Sports talk shows and ESPN's Sports Center -- not to mention all sorts of national news broadcasts -- have been hung up all week on the scandal in progress at Penn State University.
Personally, I have never really cared all that much for Penn State, but that's a simple regional prejudice that goes back to the days when Penn State won a couple of National Championships playing the likes of Temple and Rutgers and such and going undefeated. Then after they get in the Big 10 and start playing a few decent teams, they came back down to earth.
But this child sex and coverup business goes way beyond football, although it was a former football coach (and a good one, at that) that is standing accused of the bulk of the crimes.
Failure of school officials to notify the police when the first complaints were noted has resulted in the firing of the school president, athletic director, and more recently, head football coach and Penn State icon Joe Paterno.
Nobody knows exactly what (or exactly when) anybody in particular knew about any of this, but I can see all sorts of ways this Sandusky character's misdeeds remained unchallenged by legal authority for well over a decade.
For one thing, he was a highly respected defensive coordinator at a highly respected national educational institution working under a highly respected head coach of almost interminable longevity (Paterno).
So much good any of that respect is going to do Sandusky, finally.
And the nature of the accusations is so disgusting to people that they just don't want to believe any of it is true.
Sandusky is apparently guilty of being a child molester and had cleverly set himself up with a pretty smooth scheme to keep the victims coming along. As founder of a group foster home outfit called "Second Mile," Sandusky was supposedly helping kids from dysfunctional families ... yeah, right ... helping young boys into the shower so he could rape them.
Anyway, nobody much cares what happens now to Sandusky, so long as it's bad, but the Paterno firing kicked off a mild riot in Happy Valley and has all the sports commentators stirred up.
But Paterno did follow procedure and report what he knew (or heard from others) about Sandusky's behavior. I can see how "Old Joe" was reluctant to stick his nose any deeper into that sort of mess than he absolutely had to.
But it cost him his job in the end, and no telling what all else by the time the whole deal works itself out.
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On a more positive note, my information is that granddaughters Alexandra and Leah-Bo, accompanied by their father, will spend Thanksgiving with Grandma and Grandpa in Blytheville this year, probably with one or two of their uncles and their great-aunt Karen and great-grandma and grandpa in attendance as well. We'll have a big turkey dinner and probably end up asleep for a couple of hours after that before succumbing to football or "Miracle on 34th Street" or some such on the TV.
I've been known to sneak in a round of golf on Thanksgiving, but that's completely dependent on the weather, which can be good or bad that time of year.
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While I'm on the subject of golf, I have to give Dr. Matt Jones credit for climbing back ahead of me by two matches in our season-long battle for a post-round drink.
He had to make a tough 6-footer on the 18th hole to win Wednesday's match, but Saturday's was a blowout in his favor.
I must point out, however, that blowing me out is not (repeat, not) a big deal, and requires very little talent. As a matter of fact I can almost do it by myself.
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The Cardinals are still piddling around about hiring a manager. They'd better hurry up or LaRussa will decide he wants his old job back.
Jose Oquendo is still my man. He's pushing 50 and has been a Cardinal or a Cardinal coach more than 20 years. Jose has earned his chance if anybody has.
dtennyson@blythevillecourier.com