THE SPHINXTER

What else would one call a person who would kiss the sphinx in a trick photography shot? And what other objects do people kiss?

For one, a basketball. Before letting go a long set shot back in the 50's before someone got the idea to shoot a jump shot. Before somebody got the idea to slam dunk. I wonder if George Mikan ever dunked back then?

A basketball court has also been shown affection by Michael Jordan and MTV High Jon Knoche after playing his final game in the oldest high school gym in the state still being used for boys' basketball, Changnon Gym. I just recently heard that after making a trip to MTV to see our new granddaughter.

I've also witnessed golfers give their golf ball a kiss after going into the hole. But golfers are weird. Some jump into a greenside pond after winning a tourney. What's up with that? I guess it's the equivalent of the Gatorade slosh to the winning coach in a big football game.

Of course, the Blarney Stone is another kissable object. When we visited, I just kissed where thousands of other lips had gone before me. Not our daughter, who really stretched it out going deep into the belly of the rock. Where no lips had ever gone before. At least to her knowledge.

Kissing is something else. I remember being told a story of a man who kissed his cow, followed by the comment, "there's no accounting for taste."