/ND at the Arena in the early ’70s.

— I would like to propose a suitable torture for the idiot who invented the pernicious “Thunder Sticks” made popular by the Anaheim Angels in last year’s World Series. He/she should be condemned to sitting in a small room with someone banging those suckers in his/her ears-forever! Like the Elder Swampette says “those things are migraine-makers.”

— In all my years of watching NBA Playoff Basketball (going on 46 years), I have never seen a game end with a player knocking the winning shot back out of the basket like Derrick Coleman of the Sixers did. What were you thinking, DC?

— New WSU head coach Paul Biancardi got himself a couple of pretty good late recruits in DeShawn Lynch from here in Detroit and Zakee Boyd from suburban Philly. I know many Flyer Fans are not enamored with the Raiders, but good for them.

— Josh Duncan from Moeller and Matt Terwilliger of Troy have already scratched UD off of their ever-shortening lists of schools. Not good news, but not totally unexpected, either.

— With the ACC expanding by 3 schools and the Big East possibly picking up some A-10 teams, I’m deja-vuing back to when UD got shafted out of the Great Midwest Conference. I would like to think we are in a much better position now, in terms of the strength of the program, than we were back then…but, you never know.

— The Elder Swampette just returned from “Dayton to Daytona.” She said KW and AW were there, along with some of the other UD players. Before she went, I reminded her of the “SNL” skit where the coed sits down to watch TV with her folks and they see her frolicking in a commercial for “Girls Gone Wild.” I asked her to try and avoid a similar scene. I was surprised to hear that the “GGW” producers had already come to Dayton to film-twice!

— Next week, the ES heads to London for UD’s Study Abroad Program for 6 weeks. The most adventurous thing that Mrs. Swampy and I did during the summer when we went to UD was to attend summer school.

— The current exchange rate is 1.70 pounds to a dollar, in case you are wondering.

— The Younger Swampette has been getting letters from college coaches interested in recruiting her to play softball after she graduates in 2004. While surfing the DaytonFlyers.com site, I noticed that UD’s softball squad has 10 juniors on it that will need to be replaced. Hmmmm!

— It’s a good thing the 5/8 rule doesn’t apply to softball, eh?

— Is there anything in sports that is both totally subjective and at the same time more important than the strike zone?

— I usually agree with my buddy Bill Simmons AKA ESPN.com’s “The Sports Guy” but he was dead wrong about AI and the Sixers coming back from a 3-2 deficit to upset the Pistons. I figured Pistons in 7, never dreaming they would beat Philly in the City of Brotherly Booing.

— What Bill didn’t figure on was Chauncey Billups coming back from a sprained ankle to be the answer to The Answer.

— “TSG” was also wrong about the Lakers/Spurs Game 6 being rigged in LA’s favor, so that ABC would get a game 7. No amount of questionable calls was gonna save Kobe and Shaq from the offensive show that Tim Duncan put on.

— I absolutely love to watch the Lakers lose! I’m sure my Celtic upbringing has a lot to do with it. Seeing a teary-eyed Kobe after the game was sweet icing on the cake!

— Somewhere in Louisville, Rick Pitino is kicking himself in the ass. If the Celtics had just won the draft lottery when Duncan came out, he would probably still be the Celts Basketball Dictator.