And today, I was fortunate enough to attend with my dad and my stepbrother and his family a Chicago Rush game. The Rush is an arena football team; you may have seen arena football on NBC the last few weeks.

If not, I haven’t the energy to explain. The game wasn’t particularly interesting anyway. The big treat was a free miniature American flag for every fan attending the game. Apparently, we were supposed to feel bad for attending a trivial sporting event while our brave troops are fighting in Iraq to defend our liberty to — among other things — attend trivial sporting events.

At half time, I went to a merchandise booth in search of a foam helmet. It’s made of the same material as those No. 1 fingers. I asked the clerk at the booth whether the helmet was only for kids or if they also had adult sizes. “One size fits all,” he said. I tried on the helmet but it wasn’t as hilariously kitschy as I’d hoped.

I was too embarrassed to say that I didn’t like the foam helmet — I mean, what kind of high standards would bring you to even consider purchasing such an item in the first place? So I said facetiously, “Jeez, this doesn’t offer too much protection.”

I admit it wasn’t too funny, and I was not surprised that the clerk didn’t laugh. I was surprised when he took me seriously and said, “Well, yeah. You probably shouldn’t go ramming your head into anything with that on.”

I had no response. I handed him the foam helmet and bought a regular cap.

We were treated to the joys of the Adrenaline Rush Dancers, whom I promptly dubbed, “The Methamphetamines.” I’m not sure what exactly it is about cheerleading squads — er, dance squads — that turns me off.

There’s something about the way they all move in perfect unison, with their hair flipping in the same direction at the exact same time, that creeps me out. They seem like little robots with dyed hair. But that’s probably just me.

Just had a talk with my boss, Mark Wells, the publisher of Insurance Journal, about a story I’m working on. And, apropos of nothing, he said I was doing a great job. He had read some of my stuff and thought I was doing really good work.

In other good-for-me news, I was awarded an honorable mention in the Felix Morley Journalism Competition, which is certainly better than I thought I’d do. I don’t get any money, but I do get an ego boost. And that must be worth something.

UPDATE: I just got a call from the copy chief at Liberty Suburban Newspapers offering me a copy editing gig there, which of course I can’t take … but it’s nice to be loved.

In a post titled to Hit & Run five days ago called “Ilde Speculation,” Reason’s Jesse Walker wrote:

People finally seem to be getting suspicious about this whole Elizabeth Smart abduction thing, but I haven’t seen anyone else espouse my pet theory about the affair. It’s probably wrong but I’m posting it here anyway so that, if it’s right, I can claim to be prescient: She was gone for nine months. She came back “puffier” and more “womanly.” Am I the only person who thinks she might have run off to, you know, have a baby?

Today, the Chicago Tribune’s Judith Graham reported:

Elizabeth Smart was raped or sexually abused the night of her kidnapping nine months ago after being led in her pajamas 4 miles up a dirt road to an isolated campsite in the dead of the night, according to criminal charges filed in district court here Tuesday.

Telling her he would harm or kill her family if she resisted, Brian David Mitchell allegedly abducted the 14-year-old girl to become his “plural wife”–a term used by polygamists–and sexually abused her for several months, Salt Lake County District Atty. David Yocom said.

During at least part of that time, Smart was bound with a cable to a tree and unable to escape, prosecutors allege. “She was under threat of death,” Yocom said, held in the hills and mountains above Salt Lake City until Oct. 8 and then taken to California. She was even buried under boards and dirt. …

At a campsite in a rugged canyon 4 miles from the Smarts’ home, Barzee waited in the darkness for her husband and the girl, Yocom said. When they arrived and she tried to remove Smart’s pajamas, the girl resisted. Only after the woman threatened that Mitchell would forcibly remove her clothing did Smart succumb to Barzee’s demands.

Yes, Jesse, it was wrong to speculate as you did. There are evildoers out there, as our president would say. Get used to it. Not every story has an angle. Some are just too terrible to be true.

By the way, Elizabeth Smart is fortunate only in the sense that Brian David Mitchell is not only a vicious sexual predator but a religious nut as well. If not for the latter, she probably would not be alive today.

Given that young men and women are expected to delay marriage until their mid- to late-20s in lieu of college and career, it shouldn’t be surprising that more of them seek meaningless short-term sexual relationships with partners known colloquially as “fuck-buddies,” as explained in this story by Laura Sessions Stepp.

But the Bowling Green State research study the story takes as its launching point tells us good news about girls:

The Bowling Green researchers were surprised by how secure girls were about their relationships. Girls expressed significantly more confidence than guys that they could refuse a date, for example, or break up with someone they no longer wanted to go out with, or control what a couple did together.

Girls’ sexual confidence shows up in surveys. In the Toledo research, girls were more likely than guys to say they decided how far a couple would go. In a nationwide study soon to be released by the Kaiser Family Foundation, young women ages 15 to 24 were less likely than young men to report feeling pressured to engage in intercourse.

The average age girls go all the way the first time? It’s the same as it is for boys, 16 1/2, according to a separate release from Kaiser. In addition, more young people are turning to oral sex as an alternative to intercourse because it’s safer and carries less risk of pregnancy. While oral sex isn’t fool-proof, that young people are finding ways to have fun sexually in a relatively smart way should be reassuring, not a harbinger of the decline of civilization.

Teen-age pregnancies and abortions are at 10-year lows and HIV has not struck American youth in the catastrophic way it’s torn apart sub-Saharan Africa. The only sad thing is that so many young men and women have decided that careers take precedence over romance. They know that any romantic attachment is bound to be broken once they graduate and move on with their careers.

It shows maturity in the sense that they’re not foolishly jumping into marriages that won’t last. But those years of loneliness must be tough. Even the sex must reinforce that emptiness after a time.

Remember when the Internet was supposed to be educational and whatnot, before it degenerated into a wasteland of spam, pornography and blogs?

In case you had lost all hope, let me introduce you to Chicago “L”.org, “the internet’s largest resource for information on Chicago rapid transit system!” Yes, it’s as geeky as it sounds. The site boasts, for example, “A History of fares, tickets, collection equipment, and more!”

But really, there’s lots of fascinating stuff here, including pictures of old “L” cars, a history of “L” mishaps, accidents and unusual occurrences, old advertisements for elevated rail, and — my favorite part — a history of each “L” station.

Also, find out if it’s spelled “L” or “el.” Fascinating. I side with the “el” faction, by the way, in spite of CTA propaganda.

Except for all the others. According to the Wall Street Journal’s Jennifer Saranow, though online dating has skyrocketed in popularity, many of the happy couples who’ve resulted from online unions are reticent about telling their friends and families the truth about how they met.

Of course, my wife Karen and I met online. I think we’ve been pretty honest with most folks about how we met. The only time I recall fibbing or stepping around it was at the wedding of one of Karen’s cousins last year. But I don’t think that was so much out of embarassment as it was laziness. It takes time to explain that we met online, what that involved, etc.

And I know that I don’t really go out of my way to tell mere acquaintances how we met, out of laziness but also because of the stigma that is still somewhat attached to it. But if you can’t be honest with friends and family about that kind of thing, what’s the point anymore?