[Michael Murry]

My youngter brother once played for a college football coach who had to pull the starting quarterback after he had five passes intercepted and team morale had plummeted. Meeting the dejected player at the sideline the coach kindly told him: "I always like to find something positive to say about any situation, and I'm positive that I've never seen you have a worse game."

Or that old joke abot the U.S. Marines starving and down with malaria and jungle rot on Guadalcanal: "I felt truly horrible but people told me to cheer up because things could always get worse. So I cheered up, and sure enough, things got worse."

So keep that quarterback in the game and joyfully revel in every pass he throws -- to the other team. Which reminds me of all those times in high school when our enthusiastic but clueless cheerleaders would shout: "block that kick" whenever our team lined up to punt.

There is positive, and then there is Pollyanna.