Rescue in Chile inspiring testament to humanity

Call it the great escape.

As the world waited, prayed and watched, 33 miners in Chile were hoisted to safety — one by one — from a depth of a half-mile after being trapped for 69 days.

Technology and expertise arrived from around the globe and together wrote a quick, flawless and uplifting final chapter to this story.

One miner said God and the devil had fought over the men and "God won."

In perilous times, with recession and strife sapping the spirit, hope won an important victory, too.

Oh darn, we have to go play a game in Hawaii!

The University of Kentucky’s basketball coach is whining loudly about being forced to make the Wildcats play in this year’s Maui Invitational.

"The Maui thing gets you out of whack. It’s not what I want," Coach John Calipari complained to the Danville, Ky., Advocate-Messenger. "We were locked into it. It was done before I got here and people had flights (reserved)."

Calipari’s concern seemed to do with the long trip resulting in playing 30 instead of 31 games in the regular season, plus the $600,000 to be spent on the journey. And three Maui games to be telecast nationwide "doesn’t matter," he added. "Whether it is ESPN, CBS or whoever it is, we are on 21 times."

Maybe he’ll loosen up after a couple of mai tais here. Maybe not.