Anybody catch the film clip on the news of the Southern Illinois University cheerleader falling on her head from 15 feet atop a pyramid?

Howe weird was that when, being wheeled off the floor strapped to a gurney because of a concussion, sprained neck and ruptured lung, she started doing a cheer with her arms n the only part of her body not strapped to the gurney? Kind of surreal…

…I know it’s received a good bit of criticism, but I enjoyed parts of the Oscar telecast Sunday night (good Lord, folks, it’s just a movie awards show, get a life). My favorite part was when the show returned from commercial catching host Jon Stewart touting the benefits of Scientology to the crowd…

I’m glad Don Imus is back on the air. Imus returned last week after a two-week Olympics sabbatical. I tune Imus in every morning until my wife gets up and switches it to Channel 3’s local broadcast. She hates Imus. This morning, the I-Man was getting on Sen. Rick Santorum who I guess has some sort of charity set up. It seems that only about 37 percent of the money sent to the charity actually goes for its charitable purposes. The remainder is used for more fundraising, trips on private jets, dinners. Etc. That’s all too common among groups like that. That’s why I’m so proud of the News-Herald’s long association with the Cheer Fund. One hundred percent of what is donated is used for the buying toys for poor Suffolk kids at Christmas.

Board chairman Frank Rawls donates his time as do the rest of the board members. Their firms, including the News-Herald, donate whatever materials and labor is needed to make the campaign successful.

Incidentally, the Cheer Fund had a record year in 2005 campaign. Though we fell just shy of our $45,000 goal, brining in $43,000-plus, it was the highest total ever raised.

I wanted to make sure, too, that a couple people got recognized whose names did not get mentioned in the paper during the campaign: Womanless Beauty Pageant winner Bruce Bowles made a nice donation. His only mistake was handing it to me at a Rotary meeting instead of sending it to the office. It sat for more than a month in my basket atop the refrigerator where I dump my keys, cell phone, change, court summonses, etc. at the end of the day. I found it during my monthly “basket purging” and made sure it got in the bank.

I also want to thank the downtown Suffolk Rotary Club for its $3,500 donation. The donation came a little later than usual, but we knew it would be coming and kept the campaign going.