Shawn Johnson Not Chosen, Hawk Fans Want Greenout, REM Calls It A Career

• Shawn Johnson doesn't make Team USA for the World Championships in Tokyo, but she is an alternate and will travel to the Pan-Am Games. Both are next month. Johnson is hobbled by an injury, but her target all along has been the Olympics in London. It's not going to be easy, but Shawn said on Twitter, "Came up an inch short but you know what, look at the progress Ive made! So I wasnt the best pick for the team...YET! But I will be." Only in gymnastics is it harder at 19 than it was at 15.
• Speaking of 15 years old, Gabby Douglas does make the World Championships team. Douglas moved to West Des Moines to train under Shawn's coach, Liang Chow. Shawn has also served as a mentor to Gabby.

• I love the grass roots movement, as Jon Miller called it, to "Wear Green for Greenwood" or the "Greenout". I think Hawk fans will show up strong Sunday at Kinnick Stadium, wearing green shirts in support of Brett Greenwood.
• Have this many reporters and commentators ever been more wrong about one subject than the Big 12 collapse? Sure, it could still happen one day, but for two straight years, I'm stunned how many people claiming they're in the know, and being used by sources with either ulterior motives or lack of real knowledge, have been dead wrong. And not just about one thing. About many things.
• Dan Beebe being out as commissioner is a no-brainer. He may be a good guy, and a smart man, I don't know, but the appearance is that he has no vision or control.
• The Big 12 needs to knock down any talk of 5-year plans. Don't box in vision. Assuming there is some.
• Iowa State fans are picking a good time to support the football team like never before. The Cyclones will have the biggest three game run of crowds in school history---160,000+---and ISU announced Wednesday it has reached a new all-time high for season tickets sales.
• Marcus Coker is no longer fumbling, but he's got the running back version of the golfing yips. Coker is running scared---not of tacklers, of fumbling. He's tentative.
• Chiefs and Vikings fans, can you believe how much this season is going to stink?
• I hope no one ever again says that Peyton Manning is overrated. How are the Colts doing without him?
• NFL players, please don't fake injuries. Leave that to soccer.
• My wife and I enjoy eating at Taqueria Sonora in West Des Moines. Low key atmosphere but authentic Mexican food served at inexpensive prices. Don't tell anyone. Crowds have been small. We like that.    
• Learned today that Andy has never seen the movie "Se7en". He will now. It's a classic. Creepy, thrilling, and unpredictable.

• REM is calling it quits. Not surprising after more than 30 years, but the end of an era. I started listening to REM in college in the Murmur days, and like many, I was obsessed with trying to figure out what the crap Michael Stipe was singing. Over many albums, Stipe started enunciating the lyrics, REM continued making some great music, but never fully recovered from the early retirement of drummer Bill Berry for health reasons. Hate knowing I won't see REM in concert again.

• X-Factor is part American Idol, part America's Got Talent, part Voice. It's not original, but it's well done, and good to see Simon Cowell back. It will be a hit.
• The NFL Redzone is the best $49 I've spent in a while.
• Photojournalist Brandon McCauley just told me the NBC show "Whitney" is using our Football Friday band music. This could ruin it.