Ten subjects I would like to write a book about:

Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich: If I could get him to tell the truth, can you imagine the shockwaves this could cause, not only across the state, but the entire nation and Democratic Party?
Suggested title: “Hair Raising.”

Former GOP Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin: This lady has a story to tell, you just know it. And who better but me to tell it? I’d drive to Alaska to interview her — I don’t fly, remember? — and she could spill her guts over a moose casserole.
Suggested title: “Northern Exposure.”

Actor/director Clint Eastwood: I know he’s dying to tell someone what he thinks of his Academy Awards snub for “Gran Torino.”
Suggested title: “You Can’t Fix Stupid.”

Former major leaguers Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Pete Rose: I think every American baseball fan would like to know the true story about how and why the greatest home run hitter in history, arguably the greatest pitcher in at least the last 50 years and the sport’s all-time hits leader may never be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Suggested title: “Lie to Me.”

American Idol: How did a TV show that does not deal in foul language and/or sexual innuendoes in this day and age come to command the attention of a nation for five months every year with little more than a singing contest as the central point of its success?
Suggested title: “Simon Says.”

The U.S. Automotive Industry: We should have seen this meltdown in Detroit coming years and years ago. The current economic climate only heightened the problem. Remember when Detroit kept giving us gems like the Pinto and the K-Car? Compare models like that to the Camry and Accord the Japanese started shipping our way. The good news about this current predicament is that it has leveled the worldwide playing field. Detroit will likely get another chance — its last.
Suggested title: “The U.S. Car-tel: One Last Chance for a Right Turn.”

NASCAR: I need to know what America’s most popular spectator sport will be trying to do to make it through the Great Recession. Let’s be brutally honest here. It may be early 2011 before we work ourselves through this economic chaos, and the chinks in the mighty NASCAR armor are already showing. The Daytona 500 was not sold out until the day before, and plenty of seats were empty at California and Las Vegas. And less than half of the teams have sponsorship for the full ’09 season.
Suggested title: “Running on Empty.”

OPEC: I have utter and complete contempt for this group of international outlaws, who seem to delight in attempting to hold the western world hostage for their precious barrels of crude oil. I wouldn’t get too far in my research for this particular book, because I’d probably punch the first sheikh I would meet directly in the mouth rather than listen to the lies he would try and feed me. I still hold a grudge against this bunch from the 1970s when the first oil crisis materialized.
Suggested title: “Wanted: Dead or Alive.”

Wall Street: Why did anyone not see this gigantic collapse coming until it was too late?
Suggested title: “Last Man Out the Door, Turn Off the Lights.”

The U.S. banking industry: See “Wall Street” above.
Suggested title: “Buddy, Can You Spare a Dime?”

If you're interested in who or what I'm thinking about today, here you go:

BOBBY KNIGHT, right: So the General might want to coach again, eh? I cannot believe any college president out there would seriously consider hiring this train wreck, 902 career victories or not. I normally have a fondness for those from the great state of Ohio, but not this guy. Spare me all the great attributes of Robert Montgomery Knight (as Dick Vitale likes to call him), because I'm not questioning his coaching ability. I am questioning his track record as a human being.

SEAN HANNITY: The kid gloves have come off with his new solo show on Fox News. He's going after the left with a vengeance. He had some classic lines Monday night. "No wonder the Democrats want to raise taxes, the don't pay them," Hannity said in reference to Tom Daschle, the second Barack Obama would-be cabinet appointee to land in tax-related hot water. Hannity also noted Obama's approval rating has dropped from 63 to 55 in less than a month. This, folks, already is getting nasty. What Hannity has done is to employ the same in-your-face tactics as Keith Olbermann and (in a more subtle way) Rachel Maddow have done at MSNBC. This is going to be great television the next four years. 

PITTSBURGH STEELERS: Probably the majority of today's football fans have little or no recollection that the Steelers were once the laughingstock of the NFL. The Steelers I grew up watching were hideous, and it is still difficult for me to imagine that franchise has won six Super Bowls. But more power to them. Pittsburgh a great, great organization, and the Steelers have the next great NFL coach in Mike Tomlin, the 36-year-old who oozes class and obviously has a great feel for today's game. Most of all, he looks like a coach.

MICHAEL PHELPS, left: So much for the great American hero. Hey, Michael, you're 15 minutes are officially over. What an idiot, what a freaking idiot. And in case you didn't know, Phelps already has a DUI on his record.

STRAINED GROINS: I saw where NBA point guard extraordinaire Chris Paul strained his groin. Everyone seems to have a strained groin these days. I don't think I have ever had a strained groin. I'm not planning on one, either.

STRAINED OBLIQUES: This was the injury of the day in recent years, and I have actually had strained obliques, the only real sports-type injury I have ever endured. That's not counting my five minutes as a catcher in ninth grade. Our starting catcher got hurt and the coach yelled, "Hey, Stevie Mitt! You're catching!" So it took me about 20 minutes to figure out how to get all of the equipment on, which was truly a waste of time. My first pitch behind the plate wound up being my last, because it broke one of my fingers.

BASEBALL: Spring training gets under way at some major league camps starting Feb. 12. I can't wait. My early picks to win the division races: Boston, Cleveland and Anaheim in the American League; Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles (especially if it re-signs Manny Ramirez) in the National League. Wild cards will be New York in both the AL and NL. Boston will defeat Chicago in the World Series.

NORTH KOREAN LEADER KIM JONG-IL, right: The only former or current political leader with worse hair than Rod Blagojevich. I'm really getting sick of this pathetic little psychopath. Too bad we can't lock up this little creep in the same padded room with that lunatic in Iran.

ROD BLAGOJEVICH: Hahahahahaahahahahah! You moron, you.

KURT WARNER: I have saved the best for last. A class act, a great human being and a bona fide Hall of Famer. See you in Canton, Kurt. (That's in Ohio, by the way.)

Some things I am wondering about this week:

ILLINOIS GOV. ROD BLAGOJEVICH: At what point did Gov. Roddy Badhair truly lose touch with reality? If the state of Illinois were a ship, we'd have had a mutiny long ago. The whole situation was hilarious at first, but now it's scary. Adding insult to injury is Illinois becoming the butt of all those late-night talk show jokes. Actually, Illinois is also the butt of early evening jokes, too. Homer Simpson has made of fun of us, too.

Hey, Joe Torre — did you need the money?
Or the headache? Was the book necessary?

JOE TORRE'S TELL-ALL BOOK: Why, at this point in your life, Joe? Why would you even take the chance of tarnishing your image as a classy guy? We all know the Yankees are a nuthouse. Even if everything you are alleged to have said in this book is true – and we have no reason to assume it isn't — did you really need the headache? No. Did you really need the money? No. Why do it then?

MARK McGWIRE'S LITTLE BROTHER: So Jay McGwire injected big brother Mark with steroids and wants to come clean — for a price — in another tell-all book. The only problem, Jay, is no one cares anymore. Steroids are so 15 minutes ago. Jay, Jay, Jay … you should have just kept your mouth shut, like your brother. And whatever slim chance he ever had at being voted into the Hall of Fame probably fizzled with you bringing this up again. Sorry, dude, we just don't care anymore. And that big paycheck you were hoping for? Not gonna happen.

BARACK OBAMA: It's been a week since you took office and we still have two wars, a recession and no college football playoff. What the heck have you been doing?

OPRAH WINFREY: Yo, O! Glad to see we're on the same diet.

If you watch "American Idol" on Wednesday night,
be sure to watch "Lie To Me" afterward. Great show.

SUPER BOWL: Is it just me, or this one a yawner, as far as interest? Pittsburgh vs. Arizona just doesn't have that ring to it, does it? I kind of feel sorry for the Steelers, who got stuck with the Seattle Seahawks the last time they made it to the Super Bowl.

"LIE TO ME": Have you seen this show? It debuted last week on Fox and is amazing. It's definitely my favorite show after "American Idol." Tim Roth finally gets a chance to showcase his acting talents. Give him an Emmy right now.

ACADEMY AWARDS: What a bunch of crap. "Gran Torino" gets snubbed by "The Academy." More people will watch — and enjoy — Clint Eastwood and "Gran Torino" than the rest of the movies nominated by "The Academy" combined.

"THE DARK KNIGHT": Same with the latest Batman movie, which was tremendous. The flick has already grossed more than $1 billion worldwide. And it has received great reviews, too. That's OK. We'll have some little artsy movie voted best by "The Academy" that will be relevant for all of about 15 seconds. At least Heath Ledger received the nomination he deserved.

YO-YO MA: It was nice, I guess. They had some violins and string things playing at the presidential inauguration last week, but be honest, how many in that crowd of about 2 million would have rather heard Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band belt out a number? Remember, be honest.

(We're turning over our space today to the Rev. Bob
Morwell of Union United Methodist Church in Quincy, who is in
Washington, D.C., site of the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th
president of the United States.)

We boarded a Metro train into Washington, D.C., a few minutes after 4 a.m.  It was the furthest station on the line from the city, and it still was packed. We knew right then the predictions for a colossal crowd fo the inauguration of Barack Obama would be realized.

Even though we were downtown by 4:30 a.m., easily 10,000 people were in the line ahead of us. My daughter, Tasha, and I still maintained hope that we would make it onto the National Mall before Barack Obama took his oath.  Eventually, the line began to move toward a security checkpoint at Seventh and D streets. 

We spoke with young college students who had made the trip from Louisville, Ky., on the spur of the moment. They were enthused by the coming of a new administration which they were convinced would be transformative. Similar feelings were expressed by folks we met from Georgia, California and even England.

We stood in the bitter cold for four hours, but the line moved only a few feet each hour. The crowd remained good-natured but grew increasingly frustrated. A Pentecostal preacher climbed atop a SWAT van parked on the street and began to shout updates on the line's progress to those of us further back. He called out words of encouragement to the freezing masses and invited us to shout out where we hailed from. He kept us in good spirits, and you may even get a chance to see him on YouTube.  His name is Terry Shackleford, and we ended up chanting his name.

But after 5 1/2 hours of waiting, it became evident that the line had stopped and the security checkpoint was no longer admitting anyone to the Mall or parade route. Even though we had come 7 1/2 hours ahead of scheduled swearing in, it became evident, we were too late … and the security people were afraid to tell us so. After all, there were thousands of people in just that one spot, many of whom had come thousands of miles to see this moment. I suspect they feared a riot.

Tasha and I decided to stop freezing and find a place to watch the event on TV.  After walking about 10 blocks, we found a Starbucks on K Street (the home of the largest concentration of lobbyists on the planet) which had warm drinks and two TVs.

About a hundred people already had taken refuge there, and all the seats were taken. The crowd within reflected the crowd without. Largely, but by no means entirely, African-American, and very enthusiastic.

When the soon-to-be former president and vice-president stepped out onto the inaugural stand, the crowd met their appearance with stony silence. When they got their first glimpse of the Obama family, they applauded wildly. They applauded enthusiastically again when Joe Biden took his oath.

As a musical piece composed by John Williams was played, CNN announced that the noon hour had come, and according to the Constitution, that was enough to make Obama the President of the United States, even without the oath. The crowd cheered and clapped wildly at the announcement, but pandemonium ensued once President Obama completed his oath.

There was cheering and shouting and hugging while a somewhat obsessive Starbucks manager ranted at the now standing-room-only crowd about keeping a path open for store traffic and threatening trespassers into that lane with arrest.  There's a party pooper in every crowd, but this was one crowd that refused to be pooped on.

Tasha and I rushed outside to hear the 21-gun salute. We were, at that point, about 1.5 miles from the Capitol. We missed the echo of the artillery, but even at that distance, with large stone buildings looming between us and the Mall and a stiff wind blowing from the north, we could easily hear a mighty wave of cheering rolling like a sonic tsunami from the crowd several blocks to the south.

We decided to rush to the Metro in an effort to beat the gigantic tide of humanity that would begin to flood out of the Mall. Thousands of people were on the streets who had also not made it there, but there was an overall air of jubilation and excitement.

On the train, we met a woman who had come all the way from California with one of those highly coveted tickets and still had not been able to get a place among the select 240,000 who had the closest seats. So it could have been worse for us.

We didn't make it to the Mall or to Pennsylvania Avenue, which we could see just beyond the interposing checkpoint that thwarted our plans, but we got to feel the moment and share in it with tens of thousands of cold but hopeful people.

Our nation faces grave challenges, as our new President noted in his inaugural speech. But, if goodwill, hope and enthusiasm are useful tools in meeting those challenges (and I think they are), then we have begun to overcome the problems of this time, just as we have overcome the problems and prejudices of the past.

My daughter decided it was still worth making the trip.

I agree.

(We're turning over our space today and Tuesday to the Rev. Bob Morwell of Union United Methodist Church in Quincy, who is in Washington, D.C., site of the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States.)

Everyone knows the Inauguration of Barack Obama is going to be an event of epic scope. Just how epic became clear to my daughter and me, as we made our way to Washington, D.C.

We stopped at a rest area on Interstate 70, somewhere west of Columbus, Ohio.  There were several cars there and a charter bus there. It soon became clear that the folks on the bus, who were from Indiana, and a number of the people in some of the cars, were also headed to Washington. I asked one of the bus riders, a middle-aged, apparently middle-class white guy if he was headed there for the “festivities.”

He smiled a strange smile and said, “You might say that,” and didn’t elaborate further. Perhaps they are going to protest, rather than celebrate. Well, that’s part of what makes America great. I wish them a safe trip.

There were some African American folks traveling in the cars, sporting Obama regalia. Their excitement was evident.

We stopped at another rest area in Maryland and mentioned to a couple of people staffing the tourist info booth that we were headed to the Inauguration. One of the women at the desk said in a slightly sarcastic tone, “Gee, imagine that.”

“Getting a lot of people through here who are headed there, too?” I asked.

“About 90 percent of the people who’ve been through here, today,” she responded. 

At that point, we were 175 miles from Washington. The closer we got, the more we saw cars with licenses from distant states that sported Obama stickers, and evidence that they were headed to the Big Event, too. One van from Arizona had “Obama or Bust!” emblazoned in bright yellow letters across its passenger windows.

We are staying with one of my sisters-in-law, in the suburb of Vienna, Va. She and her family, like most of the locals, have elected to hunker down and avoid the maelstrom on the Mall on Tuesday. Heaven only knows what we will be able to see or how long it will takes us to get there, get around and get out of the city that appears to be on the verge of becoming the center of the universe on Tuesday.

It is possible that nearly 1 percent of the population of the entire nation may be packed with a few square miles that day. Expectation is in the air.

Hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of us, will struggle to find our way out of a colossal jam of our own making once the festivities have concluded, which is a pretty good analogy for the situation in which our nation finds itself.

But the challenge we will face pales to insignificance when compared to the one that will face the man whose inauguration we have come to see. For all of us, the party will be over on Wednesday. It’s no surprise that he will begin that day with a prayer service.