My nemesis has reared its ugly head again. I sat down for a relaxing Sunday morning with the Washington Post, nobody in sight, responsibilities far from my mind.

I made it through the first section with no difficulty, some big words, but no concepts beyond my grasp. Next on Sundays is the Outlook section, an expanded Op/Ed section with nicer graphics than the usual daily opinion fare. There was an article about how fewer and fewer people are getting married, a trend strongest in the black community especially among black women.

It was a pretty good piece with some interesting points, but just before the end I encountered a startling piece of wordery…that’s right, panacea. The word that will not go away. I officially dub it The Word of 2006…

Speaking of trends…Later on Jason was flipping through the channels and came across The Sandlot, one of the greatest movies of all time. We were discussing how the “fat kid” really didn’t look that fat in the movie, and Jason asked if any of the kids had big roles after their Sandlot appearance.

Naturally, I turned to our good friend IMDB and started checking up on the child stars. None went on to great stardom after The Sandlot, but a surprising number followed the same post-Sandlot path…to Boy Meets World. Five of the nine kids who starred on the misfit team of backyard baseball players appeared in at least one episode of Boy Meets World–thus explaining the brilliance of both the movie and the show.

The most successful Sandloter is arguably Brandon Adams, who not only starred in Mighty Ducks, D2 Mighty Ducks, but also Moesha, Sister Sister and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. If that’s not success, I don’t know what is. He also got his acting start portraying “baby Michael Jackson” in the film Moonwalker.