Common Sense

YOU ARE drunk. You may have been celebrating or you may have been wallowing, but you're drunk, all the same. You just don't think you're that drunk. You get behind the wheel because you don't see your car as a weapon. It's not a gun or a knife, but it is metal, it is heavy and it is under the control of someone who is not in control - you. You hit something. Or, more accurately, someone. No one is around but for the mangled, bloody person you hit. What do you do?

When a stingray took a swipe at a swimmer off Island Beach State Park last week, a park official likened it to the ocean's version of a dog bite. "The ocean is filled with sea life. I think a lot of people have lost the concept that the ocean is a living room for thousands of marine species," said Bob Schoelkopf, director of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine, N.J., explaining the official's comment. "People aren't the only things out there. " Indeed, at this time of year with the beaches packed with swimmers, sometimes it's hard to remember the deep blue Atlantic is an ocean, not a pool.

Athletes and Twitter. It's a train wreck waiting to happen. For some reason, sports professionals, both men and women, turn into twits when they tweet. The latest example is ex-NBA star Steve Francis who - according to a police report obtained by TMZ - allegedly groped 20-year-old Shauna Simien in Texas in May of 2010. The police report indicated that Simien filed a complaint immediately after the alleged incident. The woman told TMZ that she is a singer who had signed with Francis' record label and was meeting with him on the day of the alleged assault.

I'm all nerves getting ready to see Althea Zanecosky. My favorite summer skirt makes me look hippy, but skinny jeans feel like concrete in this heat. And what to order when we finally meet at Chestnut Hill Coffee Co.? I've had breakfast, but could use a snack. Will she judge me if I nibble on a pastry? Will I get credit for putting Splenda in a nonfat latte? Should I slyly drop into the conversation how far I ran before dawn? Zanecosky arrives in T-shirt, shorts, and open mind.

ARIES (March 21-April 19). When you look the part, it's a breeze to act the part. Put care into your stylistic choices. TAURUS (April 20-May 20). Sometimes being around people gives you energy. Other times it drains you. The optimal scenario is to get your social interaction in small doses. GEMINI (May 21-June 21). You'll grow rich as you pair your ideas with thoughtful investigation. You'll determine the best course of action and will be willing to adjust the plan as needed. And you'll follow through.

'Friends don't let jackasses drink and drive. " In sharing that tweet with a touch of the send key, film critic Roger Ebert joined the likes of Anthony Weiner and the 18-year-old from Radnor High School as the latest examples of the lack of online impulse control. Ebert was tweeting in reaction to the death of Jackass star Ryan Dunn, 34, in a one-car accident in Chester County early Monday. Whether his assessment was correct is beside the point. The timing - not even 24 hours after the deaths of Dunn and his passenger, 30-year-old Afghanistan war vet Zachary Hartwell - was "unseemly," as Ebert himself later acknowledged on his blog.

IJUST PICKED up my daughter up across from the Masterman School. Apparently, the clueless superintendent decided - because to her 94 degrees is a heat wave - that schools should close at 1:30. My daughter's school had an announcement at 1, at which point her teacher would not allow her to use her phone to call me, so I didn't get a message until much later that she needed to get home. Yes, it was filthy hot and humid, but since when was that reason to close schools? Let's see, what do normal children do when told that school is done for the day?

Proposed changes to beach and waterway access in New Jersey threaten to wash away years of progress toward making the state's 127 miles of shores and riverfronts open to everyone. The state Department of Environmental Protection contends that the revisions to the Coastal Zone Management rules are in line with Gov. Christie's call for "common sense" regulations rather than one-size-fits-all mandates. That might be true, if beachfront landowners - and the elected officials eager to please them - could be depended upon to act with common sense, or common courtesy.