I have way too many things on my mind to limit this column to one topic, so you're getting bits and pieces of what's new today.  Here goes.

Is it bad when one of your main stocks is the second leading story on the financial page with the words "bleak outlook" prominently featured?  I'm going to guess yes.  But I feel better, President Bush says the economy is "basically sound."  Thanks for your expert analysis Mr. President.  Is this like when you tell us that the war is succeeding?  How's that economic stimulus package working out?  Here's a quick recap off the top of my head of events that have transpired under Dubya's watch:

-"Mr. President, someone has attacked our country.  The World Trade Center has been blown up" . . . Pause for seven minutes . . . "Ok, you had something to tell me?  I'm done reading 'Goodnight Moon' now."
-Weapons of mass destruction, no sign of them.
-Bin Laden, still missing.
-Katrina "recovery"/FEMA director appointee.
-Harriet Myers.
-U.S. ports to the Arabs
-Attorney general firings.
-Abu Ghraib.
-Sub-prime meltdown.
-etc.

I've been a firm believer that Warren Harding was our worst president ever.  He was corrupt and led us into the Depression.  Bush sure is making a good run at him though.  Ok, ok, back to sports.

Wait, one more, the Feds say that they're going to impose some regulations on banks and lending.  A little late boys.  That's like MLB's steroids investigation.  It's also a close cousin of the NBA's reaction to the Artest brawl being a new dress code.  At least that gives the financial analysts something to write besides "Market drops on economic concerns/worries/troubles."  They just rotate those three words in there to come up with their headline.  Ok, sports for real this time, I promise.

Superstar retires, sits for about a month, and then wants to come back.  Oh my?!  Let's blow this up and pretend like we've never seen this script before!  I do like the added wrinkle of the Packers trying to get away with trading Favre to a noncontender, but otherwise, please let me know when the whole thing's over.  I don't need Favre-watch to be part of my daily routine.  Just wake me up when he signs somewhere.

Josh Hamilton, wow.  That was unreal and the players' reactions were great.  I don't know which was better, Milton Bradley's antics or Edison Volquez' putting the money on the plate.  Both great.  Of course Hamilton won the HR Derby 35-22 but some other guy won the trophy.  I say some other guy because only my friend D.J. will remember 15 years from now who won the 2008 HR Derby.  However, a lot of people will remember Josh Hamilton's first round barrage because I don't see that 28 number being eclipsed anytime soon.  I'm not a fan of deciding the derby with one last anticlamactic round.  I read that some expert said the Derby is about stamina.  Here's a novel idea, how about make the Home Run Derby about home runs.  Whoever hits the most homers wins.  Makes sense to me.  In the current format, it is to a player's detriment to do what Hamilton did last night and put on a show.  If Hamilton wanted to win, he should have stopped at around 15 and saved himself for the rest of the event.  What kind of system is that?  It's like the Electoral College meets baseball.  Sorry, had to delete the three sentences that were going to follow about how much I hate the Electoral College.  I figured my whining about the stock market was enough non-sports material for one day.

Where did all of these Boston fans come from?  I used to just not really care about Boston teams.  I mildly disliked the Red Sox.  The Celtics were fine because I liked Paul Pierce and they weren't any good.  Tom Brady seemed like a good guy and the Patriots weren't being shoved down my throat until recently.  Now?  Try walking around L.A. and spotting all of the new Boston merchandise being sported.  I didn't see all of you "fans" out there after the Aaron Boone home run.  Where were you during the Bledsoe years?  How about during the "We can't unload Vin Baker's contract because apparently he likes alcohol" era?  I really really really do not like Boston teams now.  I can't tell you how happy it would make me if the Red Sox somehow missed the playoffs.  It would be almost as good as when USC lost to Texas, even though I had money on 'SC.  Could you imagine a bunch of popped-collar, khaki pant clad 'SC fans walking around town all smug after that win?  It would have been awful.  The Texas fans only stuck around for a week to bother us.  That's how I feel about the Boston fans.  They won't go away and they seem to have finally figured out how to morph from "annoying victim fans who think they're better than you" into "annoying rub the recent run of success in your face fans who think they're better than you."  It's just awful.  But those four years where Boston fans couldn't figure out how to have a sports conversation without whining about past failures and the Yankees' payroll was kind of fun to watch.  They couldn't whine because the Sox won but they didn't know how to have the conversation without playing the "woe is me" card.  Now they've figured out how to rub it in your face in their pompous way and it's nauseating.  If this gets any worse I may start watching college hockey just to root against Boston College.

Ok, I know that one of my first vivid sports memories was Kirk Gibson's homer in Game 1 of the '88 World Series off of Eckersley.  I know that the Lakers had a 3-peat to start this decade and made the Finals this year.  But when am I allowed to start whining like Boston fans used to?  At some point after the Larry Bird years, everybody collectively decided that Boston fans could whine and that it was perfectly ok.  When can L.A. fans start?  We haven't had an NFL team in 15 years.  Yes, the second largest market in the country has been without an NFL franchise for 15+ years.  That's not a misprint.  The Dodgers don't know how to spend money and haven't had a playoff run since '88.  And by not having a playoff run, I mean 1 playoff win in 20 years, courtesy of Jose Lima.  Jose Lima!  That's Arizona Cardinals-esque.  Let's not talk about the Dodgers anymore.  The L.A. Kings, awful, just awful, or as Charles Barkley would say, just trrble.  The Lakers have the best player in the NBA but he's a walking soap opera who all of a sudden disappeared in the NBA Finals.  Kobe went from possible MJ replacement to being a guy who hopefully can deliver a Gold Medal.  Again, I know that we can't start whining yet in L.A. because of the 3-peat, but how many more years of this do we have to take?  The last L.A. team I saw celebrate was my least favorite team in all of sports, the USC football team.  My friends said I had to root for USC because they're an L.A. team.  So what?  I hate them.  Run into some USC frat boys sometime and tell me what you think of them.  I've grown up a UCLA fan.  There is zero chance of my rooting for USC.  You've got a better chance of getting me to go skydiving again and that is not an exaggeration.

Finally, we're less than two weeks away from Cotto-Margarito, and of course my younger sister is getting married on that night.  Can you Tivo PPV events?  To sum up what kind of bout this will be for non-boxing fans, the fight pits Cotto, arguably the best pound-for-pound fighter in the game (Pacquiao may deserve this moniker after demolishing Diaz) against Margarito, a fighter with a solid chin who throws 100 punches per round and himself is a top-10 pound-for-pound fighter.  Not only that, but we get Puerto Rico versus Mexico.  I'll bet if you asked someone from Mexico to list the icons in life the list would read "1.  Julio Caesar Chavez.  2.  Jesus."  As for Puerto Rico, I was talking to a friend of mine the other night about the upcoming fight and she's a native of Puerto Rico.  I was wondering just how big boxing is in Puerto Rico.  She said, "let's just say that I wouldn't talk to anyone for two and a half weeks after Tito [Trinidad] lost to [Bernard] Hopkins."  Point well taken.  We have two of the most passionate groups of fans clashing in a fight featuring two world class boxers.  I don't think Cotto-Margarito will top Vasquez-Marquez III for fight of the year but it has a very good chance of being as good as Pacquiao-Marquez II.  That being said, congratulations to my sister, Genna and my future brother, Scott.  By the way, Scott wears Boston paraphernalia around L.A. and we all know how I feel about that.  Can I bring that up in my toast?  It might be worth it for the looks on my sister's and Mom's faces.