Detroit Free Press

Until last week, the most common axiom about plumbers was that when they bent over to fix a pipe, you could see the crack of their butts.Not anymore.Thanks to Joe Wurzelbacher, we can now go to plumbers for our political future.

They hook their fingers and start to run, arms swaying in unison, feet thumping stride for stride. A short black man named Michael Holmes, a tall lanky white man named Bill Guisinger. They run inches apart, all but breathing on each other.The funny thing is, Michael has never seen Bill. Wouldn't know him if walked right past. Michael is blind. His world went dark in 1978, when he was in his early 20s, the result of cataracts and glaucoma.

Booing won't help.I can't recall the last time a hometown quarterback got razzed all day and later thanked the fans for helping him with his accuracy. Still, many of the 61,000 fans at Ford Field on Sunday afternoon chose to shower Joey Harrington with hoots and catcalls during the Lions' collapse against Carolina, even singing "Joey sucks" at the finish. Here's a question: When you chant "Joey sucks," what's the endgame there? You expect him to say, "Yeah, you're right, I do"?

Last week, Apple announced that, with its newest iPods, you can download TV shows. That's right. For the low, low price of just $1.99, you now can watch the most recent episodes of "Desperate Housewives,""Lost" or select other ABC programs simply by downloading them into your iPod. The advantage, as the advertising boasts, is that you now can see your favorite shows whenever you want.

I once heard Paul McCartney asked what, for him, was the best time in the Beatles? He said just before they made it big, when everything was on the horizon, when they knew it was coming, but it hadn't happened yet.The Detroit Tigers are in that sweet spot right now. And they - and the fans - should savor every minute of it.

The day began with the feel of something big. People sipped their morning coffee thinking baseball, and they dressed in layers thinking baseball, and they came to the stadium on this October afternoon thinking baseball, baseball, baseball. It was football chilly, it was Hockeytown, but the ball and the bat ruled the day, in a way the ball and bat have not ruled this city in more than 20 years. It felt like destiny, like something special was going to happen.

When the chips are down, it's good to take heart. But it's better to take Hart. Or give it to Hart. You gotta have Hart. It's all about H-You get the point.On an afternoon when hiking the ball was a challenge and both starting quarterbacks still remember their high school locker combinations, the most valuable everything was Michigan senior running back Mike Hart, who last week guaranteed a victory to lift his school out of the funkiest of funks.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - They hit the road, and for the first time in six years, the road did not hit back. In fact, what Michigan did Saturday in the shadow of Touchdown Jesus was enough to make Lloyd Carr consider an entire season of away games. They came, they saw, they trashed the place. Shredded gold everywhere you looked. Notre Dame's ranking as the second-best team in the nation seemed like a typographical error once the Wolverines had finished.