St. Ursula's Crew - Head of the Cuyahoga - Head of the Charles

Congratulations to St. Ursula's Crew from Toledo, Ohio, which, for their second consecutive year, won the Chris Ernst/A HERO FOR DAISY trophy for the fastest women's eight. This high school team will be travelling to Boston to compete in the 2007 Head of the Charles Regatta - - and I am excited to meet them.

I, too, will be racing with my long-time doubles partner, Cindy Matthes in the Women's Masters Double at the Head of the Charles -- and we are also teaming up with Wyc Grousbeck (owner of the Celtics) and David Fialkow (crazy man venture capitalist) to row a mixed 4x on Sunday. Wyc has kindly outfitted us with Celtics jerseys and socks - - although it is unclear whether the Celtics will really benefit from four aging athletes all trying to defy their age...

DAISY will also be screening at number of times at the Heartland Film Festival in Indianapolis, IN - on October 20th, 21st, 24th and 25th. For more information, log onto: www.HeartlandFilmFestival.com.

Finally - I was wedged between film critic Jay Carr and OJ Simpson commentator Bill Fallon on Jim Braude's Quiz Night on NECN last week. For the first time in a very long time, I won the NECN coffee cup because of my amazing ability to retain obscure and irrelevant facts about celebrities and politicians in Massachusetts.

I only wish I could remember what I had for lunch yesterday.

Heartland Film Festival

A Hero for Daisy will be screening as part of the 2007 Heartland Film Festival, October 19-22 in Indianapolis, IN. Exact details will be posted here.

On another note, our favorite football team (The Patriots), which is a narrow second to our second-favorite team (The Falcons) is also receiving less than favorable press. A team assistant was caught filming the Jets coaching staff as they were signalling defensive plays last Sunday. Although everyone tries to intercept these signals in order to read plays - the NFL explicitly banned the videotaping of sideline activity.

My son, a budding football player himself, asked me this after reading the headlines about the $500,000 fine assessed to Bill Belichick: "why would he cheat, mama?"

I had no good answer.

A Hero for Daisy - Redux and Michael Vick

My friend, Eric Hamilton, a producer in New York, just sent me an email informing me that the 2003 Colby College women's rowing team (which won the NCAA Championships that year), each had their NCAA Championship rings inscribed with the phrase "dream a little... sweat at lot.." (the tagline from A Hero for Daisy).

I was not aware of this - - but am deeply touched. A shout out to Colby Crew.

On other notes, Lemonade Stories will be screening in the UK this fall - details to follow.

Finally - I have been thinking long and hard about the indictment of Michael Vick, the Atlanta Falcon's quarterback, partly because our good friend, Arthur Blank (owner of the Falcons), was profiled in Lemonade Stories.

Pit-bull fighting is barbaric, particularly the methods used to train the animals - and although Vick has not yet been found guilty, Roger Goddell's decision to suspend Michael Vick from the National Football League was probably the right thing to do. There is never an excuse to victimize and beat a dog.

My hope is that the Commissioner will react with the same urgency and with similar sanctions, even if not yet found guilty, the next time a player victimizes and beats a woman.