• In my first step toward becoming an answer (question) on Jeopardy (hopefully in a post-Trebek age. Tangential Fun Fact: If you google "Alex Trebek is a douche," this blog is the #3 search result returned.  Not too shabby.), a fellow blogger wrote an entry about a study i conducted and published.  You can find his article about my article here.  Is there anything more narcissistic than re-post on your blog another blog post about yourself . . . all while being a graduate student?  i think this might be some kind of record.

• I rarely get so moved to anger as i have by the recent unearthing of some truly horrific evil events happening at Penn St. Football Dept.  Yes, granted, Sandusky is by far the most abhorrent.  He was raping children.  Not only that, but he started a foster program for disadvantaged kids . . . and then raped them.  He also has a number of adopted children.  Five boys.  It is all really ugly stuff.  And the furor that has gone up surrounding all of those in the know, including coach Joe Paterno, is warranted.  These are children that were victims.   They deserved more responsible and effective action.  If you hear that a child is being raped in your facility, whether or not that coach is in the process of retiring is not a good enough reason for only telling your university supervisor and not calling the police.  it if was your son being raped, i bet you would have called the cops.  Where have our priorities run away to?

• Sports radio is, by and large, crap.  And i actually don't mean that negatively.  It is the sports equivalent of US Weekly.  You aren't really going to learn much, but its fun to be temporarily immersed in the conversation.  Well, this whole Penn St. scandal brought Heath Evans to the radio microphone this particular afternoon.  and while i know Evans as a fullback for the patriots, i didn't expect what came next.  He started speaking about how one day, when he came home to his nice house, with nice cars, and 2 beautiful daughters, he found his wife, trying to take her life because of the emotional scars caused by sexual abuse.  Evans eloquently ran down the numbers.  1 in 4 girls is sexually abused/assaulted, 1 in 6 boys.  He described the situation as the epidemic it is.  He spoke about the rising number of girls, 16 and under, who are now on anti-depressants -- a sign, he contends, that we are medicating the problem instead of dealing with it head on. 

And Heath Evans is going to confront this thing head on.  he started www.heathevans.org and he is personally involved in getting free, skilled mental health services to those who need it.  He is helping to create online couselling classes that are age appropriate and can be used anonymously, for those victims too scared to share their story.  He also create imavictim.com as a place for victims to anonymously (or un-) share their story of abuse.  Unburden themselves of the weight of being the only one who knows.  And to dispel the myths that victims of abuse are alone, that they are the only one's dealing with pain like this, and that they feel they are to blame for what was done to them.   I am rarely impressed by the men (and occasional women) of sports radio.  Heath Evans, you are the exception.  and you were exceptional.  i honestly believe you educated the listening audience. 

• Lastly.  Yesterday in class, the professor asked the students what they thought of my lecture the past Friday.  There were mostly murmurs, but one girl responded.  "Beautiful."   That was, and remains, a pretty creepy response.  Which, caused me to look at my co-graduate assistant Amanda and say, "what happened to the good ol days, when only the female ta's got sexually harassed."  

Here's to a happier Wednesday.