OK, well, uh ... candlesticks always make a nice gift…

It’s Youth Appreciation Week, the Jackalopes are in full swing, the holidays are looming on the horizon, the Dallas Cowboys look like a good football team and the skatepark at Sherwood Park is in the news for things good and bad.

To paraphrase Crash Davis in "Bull Durham," we’re dealing with a lot of stuff.

In the interest of organization, I’ll tackle the above list in the order they came to mind. I accomplish two things doing that. First, I don’t have to overtax my brain by working on transitions. Two, I get to save the best for last.

>> Youth Appreciation Week. Each year the Odessa Optimist Club recognizes outstanding youngsters in Odessa schools. Congrats to all of them.

>> The Jackalopes. If you haven’t been to a hockey game yet this year, you need to go. It’s the most fun you can have with your teeth chattering.

>> The holidays loom. Of course, if you judge this topic by store displays, the holidays have been front and center for weeks. I always get in the mood once my sister gets older. Which is today. She’s not 50 yet, but she can see it from here.

>> The Dallas Cowboys. They’ve picked up impressive wins over the Atlanta Falcons and Philadelphia Eagles. If they had lost both those games, then this season would have already gone to the birds. Instead, they look pretty good.

Roy Williams, my favorite Dallas Cowboy, is working hard on developing a relationship with Tony Romo. Hopefully they’ll get on the same page on every play soon.

The best news for Williams is found in a guy named Miles Austin. Now that Austin has shown he isn’t a one-game wonder (think Flipper Anderson of the Los Angeles Rams), Austin will draw more coverage from defenses.

That means Williams will have chances to go one-on-one with defensive backs and just outplay them athletically.

>>The skatepark at Sherwood Park. Steve Patton and the contractors have done a great job building the skatepark over at my old stomping grounds. The problem is that people are already spraying paint on things and leaving trash all around the park — and I don’t mean in the trash cans.

Here’s my crazy idea.

Have a contest.

Buy some spray paint, mark off squares and invite all the juvenile delinquents who have ever been caught spraying graffiti on public buildings to the skatepark.

Then let them paint.

The best one gets a get-out-of-jail-one-day-early card. Lord knows they’ll need it at some point.

The losers get to pick up all the trash left at the park every weekend for the next three months. After all, it’s probably their trash anyway.

After three months, whitewash all the concrete and have another contest.

I’d charge small entry fees, but I’m afraid there’d be a rash of car burglaries in the blocks surrounding the park if we charged an entry fee.

Maybe Sherwin Williams will provide the paint.

At least nobody’s cutting the head off of a live rooster.