Folks in TV hear it quite often: "Why don't you pinheads ever give some of the good news that happens around town?" In fact, I hear that around my own house. Especially, the "pinhead" part. Well, here is some good news:

Blue Valley High School is celebrating a championship! The Debate Team, under the guidance of Coach Chris Riffer, won the 6A State Championship for Kansas. By the way, Mr. Riffer earned Kansas Debate Coach of the Year honors, too. He was a great leader for our oldest son Alex, now Taylor and Samantha are on the team. That leaves Harrison, who is still in middle school. I asked Harrison the other day if he thought he'd be on Mr. Riffer's team in high school Harrison's response: "I don't think I have a choice." Tuesday, the team will be recognized on the floor of the Kansas State Senate. The team members include a couple of talented Seniors, known as The Megans: Megan Adams and Megan Ritter and Juniors, Josh Dean and a punk named Taylor Nichols. Okay, Taylor is our second oldest son.

These four spent many long hours researching, practicing and competing all through the semester. This year's topic concerned U.S financial aid to Africa. Trust me, they knew their stuff. Once, as I was leaving for work at two in the morning, I sneaked into Taylor's room and just whispered "Africa." He sat right up and started spouting statistics about food procurement and something called Public Law 480. (I check on all the kids before I leave in the morning. It's not an easy thing to do, frankly. Taylor's room is usually pretty passable but the raspy voice of Bob Dylan emanating from the cd player can be a little disconcerting in the middle of the night. Harrison's room looks okay at first but is booby-trapped. Legos...Matchbox Cars...pencils...marbles...by themselves, none seem dangerous for an adult male. But, in the dark, in stocking feet, any of these things can bring one to his knees, speaking in tongues...which, for a Lutheran, is pretty impressive. But, it is our daughter's room that is the most treacherous. A person should really be dressed like those guys that went after ET in the old movie. I generally put on my bee-keeper's mask and carry a nine-iron...just in case. Why we have the portable fire-ladder under Samantha's bed is beyond me. We would have enough trouble just getting the door open let alone finding the bed and, then, by the time we drew straws to see who would have to crawl under there...well, it would be over. To her credit, the glasses, cups, half-empty plates do provide enough penicillin for some small African countries....which leads us back to the original topic.)

Taylor has always been ready for a verbal tussle. When he was born, he gave the doctor some lip about the delivery process. "Come on! That's the best you could do? Look at me! I'm a mess." He has always been able to turn on a dime. When he was about two, he went by the name of Tootie and his older brother was Altie. "Tootie" had drawn a very colorful picture on the wall of our hallway. "LOOK! LOOK! LOOK WHAT TOOTIE DID!" he exclaimed proudly and in upper-case letters. (Although our kids never read Dick and Jane, they did all talk like it for a while. We considered changing the dog's name to Spot, just to be helpful but the dog refused. ) When my wife, told him "No. That's not a good thing to do." Tootie, AKA Taylor, pivoted immediately: "ALTIE DID IT."

As parents, we want to thank Coach Riffer for helping our son become even more logical and aggressive in arguing with us. Thanks! There are times when I preface my discussions with Taylor by saying "Just so you know, this is not a debate round and, even if it were, I win." It still works as long as I am standing on a chair.

Congratulations to Mr. Riffer, Megan Adams, Megan Ritter, Josh Dean, Taylor Nichols and the whole team. Enjoy your time on the Senate floor...and, Taylor, just remember, you're not there to argue about the bills being presented.