Josh Q. Public:  Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.  -James Madison

Public Knowledge:

1.  Big trouble in the Big Apple.  Down goes Curry!  Eddy Curry who has been coming up big lately, fell down hard.  Fell down hard and strained his left calf on a baby-hook.  That does not bode well for Zeke or the  Knicks.

2.  Willie Randolph gets a three-year deal with the Mets.  Good. He deserves it.  Should have won Manager of the Year. 

3.  With the Patriots out of the picture, I’m rooting for Devin Hester.  Devin Hester, Mr. Anytime, the pound your chester, the bulletproof vester, the very bester.  I’m rooting for Devin Hester to join Desmond Howard as the only special team player to win the Super Bowl MVP.  Mr. Excitement.   Is there any play in football more exciting than the return for the touchdown.  From Pop Warner to the pros, we love it.  It brought Lovie Smith to tears.  We loved Billy White Shoes Johnson.  We loved Mel Gray.   We loved Desmond Howard.  We loved Dante Hall.  We loved Eric Metcalf.  We loved David Meggett.  We loved Greg Pruitt.  We love Devin Hester, Mr. Anytime, the very bester.

4.  What’s going on down in Kenmore Square?  Remember that episode of #### Eye For The Straight Guy?  The Fab Five making over Johnny Damon, Kevin Millar, and other Sox?  Well, the creators of the show are about to start looking for contestants to be in another reality show that will involve the team, entitled Sox Appeal.  A woman will be paired up with a date for two innings o####ame, then another date for another two innings. Then, in the 7th inning stretch, she’ll decide which one she wants to stay with for the rest of the game.  Just stupid.  If that ain’t enough, John Henry, the Sox’ principle owner is looking to become 50% owners of Roush Racing, a top NASCAR team.  Too many fingers in too many pies.  How ’bout focusing on winning another title?  Huh?  How ’bout that? 

5.   Who dey?  Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry was sent to jail for two days after pleading guilty to allowing minors to drink alcohol in his hotel room last spring.  How do you keep a guy like that on your team?  What kind of message are you trying to send out.  Just disgraceful.  Kenton County District Judge Greg Grothaus:  “You brought shame with this on yourself.”   Sounds a lot like Slapshot:  “You do dat, you go to da box, you know, uh, two minutes by yourself, and you feel shame, you know, and then you get free.”  Denis Lemieux style. 

6.  Here keep coming the Suns.  It took them nearly 40 years to win 15 straight games. They needed only a month to do it again.  Between them and the Mavericks the West is looking mighty tough.  Mighty tough.  And with Chairman Yao coming back after the All-Star break, we should have ourselves a good ole fashioned bahn burnah.

7.  On Wisconsin!  On Wisconsin!  Grand old Badger state!  Wisconsin smashed Michigan 71-58 last night to extend the nation’s longest winning streak to 16 games, breaking a 66-year school record.  Alando Tucker, Brian Butch and company sure look tough.  Tougher than leather.  Tougher than Leather Tuscadero.  The Big Ten is proving to be a formidable conference.  That’s gonna be one great tournament to watch. 

8.  What had happened was.  Here we go.  T.O. says he wasn’t taking a shot at the Tuna with his comments after the Cowboys head coach announced his retirement on Monday.  Are you sure?  It really sounded like you were.  Well, I guess I believe you.  Why shouldn’t I?

9.  We all love LeBron, but is he clutch?  King James scored 13 points in the second overtime period but missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer in an attempt to extend the game.  In his career, LeBron has made 4 of 14 potential game-tying or game-winning field-goal attempts in the final second of either the fourth quarter or overtime.  You be the judge.  Judge Wapner.  Judge Judy.  Judge Nelson.  Mike Judge.

10.  You can’t handle the Truth.  Or more to the point, you can’t handle the NBA without the Truth.  My Celtics drop their record to 2-15 in games without Paul Pierce this season.  And not for nothing,  with a loss at Sacramento, the Bucks’ record fell to 1-8 this season without Michael Redd.  And that’s the Truth, the whole Truth, and nothin’ but the Truth, Ruth.

11.  The Mamba’s boy.  Chucky Atkins.  Chucky came off the Grizzlies‘ bench to score 29 points and hand out 15 assists in a 132-130 overtime victory at Utah. Atkins was the first NBA player with at least 25 points and 15 assists in a game he didn’t start since Cleveland’s Bobby Washington (26 points, 15 assists) did it against the Lakers on Feb. 9, 1971.

12.  If you were able to find out where the Versus Channel is on your network dial, good for you.  If you did, you saw history.  If you did, you saw Joe Sakic.  You saw Joe Sakic get four assists.   You saw Sakic’s seventh multiple-point game in All-Star play, breaking the record he had shared with Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Mark Messier and Luc Robitaille.  Way to go Joe.  Super Joe.  Super Joe Charbeneau.

Peace out homies.  Six Two and Even!