1. Snooki !!! – "Jersey Shore" reality star and Marlboro native Nicole ‘Snooki’ Polizzi said she'll cut back on her drinking after being busted at the beach a couple of weeks ago for being intoxicated and disorderly conduct, according to People.com (yeah, I read People. Us Weekly and OK!, too. Somethin’ wrong with that?) Anyway, Snooki said she would even stop boozing during the day because “My dad was very, very pissed. He's like ‘I didn't raise you like this.' ”No more drinks during the day, huh? Wow, huge first step. That only leaves 12 more hours of night drinkin’. Note to Dad: Get. Her. Off. The. Show. This is an affront to Italians everywhere, and to Marlboro residents.

2. A-Rod – So here’s my thinking on A-Rod, Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, and all the other admitted and alleged steroid users. Baseball is a game of numbers. Always has been, always will be. So let some Bill James-type stat guru break down the home runs these guys hit during the time they used performance enhancing drugs and see where they really stand. I’m willing to wager that there are a lot of 400-foot home runs in there that would have been out of the park even without the steroid use. So take A-Rod, for instance. He said he used PEDs only during the three years he was with the Texas Rangers. So let’s give him the benefit of the doubt that he’s telling the truth – and he hit 156 home runs in three years with the Rangers, an average of 52 home runs a season, and never had that kind of three-year power output at any other time in his career. So it’s sort of plausible that he’s telling the truth. Let’s say half of those dingers were steroid-aided. So take away 78 home runs from his total and he still has 525. Still a Hall of Famer to me.

3. Officially Old – I am officially old. Last week my 9-year-old came to me and told me to start calling him ‘JT.’ “Dad,” he says to me, “it’s my nickname.” Nickname? I didn’t have a nickname at nine. (Shaddup! Thomas-smelly doesn’t count.) Same day, we’re having pudding for dessert after dinner. It’s been a while since we had pudding for dessert. Figured I’d try the old ‘smear it all over my face when the kids aren’t looking’ trick. Always good for a hearty belly laugh. So I do it. My 5-year-old just stares at me and says, “Dad, really? REALLY?” Wow. Washed up at 46. At least my wife still thinks I’m cool, right babe? Babe?

4. High school football – Had a chance to get out to the Mid-Hudson Football Camp back in July (please see our video here). Saw Millbrook, Roosevelt, John Jay, Highland, Spackenkill and Poughkeepsie run through drills and have light scrimmages. Totally cool, and now I’m totally pumped for the season to begin in a couple of weeks. Gotta give it up to these guys – I just read somewhere that we’ve had something like 25 days above 90 degrees this summer, but they’re out there humpin’ it.

5. Let’s Go Blue! – Speaking of football, it’s less than a month now before the greatest college football program in the country – um, that would be Michigan, of course – gets underway. Here’s a little taste of the greatest college band in the country playing the greatest college fight song in the country at the greatest college football stadium in the country. Enjoy The Big House!