Keith Nighswonger's Brush Pile

The Universal Visionary of ProBassAnglers.com is KEITH NIGHSWONGER, not to be confused with former BrushPile columnist, Keith Nighswonger.  The UV (as he is referred to) oversees the inner workings of ProBassAnglers.com, however he rarely has time to "pay attention" to menial tasks involved in covering the professional bass fishing tours.  Instead, the UV prefers to overlook his great media empire, and the vast landscape that is "his universe" and to pride himself on the fact that he is the creator of good things.  Yes, he has seen what he has created and it is good.  Nighswonger is a dedicated gardening enthusiast and spends countless hours working on his other web media outlets, ProGardners.com, GardenZone.com and ILoveNasturtiums.com.

Day to day, what other "mortals" consider "issues," he considers "opportunities," and each day presents its own occasion to further affect the civilization that he rules.  Life is not easy being the Universal Visionary.  Everywhere he looks, there is someone trying to challenge for a piece of his pie.  Other competitors from the media world who claim to be the "most exciting coverage" or that you have to actually "be there" to properly cover an event, (hello, if god wanted reporters to be on the scene of major fishing events, he would have never invented the TELEPHONE!  In fact, god even invented "hello" so that people could answer the telephone!)

There are also those who are "rabble-rousers," who attempt to seize part of his spot light, who need to be part of his picture.  Today's message from the Universal Visionary deals with a recent act of insubordination, brought on by a disgruntled employee who thinks he is "too big" to be called on to complete a task.......And now, The Universal Visionary.

11/05/07-The NRGA (National Rose Growers Association)-Herman Franklin won the first stop on the National Rose Growers Association's Pro Rose Growers Tour this past weekend in Pasadena, California with a glorious 18" plant featuring 6 sprouts and three more buds.  The event was marred by allegations that the original winner, Martin Gladiolas of Austin, Texas used the illegal growth hormone ATP (Androtoskotene-Tri-Peskoside) to grow a mammoth plant of 29" featuring 11 sprouts and nine buds.

Gladiolas' hotel room was searched by NRGA security officials who discovered the drug, plus several more that are listed on the banned ingredient list.

We are seeing more and more episodes like this on the PRG Tour.  As the money increases for the top prize, and as sponsors place more and more pressure on their athletes, we should expect to see more.  If our sport is ever going to gain the credibility it needs we must address several issues:

1. If we want to reach NASCAR-like numbers, we must find a way to ensure that cheating cannot take place.  Pro Rose Growers are the top gardening experts in the land, and know quite a few tricks for making roses grow and grow.  At some point, we will reach a roses' full capacity to grow within the 90 day limit that the PRG now uses for it's events.  Can our pro gardeners continue to grow bigger plants without cheating?  We should certainly hope so.

2. Professional Rose Growing is an exciting spectator sport, and unlike other sports, such as golf and bass fishing, the action is breath taking, in fact, rose growing and NASCAR are very similar sports in terms of action.  The problem that we have in professional rose growing is that so much of the action takes place underground.  When someone develops the "root camera" or other device that will allow fans of the sport to watch the exciting development of root systems, the fast action flow of protoplasm, the breath taking moment when bud breaks ground, then we will have a product to challenge the televised sports of auto racing, golf and fishing. 

11/02/07-The Universal Visionary-First of all, I would like to announce today that I am changing my official title from Universal Visionary to "The Universal Visionary."  Adding the "T" will allow my title to have the acronym "TUV" which sounds quite a bit like "tough," and that is the message I want to send.  Tough:  Like a piece of overcooked steak, that forces you to chew and chew, until your jaw gets tired and you give up.  TUV.

Today, I must inform you of my decision to suspend BrushPile Columnist, Keith Nighswonger, for his recent acts of insubordination stemming from his refusal to cover the biggest story of 2007, the "will Mark Davis fish the BASS Elite Series in 2008" story.  

As you know, Mark Davis, the bass fishing legend, and renown gardening expert, recently qualified to compete on the Bassmaster Elite Series in 2009.  Davis, besides raising world class roses, is a former Bassmaster Classic Champion and BASS Angler Of the Year, who left BASS two seasons ago to fish the FLW Tour and to compete on the PST, (Perfect Sod Tour.)

I dispatched Nighswonger to travel to Davis' home town of Mount Ida, Arkansas, so that he could sit in a round the clock, 24 hour a day surveillance, tracking Davis' every move until Davis' final decision could be rendered so that you would hear it first from ProBassAnglers.com.  Nighswonger was to get "In The House" so that you would know exactly what Davis' plans were.

Nighswonger left for Arkansas last Sunday, saying something about "stocking." Nighswonger called 15 minutes after leaving our building and issued this statement:  "Davis is Fishing BASS next year."  I have not seen, nor heard from Nighswonger since, although I did receive information that Nighswonger was seen boarding a cruise ship in San Diego, California on Monday morning.  Furthermore, my sources from "Bob's Food City (Deli&Bakery)" in Mount Ida tell me that Nighswonger never arrived in Mount Ida.  Imagine and entire city made of food, I must visit that place someday.

This kind of journalistic fraud is the kind of thing that will tarnish the image of any reputable media source.  Imagine, printing a story without first checking to see if there is any substance.

I don't know what Nighswonger's future with ProBassAnglers.com will be.  He has been an up-start from the start up, and generally a pain in the "ask-me-no-more-questions!"  For the time being, I, The Universal Visionary, will post my comments on the landscape here in this BrushPile.

Thank you for my time.  Please do not send your e-mails here.