Timber Dan's Outdoor Living: Pixar's Cars Takes the Checkered Flag

And don't guffaw when I say I liked it.

Usually, the sports section isn't the place for a film review, but after all, this is a movie related to what so many good folks around here call "The Racin."

And I think "Cars" is good for stock car racing. It could almost make a down-and-dirty fan out of me.

It is humorous and has a message, which is the good guys can win even if they don't finish first. And it says that the late author and Asheville native Thomas Wolfe was wrong: You can "come home again" to that good old small town and be happy.

What I liked best about this flick, though, was that it was clean fun. No cussing, no flamboyant language or gestures, no illicit sex.

Many people nowadays consider that kind of entertainment "uncool," and scoff at it. Well, I can do without a lot of what is considered "cool," even though anybody who knows me knows I am no prude.

I have met people like Ned Jarrett and his sons, Harry Gant, Bobby Allison and short track star Tommy Houston while I worked in Hickory. And I have great respect for people involved in dirt track racing here I know, like our own hard-working staff writer and racing columnist Jason Beck and D.J. Tyndall, who also manages to play three sports and get honor roll grades.

Just because "Cars" is made up of cartoons, don't think that only young kids need to see it. It's a good thing. Give it a shot. And take the kids.

Soccer In U.S.

I heard an interesting comment over the weekend on the World Cup and soccer here in the United States.

The commentor on the British Broadcasting System was correct in saying a big difference here in "The States" is that interest in the sport is high among our young people, but tends to fade when they become adults.

Of course in most countries of the world, "football" is the No. 1 sport. There are few a exceptions, including Japan, Cuba and The Dominican Republic (baseball), Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore (badminton), Australia (rugby, tennis and swimming), New Zealand (rugby), South Africa (rugby and golf), Canada (hockey) and India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka (cricket). Basketball has grown around the world tremendously in recent years, but don't mention America's own invention to people in Western Europe.

The BBC commentator was right on line. American youth, especially middle and upper class whites, indulge in soccer in large numbers, but how many adults in this country, unless they are of recent Latin origin, really go on to play and enjoy soccer, a name that came from the English title "Association Football," as distinguished from rugby, where the ball can be carried and passed. Rugby is the direct ancestor of our brand of football.

("TImber" Dan Richards can be reached at drichards@mydailyrecord.com.)