BEVERLY HILLS (MI) – – The Meadows family is headed to Stone Harbor, NJ for a week of fun in the sun (and for me, early morning pickup hoops). Before I go, I thought I would leave you with a few thoughts:

— Continuing a longstanding “From the Swamp” tradition, the new recruits have all gotta get nicknames:

— Juwan “to Go to” Staten “Island”
— Ralph “I Found My Thrill on Blueberry” Hill
— Jesse “the Dude Can Chuck” Berry
— Brandon “Lockdown” Spearman

And I’m reserving this one:

— Adreian “Bring on the” Payne

— BG from the All Access videos on DaytonFlyers.com on the heightened expectations for the 2009-2010 Flyer hoop squad:

http://all-access.cbssports.com/player.html?code=dayt&media=130481

— Let the kvetching begin! The UD Non-Con schedule has been released and everybody and his uncle seem to have an opinion about it:

http://www.daytonflyers.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/072209aaa.html

— Here’s a link to the Jordan Crawford dunk over LeBron:

http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article_external/853180

Meh…ain’t no big thing. It was, after all, just a pickup game.

— Gary Parrish of CBS Sportsline on the recruitment of LaQuinton Ross, nominee for the 2011 “Toxic Recruit of the Year” award:

“The NCAA sent just as many representatives — including associate director of enforcement LuAnn Humphrey — as it sent anywhere to a small event in Jackson, MS last week, and the reason is because the event was being run by Omhar Carter, otherwise known as the man in charge of the recruitment of Class of 2011 star LaQuinton Ross. Simply put, Ross appears to be the next elite talent many schools won’t touch due to fear of possible NCAA ramifications, following in the footsteps of Renardo Sidney and Lance Stephenson.

“There are already lots of schools no longer recruiting him,” said one high-major coach. “People are now scared to get involved.” Still, Carter organized a tournament and college coaches flew in to attend it. When they got there, they paid $50 for admission and $200 for a program.”

How much you wanna bet that Coach Cal was there?

— It’s not as impressive as a 56 game hitting streak or batting .400, but UD Pride impresario Chris Rieman is about to crest the 4,000th post mark. Of course, if John R were still around Chris would trail him by about 10,000 posts (“What?”) but that’s not important. Congrats, Chris!

— Looks like Jio Fontan is going to remain a Fordham Ram:

http://www.fordhamsports.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/072209aaa.html

The fact that FU refused to grant Fontan his release (and he would have had to sit out for 2 years if he transferred) has nothing to do with his decision, of course.

— You might have seen video of the tanker truck crash that closed down I-75 here in suburban Detroit and ended up melting the 9 Mile Road overpass. The Younger Swampette drove thru that intersection 20 minutes before it happened on her way to play Frisbee golf with friends. Pheww! Amazingly, no one was killed.

— As an almost-59 year old golfer, I found myself rooting my butt off for Tom Watson at The British Open last weekend. Close, but no cigar, unfortunately. The Wall Street Journal weighs in:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124804424287663471.html

— Speaking of the links, how about this guy who has made a hole-in-one left handed and one right handed:

http://www.daytondailynews.com/dayton-sports/ohio-man-gets-left–and-right-handed-holes-in-one-214814.html

— Having achieved great success with a local Chicago website, ESPN is now planning to launch similar local platforms in NY, LA and Dallas:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/20/business/media/20espn.html?_r=2

— As a big fan of “Entourage” I enjoy the show more when Vince is on top of the world as he is right now, as opposed to when he’s lower than whale doo-doo. When Vinny’s career is in the crapper there’s too much angst and melodrama for my liking.

If you are planning a trip to South Beach, why not stay at the “Entourage Suite” at the W Hotel:

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=110113

— If you ask me, the Atlantic 10 Message Board is totally beyond reclamation at this point in time. A bunch of idiotic Eggs over Easy posters there make it a habit to hijack UD threads at every opportunity and life is just too short for me to put up with that kind of nonsense when I don’t have to. WH was the only redeeming social value on the A-10 MB and he’s announced that he will quit doing team profiles and predictions, so as far as I’m concerned, it’s AMF.

— What a totally skuzzy way to make a living: being a paparazzo and spending endless hours waiting for celebs to do something. Here is the backstory about how one of them got the ultimate money shot –- Wacko Jacko dead or dying on a gurney in the ambulance on the way to the hospital:

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2009/07/michael-jackson-photo200907

— How not to solve your constipation problem:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2549237/Drunk-man-got-two-hammered.html?OTC-RSS&ATTR=News

— I feel like a digital Dr. Frankenstein! Allow me to explain. Unbeknownst to me, one of my favorite CDs, an import soundtrack of the musical “Poe” by Alan Parsons cohort Eric Woolfson had fallen out of its case and got ground into the floor mat in my car last winter. There are a bunch of scratches on the surface and correspondingly, lots of skips when I play it. The CD is basically unlistenable.

I’ve started adding music to the library on Windows Media Player on my new laptop and thought I’d slip the “Poe” CD in and see if I could rip at least a couple of the tunes. It took a lot longer than it should have, but ****ed if the whole thing didn’t download basically unscathed.

All I can say is “It’s alive!”

— My man Jim Ed Rice of the Red Sox is finally going into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Here’s an article on perhaps his greatest single act in a Sox uniform:

http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/baseball/story/1613006.html

That’s it “From the Swamp.”
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