Man, politics is politics. We get it.
But this is more than that. This is personal. And worse than that, it's downright mean and nasty.
A White House official made a cruel, disparaging remark about Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, a Trump critic, making fun of his terminal cancer diagnosis.
Everyone has an opinion, and God bless every American's right to their own opinion.
But man, the absence of decency and manners in our political class is staggering.
___
Big Mac attacks
Don Gorse now holds the record for most Big Macs consumed.
It's more than a few, friends. A lot more.
Gorske ate his first Big Mac on May 17, 1972.
Since then, he has had 30,000 Big Macs. Yes, 30,000. That's almost two a day in the 46 years since the first one.
There are a few epic, never-ending love affairs in history. Romeo and Juliet. Samson and Delilah.
Add Gorske and the Big Mac to the list.
Here's how much the Big Mac is a part of Gorske's life: He has eight days since that first Big Mac day in May 1972 that he had not had a Big Mac. The most recent of those eight days was Nov. 23, 2011, which happened to be Thanksgiving. His local Micky D's was closed.
___
More anchor than stump
Marvin Martin died this week. He was 64.
Stump was larger than life for a lot of folks around town, and especially in North Georgia and most recently East Ridge. He was forever a champion of high school athletes, especially in North Georgia.
He was known as much for his personality as he was for his personalized nickname.
He did what he loved and loved what he did, and that made him a wealthy man in measures that are not counted at Regions or NASDAQ.
I'll share this one story: When the Noble Crematory story broke back in the early 2000s, the at-the-time-newly-formed Times Free Press found out about it because of Stump's North Georgia contacts.
He called it in, and my future wife was sent down to take pictures of this huge breaking news. Stump, however, said he could not cover the story for the entire night and needed a replacement. He had promised to attend a birthday party and was not going to go against his word.
He was always about people more than the profession, and in a lot of ways people became his profession.
Godspeed, Marvin. Here's betting even the Lord will call him Stump.
___
Saturday's stars
First, a personal note: Thanks so much to those of you who have shared stories of your fathers and dealing with cancer. I am humbled by the response of Thursday's thoughts on my dad.
In that regard, remind your loved ones that they are loved today.
And this weekend especially, that starts with all of the moms out there.
Thank you to all moms. God bless you. Here's hoping you get something you wanted rather than needed this weekend.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6343.