Grief-stricken former colleagues of Stuart Scott spent Sunday remembering the popular ESPN anchor, who succumbed to cancer at the age of 49. Good Morning America host Robin Roberts had a special connection to Scott not only did she work with him at the sports network, but she has fought her own battles with cancer.

Roberts put together some thoughts in a poignant Facebook post, in which she recalled Scotts moving speech at last Julys ESPY award show. She posted this photo of herself interviewing Scott that evening:

Here is what Roberts wrote:

As we were about to board our long flight home Amber checked her phone one last time. She pulled us out of the line and all she had to say to me wasStu. The news we were dreading and not at all prepared to hear. Stuart Scott has died.

This picture was taken shortly after Stu was presented the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance at last years ESPYS. He gave a speech that still had me in tears as we chatted backstage. Tears of admiration and profound gratitude. Grateful that this beautiful, strong man was a dear friend. Grateful that he had the strength that night to deliver such a powerful, meaningful message. Admiration for how he valiantly faced cancer..again and again.

As I stared out the window on the flight home tears again streamed down my face. By the time we landed so many had posted wonderful tributes to Stu. President Obama, LeBron James, Tiger Woodsand our ESPN family. Im still struggling to find the words to express my feelings. But then I think of Stus own words at the ESPYS. He was right. You beat cancer by how you LIVE, why you live, and in the manner in which you live.

He closed his speech, with his sweet daughter Sydni by his side on stage, by saying have a great night and a great rest of your life. That was Stu, always thinking of others.

Bless you, my friend, for showing us how to live and how to love. Tonight after I say my prayers and thank the good Lord for Stuart ScottIm going to climb into bedand flip my pillow over to the other side. XO

Here is an ESPN tribute to Scott, narrated by Roberts, that ran on Sunday:

This former editor and part-time writer at The Post is now happy to prove that if you combine 'blowhard' and 'blaggard,' you get 'blogger.' He previously had used 'Desmond Bieler' as his byline, but feels that shortening the first name to 'Des' nicely conveys his ever-decreasing gravitas. He also covers Fantasy Football.

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Robin Roberts sheds tears of admiration and profound gratitude for Stuart Scott

Those who would like to maintain that Tony Romo is some sort of "choker" through his career, despite his formidable late-game quarterback rating, and overall performances in December, will have a much tougher time forwarding that tired old story after the Dallas Cowboysrallied to a 24-20 win over the Detroit Lions to wrap up the NFL's wild-card round.

Romo had a rough first half, to be sure. The Cowboys trailed 17-7 at halftime, and that became a 20-7 deficit halfway through the 3rd quarter. He was off on several targets, frequently underthrew open receivers, and had issues holding the ball too long even late in the game. But he forged a comeback win against Detroit's outstanding defense with limited participation from his star teammates. Running back DeMarco Murray had 75 catches and a touchdown on 19 carries, and Dez Bryant caught just three passes for 48 yards. But Romo threw two touchdown passes to receiver Terrance Williams, and managed to transcend an offensive line that had a great deal of difficulty adjusting to Detroit's well-timed blitzes.

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"More than anything, it's trying to keep your poise," Romo said after the game of facing a Lions defense that pressured him ceaselessly. "That was the best defense we played all year by far, and they deserve a lot of credit -- they played awesome today."

As for the Lions, they'll spend the offseason wondering how they squandered a big lead to a team that went 4-4 at home in the regular season.

Some other quick thoughts:

1. Dallas' defense did its job

The narrative for the Cowboys' defense all season was pretty simple: outside of lineman Henry Melton (who was out of this game with an injury) and cornerback Brandon Carr (who has underperformed through most of the season), it's been a unit brilliantly coached by Rod Marinelli, and if you kept it on the field, you would wear it out. That seemed to be true in the first half, when the Lions beat the Cowboys 17:57 to 12:03 in time of possession, and Detroit held that 13-point lead in the third quarter. But as the game went on, the Cowboys stuck to their spacing concepts, got enough pressure on Matthew Stafford, and were helped by a couple of interesting calls (more on that in a minute). Yes, Detroit's defense was impressive for the most part, but it was Dallas' undermanned and seemingly unimpressive defense that stuck through adversity, as it has all season, and helped take the Cowboys to victory.

2. The good Matthew Stafford showed up... but it wasn't enough

3. Defensive pass interference needs to be reviewable

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Three Thoughts: Romo sheds 'choker' label in comeback win over Lions

The shell of a house in Greenwith, in Adelaides outer suburbs, on Monday. Photograph: David Mariuz/AAP

More than two dozen homes have been destroyed as South Australias worst bushfires since the 1983 Ash Wednesday blaze continue to rage in the Adelaide Hills, with dangerous weather conditions forecast for the next two days.

The weekends firestorm eased slightly on Monday, but the South Australian premier, Jay Weatherill, said 11 live fires were still burning and sudden flare-ups and falling trees presented a very clear danger.

We know we are in a dangerous phase when people are getting fatigued, people have a false sense of security because it appears the worst is over, he said. Weve got a bit of a way to go until we can relax.

He said 26 homes and 41 outbuildings had been destroyed in the past four days, but that number was expected to climb as authorities accessed burnt-out areas.

Fire has burnt through more than 12,500 hectares of the state since Friday, the most serious blaze in the Sampson Flat area, in the Mount Lofty Ranges about 38km north-west of Adelaide. More than 1100 properties lie in the fire-affected areas.

More than 700 firefighters, aided by 10 water-bombing aircraft, have battled the flames, with reinforcements from New South Wales and Victoria due to arrive within the next 24 hours.

Strong winds forecast for Monday evening are causing concern, while firefighters work to strengthen containment lines ahead of temperatures in the high 30s forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday.

A total of 29 people had been hospitalised, including one suffering a serious asthma attack. Dozen of animals also perished in the inferno, which tore through a boarding kennel and cattery at the weekend and continues to threaten wildlife sanctuaries in the Adelaide Hills.

The cause of the fire remains unknown, but the South Australian police commissioner, Gary Burns, said an incinerator on a Sampson Flat property was the likely source.

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South Australia: 26 homes and 41 sheds wiped out in raging bushfires

An academic researcher who contributed significantly to the growth of the Mens Shed movement in Australia where it all began has admitted to being highly impressed by the growth of the organisation in Ireland.

The remarkable growth of the movement in Ireland in the past five years has been such that we now have more outlets per head of population than Australia, the country which came up with the idea in the mid-1990s to improve the overall health of its males.

There are 1,200 sheds Down Under compared to 230 in Ireland, according to George Kelly, chairman of the Irish Mens Sheds Association.

Apart from an obvious need for places to which men with time on their hands could go, he said, co-operation between individual sheds was important. Theres a great support network throughout Ireland, Mr Kelly said.

While each shed is an independent entity, they network with each other, help with problem-solving, and share experiences.

Associate professor Barry Golding, patron of the movement in Australia, recently visited Ireland and noted that sheds here differ markedly from others internationally because of their community links.

Sheds in Ireland are already very well networked in contrast to other countries, said Prof Goulding, who who has dedicated much to the shed movement and is renowned internationally among shedders.

An experienced researcher in adult, vocational and community education, he is the author of a NCVER publication, Mens Sheds in Australia: Learning through community contexts, which has been one of the most valuable tools and most common references for those initiating a mens shed project.

He conceded: Ireland has a history of community development which we dont have in Australia. Youve got community agency at grassroots level and its beautiful.

Finding a suitable premises and then paying rent can, however, create difficulties in some areas.

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Mens Shed patron in Australia amazed by movements growth here

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The difference between a hotel room at $75 a night and $750 a night is the view, the extra shampoo, the cost of the pillows, the fluff of the towels. Price is a measure of comfort and service. What must always be the same at every price is your security, your safety and cleanliness. Unfortunately, it's not. Across the country, hotels are skimping on key safety measures, and the consequences range from stolen laptops and Peeping Toms to sexual assaults and robbery at gunpoint. More than 125 property crimes are committed in hotels and motels every day in the United States, in addition to more than 21 violent crimes (excluding murders).

What's needed is a grading system that will alert potential guests to the quality of a hotel's security, guaranteeing that A-rated facilities have measures in place to assure guests' safety and the rooms' cleanliness. In New York City, Los Angeles and other cities, restaurants are graded based on government inspections, and those grades are posted so you can see them before you walk in the door. Hotels and motels also are entrusted with customers' health and safety, and they must be held equally accountable.

That accountability starts with basic security. For instance, many hotels fail to perform adequate background checks on job applicants before hiring them. In September 2011, a woman staying at a Best Western hotel in Arizona woke up in the middle of the night to find a man standing over her bed. She says the man raped her. He was a registered level-3 sex offender, according to news reports, but Best Western had hired him as a night clerk and given him a master key to guest rooms, allowing him unfettered access to turn any of its female guests into his next victims.

Unfortunately, this story isn't unusual. Best Western fired the sex offender, but a few months later, a Marriott hotel in the same town added him to their payroll. Soon after, a woman staying at that hotel said he raped her, too. Two Arizona state senators are pushing a bill to ban hotels from giving registered sex offenders access to room keys. That is a good step, but sexual assaults are not the only threat to hotel guests.

A few years ago, the Onity electronic hotel lock was found to be easily hackable, leading to a string of hotel room break-ins and endangering 4 million rooms worldwide. Even after the company said it fixed the problem, the break-ins continued.

Fire safety is a major issue, too. While filming an episode of my show, "Hotel Impossible," at the historic Gadsden Inn in Douglas, Arizona, I discovered that not only were all of the fire extinguishers out of date and would not have functioned properly had they been needed, but the entire alarm system had been turned off for 15 years. According to the National Fire Incident Reporting System, there are about 3,900 hotel and motel fires per year, causing about 15 deaths. In nearly 60 percent of those fires, either there were no automatic extinguishing systems like sprinklers or they weren't working. In more than 25 percent of those fires, either there were no smoke alarms or firefighters couldn't determine if there were.

It's not just flammable curtains and faulty electrical systems that can kill you. Last year, three guests at a Best Western in North Carolina died from carbon monoxide poisoning due to a faulty pool water heater. Reacting to those deaths, the Best Western chain announced in September that carbon monoxide detectors would be placed in every guest room throughout the country.

Pool accidents are another leading cause of accidental death in hotels. At a Quality Inn & Suites in Seattle last year, it took hotel staff and rescuers nearly three hours to find a man who had drowned in the pool because the water was so murky. A series of problems had led inspectors to close the pool about a month earlier, including improper chlorine levels and loose handrails. Guests should know whether their hotel doesn't take basic pool safety precautions, like making life preservers and rescue hooks readily available.

Hotels vary dramatically in their level of cleanliness, too. I've found absurdly disgusting stains on sheets, pillowcases, blankets and floors that aren't visible without a blue light so guests would never know. I've also found heroin needles in drawers and diarrhea on the bathroom floor. In one hotel, The Empress in New Orleans, I found housekeepers using the same unwashed rags to clean bathrooms and bedrooms because the owner thought that washing rags was a waste of water.

In the absence of a hotel rating system, here's what guests can do help ensure their own safety:

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The case for giving hotels the same health grades as restaurants

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There was lots of activity on the restaurant front as we closed out 2014:

A building permit has been issued for the new Mellow Mushroom at 15170 Max Leggett Parkway in the quickly growing area near River City Marketplace. Owner John Valentino said he hopes to break ground in February or March with opening in late August or September.

His MM River City LLC paid $1.2 million for the 1.26-acre parcel in 2013. It will be his fifth Mellow Mushroom in the area.

Tenant Contractors has the contract for the $1.5 million, 5,398-square-foot project.

Uncle Maddios Pizza Joint has opened its first Jacksonville restaurant and second in Florida at 8221 Southside Blvd.

The franchise is owned by Kevin Gartner, who has rights to two more in Jacksonville and two in Gainesville. The Atlanta-based chain has plans to open 30 in Florida this year.

Pollo Tropical will build a restaurant at 9370 Atlantic Blvd., the site of an old Hess gas station $870,000, 3,771 square feet, North Coast Construction. Hess still owns the site, which is a block east of Southside Boulevard in the Regency area.

A building permit has been issued for the new Golden Corral at 1201 Memorial Park Road $1.3 million, 11,486 square feet, National Consulting & Development. It will replace the Golden Corral just east on Normandy Boulevard.

And a permit has been issued for Jimmy Johns Gourmet Sandwiches, 201 N. Laura St., $175,000, 1,304 square feet, Dakenna Development.

PERMITS

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Roger Bull's Sunday Notebook: Full menu of eateries on the way

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