They're tracing Europe's economic meltdown to Greece and we should have seen it coming. Last February Wells Fargo stockholder Barry Clemens of Cleveland told me that he had recently come across a startling statistic.

"There are only six millionaires in the entire country of Greece," he said.

When I was at Fox 8, I worked with a photographer, Ali Ghanbari, who was born and raised in Iran, which has a long coastline on the Persian Gulf.

"You can't swim in the Persian Gulf," he said. "When you got out of the water, you'd be coated in oil."

The Persian Gulf is no vacation paradise. Oil leaks continuously from the bottom of the Persian Gulf and rises to the surface. It can't be stopped and it can't be contained because there is such an abundance.

About two months go after the 11 o'clock mass at St. James Church in Lakewood, which was packed, by the way -- not bad for a church scheduled to be closed -- a squirrel hopped up to my daughter Mary and looked up with expectant eyes. It wanted something.

This is a true story.

Mary remembered that there was a muffin in our car, so she went to the car, broke off a piece of the muffin and returned. The squirrel was waiting. Mary bent down and held out the piece of muffin, which the squirrel took out of her hand and ate. This was in the courtyard area between the church and the school, which is closed.

As usual, we turned to Thistledown publicist Bob (Railbird) Roberts for his Kentucky Derby Pick and here it is.

Sidney's Candy 5-1

Bob had a gaudy reputation as a skilled handicapper when he was the racing writer for The Plain Dealer in his previous life. Remember that in 1993 he picked Sea Hero and he had back-to-back winners in 2006 and 2007 with Barbaro and Street Sense. One of his great triumphs was picking Lemon Drop Kid to win the 1999 Belmont Stakes at 30-1.

So, why Sidney's Candy in this year's Derby?

"I'm a big workout guy," Roberts explained. "I like to see a horse get to Churchill Downs early and get a feel for the track. He's had two sensational workouts. He's feeling good and likes the track."

I call it changing of the guard, but it's really the changing of the centers. That's what we saw in the Cavs' win over Chicago Sunday. J. J. Hickson and Shaq each played 17 minutes. "Z" played the final 3 1/2 minutes.

It is Hickson's time.

Shaq was almost helpless against the athletic Joakim Noah, who scored 21 points and pulled down 20 rebounds. Wilt Chamberlain had games like that half a century ago, except Noah makes his free throws.

Basketball player Joakim Noah was 100 per cent correct when he said Cleveland is dull. He's young and adventurous and he reflects how most professional athletes view Cleveland. From his perspective, yeah, we're not exciting. He grew up in France and Florida and now plays in Chicago. But we're dull from any perspective. Over the years I have travelled to every major city and dozens of small ones and, man, we are not Party Town, USA. But there's nothing wrong with that. It's juvenile to turn Noah's remark into a federal case. The reaction here reinforces his contention.

I never warmed up to Notre Dame quarterback Jimmy Clausen and here's why. It was the way he announced his oral commitment to the Fighting Irish when he was in high school in California.

I hear that the Big Ten is ready to throw open the doors to a brave new world. Quiet talks are well under way with five new members to create a 16-team super conference with overwhelming market coverage.

The schools are Notre Dame, Missouri, Pitt, Syracuse and Rutgers. Sixteen is an important number for a two-division alignment, setting up a highly lucrative championship game in football. Most major conferences now have championship games. The Big Ten and Pac-10 are notable exceptions. They can't sit on the sidelines much longer.

We can't wait for Stacey Bell of Fox 8 to decide where she'll go for her destination wedding next year. Stay tuned right here and I'll let you know.

In the meantime, my children are into Destination Bachelor Parties.

Last summer my son Joe's bachelor party was at Put-In-Bay. When I was their age, it was de rigueur to go to Put-In-Bay and spend the weekend in jail. Never me, mind you, but most people I knew did that. Luckily, nobody at Joe's bachelor party was arrested, through no fault of their own.

Big news at Fox 8. News anchor Stacey Bell is engaged. The lucky guy is Anthony Lynn, 41, the running backs coach of the New York Jets.

She's a cool one. She played this low key. Hardly anybody at Fox 8 knew about the courtship. Naturally, I've been following these developments like TMZ. She'll break the story Thursday on the five o'clock show.

They've been seeing each other for over a year. They met when he was the running backs coach of the Browns under former head coach Romeo Crennel.