Our daughter is graduating from High School next week. The Army, Navy and Marines, armed with a list of graduates, have been calling our house over the past few months asking to speak to her about the great opportunities a life in the armed forces can afford. We're very proud of her as we are of our son, who graduated two years ago. Both worked hard throughout their academic careers and had many opportunities open to them upon graduation. She will be a freshman in September at Rutgers University majoring Journalism and our son will be a Junior at Rowan University majoring in Mathematics.

Yesterday 103 men and 7 women said their goodbyes at McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey, before heading off to Iraq. They are part of the largest number of New Jersey National Guard to serve since WW II.

I wish them Good Luck and God Speed.

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Three beats, a pause, then two more beats. That was the trademark Bo Diddley beat that Bo used in his self titled song, and as the foundation for so many of his hits. He influenced a generation of artists including Buddy Holly, U2 and George Thorogood, who covered and introduced a new audience to his song "Who Do You Love". Bo received a life time Grammy Award and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He was 79.

WATCH BO DIDDLEY HERE

AND HERE

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La de da de de, la de da de da

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Saturday Night Live alumni Jimmy Fallon will replace fellow SNL alumni Conan O'Brien on Late Night when Conan moves over to Tonight and Leno is forced out. I guess NBC executive Lorne Michaels thinks the formerly not ready for prime timers are ready, but I'm not sure even Fallon agrees. At the Press conference Fallon said to Michaels "You started my career, you might as well end it."

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I don't believe in punishing anyone for the sins of their fathers. Congrats to Jenna Bush and Henry Hager who were married this weekend in Crawford, Texas.

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We talk about elections in the US using war metaphors, battleground states, fight to the end, war room strategies, but in Lebanon they do more than talk. Hizbullah is an opposition party. It's leader, Nasrallah claimed this week that recent crack downs by the Lebanese government were a declaration of war and Shiite gunman have taken to the streets of Beirut with automatic weapons and grenade rocket launchers. Kind of puts things in perspective.. While our election process seems to go on for ever and is sometimes contentious, eventually there will be a winner and a peaceful transition to a new administration.

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The grocery store's the super mart, uh huh
Gasoline prices break your heart, uh huh
And men still keep on marching off to war
200 points down on the floor
and
The beat goes on, the beat goes on
La de da de de, la de da de da

Ball point pen on the morning newsprint

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Ted Key, creator of Hazel, Mr. Peabody and Sherman cartoon characters passed away at age 95. His cartoons ran in the Saturday Evening Post and Collier's before I was born, but I spent hours of my youth watching Hazel in syndication and Mr. Peabody and Sherman on The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.

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Sport has often been used as a metaphor to describe battlefields, strategy and competition. It was in this light that the Clinton campaign first started to draw the parallels between the horse, Eight Belles and Senator Clinton. Leading up to the race the campaign started to talk about the only woman in the race, an underdog, a tough filly that had the stamina to go the distance. The story line was almost too perfect to ignore. If Eight Belles had won, it would have been the campaign's battle cry going into tomorrows contests. But Eight Belles didn't read the script. While she did make a valiant effort, she finished second to Big Brown (the actual winner). Then things went from bad to worse, when seconds after the race Eight Belles collapsed with two broken ankles and had to be euthanized on the spot. While Hillary is not in any mortal danger from this weeks primaries, I think many on the Clinton team fear that the Kentucky Derby is a closer metaphor for this campaign than they would like to admit.

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Ball point pen on the morning newsprint

There's a big hint

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