From the start, the PROMISE of Jurgen Klinsmann as manager of the U.S. men's national TEAM was revolution: gritty, plodding AMERICAN soccer would GIVE way to attacking flair; the parade of journeymen would end; an era of SKILLED stylists would begin.

I grew up in one of the most socially conservative neighborhoods in Ohio, and my parents were TRADITIONAL Catholics. But in her old age, my MOTHER GOT her home health care from a guy who was gay, who was WONDERFUL to her. Before she died, she rode a FLOAT in the Cincinnati Gay Pride Parade.

The measure of success was WRITING a SONG, RECORDING it and for it being in the hit parade in England. Success was about the postman walking up the garden whistling my song. I wasn't trying to CONQUER the world.

It is the same with revolution; so long as the PROPER spirit is SPREADING amongst our YOUNG men, we are satisfied that it spreads without bombast or PARADE.

My earliest realization of the STIR of national LIFE was the TORCH parade in the Garfield CAMPAIGN. On that occasion, I was not only ALLOWED out that night, but I saw the lamps being filled and lighted.

The OLYMPICS is an imperfect interregnum, the parade of NATIONS a fantasy about a PEACE NEVER won. It offers LITTLE relief from strife and no harbor from terror.

If you said, 'I'm GIVING up smoking,' people WOULD put on a parade. If you said, 'I'm going to EAT more healthily,' people would say, 'Good for you.' If it's DRINKING, the first reaction is, 'That's so BORING. You're going to be so boring.'

Parading our own brilliance and exulting in other PEOPLE's errors is not very NICE. For that matter, even WANTING to parade our own brilliance and exult in other people's errors is not very nice, although it is CERTAINLY very human.

Perhaps not unusually for a POPULAR film produced over three decades ago, there have been a dizzying parade of corporate CHARACTERS trading rights to 'This Is Spinal Tap' through the years. Yet our requests for timely STATEMENTS of the film's INCOME have been MET with a series of slammed doors.

I hate to rain on ANYONE's parade or burst the enthusiasm BUBBLE, but talk is especially CHEAP during an ELECTION season.