Time of the season - “The sound of gunfire off in the distance, I’m getting used to it now.” – Talking Heads, 1979. “Hey bird dog, get away from my quail; hey bird dog, you’re on the wrong trail." – Everly Brothers, 1958. Sept. 1 is the start of the hunting season. I don’t hunt, but I respect the culture. It’s nice to know the season so you don’t go walking through the woods and fields wearing headphones with your unleashed imitation floppy-eared doodle. Sept. 1 is archery and crossbow season for deer, mourning dove and resident Canadian geese. If birdshot is falling on your roof, it's probably best not to walk toward the far-afield sound to holler at hunters to back off. They may mistake you for an unpleasant pheasant. Nature is beautiful, but it always comes with a price, like ticks and chiggers, thorny bushes, snakes in the grass and angry field hornets. “You’ll remember me when the west wind moves upon the fields of barley." – Sting, 1993. 

Antisocial media - Glenn Scobey Warner was a college football coach and head coach of Temple from 1933 to 1938. I took a photo of a bust of his brass head on a visit to Temple in 2016. His nickname was Pop, but it should have been Pup for a better nickname, Scobey Pup, but that cartoon dog was not created until 1988. Locally, we have Pop Warner football and Cape Elite age-group teams and cheerleaders. It is a big deal for the families involved. Articles and arguments are exhaustive about whether boys so young should play tackle football, although there are weight limits to prevent collisions between players of unequal size. I’m not looking for angry parent posts spinning out of youth football leagues, but I’ve seen a few talking about daddy ball or carpet-bombing foul language. Back in my younger parent days, I found most of the horror stories of overzealous Little League baseball parents were just not true. But there was no social media back then, and that produces more heated vents than a commercial laundromat. You can bet your belly button lint on it.   

Middle Man - "I've seen my downs, I've seen my ups, I've seen miniature dogs and coffee cups, but I ain’t never seen a middle man.” – John Prine, 1975. Cape has three middle schools – Beacon, Fred Thomas and Mariner. They each field five sports teams in the fall – football, cross country, field hockey, soccer and volleyball. And each school has a cheerleading squad. There’s about 48 total coaches just for fall sports. Late-afternoon middle school sports are a treat. They're very family oriented with lots of grandparents in folding lawn chairs. I had my grandchildren keep a record of games where Susan and I showed up. “I’m here to support you but I want credit," I’d joke. Look for rosters with numbers and game results on websites4sports. 

Race to the drop - Late-night West Coast Phillies games have lots of fans promising not to watch but most always know what time it is and the actual score. That’s the reality with cellphones under the pillow processing update alerts, from severe thunderstorms to game scores and win probabilities. It is unsettling. On Tuesday night, the Phillies won their sixth in a row after beating the Diamondbacks, while the Braves, Padres and Cubs all lost. This is walk-around knowledge for a baseball fan and "we" know that one good team is not making it to the postseason.    

Talking at me - I have turned into a sound-down guy; I just read the crawl at the bottom of the TV screen. “Everybody’s talkin’ at me. I don’t hear a word they’re sayin. Only the echoes of my mind.” – Harry Neillson, 1966. That goes for sports, politics and Phillies games. I wonder what the tolerance level is for Stephen A. Smith, Pat McAfee and Colin Cowherd. Those guys spout off like belugas in shallow water. Just wondering the last time any of us gained insight listening to people yak yak like Chinese beast of burden carry cargo. 

Snippets - Jason Baker joins his older brother Ryan Baker on the Lehigh University cross country team. The Baker Boys are both majoring in engineering. Lehigh’s mascot was the Engineers, but it was later changed to Mountain Hawks, yet nobody majors in falconry. The Mountain Hawks open the season at home Friday, Sept. 4, at the Lehigh Invitational. Jason and Ryan are the best distance runner brother combination in Cape history. All of us used to be somebody. Athletic heroes end up as anonymous Wawa patrons gazing into the breakfast sandwich warmer for a decision of the day. But they know my name, “What’s up Boo?” Go on now, git!