The folks at Nike sure know how to run an advertising campaign.

Did you catch the Tiger Woods ad that ran late Sunday during the final round of the U.S. Open?

It featured the voice of Tiger’s late father, Earl Woods, talking about the challenges he gave to his son to help develop his mental toughness. The video clips were of a young Tiger along with his dad.

A typical challenge: Earl Woods would wait until Tiger was ready to swing, and then drop a golf bag or make some noise. Tiger would learn to stop his swing, regather his thoughts, and then hit his shot.

The commercial ended with Earl’s words: “I told him he would never meet another player as mentally tough as he was. And so far he never has. And he never will.”

We come back from commercial to see Tiger drain a 12-foot birdie putt on the final hole of the U.S. Open, with a bad knee, trailing by one shot, to force an 18-hole playoff (which of course he won).

Unreal.

Mental toughness? Yes, I would say that qualifies.

Two thoughts here:

* Is that not the most effectively timed commercial ever? If there’s ever been a commercial that ran with better timing, I would like to know what it was.

* Could you “train” your son or daughter the same way Earl Woods trained Tiger? By all accounts, there was nothing “wrong” with Earl Woods’ training methods. He made things tough for Tiger, but he also explained exactly why he was doing it and how Tiger would benefit down the road. This in a day and age when I hear of parents buying their kids bigger trophies after summer baseball season because the league-provided trophy wasn’t big enough — never mind the kid hadn’t actually accomplished anything. I look at my two-month-old son, and he won’t be coddled — he’ll be asked to earn everything he ever gets — but I’m not so sure I can take the next step and intentionally throw obstacles in the way so I can one day say, “I told him he would never meet another player as mentally tough as he was. And so far he never has. And he never will.”

Could you? Have you? Should you? Tell me your thoughts.

We’ve now run the Hook & Trigger Trophy Gallery twice in the print edition of the Crestview News Bulletin.

The Trophy Gallery is a collection of submitted photos of local sportsmen and sportswomen with their recent catch and/or game.

We moved the Trophy Gallery to the regular News Bulletin as we retool the separate Hook & Trigger publication.

I know our page designer wasn’t thrilled when she saw the first Trophy Gallery photos, and I know we’ve gotten a few calls from readers who don’t approve of such photos.

My take? I don’t hunt. Not for moral reasons, but because there is too much waiting for too little action for my taste — the same reason I don’t enjoy drag racing, fishing, watching the 100-meter dash trials at the Olympics, or the movie “Carrie.”

I do eat meat, so I don’t think I can quibble with the manner in which it arrives on my dinner table.

Our reasoning for running the Trophy Gallery is this:

There are many, many sportsmen and sportswomen in north Okaloosa County, enough to deserve a forum for their accomplishments.

That’s why we run the Trophy Gallery. Those who disapprove have an easy recourse: Turn the page.

If we didn’t run a Trophy Gallery, those want recognition for their catch or game would have no recourse at all.

What are your thoughts? Do you have a better idea? Post your opinions here.

There’s just too much smoke now to say there’s no fire.

The NBA should be reveling in the glory of a Celtics-Lakers championship series.

Instead, it finds itself battling allegations of game-fixing by a rogue former ref.

I won’t go into too many details here. Otherwise, you would find yourself reading a book. However, by now these truths are self-evident:

* Certain referees clearly have certain grudges against certain teams, and the NBA has done nothing to make sure those referees do not officiate key games involving those teams.

* Certain referees (paging Bennett Salvadore) always get assigned to Game 3s when a team is ahead 2-0 and it would be in the NBA’s best interest for the series to go more than four games.

* At least one “big market” team has taken part in every NBA Finals since 1980 except one (and that’s assuming you don’t consider Cleveland last year a “big market”). If it’s a coincidence, it’s a remarkable one.

* The charges rogue official Tim Donaghy are throwing around could be completely baseless, but everything above could still be true.

My challenge to you if you disagree: Prove me wrong

My challenge to you if you agree: To what degree is the fix in?

We were driving home from a shopping trip Saturday afternoon.

We pulled onto the road that leads to our home.

I was watching two of our neighbor’s larger dogs, who were chained up to trees along the road.

That’s how I missed one of their smaller dogs running under my car.

The poor thing never had a chance.

My first dog, Scrappy, was killed by a train when I was in first our second grade, so I know the hurt the loss of a pet can cause.

I work with words every day, and I wish I had good ones for a situation like this.

Instead, all I can think of to say, both that day and now, is, “I’m sorry.”

North Okaloosa County’s high schools will hold graduation exercises at the end of this week.

I remember the moment I realized high school really was over and life was about to change forever.

It wasn’t during graduation itself. It was during a preview of a senior slide show one week before graduation.

Most of the people around me were laughing at the baby pictures and candid shots.

I would have been crying at the realization that I wouldn’t be seeing many of my friends as much in the future … you know, if guys ever cried or anything.

Graduation itself? I didn’t have time to be emotional. I was almost late for the ceremony; we had to speed back 90 miles from Indianapolis, where my sister and two of her teammates were taking part in a regional tennis tournament that day. Then I had two speeches to stress over, and then try to figure out how many graduation “receptions” to attend afterward.

To all graduates — members of the Class of 2008 and before: When did it hit you that high school was really over?

One of the most anticipated NBA Finals in recent memory tips off Thursday.

It’s a classic matchup — the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers.

I went on record in April as picking Boston to win the title, based on the formula in my book, The NBA From Top to Bottom  www.sportsfromtoptobottom.com).

It’s too late to turn back now. I’m sticking with Boston to win it all — and fully expecting to be wrong.

After watching 40 games in 40 nights, as the TNT commercial implies, the Lakers just look like a better basketball team. They navigated past tougher playoff competition than Boston, and they did it with relative ease.

More than a few of the folks who do “computer ratings” will actually switch teams around in their rankings if they don’t like the numbers their computer spits out.

Huh? How can you call it a computer ranking?

I’m sticking with Boston. But I’m fully expecting to be wrong.

Who do you pick to win the NBA title?

Our graduation special section is barely in the rearview window, and it’s already time to think about our hurricane preparation special section.

One story we have planned is hurricane tips for newcomers from News Bulletin staff members.

Do you have any useful tips for newcomers to help them get through if a storm comes this way?

(Don’t ask me for advice. The only one I was here for was Dennis in 2005, which, I am told, wasn’t a ‘real’ hurricane experience).

Post your top tips here!

You’ll read a report from Crestview Fire Department Chief Joe Traylor’s discussion at the Crestview Chamber of Commerce this past Tuesday in an upcoming edition of the News Bulletin.

This won’t go into the report, but it caught my attention.

Starting salary for firefighters: $25,000.

Traylor went on to say the firefighters do their job out of a sense of duty and not to get rich.

They’re certainly worthy of our gratitude, if not an outright raise.

Someone tell me why this wouldn’t at least start to fix the gas price mess:

This is wildly oversimplified and would need a lot of fine print, but here are the basics, in just 91 words.

* Tell the oil companies they can keep their profits at 2005 levels (that’s about when all of this gas price madness started).

* Any other profits from gasoline or oil products will be collected as taxes and rebated to the public.

* However, the oil companies can keep any and all profits generated by alternative fuel.

* No government gas taxes. If we’re not letting the oil companies maximize their money, then neither should the government. This also is the only realistic way to generate any immediate drop in prices.

I know it won’t happen, but let’s say it did. Any reason why some form of this plan wouldn’t work?

Anyone got a better plan in fewer words? Post it here. I’ll share the best responses in the News Bulletin.

We’ve posted a letter to the editor from a Crestview citizen who was surprised 911 did not consider her close encounter with a snake in her yard as an emergency.

As I write this, we’re had two people post comments saying they wouldn’t consider it an emergency either.

What would you do? My knowledge of snakes is limited to the ditty about “(some color) and yellow will kill a fellow; (some color) and black, venom lack.” We get a lot of all-black snakes in the area where I live and I’m told they are harmless.

I compare this to mushroom hunting. (Stay with me here). I have a pretty good idea which mushrooms are OK to eat which ones aren’t, but I wouldn’t stake my life on it. Same with snakes. I would have a pretty good idea which ones could cause harm and which ones are harmless, but I wouldn’t stake my life on it.

If I was cornered by a large snake, I probably would have called 9-1-1.

BONUS THOUGHT (posted May 27): If we’re not supposed to dial 911 in such a situation, that’s fine. But I must say I have no idea what the non-emergency dispatch number is off the top of my head.