HERB, BEER, OR CIGARETTES? OR SHOULD WE JUST LET OBAMA RAP ABOUT IT?

This is a good way to start this post because the World Cup is fast approaching. But I was a pretty good football (soccer) player in high school, and I played for a club side in Jamaica that traveled to various rural venues to play different teams. On one such outing we played in a little village called Royal Flat, (Only you true yawdies will know where this is) and as is usually the case at such venues, because many folks have a literal interpretation of Psalms 104:14, the smell of the good collie weed was in the air. No biggie. But then, while glancing around the crowd, I saw one of those images that has stayed with me all my life: There, on the sidelines, was a kid who couldn't gave been more than eight or nine, -dreadlocks flowing- with a big fat spliff hanging from his mouth. And what was just as amazing is that none of the people in the crowd even seemed to notice or care. Still, I guess it's beats smoking a damn cigarette. What is it comedian George Wallace used to say? "The world has gone crazy."

Now fast forward. Here I am in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, far removed from those days on the rock. I am chilling with my morning coffee, (Community from Louisiana, it's a Mrs. Field thing) when the reporter leads the morning news with this. Talk about deja vu. WTF? The Rastafarian kid might have been on some sort of religious mission. I mean some religions baptize their kids at an early age, so I get the whole ritualistic possibilities of what he might have been doing. (Unlike the little rug rat who is just hooked on cigarettes in Indonesia) But a beer at the ball game for a kid who couldn't have been more than ten?

I swear these fans in Philly never cease to embarrass the hell out of me. But field, are you sure it was beer. I mean his mother or father could have put his milk in a beer bottle. Well, yes, I suppose it could. And now, the Phillies, in order to save face, are saying that the little frat boy in training might have been drinking from an empty bottle. (Memo to MLB; removing the video clips from your broadcast won't make it go away.) Yeah, OK, well he was sure enjoying the hell out of that empty bottle.

And look, I know that things aren't always as they might appear. Videos sometimes lie. Have you heard the latest about Obama? Seems folks are claiming he was in a 90's rap video ,aptly named: "Whoomp there it is". I swear you can't make this s*&t up. Although, I must admit, dude does look like his O ness. Oh stop it field, you know they say we all look alike. You of all people should know better. OK, let me stop.

But on a serious note, if that was beer in that little party animal's bottle, his parents got some "splaining" to do. I laughed when I saw the little dread back in the day, but I am older now, and that s@#^ ain't funny no more.