How a person reacts in adversity reveals a lot about his or her character. In a move reminiscent of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Cincinnati City Councilman Jeff Berding announced last week that he was resigning soon, despite having another year left on his term. As the reason for his departure, Berding said he needed to focus on his day job as sales and marketing director for the Cincinnati Bengals. Berding’s given reason probably is true, but it’s only part of the story.  

It's 9 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 28: Do you know where your rifle is? If you don't then it's time to mount up because Ohio's nine-day deer hunting season runs Monday through Saturday and after that you only have two more days this year to shoot one of those bastards.  

As linebacker for and defensive captain of the Cincinnati Bengals, Dhani Jones’ Sundays are pretty much booked up for the next few months. But Dhani isn’t just an autumn visitor to the area. His local ties just got stronger with the opening of the Bowtie Café, a Mount Adams eatery dedicated to coffee, conversation and cocktails.  

It takes a special human being to be a Cincinnati sports fan. Unless you're a masochist, the better part of the last two decades has not only been disappointing but also profoundly embarrassing. The demise of hometown hero Pete Rose was just the opening salvo in a decline that's only now beginning to show signs of relief.  

It was an all-around bad week recently for Cincinnati City Councilman Jeff Berding. He was unendorsed by the local Democratic Party after a long history of opposing initiatives proposed by Mayor Mark Mallory and other Democrats on City Council and criticizing them on radio and TV. But even his day job as the Cincinnati Bengals' sales director caused him grief. It looked like the Bengals' regular season-opener wouldn't be broadcast live on TV because the game at Paul Brown Stadium wasn't a sellout. Fortunately, at the last minute the team, WKRC-TV (Channel 12) and Kroger stepped in to buy the remaining 5,000 tickets.  

Forbes Magazine recently released two lists that should interest local sports fans. Estimating the financial values of college basketball programs, Forbes ranked Xavier as the 17th most valuable and Arizona as the sixth most valuable. The magazine also offered its list of the nation's most miserable sports cities.  

The NFL is the league that gave us "parity" as its compelling vision of the future, without telling us that part of parity isn't really parity but the perception of parity. So the NFL might not really be so even, though it seems that way, which is enough to throw the playoff race wide open halfway through the season.