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· Y'all remember the brief recap of my trip to New York? And, remember how I'd teased a "the rest of the trip" epilogue? Yeah, not happening. When the number of blog posts exceeds the number of days I was actually away, it's time to wrap things up. Here's the short version: I flew out of Hartford (where "airport security" is an 80-year-old lady with a metal-detecting wand and, apparently, her mother who was in charge of the x-ray coke-bottle bifocals.) I was delayed an hour there, then another four hours in Dallas. I finally got home around 3:00 AM. Can't be sure if it was Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, though.

· Got a few emails from some people who seemed genuinely curious as to where New York ranks on the "TBG Top 5 American Cities" thang that I did last month. Really? Some of you care? Hey, I aim to please…solid #2. Your winner and still champion: San Francisco.

· My new Sports Illustrated arrived last week. There's a cloying little cover story on Hank Aaron that I hope to shred to pieces in the next few days. But, there's also a piece on Arizona Cardinals QB Matt Leinart. I got a couple of snippy little emails from readers who took me to task for suggesting that Derek Jeter and Tiger Woods manipulate the media. Yet, in the Leinart piece, there are about a dozen references to his leeching "entourage", in which the group of freeloaders is romanticized and compared to the inane HBO show of the same name. The word "posse" isn't used once. Oh, and Leinart's out-of-wedlock child and nonchalant attitude towards fatherhood is completely glossed over. Seems the media can manipulate just as easily, no?

· Mrs. Bootleg and I have already set the DVR to record tonight's BET debut of Hot Ghetto Mess We Got To Do Better. The new show has already changed its name and stirred up a firestorm of free publicity controversy. This could be one of those things I used to write about in The Bootleg with the heading "Sometimes The News Just Writes Itself". Stay tuned.