The Daily News

1   Well.

2   I want to send out thoughts to everyone who has been devastated by the recent fires. I can't even imagine, and my thoughts and my family's thoughts are with you.

3   Really incredible.

4   A special thanks goes out to all the men and women on the front lines fighting this beast. 

5   Godspeed to you all. 

6   I've news to share, but I need an okay for the news release. So far, it's amazingly fun news!

7   So.

8   The NFL has officially begun. 

9   Or should I say the NFL/Fantasy season has officially begun.

10  'Murica. 

11  Oh well. 

12  I still can't help watching. I'm that guy.

13  I was born a Niner fan. 

14  Football.

15  Foooooooball.

16  If you haven't been raised with football, you probably have to roll your eyes each week, or close them until January.

17  I do like that as a hopeless fan, I can still record the games and do something else. 

18  It's becoming the only way to go.

19  I also need to shade my eyes from all the negatives of today's game. The NFL has allowed SO much hooliganism and nonsense I don't want to watch. Almost don't. Unfortunately I can't stop. 

20  Why?

21  

22  I've been a fan since birth.

23  I'm going to continue somehow to root for my Niners despite any logic surrounding it. 

24  And I do so with full knowledge I would really like to see the NFL change, but it won't. I KNOW it won't. 

25  Why?

26  Guys like me. 

27  'Murica. 

28   Just..'Murica.

29   Moving On, Part One: I'm not sure if I'm allowed to mention the little event happening in my life quite yet. 

30   As of this writing, all's well. 

31   More to come...

32   Moving On, Part Two: I just glanced back at the teevee and watched the Rams implode.

33    I think.

34   Still on.

35   Duhhhhhhh.

36  Gotta love it.

37  That cover reflects exactly what I wish I could do to the NFL.

38   I think I'm developing a twitch. 

39   What was that? The Seahawks lost? Richard Sherman got burned?

40   I'm so sad. 

41   I may take the lead from Colbert and do a mash-up of Donald Trump and a bag or two of Oreos. 

42   Anybody lookin'?

43   I was okay until he mentioned switching to Hydrox, which we all have done at least once in our lives. 

44   Admit it. 

45   You ONCE went from this:

46   To this:

47   Regarding the retro Hydrox ad at the top of the page? You never run out of Hydrox 'cause NOBODY EATS THEM.

48   

49   Anybody lookin'?

50   Moving On, Part the Thoid: It occurs to me that I haven't given a writing tip today.

51   Well. 

52   Here is a HUGE tip: Go on Amazon and get a copy of this book: 

53   Mr. Clark gives GREAT advice all through this book. He calls is introduction A Nation of Writers. Here is an excerpt:

   ...The time is right. Students now face high-stakes writing tests to advance in school and enter college. But technology stands on our side, easing the burdens of drafting and revision. I wrote my first book in 1985 on a Royal Standard typewriter. A machine just like it sits in my office, a museum piece. Now young writers use cell phones to communicate in the telegraphic and acronymic language of instant messages; words flash around the world with breathtaking speed.  These new writers have created millions of Web logs and Web sites, becoming publishers of their own work.

   No doubt, the standards expressed in these new forms are looser than those suggested by Strunk and White. The voices are more casual, the approaches more experimental, and the personae of the authors more elusive. These new voices cross old boundaries and command attention, but who would argue that the quality of writing online is what it could be?  As these new writers mature, they will need writing tools to perfect their work 

  We need lots of writing tools to build a nation of writers. Here are fifty of them, one for every week of the year. You get two weeks for vacation.

   Learn and enjoy.

54   Indeed. 

55   Learn and enjoy. 

56   More to come.

57   See you again.

58   Peace.

~H~