Baby Food Confusion

Misunderstandings happen all the time. This is the story of something that happened to a friend of mine. We were on a flight to Germany when we saw that a mother turned down the airline baby food for her child because she had her own food for the baby girl. My friend mentioned how she wouldn’t mind taking the baby food if the flight attendants were just going to throw it out since it was unwanted. This occurrence led to her telling me a hilarious story about what happened to her in the grocery not too long before, a story about buying baby food. Again, this is my recollection of her story, so any inconsistencies or exaggerations are entirely of my own fault. Here is her story - let’s call her M.

Song of the Week - Alison Krauss

Alison Krauss & Union Station - Paper Airplane
Album: Paper Airplane

At the age of 40, Alison Krauss already has the  most Grammy's wins of any female artist with 26. That puts her well ahead of Aretha Franklin (20 Grammy's) and 3rd on the all-time list. Only Qunicy Jones, with 27 Grammy wins, and Georg Solti, with 31 wins, are in her path to becoming the most decorated Grammy-winning singer in history. Considering her last album, Raising Sand, won her five Grammy's, it is really only a matter of time before she makes history, again.

Boxing: Where Everyone Can Be a Champion

Professional boxing is the one major sport without an established league. Household acronyms need no introduction to what sports leagues they represent: NHL, NFL, NBA, MLB, UFC. There’s no confusion over who the best is in each sport because we have one champion in each. Then there’s boxing – WBA, WBC, WBO, IBF, IBO. How can boxing have 5 different champions (or more if we count titles from individual countries or continents) at any weight division? It’s because there is no single recognized league for boxing fans or fighters to look to as the one true league. And with the millions of dollars at stake with licensing fees, no league is willing to amalgamate for the sake of boxing if it costs them even the tiniest cut of financial income. At this point, it’s up to Ring Magazine to be the voice of who the recognized champion should be. However, one has to take these rankings with a critical eye, as the magazine’s owner, boxing legend Oscar De La Hoya, is also a major player in promoting boxers with Golden Boy Promotions. Though he has promised not to influence the editorial content, there clearly is a conflict of interest between ownership and journalistic independence.

Povetkin (left) is the WBA Heavyweight Champion, while Klistschko (right) is the WBA 'Super'-Champion

The major leagues aren’t doing themselves any favours either. It is widely recognized that Wladimir Klitschko is the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. He has defeated every major challenger - with relative ease. When David Haye won the WBA Heavyweight Championship over Nicolai Valuev, everyone knew he wasn’t the real top heavyweight. When Haye finally stepped up to the challenge of Klitschko, he was embarrassed and ridiculed for his scared tactics. While Klistschko added the WBA belt to his already full wardrobe less than two months ago, it wasn’t long that we found out Ruslan Chagaev (who was brutally beaten up by Klitschko not so long ago) and Alexander Povetkin (who had signed to fight Klitschko but backed out of the fight at his trainer’s discretion, fearing Povetkin was not ready to fight the champion) were fighting for the same WBA Championship belt this past weekend. How is this possible? The WBA decided to elevate Klitschko’s status to ‘Super-Champion’, while Povetkin’s victory earned him the distinction of WBA Heavyweight Champion. The reason it sounds so silly is because it is.