A little preview to this weekend’s print edition. A letter from a local reader details a UFO sighting over Rapid City earlier this week. Normally, I would write this off as the innocently but slightly off-kilter letter writer.
But then a fellow Journal staffer confirmed that he (or she, hmmmm) also saw the object. I mean, it’s not like the Journal staffer can’t be a bit loopy, too. I mean, sometimes I think it’s a pre-requisite to work here. But that being said, two distinctly separate sightings lends a little creedence to the story.
In my mind, there’s a couple of explanations that would exclude extraterrestial visitation. The biggest, of course, a wide array of aircraft have been brought into town for this weekend’s Dakota Thunder Air Show, so there very well could be a few rarely seen aircraft testing out the South Dakota Sky.
And there’s always the old weather balloon standby.
But then again, you never know. It leaves one asking the question is: WWGNT (i.e., What Would George Noory think?)
Anyways, here’s the letter. Anybody see anything like this?

On Monday night at about 10 p.m. and again between 4 and 4:30 a.m., I saw a triangular shaped craft flying high above Rapid City. It made a loud humming noise before accelerating at an immense speed and disappearing out of sight. If anyone else witnessed this event, please write a letter to the editor at the Rapid City Journal and let me know.

CHRIS BECKER
Rapid City

Here are the leaders from the past seven days.
1. Black Hills Gay Pride event expands to four days
A Rapid Reply demon from hell, this advancer on a weekend full of events — including Judy Shepard speaking at the Dahl tonight — has been the bane of comment clearers since it went up Thursday. Apparently, quite a few folks have opinions.

2. Powerball ticket worth $232 million sold in Winner
The biggest story of the week, the ninth-biggest jackpot in Powerball history is going to someone who bought a ticket in Winner. National media got a big kick out of it, as did the head of South Dakota lottery. You could hear the gears turning in his head on how he’s going to make that the lottery’s next ad campaign.

3. Teens rescued from Rapid Creek
We got caught driving home along Fifth Street in Rapid City during the Sunday downpour, and it wasn’t surprising to hear at least a few harrowing stories from adventures throughout the area. The most harrowing was this one about a trio of kids who nearly got swept away in the raging waters of Rapid Creek during the big rain.

4. Colonial House’s Bob Beshara succumbs to ALS
A lot of the time, approving Rapid Replies is an arduous task few would wish on their worst enemies. But sometimes, it can be informative and downright touching. The latter was the case with the death of community figure Bob Beshara. To readers: Thanks for sharing.

5. Cattle, fence believed to have sparked shooting in rural Meade County
Nothing like a good ol’ ranch dispute to get folks flocking to the Web site. We do live in the West; maybe we DO live in the Old West.

The Associated Press offers up some tips of scale when it comes to watching Susan Boyle.

– YOUTUBE: It’s been good enough for more than 60 million viewers thus far. Videos of Boyle’s performance will be uploaded both by the show and by users immediately afterward.
– THE OFFICIAL WEB SITE: Videos will also rapidly be posted at: http://talent.itv.com/
– HOP A FLIGHT TO LONDON: It will be easy to find there. Ratings have shown that half of those watching TV at the time of “Britain’s Got Talent” in the U.K. have been tuning into the show. Last minute round-trip flights from New York to London were starting upwards of $1,000 as of Thursday night.

They’re pretty good, although, I must say, I haven’t watched her on Youtube or Hulu, on “Britain’s Got Talent” — the show or the Web site — but I have seen all of her performances and more by watching the morning news shows.

Something tells me, unless you are a hardcore Susan Boyle’s the Bomb superfan, you might be able to see a little sumthin’ sumthin’ on the Sunday morning shows. Or maybe even the evening news on Saturday.

Everytime I think about buying a Powerball ticket, I’m reminded that it’s more likely to get struck by lightning than winning the lottery.
The two bad things about that are:
No. 1 – It’s not even close; you are way more likely to get struck by lightning.
No. 2 – That’s not the only thing that is way more likely to happen. Apparently, the only thing that is less likely to happen (the odds of winning the lottery is 1 in 146,107,962) is dying from a shark attack (1 in 300,000,000).
Here’s a short list of some other odds of things happening, both good and bad.

Odds of being struck by lightning: 1 in 576,000
Odds of being murdered: 1 in 18,000
Odds of being attacked by a dog: 1 in 131,890
Odds of dying from a dog bite: 1 in 700,000
Odds of being bitten by a snake, bee or other venomous creature: 1 in 83,930
Odds of dying from contact with a venomous animal or plant: 1 in 3,441,325
Odds of dying from any kind of injury during the next year: 1 in 1,820
Odds of dying from being bitten or struck by mammals (other than dogs or humans): 1 in 4,235,477
Odds of dying from a shark attack: 1 in 300,000,000
Odds that a person between the age of 18 and 29 does not read a newspaper regularly: 1 in 3
Odds that an adult does not want to live to age 120 under any circumstances: 2 in 3
Odds of being considered possessed by Satan: 1 in 7,000
Odds that a celebrity marriage will last a lifetime: 1 in 3
Odds of being on plane with a drunken pilot: 1 in 117
Odds of being audited by the IRS: 1 in 175
Odds of dating a millionaire: 1 in 215
Odds of finding out your child is a genius: 1 in 250
Odds of catching a ball at a major league ballgame: 1 in 563
Odds of becoming a pro athlete: 1 in 22,000
Odds of a person in the military winning the Medal of Honor: 1 in 11,000
Odds of getting a royal flush in poker on first five cards dealt: 1 in 649,740
Odds of becoming a saint: 1 in 20,000,000
Odds of becoming president: 1 in 10,000,000
Odds of a meteor landing on your house: 1 in 182,138,880,000,000
Odds of dying from intentional self-harm: 1 in 9,380
Odds that Earth will experience a catastrophic collision with an asteroid in the next 100 years: 1 in 5,560
Odds of dying in an airplane accident: 1 in 354,319
Odds of dying in a terrorist attack while visiting a foreign country: 1 in 650,000
Odds of dying from legal execution: 1 in 3,441,325
Odds of dying from parts falling off an airplane: 1 in 10,000,000
Odds of spotting a UFO today: 1 in 3,000,000
Odds of contracting the human version of mad cow disease: 1 in 40,000,000
Odds of fatally slipping in bath or shower: 1 in 2,232
Odds of drowning in a bathtub: 1 in 685,000

Those words are among the most cringeworthy that any professional athlete can utter.

Along with sports fans who call out their favorite players’ first names loudly when they are watching televised games and the fact that Boston Red Sox fans constantly complain about the New York Yankees’ payroll when they have been in the Top Five of all Major League Baseball franchises, it is among my least favorite things about professional sports today.

So I was intrigued when this news release hit the Inbox here at the RCJ. Any chance of it making it into a story? Not really. Is it free advertising? Maybe a little, but this ain’t Oprah’s Book Club and the handful of pageviews this blog does generate won’t likely make a blip one way or the other.

But I always did like a strong lead paragraph …

Does God Care Who Wins the Super Bowl?

Jon Gordon, author of the new book Training Camp, shares his perspective on a question Christians—and sports fans—have often pondered.

Hoboken, NJ (May 2009)—It’s a question sports fans, particularly those of a spiritual bent, have kicked around for years. Does God “make” one team win and another lose? Often, athletes who share their faith during interviews with the media fuel the debate. This, of course, is the problem: For every athlete who fervently thanks God for his championship victory, there’s a whole team of players God, apparently, didn’t want to win.

And how about a few years ago, when Christian coaches Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith played against each other during the Super Bowl. Did God really favor one coach over the other? Or consider what it means when a player says his team is “a team of destiny.” Really? What about the destinies of the other players and teams?

In his new book, Training Camp: What the Best Do Better Than Everyone Else (Wiley, 2009, ISBN: 978-0-470-46208-9, $22.95), Jon Gordon weighs in on the debate. His conclusion? God actually does involve Himself in sports—but He cares about the journey, not the destination.

“It’s not about who wins or loses that God is interested in, but rather the stories and the life lessons that we would learn from sports,” says Gordon. “After all, why wouldn’t God use one of the biggest stages on earth to teach us the ultimate life lessons about character, commitment, excellence, and overcoming failure and defeat?

“With sports we see people, like characters in the Bible, who are flawed and yet who make us cheer,” he adds. “We see players make mistakes and fall from grace while others come back against all odds and redeem themselves. It’s the ultimate reality show. Story is how God teaches and molds us, and the huge sports stage is simply another way God communicates to us.”

Gordon’s belief in the power of story is why he wrote Training Camp, a fable about Martin, an un-drafted rookie who finds his faith during training camp while trying to make it in the NFL. As Martin strives for excellence, he ultimately comes to a point where he realizes that he can’t do it alone. It is then that he meets a special coach who teaches him what striving for greatness is really all about.

“It’s the ultimate quest,” writes Gordon. “We strive for excellence because God knows that in the striving we will push ourselves to the point where we come to the reality that we need something more—that our will isn’t big enough—that our strength isn’t strong enough. It is then that we seek God with our whole heart. It is at this breaking point when we realize that we must tap into a power greater than ourselves. This allows us to become more than what we want to be. It inspires us to become everything God intends for us to be.”

Gordon’s thoughts clearly aren’t theoretical, but born of personal experience. He reached his own breaking point a few years ago when he lost his job, his home life was in shambles, and he was perilously close to bankruptcy.  He surrendered for the first time in his life and several years later was baptized Palm Sunday 2007. His testimony recently appeared on the 700 Club. Click here to view: http://www.cbn.com/700club/guests/bios/Jon_Gordon041009.aspx

“Through reading the Bible and everyday life experiences, I’ve learned that God doesn’t pick the best,” Gordon says. “He picks the most willing. Then He shapes you, molds you, and trains you through the Training Camp of life. God doesn’t care who wins or loses the Super Bowl. What He cares most about are the process, the stories, the lessons, and the person you become as you strive to be your best and bring out the best in others.”

One of the best parts of this job is having to weed through the wire and AP video in case there is something that local readers need to read (or see).

Among the wheat is plenty of chaff, but there is also some great stuff that really doesn’t have a place on the Journal Web site. Case in point, the following video.

Apparently, a young couple hanging out on a freeway overpass decided to play a bizarre little stripping game similar to the slug bug or pididdle where, if they saw a car with a certain characteristic, they had to take a piece of clothing off. After awhile, they got near naked and, apparently, a little bored. So they began chucking rocks at the passing motorists.

A reporter in the newsroom has a husband who has a tried and true axiom about crime: If you’re going to commit one, do it one at a time. Once you cross that threshold, you’re almost certain to get caught.

Jeff Budlong gives a pretty good, straightforward story on this upcoming weekend’s State Track Meet in the Hills. The event is a major one, requiring a bevy of school, law enforcement and state athletic association officials, as well as about 250 volunteers.

The key here, is, it finally looks like Rapid City is out of the woods — at least for the time being — when it comes to losing the state track meet. In 2003, disrepair at O’Harra Stadium and a general lack of adequate parking led to South Dakota High School Activities Association folks fielding calls from folks wanting to move the event to Sioux Falls permanently.

One of them was from then Argus sports editor and former Rapid City Journal assistant sports editor Eric Bursch. He made some sharp points, but to Rapid City’s credit, many of the shortcomings of holding the state tournament West River have been addressed.

There will be some inconvenience locally — including partial closure of St. Joe in front of the stadium on Saturday — but for the most part, the plan is solid.

And why is that important? Well, there’s economics, of course, but just as important is the fact that Rapid City has been dominant in track and field for more than a decade, and to lose the one sport it probably deserves more than all others.

Central activities director Darren Paulson and his cohorts in the district deserve a hearty pat on the back for putting things right for the big week ahead.

Below are the schematics of the parking situation, if anyone’s interested.

This just in from the wires — when it comes to the most knowledgeable drivers, South Dakota is No. 5. That’s according to a test conducted by GMAC Insurance.

We’ll probably work this into a brief of some sort for later in the day, and when we do, the Rabid Repliers will pick it apart with zeal. Any time there is a story of any sort where drivers’ abilities are in question, there tends to be a full volleys of how bad Hills area drivers are.

Hey, I don’t argue that there are some less than focused folks out there on the road, but there are a few things to remember.

No. 1: Apparently, it is worse elsewhere.

No. 2: We have a lot of tourists in the region, and if you’ve ever played tourist, you know your driver IQ drops about 20 points as you frantically look for that next exit.

No. 3: A number of Rapid Replies come from out of state, so don’t let it ruffle your feathers.

No. 4: Knowledgeable doesn’t always translate into perfect drivers.

Needless to say, it always provides a good talking point. According to GMAC, the top five goes like this: No. 1 (tie) Idaho and Wisconsin, No. 3 Montana, No. 4 Kansas, and No. 5 South Dakota and Nebraska.

The top stories of the week often aren’t happy news, but this week’s top stories are especially on the downer side, especiall for Hills area youths.
A fiery crash on Interstate 90 that killed two kids and an adult man accounted for the top three stories of the week in one form or the other. The sixth most popular story was a one-vehicle accident that killed an Edgemont teen.
And then there’s the extraordinarily tragic story of the Cherry Creek teen who killed two siblings in an act of arson. It’s probably not a good sign that the week’s cheeriest top six story is one about a rural incident in which an argument between neighbors allegedly led to one firing at the other with a handgun.

1. Van flips off I-90, claims 2 lives

2. Third victim of Saturday crash dies

3. I-90 temporarily closed between Rapid City, Sturgis

4. Cattle, fence believed to have sparked shooting in rural Meade County

5. Cherry Creek teen who killed siblings in house fire sentenced to life in prison

6. Crash kills Edgemont teen

I’m a big believer in the new media, especially when it comes to social networking and the ability to cover big events such as blizzards, layoffs, etc.

But sometimes, it simply doesn’t work.

The most recent is the GM closure list. Actually, there is no list, but the Huffington Post — one of the most popular places on all the World Wide Web — attempted to create one, largely relying on trusted news sources to create a list thereof.

So far, there’s a few dozen listed, but out of more than a thousand said to be on the chopping block, that percentage doesn’t do much for the reader.

The Going Like Sixty blog talks about the new media’s shortcomings in depth. Check it out here.