Opinion & Analysis

In honor of the Staunton River boys basketball team, I'll keep this column short.

You're probably thinking two things:  "Thank goodness!" and "What does the Staunton River boys basketball team have to do with you being merciful to us poor readers?"

Glad I had you thinking that (even if you weren't).

There's no way to avoid a direct answer here.  The brevity of this column is reflective of the shortness of that particular team.

"The king is dead.  Long live the king!"

That's what people in nations ruled by royalty are purported to exclaim when a sovereign passes away, only to be succeeded by his son/brother/nephew.

The declaration could be adapted for college football:

"The BCS is dead.  Long live the BCS."

Monday night marked the expiration of the much-derided Bowl Championship Series.  We've been told the system will be replaced by a much better one.

Go Army!  Beat Navy!

"Wait a minute," you might be thinking.  "Didn't this guy write a column on the Army-Navy game last week?

I did.  But I'm not through with the topic.

Last week's column was written in a humorous vein, though I'm certain there are readers who might counter that last week's column was merely an attempt at writing in a humorous vein.

This week, I'm taking a more somber approach.

The undisputed goal for hunting safety is zero.

Anyone associated with the sport wants zero incidents and zero hunting-related fatalities.

Of course, such a number will likely always be aspirational.  So the realistic goal is to keep the number of incidents and deaths to as low a number as is reasonably possible.

A cursory glance at the chart below shows that, by and large, Virginia has a notably low rate of hunting incidents.