I only wish I could have seen it, but I heard about it and then I watched the video below and could not believe what I saw. The drama behind it made it that much better: Michael Phelps needs to win to have any chance at 8 golds; the world record holder from France talked smack about how they would smash the Americans and then had a body length lead when he swam the anchor leg; even the commentators were giving the Americans the silver during the last 50 meters of the race. And then…out of nowhere…Jason Lezak refused to quit.

So today my wife opened up the SNAP (that’s the shorter, easier-to-say name for the Stanly News and Press, our local paper here in the old hometown) and scared me when she laughed really loud in amazement. I wondered what it was but didn’t have to wait too long before she volunteered to read to me what had caught her off guard.

Seems that our local legend, Kellie Pickler, is coming out with her second album in the not-so-distant future, and she got interviewed about it. Hidden in the write up was this little gem:

The album’s lead single, “Don’t You Know You’re Beautiful,” is an up-tempo, positive message about inner beauty and addresses the issues of body image and societal pressures on young women.

Hmmm. Does anyone else see the irony in that, or was it just my wife and me? Nice new shoes, there, Kellie. Apparantly, inner beauty wasn’t enough for you. It’s a shame, too, because the song’s message really is one that young women need to hear, and with the way you skyrocketed to a place where they’ll hear what you say, I think you could have delivered it, too. But actions, as they say, really are louder than words, and yours may very well drown out what you had hoped to say.