I’m a devoted "60 Minutes" watcher and had two strong impressions from the last two weeks.
1, Last week LaDainian Tomlinson, the Chargers’ incredible running back, said that he spends the day before a game in fear of injury. Playing a game of football is like being in a car wreck, he said, and he worries whether that day is going to bring a season- or career-ending injury. Let alone concussions. The Times’ Alan Schwartz has done passionate, important reporting on this issue. I hope the comments on "60," by one of the league’s top performers, mean that things might change… 2, Tonight in a report from New Guinea on rarely-seen bird species, Robert Simon, who spent 10 days in the bush, kept cooing over the fact that no one had caught these scenes on film before. With the suggestion that no one had seen these birds doing their mating dances before. I think this is somewhat racist. 3 years ago I was in New Guinea and on a trek through the mountains, my guides brought me to a village for a Tolai fire dance. The thing went on all night long, men jumping in and out of the fire. Well, they were all wearing amazing, outlandish bird costumes. Strange wire-and-paper headdresses and tail feathers. Birds are revered in New Guinea, and the people who live there have been observing them for eons.
