Also, nothing to do with AOL Fanhouse, also known as fanhouse.com (there, free plug, Pat), I've noticed something odd that newspapers are doing these days. They used to simply syndicate stuff from other papers. For instance, the San Jose Mercury would simply run Windhorst's stuff. Now, newspapers are not only throwing those sportswriters a few bucks for it, but they're actually outsourcing content and giving them their own e-mail address under their stuff! It's ridiculous.

I was at the store yesterday, I was bored, so I bought the actual newspaper versions of the Plain Dealer, the Akron Beacon Journal and the Columbus Dispatch. The Dispatch is now outsourcing their Cavaliers stuff to the Plain Dealer (because James Walker, who used to work for the Dispatch, now is employed by ESPN's online site), and lo and behold, not only was Windhorst's stuff substituting for a Dispatch sportswriter on the front page of the sports section, but the Dispatch has given Windhorst a Dispatch e-mail address, too! Ridiculous.

The newspaper business has morphed into a bad joke. I give the Beacon Journal six months before they start outsourcing their sports columns to India, and I wake up to read a 10-paragraph rant that elephants should have to wear diapers during polo matches.

I ain't remotely a religious guy or anything, but if I've learned anything from when I used to read Terry Pluto, it's that you may really want to consider rubbing the big belly one of those happy 10-feet-tall dudes that calmly sits in front of the fancier Chinese restaurants. For simplicity, you can nickname him "J.C." Although, I think his nickname is really Bud, or something. Anyway, it will put some good sense into you, make you feel a whole lot better, and make you think a whole lot less about me.

See ya on the flip side Pat!

And Pat, a guy that takes a lot of shots is a "thrower".