This week last year got away from the football theme and concentrated more on news that impacts athletes or athletics and the Red Sox. I also started my new animated how to series, which has been neglected since I got married and has not started up again because my photographer moved away.

• I began my animated series on how to do different exercises a year ago. The series began with how to do dumbbell shrugs.
• I reviewed the McMillan Running Calculator, which can be used to project different goal paces based on the distances you have already run. It works pretty well.
• A community in Texas instituted a mandatory sports training program for parents of children who wanted to participate in the sports in that community. They were tired of parents getting out of line and misbehaving at games and practices.
• I talked about how tough Washington’s anti-smoking laws are.
• Tim Montgomery and Chryste Gaines were both given 2 year bans for doping after being implicated in the Balco trial. In the comments, john y and I disagreed about whether these were bad bans or not.
• The Australian swimming team staged some mock executions in an attempt to motivate the swimmers.
• The Red Sox decide not to hire a new general manager, and city counselor John Tobin wanted to bring a minor league team to Boston because Red Sox games cost too much to bring the family to. I have been lucky enough to always live near some minor league markets. In other baseball news, Cuba was barred from the World Baseball Classic (temporarily, at least).