Play the age game to see.

Rather than give you a lesson you should have learned in middle school, read this story and enjoy the art of using words to bring an inanimate object to life, while describing an mission that could have killed him.

Major Brian Shul: I loved that Jet.

I was listening to the radio in the car today and heard a list of 25 things a man should be able to do.   I got 24 of 25 because I just haven’t had the chance for that last one yet.

In searching the web, I found great lists of things you should know or know how to do.

2o things every 3rd grader should know before they get to college

20 things you need to know about hygene 

20 things you didn’t know about Mosquitos 

From here on out, it’s 20 things you didn’t know about:

Galileo 

Nothing 

Robots, Bees, Movie Scientists, Pencils, Skin, Aliens, Rats, Lab Accidents, Nobel Prize, Death, Meteors, Obesity, Sleep, Garbage, da Vinci,  Space Disasters 

20 things your wife really means when she says not tonight, I have a headache. 

The King of Lists 

40 Things that only happen in movies 

10 most effective exercises 

20 Things you can’t say if running for President 

100 Things you can make yourself 

100 Things every Man should know how to do 

Esquire’s 73 Things Men should know about Women 

And Finally, Here is the list of what a Man should be able to do.  24 of 25 for mebaby….who da man?

Footnote:  I did find a lot of stuff that is inappropriate, cheesy or classless, if that’s you, you shouldn’t be that proud of it so I didn’t include  it on the list of lists here.

Joe Diffe said it best, “You could set my truck on fire and roll it down a hill, but I still wouldn’t trade it for a Coupe de Ville, I got an eight foot bed that never has to be made, you know if it weren’t for trucks they wouldn’t have tailgates I met all my wives in traffic jams, You know there’s something women like about a pickup man.”

At a recent Toby Keith concert and the Kenny Chesney concert the following week, the youth of the today drove this water about 20 miles to cool off in the 100 plus degree heat. I wish I’d thought of that first. I wish I’d been there come to think of it.

I believe even Al Gore would agree that there can be an upside to global warming.

Competitive eating champion Takeru (The Tsunami) Kobayashi has suffered a jaw injury that could keep him out of the July 4th Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Championship. Kobayashi has suffered a jaw injury during training that according to him only allows him to open his mouth the width of a finger. The International Federation of Competitive Eating (IFOCE)reported the same on June 25th.

Better than Tiger Woods in Golf, Michael Schumacher in Formula 1, Roger Federer in Tennis, Takeru Kobayashi has dominated the world of competitive eating like few athletes have dominated their sport. Recently however, his hot dog record was surpassed by American Joey Chestnut with an astounding 59.5 hot dogs.

This is a real disapointment for me personally as watching this is one of the most entertaining 12 minutes of human adventure that you could want. Combine that with the nature of humans bent towards competition, taking sides over the competitors and pulling for your man, this year could have been a show down of magnitude. The competitors could have forced each other over the once unheard of 60 hot dog barrier.

Word on the street (ok, undocumented….just heard by me on the radio) was that Kobayashi was either sandbagging or didn’t want to lose given the appearance fee’s and sponsor money at stake. I’ll give him the benefit of doubt that he’s really injured this time, but he better face Chestnut soon or I’ll have my doubts.

If he does show up, the drama of Kobayashi being an underdog for the first time would really add drama.

I also hope for a reversal of fortune this year, just for the pageantry of the sport to be on display.

The WSJ reports that the sale of music is in decline. There is talk in the article about shake out in music retailers, iPod and digital music and cheaper prices from big retailers but the article never really comes to a conclusion or result other than it’s declining.

I’ll list a few probable causes, then my choice for the answer.

In the album days, you bought all of the songs as that is how it was sold. Whether it was a record,cassette or CD, you get the album at album prices. Sure you come to like a lot of the songs on the album that are not released as hits, some even grow to be your favorites. The reality is that if you had the choice you likely wouldn’t have bought them though. Now you can pick and choose what you want and buy digital music a la carte so you spend less than a dollar a song instead of around ten dollars for an album download.

Next potential reason is that a lot of sales were booked as sold when they went to the record stores or album area in Best Buy, Target, Tower Records, whatever. Not all of these made it to the end user, but were recorded as sales.

Next potential reason is that we are being distracted by other types of entertainment. I have an iPod and i don’t only use it for music. I listen to lots of podcasts, watch videos, listen to audiobooks and other things it does. My time for music has been reduced. I like many others just don’t have the time I used to have.

Next potential reason is that younger people are a big consumer (I didn’t say purchaser) of music. They are more emotionally connected to it, have had more time for it, are more empowered by music and so on. But they are spending more time texting on their phones, playing video games and other things that don’t leave the time we used to have for music.

Now for why I think sales are going down. First (but not the number one reason, I saved that for last), piracy. Songs are being traded on MySpace, email, and other places with other people. This is cutting into sales more than a lot of people think, except the accountants and lawyers in the music industry. I refuse to pirate music and will pay for every song as a matter of principle, but almost no one I’ve met fully agrees with me. There is also a huge amount of piracy documented in the Asia/Pacific region.

Here’s why I think sales are down the most. People vote with their money. They buy what they want and don’t buy what they don’t want. The quality of music today is crap with a capital K. Don’t even pretend to tell me what goes on in RAP is good (kill cops, beat women). For those that want to argue this point, the jury will open 5 years from now when it will have stood the test of time, which it won’t - contact me then. I don’t have any dog in this fight other than what I and a lot of others think. I’m not just down on RAP as a majority of the rest of the music is rubbish, being put out to get a share of the money but with no real quality. I’m not slamming all new music, everyone has their personal likes and you will buy that (hopefully not steal). Your tastes will show up in the buying numbers, which are going down as is documented. A lot of what is being made now is just noise. People don’t buy Krap.

So that is my opinion, which is just that, my opinion. But someone smarter than me give a better reason for why sales are down?