The Hot Seat

You know the funny thing about Cleveland?

Forget it. There is nothing funny about Cleveland. With joy in their hearts and a song on their lips, our Mariner fans followed their team to the land of Cleves. They were met by a bunch of venom-spewing Indians fans also known as the Crying Papooses. They’re mad because the M’s are receiving a lot of attention for finally winning after 19 years. The Crying Papooses whine that their team has been terrible for a lot longer than 19 years. And they’re right. Credit the Indians for defining bad baseball.

Public humiliation? Let’s go for it.

Led by Councilman Chris Anderson, the Spokane City Council decided to add sex offenders to the undesirables already displayed on City Cable 5. We like it, but we think they should expand the range of public humiliation to include the truly obnoxious. We want to see the names and faces of people who crash the express lanes with more than nine grocery items. And those people who leave their Christmas lights up year round? Public humiliation is to good for them. Call us at 459-5405 with your suggestions for the shame channel.

He can run but he can’t hide, from himself

O.J. Simpson ran away from NBC last week. Instead, he talked to a buddy at the New York Times. And, O.J. still struck out. He referred to his abuse of Nicole Brown as “getting physical.” That is denial. Phone calls from Brown to 911 leave no doubt: he beat the daylights out of her. Now Simpson has challenged Marcia Clark to a debate, promising to “knock that chip off her shoulder.” Bad choice of words for a batterer. Attorney Gerry Spence said O.J. should have done the TV interview to salvage his image. “A man has only one thing that’s worth a damn, and that’s his reputation,” Spence said. If that is true, O.J. Simpson has nothing left.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 3 photos

MEMO: The Hot Seat is an irreverent look at controversial issues in the news. The views expressed are those of the writer. Today’s Hot Seat was written by Scott Sines.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Scott Sines The Spokesman-Review