Let it snow, again, damn it

The last few weeks, and really, the last two Fridays, have been like a second introduction two New England. Today, and last Friday, well, I woke up and everything was white, and I don't mean just the people. Last week, we got about a foot of snow, and I had to dig my car out, twice- once getting it out of my space, the second, technically to dig myself a spot on the other side, which I suppose is technically digging myself in. Last week, though, it was just a lot of snow, this week, it was snow mixed with sleet, so while I cleaned my car of snow at several points during the day, all that resulted was me having to clear off ice from each of my windows later in the day, which really became weird when you consider I was really only doing that in order to move my car so the driveway could be plowed, ah the circular nature of life.

The other thing about last weekend, well, I locked myself out of my own apartment last Saturday. I was planning on heading to the gym, and had my water bottle and shoes with me, when I realized that my keys were still in the house. Unfortunately, I had also locked the door, and my second set of keys and my cell phone were in the apartment. Now this happened at two. My landlords weren't in, so I did what anyone would do. I went to the gym (realize, I'm wearing shorts, I was going to the gym and its been insanely cold here, I've left several meetings the last few weeks with negative temps on the car's thermometer), and so when I finished working out, I walked back, hoping the Eaton's had come back. Well, they hadn't. So I went to see if I could use someone's phone, and went to a small bookstore. Well, they let me call the locksmith, who wasn't in. Then I tried again, a couple of hours later, still nothing. I ended up staying at the bookstore for about four and a half hours waiting to see if the locksmith would call. Luckily I ended up staying at my friend Sarah's for the night, then calling the locksmith in the morning. Well, I connected, and it took him all of about three seconds to open the door. So, all in all, I felt like an ass.

I'll catch up on some sports and news stuff over the course, of the week, just wanted to let you all know I'm still alive.

Giving thanks, and a mea culpa

I realize that I have been severely deficient in the upkeep of this blog the last few weeks. Its been a situation it seems, most nights, that I'll come from work or the gym with the intention of writing something, then sitting down and having nothing flow out immediately, getting distracted, then finally not actually writing anything for whatever reason. I'm hoping that the Thanksgiving break might help recharge things, so here we go. As I've said, things have been busy and interesting up here the last few weeks. Two weeks ago, I had the kind of weird privilege of going down to Alton Central School and reading to kids as part of their "Celebrity reading day." Seriously. I was considered a celebrity. I think this probably says more about where I live than anything else. Anyway, I read through a couple of children's book's (I read to two third grade classes) as the two books I brought from my personal library, Moby Dick and Walden probably wouldn't have been too entertaining (though I did read part of Chapter one of Moby Dick to the first class, who kept asking me to keep going, though I assume that was because they didn't want to actually learn stuff in their other courses.

Thanksgiving as interesting, mainly because I had to make the long drive(s) myself. Even last year, I drove from Chicago to home, then to Euclid with the family (though I should say, the trip from Chicago, which usually took four and a half to five hours took eight because of snow and slow traffic). This year, I left Wednesday morning, then drove about 13 hours to Cleveland. The drive was actually quite simple, there were only about two or three turns the whole trip, as it was almost entirely on I-90, including the Mass. and New York thruways. The ride back took less time, but again, took the same route.

While I was down in Euclid, I saw two movies, about which I wanted to share some quick thoughts. First, Thanksgiving night, I saw Rent with Robert, Annie and Kenny and their kids, along with some of the drama students they know. I enjoyed it, though it wasn't as good as Chicago as an adaptation. I think more of my problems with it were related to the source material, the play itself. I've seen a lot of online reviews, especially from a lot of regular folks who hated, hated, the show, and pretty much hated the movie too. The thing I can see, even having never seen it onstage, is that Rent is, if anything, a product of two time periods- the AIDS epidemic years of the late 80's, where indeed, it cut a wide swath through whole communities, and then the mid-90's as a theatre piece. It is, more than anything, totally different from anything by Andrew Lloyd Webber or Les Mis, less biting and cynical than Sondheim, and more accessible for many because of the style of music. It will always have a home at colleges once it leaves Broadway, but I don't know if it will ultimately be remembered as one of those musicals that fundamentally changes things. It will probably be thought of, along with Hair, as it's own category.

The second one I saw was GoF, which I found, more than anything, to be incredibly dark. Having not read the books, I track the progress of the kids through the movies, and I was surprised just how dark and intense the movie was. I enjoyed it, don't get me wrong, but I was just a little surprised. I have to say, too, that its great to see the development of each of the actors grow up before our eyes.

Viva La Raza, RIP

There are a lot of things that I like to talk about, other things not. One of those things is that I, a college educated male, who holds a post-graduate degree, watches professional wrestling.

The way I reconcile this is that I don't watch it the way most other people do. I watch to see certain guys who are incredibly good, the guys who are incredibly good at what they do, in all respects. I watch because I want to see how a 60-year old man can make people in a live crowd believe he can defeat a man a 20 or 30 years younger, to watch how brilliantly an Olympic champion amateur has become an all-time great in a totally different endeavor. The great ones are just as much performers as any great theatre practitioner, because anyone watching knows that everything is just as scripted but makes you want to watch anyway.

Eddie Guerrero was one of those who made you want to watch him perform, because of the joy he obviously brought to his profession. Its a profession he was born into, one he was raised in, one his brothers and his nephew, who's actually only three years younger, were born into. He wrestled in Mexico and in Japan, he wrestled in the Bingo Hall known as the ECW Arena in Philadelphia, and then the dysfunctional enterprise called WCW. He became the first luchadore to hold a major American world title.

But what made Eddie Guerrero a great story, and what makes his death all the more tragic, is the personal demons he overcame. Guerrero wasn't a big man; he was 5'8", 220, according to coroner’s reports. He wasn't a steroid user. He was a recovering alcoholic, and like many wrestlers he fought battles against painkillers. Its that addiction that's felled an increasing number of wrestlers, from Bobby Duncum Jr., Davey Boy Smith and Curt Hennig, along with many others in recent years. It’s also a reality that despite the fact that it isn't a sport, no athletes perform the same daily travel schedule as wrestlers. No athletes are on the road more, and there's no off-season for wrestlers. It’s that addiction that Eddie Guerrero fought, and survived. He'd been sober for years, but as any recovering addict will tell you, you fight four-year's worth of one-day battles to stay sober.

What makes King Lear so tragic, the reason the real version wasn't performed for 300 years and replaced by the Tate version, is that for all of the mistakes he makes, the wrongs he commits, there seems to be a future. Goneril and Regan are gone, Albany, Edgar and Kent are triumphant, and all seems right. What seems most unfair is that its then that the hammer falls, that Lear is stripped of first that which he values and loves most, and then his life. Its we as the audience, and through the remaining characters onstage, that are left with the hole in the world. That's ultimately what makes Eddie Guerrero's death so tragic: He conquered his demons, only to be taken in the prime of his life, leaving a wife and two children. Now it’s his friends and family, and his fans, that go on wondering why.

Eddie Guerrero triumphed in an industry stacked against him. In a business that favors big, hulking monsters that are great on the mic, he was short and average sized, and spoke with an accent. Champions, the men who carried the business were supposed to be white and clean cut. Eddie was proudly Mexican-American, growing up in El Paso and just across the border, had a thin moustache and wore a mullet for a large portion of his career. At one point he, and a few other wrestlers like him, would have been shunted to the side, either labeled "vanilla midgets" (Kevin Nash's phrase for him, Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko) or given license to only play a stereotype, which he often had to do. Still, he rose to the top of his profession, he was as adaptable as anyone was, and he could play the good guy and the bad guy with equal brilliance. He made anyone who watched him appreciate that they were watching the consummate performer and professional. He was substance in a business almost all about style. What's sad is that people like him often have to leave so soon.

Wahoo Country

I wanted to briefly talk about the elections yesterday, especially in Virginia. Earlier this fall, I heard on Kornheiser about one of the ads run by the Republican nominee, Jerry Kilgore. It showed the father of a murder victim, who talked about how upset he was that Tim Kaine opposed the death penalty. Tony mentioned how powerful the ad was, and I'm sure it was. Personal testimony like that is always effective, and of course, we're talking about the South, where there is a history of support for the death penalty.

What really makes this interesting for me, though, is that Kaine is Catholic, and essentially makes the same argument that every Catholic politician has made since Roe, the "I'm personally opposed to abortion but I will uphold the law," argument. Kaine also extended that to the death penalty, saying that while he objected to it morally, he would still carry out the laws of Virginia. While I find the last part somewhat disturbing, because I also don't believe in the death penalty, but I understand the sentiment. In response to the Kilgore ad, Kaine made his position clear. What's amazing, here, and I say this as a Democratic voter who's seen such attempts derail a Cuomo presidential run and repeatedly fail at nearly every other attempt. I guess, that in Virginia, people are wising up. That and the fact that George Bush can't deliver a state quite literally in his own backyard (and if you consider the land that used to belong to the District and was ceded to Va. it quite literally is).

I wasn't surprised about Jon Corzine winning, though that race got really dirty. It was gratifying to see the Dover, PA school board voted out, though that was counterbalanced by Kansas changing the definition of science and taking reason out of science classes, replacing it with faith. Nice work. Rock, Chalk, You Stink.

New York State of Mind, or Currency of Love

So, as a treat to myself, and to see Beth perform her cabaret act that she does with Audra White, I visited New York this weekend. Really, the treat for me, ultimately is going to the city. The weird thing was, the last time I went to the city was the same afternoon that Mary called and offered me the job , so, leaving work from that job early to take the same route was interesting. The ride had gone very well, I'd called John Sellers the day before, part of a sort of quick and haphazard attempt to put together the trip during what had been a pretty busy week. When I got to the city, well, things slowed down, a lot. Consider , that it was still very light out by the time I got into New York and around 6:30, about two-and a-half hours later, that I got to John's apartment, suddenly worrying that I wouldn't arrive in time. Beth said to be at the theatre at 8:30, I needed to shower and change, and I had been figuring on about an hour for the trip from Park Slope to the Upper West Side.
Luckily, however, I walked up the subway steps on to Central Park West and 72nd at around 8:20, then looked around for the Triad. I asked several doormen, the doormen of the buildings who's average rent is about 50 times my yearly salary, for directions. I ended up just sorting feeling around for it, then, bang, before Amsterdam, I find the building. There was a show going on, so I still had a while, then I saw Beth and Audra before they went in and wished them luck, but it still was about a half-hour, as the show in the space before their show ran long and they needed to do sound check.

The show itself...well, its best to say that Beth and Audra were fabulous. The other acts...well, in place like New York, you get a lot of really talented people doing a lot of really good stuff, really innovative. Then you have some marginally or completely untalented people who have convinced themselves, or been convinced by other people, that they are in fact talented. There were some really talented people, aside from Beth and Audra, one guy who did a comedy/musical act playing the bass, an a couple of very funny comics, but there were some others, like the host (who was on Square Pegs, that's his claim to fame. A show that was on the air for about two years and then vanished is his claim to fame. He actually did a "So anyone here from out of town," reset for God's sake) and the ventriloquist (its one thing to move your lips slightly, after all how are you supposed to create a sound, but seriously, there has to be some sort of attempt at minimizing their movement. And try to spend more than five minutes on the dummy next time). Still the worst, the absolute worst was this woman who performed last. She was a singer, who performed what had to be the most amateurish (she didn't have live backup, it was on a tape) written songs ever (one was about how great life would be if love were how we measured wealth, the other I heard was written during a breakthrough in therapy, there was no way I was staying for the last song). Obviously, she had to have performed some sort of coital favor for someone to get on the bill, because, wow, she was awful. If they had brought up a homeless person from the street, at least the chances are 50/50 they might well be better.

After the show, I grabbed some food with Audra, Beth and some of their friends and talked, then I headed back to Park Slope. Unfortunately, I went to the wrong stop, and ended up having to go North to go South. I ended up getting back at 3, tired and ready for sleep.

My favorite thing about New York is the fact that even when alone, you feel a part of the city, because its that vibrant. I spent a good part of Saturday just walking around the city, which I always enjoy. Still, because it was Marathon weekend, I needed to get out on Saturday, as I'd still be in New York otherwise. Still, it was wonderful to talk to Sellers and Beth and just be in my favorite city, no matter how many untalented people there are there. After all, they're still living the dream.

Moving on

Finally, after several weeks and seemingly all sorts of twists and turns, the Miers nomination is officially dead. Obviously, given the increasing conservative disgust with the nomination, chances are that some sort of move was going to be made. Now will likely come the hardcore conservative, probably one rougher than Roberts, and one conservatives who want to jump Scalia and Thomas' bones will love. That's scary, because, until April or May, when the decisions from the court's term come out, we have no sense of the judicial philosophy of Roberts as chief, we don't know how the make-up of the court will change, especially with regards to social issues. Miers will forever be the one people think about when they think of disastrous nominations, as she never even got to the hearings, torpedoed not by her own insane ideas (as Robert Bork was) but by the base of her president's party and her own supreme underqualification.

Fitzgerald also came down with the first of his indictments. This time, it was Scooter Libby, Cheney's chief of staff, who resigned as soon as the indictment came down. Hopefully, more will be on the way soon, specifically, one for Karl Rove. While Libby wasn't indicted for outing Plame, there are so many issues here in the indictments, so many questions that need to be answered about what Dick Cheney's role was, and, ultimately, what kind of coverup there was. This isn't over.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the death of the midwife of the Civil Rights Movement, Rosa Parks. More than anyone else, Rosa Parks represented the beginning of the movement, with her one act of defiance. Its been said by many that she was simply tired when she refused to give up her seat. She said on many occasions, however that while it had been a long day of work, what she was actually tired of was her second class treatment by the government of Montgomery, Alabama and the United States. By standing up, by commiting even a small act of defiance, we saw the avalanche of history begin to run down the hill, and change the nation, for the better, forever.

Well then, Steve Perry's happy

Obviously I want to talk about the World Series. I was surprised, I guess, by how subdued the celebrations seemed to be, both by the White Sox and then the shots in Chicago. I guess, though it was to be expected. As many have said, White Sox fans, unlike their North-Side rivals, and well, New England Red Sox fans, tend to be very low-key about the fact that they've lost. You don't hear about the misery they've suffered the past 88 years. This is in part, I think, because very few Sox fans really buy into anything readily. What makes Cubs fans hurt so much about '69, '84 and '03, and Red Sox so very neurotic about Buckner, Boone and Bucky Dent, is that they bought into their team winning. Thus last year, when the Red Sox won, it was winning for an entire region, for generations of New Englanders and displaced New Englanders around the country. Its why Cubs fans walked around in a daze for weeks after the Bartman game. White Sox fans, I think, rather than being disappointed sort of just take this in and say "F--- you Cubs," it seems more of a pleasant surprise than anything.

Nationally, I think, because there isn't the romance tied to the White Sox and their futility, people have been underwhelmed. They only went to two World Series since 1917, and one, well, they threw. Maybe now Shoeless Joe, Buck Weaver and the rest of the Black Sox can rest easy, and Charlie Comiskey can continue to burn in miser hell. It should be said though, that this was one of the great runs ever, in terms of how they just rant through everyone, even though all of the World Series games were close.

Just a couple of observations about the series: Tim McCarver talked about how Brad Lidge had the taste of the Pujols homerun out of his mouth. The second he did, Scott Podsednik hits it out, someone who had exactly 0 home runs during the regular reason (though he had one in the playoffs) wow.

I stayed up, as long as I could Tuesday night, after all its my busy night. I stayed up to see the White Sox score, then I just sort of surrendered. Frankly, it was a very ugly game, even though it was close and long. The walks, the inability of either team to hit, especially the Astros, actually got embarrassing at one point. Still, it doesn't excuse Phil Garner throwing his team under the bus Terry Murray-style after the game.

The guy I'm happiest for is Jermaine Dye, the MVP. Besides now being a great bit of trivia (the highest World Series Batting Average), he's come full circle. In Oakland, he seemed to underachieve, dating back to the time he broke a leg via a foul ball in a division Series.

Well, I'll get back to other things later this week, see you then.

Game 1

I haven't talked a lot about the baseball playoffs, suffice it to say that I think a lot of it speaks for itself. The fact that the White Sox are there, for me, is surprising. When I got to Chicago, the Cubs made their run. I thought, along with much of Chicago that if 2003 wasn't the Cubs year then they certainly would make it soon. The White Sox weren't even a factor. Even after the Cubs blew it in Game 6 and Game 7, the odds, because of Prior, Wood and Zambrano seemed to be in their favor. Last year, both teams faded late (the Cubs still have never, in their history been to the playoffs in consecutive years). I was still there when they sent Carlos Lee to Milwaukee for Podsednik, when everyone expressed some shock, because here you were essentially giving away a big RBI man, after they'd lost Magglio Ordonez, for a guy who stole a lot of bases but didn't have the best On Base percentage for a lead-off man. Obviously its worked out (it worked well for the Brewers too). Still, I'm interested in knowing how Chicago on the whole, is embracing this, given that it is essentially a Cubs town. That being said, here are some observations from Game 1:

The way the White Sox started was a great indication that they had a game plan against Clemens. The at-bat Jermaine Dye had, working Clemens until he got the ball he could drive to the opposite field, was a thing of beauty. The way they attacked in the second inning, even before Clemens was hurt, showed they weren't going to be intimidated, despite the fact that their coaches and GM had twice as many at bats against him as the roster does.

Every playoffs seems to produce an AJ Pierzynski, someone who just happens to get rolling and ends up in the middle of everything. (By the way, my take on the umpires missing the two calls, first the Josh Paul third strike, then the catchers interference is this: get over it. The umpire made the call, that's it. He should have been more decisive, as decisive is sometimes preferable to correct on a close play, but he made his call and stuck, and then his colleague did the same.) Personally, I felt bad for him the way he got pushed out of San Francisco, but you can see how he could grate on people. He's the type of guy, like Claude Lemieux, Bill Laimbeer or Bill Romanowski that you just want on your side, because otherwise, you hate their living guts.

More than any other player these last two rounds, including Paul Konerko, the White Sox have been carried by Joe Crede, who's becoming a star before our eyes. My only concerns- the fact that he has a large zit near his mouth, or at least, he did during the Angels series, and his weird facial hair. He looks like, well, the brother of William Ligue, or just like someone who took the drive in from Calumet City or Chesterton (sort of white trashy). Still his isn't as bad as Aaron Rowand, who's pencil thin goatee makes him look like he's in the adult entertainment industry.

If these two teams will do anything, they will put on a great display of how to best play the game. Take Carl Everett's baserunning. He made sure to see where Lamb was going before breaking for home, and then he went, a lot of other players might not have taken the base on a ball hit that weakly.

Cotts and Jenks were incredible. It shows you, really, that for all the talk of control, of beating the hitter with great stuff, the great equalizer always will be a fastball no one can catch up to. Jenks may have served notice to the American League during the Bagwell at-bat, and in the ninth, that he's not a man to be messed with in the coming years.

One other observation from Saturday- the opening sketch of SNL (which was good, but they used the fact that Catherine Zeta-Jones can sing just a bit too much) featured Darrell Hammond doing the most dead on Brit Hume I have ever seen. I was amazed. Just when I thought he couldn't top Matthews, but he did.

Oh yeah, one other thing. It's great to win two in a row, finally. This Michigan team, say what you will about it, has guts. To win the way they did last week, and then to go into the Jim Shilander House of Horrors known as Kinnick Stadium and beat a good Iowa team, that takes a lot of heart and determination. Hopefully the trip to Evanston this week will go well too.

And for you State fans, try and remove the purple tire tracks from your back, its kind of embarassing.

The Vikings...Definitely not purifying themselves in the waters of Lake Minnetonka

The big story in football the last two weeks has been the Vikings ill-fated trip on Al and Alma's cruises on Lake Minnetonka. To me, the issue isn't them having a sex cruise, its the trying to force the horrified waitstaff and barstaff of "the bad boat," into, well, some compromising situations. The Cowboys used to have "The White House" a kind of safe house where they could do any number of drugs or have any number of women, and be in a relatively controlled situation. Maybe the Vikings thought they had a a controlled situation, what with the strippers and prostitutes brought in from other states, which by the way, violates the Mann Act. Obviously they didn't, and now the whole Vikings organization has an issue. The year has been disappointing enough (the defense, which was supposed to come around, has not, and the offense's struggles without Randy Moss has truly been surprising), now this. Mike Tice had better be looking for a better price on his Super Bowl tickets this year, he'll likely need it. By the way, what does this say about Minnesota's strippers and prostitutes, that the Vikings would have to risk violating federal law to bring them in? For Shame.

And I'm spent...

It's rare, frankly to have a day like today, where every game you see is great. Early today I was able to see most of both the Axe game and BC and Wake. Now for those of you who don't know, meaning, you don't go to BC, Wake had beaten BC the last two years, in dramatic fashion. This time, they got up big early, and BC clawed back, only to see Wake go up again. BC then came back to win late. Meanwhile, in the axe game, Laurence Maroney performed brilliantly, but so did Bryan Calhoun and Wisconsin, and they won on the blocked kick late. My only question about that play, for the punter, is this. Way not punt the ball out of the back of the end zone for a safety? Minnesota would still lead, but it also puts the pressure on the Badger offense and kicker to make a late field goal.

The next batch of games...well, was some of the best football I've ever seen. Michigan/Penn State probably ended the way it should have. Penn State had been living dangerously all year (witness the last second win over Northwestern) and Michigan had lost late (Wisconsin, Minnesota). Mario Manningham, frankly, deserves the #1 jersey now, though I'm sure it won't be given til after the season. He's stepped into the role Breaston was supposed to fill, which also seems to be helping Steve Breaston play better, now that he's in a more familiar and comfortable role. Henne played better in the second half than he had in previous games, and it showed in the final drive, though he nearly killed me by not going into the end zone.

Notre Dame-USC? Well, its hard to say a lot about a game that basically speaks for itself. You had two great, and I do mean great, coaches matching wits, and their charges going at it in one of the great games I've ever seen. The cliche of the heavyweight fight is about the only thing I can come up with to describe it, with that final, desperate quarterback sneak, USC hit that last powerful jab for the knockout with 10 seconds left in the 12th. The two people made by this game, though, are Brady Quinn, who actually looked better than Matt Leinart until the final drive, and Reggie Bush, who, frankly, should by all rights have clinched the Heisman.

Like a dessert after a big main course, I watched a lot of Virginia-FSU. Now UVa was having what was essentially a big anniversary party of their win over FSU in Charlottesville 10 years ago, which gave the Noles their first ACC loss. Well, they hadn't beaten them since. Still the effort by their defense, and the effort of their pixie QB Marques Haggans, surprised me, and they led big at the half, only to see FSU rally, then finally to put the Noles down. All and all, one of the great sports days ever.

I'm tired, I'm footballed out, I'll blog more next week.

Yeah, Yeah...

So I think I owe everyone an explanation as to why I haven't been blogging a lot lately. Mainly, its just been a matter of being busy, and point of fact, being out of the state for the last two weekends. Last week, I had another crazy plane adventure, to go home for my friend Keith's wedding. I woke up at 9, when my flight was at 10:30. My alarm, which had been set for 7 a.m. had not gone off. I literally raced out, stopping just to throw things in an overnight bag and grab an apple. I made it fairly quickly to the airport, but still late. I then made arrangements for another flight, to leave at five, but I'd have to be put on standby. I took a shuttle to a movie theatre, only to find that no movie was playing for another 4 or 5 hours, and then went to a nearby Barnes and Noble. After a few hours, I headed back to the airport, where I actually ended up with a ticket to Chicago at 5. After wasting a few hours, I was headed to Midway, not sure of how long I'd be there, as the flight back to Metro was oversold, not just full. Well, I got to Midway just as the White Sox were knocking Mike Timlin around, then about 15 minutes later, I heard cheers going around the airport from a bunch of crazy Southsiders. Anyway, I waited until 9, already with a contingency plan in hand (stay at John's and leave in the morning), but I guess that the offer of $200, a flight in the morning and lodging for the night tempted enough people that I got on.

Saturday was disappointing (not the wedding). Obviously the Michigan game sort of ruined my day. The wedding started really late, it turns out that the bridal party didn't get picked up until after the wedding was supposed to start, and so the reception was also late (we got dinner after 10) and we ended up leaving early, as my parents and myself needed to head out to New Hampshire in the morning. We did, and the trip was really quite long, and once we got closer to NH, kind of harrowing, driving in the dark in Vermont, when its raining, isn't something I'd recommend. But we had a lot of fun during the week, highlighted by a trip up Mount Washington Thursday. It was great to see my parents, but its also been a busy week, and so I am still tired, and feel the need to catchup on everything, not just blogging. With that, I leave you til tomorrow...

Two Ladies...

So obviously, the big news of the week has to be the appointment of Harriet Meiers to the Supreme Court, and the surprising conservative response to it. I had no problem with the nomination of Roberts on an intellectual standpoint. He obviously has more then met the qualifications, intellectually, to sit on the bench and to be chief. But here, we have someone who is stunningly underqualified. Not only has she no experience as a judge, but no experience as a constitutional scholar either. That's scary, especially for someone who will likely face all kinds of questions from Conservative groups wanting to take us back to pre-Griswold v. Connecticut days. It seems fairly clear that George Bush picked her because he knew her, that was it.

Usually, in situations like this, you would have conservative groups rallying to the flag, trying to protect Miers from questions about her competence, trying to deflect criticism. Well, we obviously haven't seen much of that. What we've seen is an incredibly palpable sense of betrayal, the sense that Conservatives have waited decades for this nomination, one that could swing the court, and potentially bring back illegal abortion, overturn Miranda, Griswold and affirmative action. Conservatives have spent billions in treasure and decades of work in getting producing legal scholars beholden to their point of view, now, rather than going for one of those, Bush grabs someone out of Texas, someone he personally knows, which seems to be her only qualification (and spare me the comparisons to William O. Douglas, who played cards with FDR before he got nominated. Douglas was beyond brilliant, he was one of the foremost legal minds of this century, and one of the last great liberal voices on the court.). I guess if I had waited all that time, I too, might feel betrayed.

One quick word on the Britney Spears news this week. Its incredible to me the fall Britney has taken in the public eye. I recall that after her third album was released, Britney appeared at a Michael Jackson concert on CBS, taking over the role of the object of MJ's affection in "The Way You Make Me Feel." CBS promoted the appearance as that of "the hottest female star in the world," and they were probably right, at the time. But then came the breakup with Justin, and it all fell apart. No one, I think has ever won a breakup in Hollywood the way Justin Timberlake did. Not only did he get sympathy from people, but he got the ultimate revenge in the "Cry Me a River" video, one that's stuck with Spears ever since. Justin went from the "boyfriend of..." to the main attraction, Spears went from America's Sweetheart to Little Girl Lost. Justin recovered from the Superbowl incident, and dates Cameron Diaz. Britney got married, got that annulled, dated (or slept with) Colin Farrell, Fred Durst (maybe) and other not so fabulous characters. The kiss with Madonna, if it did anything, lowered her in the eyes of people, they didn't expect her to do it, and they felt that she shouldn't have, which I think turned so many people on her. Now, she's married to probably the scuzziest man on the planet, one who not only seems a significant step down from her level, but from the level of the guy she married first. K-Fed just seems to be the least well thought of guy on the planet, and the way the two of them dress when they go out, as if they'd just gotten up from a nap in the double-wide, doesn't help things either...neither does K-Fed walking around with that "undeserved sense of accomplishment" (thank you Family Guy).

The weekend from crazy

So last thursday, I prepared myself to head out to Manchester Airport. I had everything , in terms of my luggage, and most everything else was prepared. Then I had to find my wallet. This took a while. By about quarter after two, I was fairly frantic, and it began raining hard outside. I sprinted back and forth between my apartment and my car, getting totally soaked in the process. Then, half an hour, and about 3 panic attacks later, I found it, sitting under a small phonebook. I rushed out, only to get stuck behind a trailer for much of my time on 28. Luckily I had been told of a new way to the airport, one that had me using more of the freeway, and less of the two lane highway. I made it in time.

On the way to Chicago, I was kind of surprised how, the closer the plane got, the more real anticipation I felt. As it was still light out, I saw many of the sights of my time in Chicago, the Borman, the Skyway, the Dan Ryan, and the skyline. I was ready to go out and enjoy them, except that it seems that Southwest misplaced one of my pieces of luggage. I filed a report, then headed to John's, where I got to ride the El again and met up with Chelsey. We ended up going back to her apartment, so she could get clothes for work the next day. We also found time to stop at Chili-Mac's 5 way, which was as good as I remembered it being. Chelsey and I also were able to talk about her new situation (new job, new apartment, now living in the same town as John) and how she was dealing with it. We headed back to John's, but everyone seemed exhausted and we pretty much went right to sleep.

The next morning, I headed out rather early to go and visit Chicago magazine. I was able to briefly see Cassie, my former supervisor, but she had an inteview to do and only could speak briefly. Still, it was good to see her, and good to see that little had changed there. I then caught the South Shore Line into Indiana, where Robert picked me up.

After we got home, I headed back to Albion, obstensively to see the play and to take Audrey and Karen to dinner. I have to say, I felt such a sense of relief, such a sense of joy, to see the both of them. I nearly lost them, at least in my mind, on July 7, and then I saw them at the KC, they seemed a lot more real. I went with them, along with Amy and Jordan, out to Olive Garden. We were there a little longer than I thought, so we missed the play, but I ended up having a lot of fun hanging out with everyone that night.

Saturday, well, was probably the best day. Why? Because Michigan won, and I got to see it. The other two Michigan games on TV this year, they lost, and I felt crushed, this time, I felt raised up on high somehow. It was probably the most excited I'd been in a while about a Michigan game, especially given all of the people saying Michigan was going to lose 5 games, or even a losing record, after the Wisconsin game. Oh yeah, I also went out to Albion, and I actually got to see the show, which I thought was fabulous, as well as eat at Lopez with Heather Schweitzer and her mom, which also gave me a brief visit with my nephew, Mr. Nick Mourning. After the show, myself, John and Chelsey, and Kopec and Sadler headed to Relli's, where there were still a lot of alumni there, including Pat Hopple and Dory Lerew.

Sunday I had lunch with my family, and then my grandmother took me to the airport. Then I got my boarding pass, and waited, and waited. Then we got word of storms in Chicago that forced a delay. Then we waited, and waited some more. Finally I got word that I missed my connection in the waiting and then had some confusion about what I'd do. The earliest flight from Metro wouldn't get me here until about 6 p.m. So I ended up flying to Chicago, without knowing when I'd be leaving in the morning. I did, however, get to stay with Miss Stephanie Mann on my return trip to the Second City, and had a great time talking with her. I ended up with an early morning flight, and got here in time to accomplish things yesterday.

Thanks for listening, I'll blog some thoughts about the playoffs and some other odds and ends tomorrow.

Power...

So today has been all about the DeLay indictment. Many commentators are questioning the quality of this particular indictment, and perhaps they'll be proven correct. Maybe they won't be, that's the importance of having this in the open. The more important thing, to me, is this palpable sense of corruption of the Republican power class in Washington. When the Republicans took power after the 1994 elections, after literally decades of what they saw as corrupt Democratic control (and point of fact, some of it was, Dan Rostenkowski went to prison because of some of his actions), they talked about having a South African style "Truth Commission" to expose the problems of the rule of one party. Now, it seems, in some sort of great Orwellian irony, that the pigs are now indistinguishable from the people. The Republicans themselves are using the same tricks that Democrats used on them. Except, it only took ten years for that corruption, that huge pork-barrel spending to sink in, rather than 40. There are indictments for Repulican officials and affiliated operatives across the country (including the governor of Ohio). Its funny, but one of the things Democrats are often accused of, fairly often times, is being far softer than Republicans in terms of the way they play the game of politics. Maybe they might be playing a bit too rough.

The pennant races have been the main focus here in New England this week, obviously, but I did want to touch on Michigan for a minute. Obviously, this is not the same team without Mike Hart, and Chad Heene and Steve Breaston have not performed so far this year. What will be important, when Michigan plays State on Saturday, wil be controlling the ball, to keep Stanton off the field. I do think Michigan will end up winning, and even if they don't I still believe they can right the ship, and salvage the season. Still, I would say things will change either during this season, or after it, if only because they may have to.

Back to the pennant race- I find it surprising that so many people seem to be discounting the Angels, and the Angels already clinching the AL West, in the rush to cover the Wild Card, AL East and AL Central. They now, unlike the other teams, have the chance to set their rotation, and, hello, they probably have the best pitching (if you include the bullpen) of anyone in the AL, along with the Indians. The Angels will be in the ALCS, that's my bet. The Indians just lost, but they still have a great shot. The series in Boston this weekend will certainly be something to see, unless the Red Sox can't figure out a way to beat the Jays, who certainly seem to have their number.

I'm heading out to Chicago tomorrow, where I'll be staying the night at John's, then heading home (and Albion). I'll probably try and blog tomorrow some the old 773.

And we're back

So after some computer issues have kept me away from blogging, I am now back. It was really very weird to be without my computer, for much of the time since I got the virus infection, it was either sitting in my car or was at the computer repair shop next door to the Granite. I guess I hadn't realized how much the droning of the machine had become a part of the white noise of my daily life, so it was very weird to be without it. I have also come to use IM as my main form of communication with friends, so it was odd to be slightly out of the loop again. Now everything is back to normal, which is quite nice.

I've noticed, the last few weeks, that I've been undergoing a kind of mid-year crisis. This coming week will the 26th issue of the Baysider, meaning that I will have been up here just shy of 6 months (I believe it'll be the first week of October). Things are less busy around town, now that the summer people are mostly gone, and I think I've been so looking forward to going back to Albion, to see the play and the London ladies (Ms. Green and Ms. Coleman)that part of me checked out. I think this will come back when winter comes, as things are starting to get interesting around the towns again. But I may also start to at least look at what other places are hiring, more to get an idea of what kinds of areas are looking or might be good fits than actually looking for a new job. But after all that, I still enjoy it up here, and I'm looking forward to the challenges of the next few months.

I think there are a lot of Republicans now who have to be questioning exactly what their party stands for. No Democratic president probably could ever have spent more money than this President has, and any semblance of fiscal conservatism has gone the way of Nelson Rockefeller. The Republican Party now seems to be the party of William Jennings Bryan - free-spending and personally intrusive in all forms in terms of individual rights. You saw the other day where Bush said the cost of rebuilding the Gulf Coast would be "whatever it costs" and then said he wouldn't raise txes. With the additional damage Rita will bring, and the toll it will likely take on gas prices, its going to bring more damage to the economy. Its as if the very loose connection to reality has now been fully severed. We are now paying for a war in Iraq, a Marshall program for the Gulf Coast, and literally hundreds of pork barrell programs across the country, like $200 million bridges in Alaska to uninhabited islands. It will be interesting to see, as we move closer to 2008, and especially if the President's political fortunes continue to fall, whether we see candidates running away from him, or whether we see George Allen, Bill Frist or Sam Brownback try to go after the Bush mantle, whatever that will come to mean

Hey...

One of my former bosses at the Prospect, the one who gave me the assignment to write my web piece, Chris Mooney, was just on the Daily Show, promoting his book. He wasn't great, but seriously, how cool is it to have someone you know on TV's coolest show?

Most of this weekend was about football. Obviously, I was extraordinarily disappointed by what happened in Ann Arbor Saturday. Usually, I am not one to lay losses at the feet of one guy, especially in college. I got in many arguments with my dad about John Navarre and whether he deserved any blame for Michigan losses when he was Quarterback. Well, I'm breaking from that this week. Three times in the red zone, Chad Henne made big mistakes that cost Michigan points. First, he missed an open Jason Avant in the end zone in the third quarter, throwing a pick to Tom Zbikowski at the one, trying to go to Tyler Ecker. Next, in the fourth, he didn't give his receiver, again Avant, an opportunity to catch the ball on a fouth and goal play. Third, he fumbled the exchange on the goal line, when he literally could have fallen forward and scored. Hopefully, with Eastern coming up, the confidence will return in time for the trip to Camp Randall. The defense was better than I thought it would be against ND, and the game plan itself wasn't particularly conservative. It has to go on Henne, and he realizes this, because he failed to execute.

The Texas-Ohio State game was great, but I really feel like Senator Tressel cost his team the game with how he used his two quarterbacks. I've never seen a two-qb system work, I've only seen it needlessly force some people into confidence problems. To me, the only way to make such a system work would be to run two completely different offensive systems, to change total offensive packages for each guy, like have one run the triple option and the other a spread. But the way Tressel used his guys was particularly odd, as there seemed to be no rhyme or reason why one came in at one point and then why the other came in.

The fantasy team did not have its best week. We had a lot of disappointing performances, either because the team played poorly- Nate Burleson, or were coached by a guy who might well be the most stubbornly stupid coach in the NFL- Stephen Jackson. We also had some weird things, like the Bills throwing to a tackle on the goal line rather than giving to McGahee, or Chad Johnson going out for two series with leg cramps. We have a few guys on thin ice, like Matt Stover, but we'll see if next week will be better.

I was pleasantly surprised by the Lions, and surprised at how poorly the Packers played. I think John will write about how bad Ahmad Carroll is, but he was not really, you know, good. When he wasn't getting beat, he was commiting a penalty. The Packers also beat themselves in other areas, as they don't get the lowest scoring output of the Favre era without screwing up. I don't know exactly how they are going to survive without Walker and the problems on the offensive line, who were dominated inside by Wilkinson and Rogers, but this could be a long year for Brett Favre. The defense was a pleasant surprise for the Packers, but then Jim Bates is a great coordinator. The Lions played conservativley, too much so in certain spots, but still played well. They need a win against the Bears now to set the tone going into the bye in week 3.

One quick Monday observation. When Hubie Brown came into the booth to talk wih Michaels and Madden, it got me thinking that Hubie, assuming he knows anything about football, would probably do well in Madden's job. But what if you switched others? Who wouldn't want to hear Madden talk about David Eckstein's hustle for forty-five minutes in a playoff game, or Tim McCarver getting needlessly self-righteous while doing an NBA game? Sounds like a plan.

Qualifiction

So today, Michael Brown, the former commissioner of an Arabian Horse Association and who worked in disaster relief efforts for about two minutes, has been relieved of his duties heading up the Katrina relief efforts. As much as conservatives are telling everyone to "not play the blame game (while of course doing all they can to lay blame on the feet of the local and state government)," its also obvious that Brown has been made the scapegoat. It's also obvious, at least at this point, that there are certain jobs in the federal government that really should not be political appointments. Brown was essentially given the job by his former college roommate, who was also Bush's first campaign manager. This is me putiing this out there: If Adam Plunk, Dontz, Roman Rezhnikov, Julian Ignaczak or either of the guys from DC ever get some important job in government, I'm also expecting some job I am ridiculously under-qualified for, especially one that might well put me in charge of an agency where people's lives are on the line and I'm not adequately prepared to handle it.

The Roberts nomination surprised me. When I learned that Rehnquist had died, I figured, with some horror, that Antonin Scalia would have been made chief justice. Instead, its John Roberts. Its not totally unbelievable that someone who wasn't on the court be named chief. Earl Warren, I think, did a pretty good job when he became chief. Rehnquist's legacy, well I don't know what it is. I think most people will see him as the man who ushered in a conservative majority, but I think that had a lot more to do with politics then Rehnquist's own brilliance. He was never Scalia, who, while hateable, is also brilliant. I think though, that the Rehnquist court never had a "Brown v. Board of Education" or "Roe v. Wade," a society changing decision. We had "Bush v. Gore," and "Lawrence v. Texas," but I think the former will be seen as a political decision, and Rehnquist was in the minority on the latter. he funny thing is, this week, the episode of the West Wing where Bartlett nominates both a brilliant liberal and a brilliant conservative to the court to have it out, came on. It made me think how important the court is in articulating different philosophies, and how difficult it is to believe that we aren't going to be getting more of those brilliant people on the court. I don't think Roberts will be one of those people, and I don't expect the next one, the one who will now replace O'Connor, to be one either.

Pitt's only touchdown came on the opening kickoff. They lost to Ohio. I'm just saying.

About Last Night

I wanted to comment on the absolutely fabulous tennis match I saw last night. There were so many fabulous storylines in the Blake/Agassi match, but the tennis, for the first time in what seemed like years, actually matched the hype in a big match. That Agassi could come back from 2 sets down, and then that Blake could rally in the fifth, and then Agassi coming back, it was amazing.The crowd was so into it (even at 1 a.m.), and it was wonderful to see the crowd go back and forth (you obviously heard that both had big cheering sections at Arthur Ashe). My only complaint was that there was too much play from the baseline, neither guy really came to the net very often. But that's me being very picky.

I've been very surprised, with the increase in the popularity of golf, we haven't seen the same sort of surge in popularity in tennis. Obviously, the women's game is healthy, but that's primarily because of the personalities, and well, the attractiveness of the Williams sisters and Maria Sharapova. But the men's game, in many ways, hasn't been as exciting in many years. I realize the problem, that the dominant player, perhaps the best player of all time, Roger Federer, isn't American and relatively unknown. By relatively, I mean that he could walk into most sports bars wth a shirt reading "I'm Roger Federer, the tennis player" and people still wouldn't know who he was. But tennis is far, and I mean, worlds more athletic than golf, and it allows you to express yourself more athletically. You see more of a tennis players personality on the court than a golfer on the course. Its also far less expensive to play (all it really takes is a racket, which still won't cost you as much as a driver), and tennis courts can be more easily found in cities than golf courses. Maybe its just the yuppie-ization of America that leads people to embrace golf over its country club sibling.

I'll post more about Katrina and Rehnquist/Roberts later today or tomorrow (headed to Adam's tonight to watch the Patriots game and *shrug* the OC).

Week one thoughts

And mercifully, it ends. This weekend, I've spent much of my time watching the first weekend of college football. I can honestly say that the worst game I saw all weekend was the one that was just on, Florida State/Miami. After what I just saw from Florida State's QB's, though mostly Drew Weatherford, I am even more firm in my belief that they will lose to BC on the 17th, mainly because BC will oline up and hit them in th emouth more than Miami did, and I have no bloody clue how FSU will move the ball against Toal and Kiwanuka.

Obviously two big stories emerged over the weekend. One was the loss of Oklahoma. Now I'm always skeptical about teams "reloading" especially when they lose a lot at one position at one time. Its not just Jason White, the biggest choking dog in NCAA history (he essentially stunk in the three biggest games of his career: two national championship games and one Big XII title game), I thought the loss of three of their top receivers at once would hurt more than anyone realized. Obviously it did, as they couldn't move the ball at all. Even Adrian Peterson can only do so much against a nine man front.

Notre Dame was incredibly impressive. They didn't just beat Pitt, they essentially dissected them. Weis will always put them in the right position to win offensively. I think the trick is going to be finding the right defensive personnel. He doesn't need all world recruits on offense, all he needs are people who fit into the system he runs and a smart quarterback.

Michigan did not look great, or the best I can tell, they didn't look great. It was one of the weirdest experiences ever not being able to listen to or watch the Michigan game for really the first time ever. I had "Watch the game" on one of the gamecasts which tells you what the last play was. Thankfully I'll get the next game for sure. The defense looked not terribly good, but I also believe that they can improve as the competition gets better and the intensity gets hyped up. The offense looked incredibly good, as they did in 2000. Hopefully the defense is better than that though. My heart couldn't take going through that again.

I'd like to put in a word about the greatness of Jerry Rice. No one, and I mean no one has ever been a better receiver, and no one ever kept themselves in such phenomenal condition (just ask any teammate who ever joined him on "the hill," a horrific torture device of a workout where Rice led the poor unsuspecting soul up and town a torturous climb. I don't have a problem with him wanting to hang on either. Even if his skills were diminished, only he has the right to make the decision to leave. He never was an embarrassment, he played in incredibly well in Oakland, as he neared an age where his peers might have been retired for years. Most of the time, whenever I saw him on TV, you could really only say "wow," becasue he did everything so absolutely perfectly, with such precise execution.

Nothing, except to say...

While listening to the radio today on the way home from Barnstead, I heard something interesting. Rachel Maddow, who was substituting for Al Franken on his show was talking about the media coverage of the Katrina disaster. She pointed out something that I should have noticed earlier; that the correspondents for the networks covering the events in New Orleans are being radicalized before our eyes. Last night, Anderson Cooper of CNN went after Mary Landrieu after she thanked the government officials supervising the events in New Orleans. Though he himself was in Mississippi, he had seen his own share of awful things, lie a dead woman floating in the water, her body being consumed by rats as she floated. Today, while flipping through various channels, I saw Shepard Smith, that's Shepard Smith of the Fox News Channel, lambasting the government's efforts to save some of the people he saw essentially dying on the highways and bridges he was broadcasting from. We've seen terrible images, the likes of which we never see here in the United States. Maddow kept saying how there seemed to be a national question of how could this have happened, and an outrage that this could happen in the United States. Frankly, I've been asking myself the same thing.

This is probably the worst humanitarian catastrophe in America since the Dust Bowl, and the worst natural disaster since the San Francisco earthquake in 1903. The staggering incompetence shown in dealing with this has been incredible. It took days for food to reach people, days of them sitting, and some dying, in front or inside of shelters. We've seen the very epitome of desperation, people begging total strangers, through cameras, for any kind of help. Andrew Sullivan made the point that if conservatives are supposed to believe in anything, its law and order. Funding emergency services, and the armed forces are supposed to be what conservatives do. What has happened this week is gives the lie to that. Or, at the very least, gives the lie to the idea the George Bush is competent. Anyone can believe what they will about politics, about what government is for. We can all agree on one thing, government is supposed to be there for things like this, to protect the citizens of their own country from harm, to save them from disaster. There have been dozens of disasters in other countries, deadly earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, which were essentially ignored by people here. The governments of those countries often couldn't help their citizens because their nations lacked basic necessities like adequate roads or equipment. We have adequate roads and adequate equipment. The reason no one though a disaster like this could happen, that Americans would need to be bussed from one city to another as refugees, is that it shouldn't have happened. It was unfathomable.

I thought President Bush was having a bad summer before, given the case Cindy Sheehan was making against the war, a war with no end in sight, one that doesn't seem to have accomplished very much in Iraq. Now, the image of his presidency, which once was the man in the jacket throwing out the pitch at Yankee Stadium or the man standing in the rubble of the towers with firemen, has changed. Its now the image of the man who, when his country needed leadership, seemed unable to leave his vacation home. The man who looked outside his billion dollar plane to see the damage caused by nature, and the toll it was taking on the forgotten of society. The man who today, in trying, one can only suppose, to give comfort to those who have lost everything, said he couldn't wait to sit on the front porch of Trent Lott's new house (The same Trent Lott who lost his job as majority leader because he seemingly endorsed the platform of a segregationist). While tens of thousands of the poorest Americans, who have lost everything and are taking what they can to survive he said he couldn't wait to sit on the porch of the new mansion for one of America's most powerful, and richest, men. In the four years since 9/11, we've been told we were preparing for a disaster, that we were ready for anything that might come to hurt us. Obviously, that wasn't the case. We seemingly haven't learned anything about disaster response since that Tuesday. It seems to have only gotten worse.

There isn't much else to say. I'm sad, I'm tired, and I'm angry. One of America's greatest cities, the one that gave birth to jazz, the one Andrew Jackson and a band of Kentucky and Tennessee woodsmen defended in 1815, the one that gives us Mardi Gras, and the one that millions of Americans call home or who have families to call it home is under water or in a state of anarchy. Please, lets just hope things will get better this weekend.

Good Morning America, How are ya?

Obviously, the damage done to the city of New Orleans, and the corresponding meltdown have been the news. Hopefully, if some good comes from this tragedy, it will be greater awareness about the problems facing the underclass. The people in New Orleans, the ones who were unable to evacuate, were there for a reason. They didn't have the money to leave. The problems facing the underclass are the great under-reported story that is always unwritten. But the horrible problems with the response, and now, the stories about funding for the levies being diverted are becoming embarassing, and they are taking away from where the attention should be focused, getting the people still there out and then repairing what's left under the water.

And by the way...yes, a conservative group has said that New Orleans got the Sodom and Gomorrah treatment, that God destroyed the city for its wicked ways.

Just in case there is any question about what a schmuck Sean Hannity is, here is proof of his schmuckiness. Last week, a soldier from Indianapolis was being buried. As has been there custom at military funerals around the country, Reverend Fred Phelps and his church/members of his crazy-ass family, the same people who protested at the funeral of Matthew Shepard, picketed the funeral, essentially saying that the death of the troops was a result of America's tolerance of homosexuality. While the people who attended the funeral essentially ignored the protests, the local media did not. This was what Hannity said on his show: "The protesters were headquartered in Kansas. They traveled across the country to demonstrate against a soldier." And you know something? I guess this is just another example of how the anti-war left supports our brave troops. 'Cause isn't that what they always say? They're disrupting the funeral, tormenting a grieving family. Can you believe I even have to bring this story to the airwaves? And creating an incredible spectacle in the middle of an occasion to honor a guy who died serving his country? But of course, they're supporting our troops. They're not supporting them; they're targeting our troops!"

Now here's the really significant problem I have. Hannity had to know he was lying through his teeth, I simply refuse to believe that anyone with a nationally syndicated radio show, even if they are conservative and pushing an agena, wouldn't know who Phelps is, and what he was doing. There have been other stories about these protests in the past. This means that Hannity deliberately misrepresented facts to promote a political agenda, which I suppose he might well do anyway. But here, it such an obvious lie, and there are enough people who probably took this as fact and believe that anti-war protestors are the worst kinds of people. Which they aren't. Sean Hannity and Fred Phelps are.

Not Arrogance, but Excellence

So this weekend brings me the first really great problem with being away from home. This weekend is the start of the college football season, the one I've been waiting for since USC (the real one, the one in LA) leave its tire marks on top of the group of people who appeared at the Orange Bowl in Oklahoma Sooner uniforms. Unfortunately, because New England is, well, different from the Midwest with regards to college football, I've gone from being surrounded by discussions of Notre Dame and Chad Henne to discussions of how Jerry Remy's announcing effects the Red Sox. This means that this Saturday, the real opening day of college football, instead of seeing Michigan at 3:30, its BC and BYU. Now don't get me wrong, I respect BC, in fact I think they'll wing the Atlantic Division of the ACC over FSU, and it'll be good to see BYU wearing their old uniforms again, rather than the bibs, but come on. And, to make things worse, XM, which is supposed to carry Big Ten football games, doesn't have any Michigan broadcasts (or Ohio State), which makes me think that there's a problem getting the rights. Now, beccause they are Michigan, I'll probably still be able to watch quite a few games (ND and OSU come to mind, plus the ESPN games) but what concerns me will be my ability to watch games like Iowa or State, where I might end up having to watch a lame ACC game instead of Michigan. I may just resort to calling in to TKA and asking to listen to the feed from WJR. This is the height of poo.

A couple of weeks ago, myself and the Adams agreed to join a Salmon Press Fantasy Football League. While I originally was not totally into it, as the draft approached last Sunday , we, as a group started having stategy sessions, and got a draft plan together. Seriously, we took a lot of time and planned everything out. Sunday, we made our way to Meredith, witnessed an accident directly behind us, and then made our way to the draft. We did pretty well, considering that this was our first real draft, and our startaegy sessions/gameplan seemed to pay off. Here's our team- Our league requires 3 QB, 4 RB, 4 WR, 2 TE, 2 defenses/special teams and 2 kickers

QB
Peyton Manning
Carson Palmer
Kyle Boller

RB
Stephen Jackson
Willis McGahee
Carnell Williams
Thomas Jones

WR
Chad Johnson
Nate Burleson (sorry John)
Michael Clayton
Darrell Jackson

TE
Dallas Clark
Randy McMichael

Defense-Special Teams
Chicago
Denver

Kickers
Matt Stover
Shayne Graham

One last football related thing. Yeah, I watched the game Monday. It was bad, really bad. One thing I'm noticing, and frankly, we should have seen it when he was hired, but Steve Marriuci is one of the primary things holding the Lions back. Among the many teams that run some version of the West Coast Offense, the Lions' is by far the most conservative. Teams like the Packers and Broncos run rush heavy versions of the WCO (or the Cincinatti System, as it should be called, since that's where Walsh developed it for Ken Anderson) but also go downfiel often. The Vikings and Cardinals both run a version using three wide recievers. Even the Rams and Chiefs' offeses carry elements of the West Coast Offense. With the three wide receivers, the Lions should have an exciting, vertical style of offense. But they continue to dink and dunk. They run 4 yard patterns when they need five yards, or they give to the fullback on fourth and one. Marriuci, for one reason or another wants to stick to perhaps the most outdated version of the offense, without fully utilizing the potential of his receivers or his quarterback. if the Lions aren't in three-wide sets at least 35% of the time this year, and they lose, it shouldn't be on Joey. It should be on Mooch for taking bullets out of his own gun.

To Hell with the Moon Man

I didn't watch a lot of the VMA's last night. When I did, I happened to see a couple of commercials MTV was running for itself, one of which was them trying to refute the charge that they don't play music. They do, in fact, play music. They are right about that. Unfortunately it’s often late at night or in the early morning, or at any other time where the majority of their audience won't be watching. The problem with MTV, and I know I'm not alone in saying this, is MTV, like ESPN often does, has lost its original mission. Some of the original stars of MTV included Rick Ocasek and other not so attractive people. Today, even if one looks at the shows MTV puts out, the not incredibly attractive people are shunted to the side.
What we're seeing now is that shows like Laguna Beach, Room Raiders, and other shows essentially celebrate the importance of wealth, of the rest of u watching spoiled children acting like spoiled children, and having it passed off as some kind of hard earned or superior maturity. It’s not.

Last season, when Trey Parker and Matt Stone explicitly went after Paris Hilton, they had Mr. Slave tell us that parents essentially need to teach their children that people like Paris are not to be admired, but to be despised. What MTV is essentially telling a generation of American young people is to be as vapid as possible, and that when they are, they will be that much more superior to those who aren't. The only time we see nerds, geeks or other not incredibly attractive people, its them being changed, essentially being told to stop being themselves and be a part of the faceless mass worshipping the beautiful vapid people. We see this in the Real World as well. In the beginning, it was a fascinating character study of people being placed in an unfamiliar situation, with unfamiliar people, and asked to live their lives. They were real people essentially continuing their own lives, not people plucked from an A&F catalog to make out in a hot tub. While MTV embraces the idea of being the channel of youth culture, the one that sets trends in the teeny-bopper set, they might have done so too much, to the point where it is obviously no longer about good music, but about selling MTV as a product. Those original VJ's, the one's who attended Live-Aid and were as swept up in the emotion of the day as anyone, those that brought us Headbanger's Ball and Yo! MTV Raps, shows that were actually about expanding the audiences of metal and hip-hop, that themselves are considered defining moments in the history of those genres, they at least seemed to give a damn about music, to actually care about what they were playing. They had opinions, and if something socked, or was much too poppy to be considered anything but selling out, they would let you know. Those people are gone, and the ethic that spawned them seems to have been killed in some meeting room at Viacom. Now, its nameless, pathetic hipsters and a few of the old guard who've compromised themselves so much they're barely recognizable. That's not what made us want our MTV.

It's odd, but MTV was really one of the first networks on cable to put out their own shows. Now each and every one of their reality shows, and their scripted ones, is found wanting when compared to the shows on channels like F/X, Bravo, SciFi, and, perhaps worst of all, by VH1. Each, in their own way, has taken on the limits MTV used to pride itself on pushing. Nip/Tuck , The Shield and Rescue Me are all incredible shows, but each push limits and also show real pathos and heart. SciFi might have the best show on TV. Bravo's reality shows, no matter what criticisms you want to make of them, at least show real people. Do you think Wendy Pepper or Austin Scarlett would have been on Project Runway if MTV did it? Of course not. It would have been some neophyte graduate of the Fashion Institute who looked good in low-riders. VH1, despite their obsession with lists and celebrity news, at least shows us what real people look like on a show like Celebrity Fit Club. And to be quite frank, Gary Busey is a far more real person than the cast of Laguna Beach combined. Hell, if you want a realistic picture of high school, go find The N and take in a few episodes of Degrassi.

When I was in high school, I always imagined there'd there would be some sort of show made about our class; that we were just small enough to be manageable, and just large enough to provide good characters. Now, I realize that while our problems were often petty and immature, we would never have made good TV. We probably wouldn't have been thought of as pretty enough and those who didn't drive Escalades home wouldn't count.

Back, Back again

So I have a new, or at least semi-new, computer now. My parents came Monday, along with my grandmother, and brought the desktop my brother had formerly used at school, but no longer needed. Frankly, its worlds faster than what I had, so anything would have been an improvement, but it still does some taking used to. My parents, my grandmother and my aunt Claudia have been here all week and leave Saturday morning. Its been really good to see them, especially since I usually don't have a ton of time at home when I'm there. Still, I've had to work all week still, so yesterday and Tuesday I didn't get to see them very much those days, but we're going to dinner tonight, and will have much of the day tomorrow before they leave.

Good to see that its been a relatively uneventful return to school for the Albion folks, as well as Robert at Valpo. Now, I did see that the long distance cables went out in Albion, so there was a brief loss of long distance phone coverage, but there was something similar that happened up here a few weeks ago, when a truck took one out of the low hanging cables. Just a note to a few of my Albion friends, if you're going to go to the Barbara Bush lecture tonight with the idea to create a scene to protest the war, or ask a very smart alecky question, don't. If you want to protest, b respectful and do it quietly. Like it or not, Barbara Bush is still a beloved Grandmotherly figure, and it will almost certainly be covered by local media. We really don't want to create a controversy that will ultimately embarass the college, or our student body. I don't really like that she's coming either, but it might be best to just grin and bear it tonight.

I'll post stories from the last couple of weeks, as well as more thoughts tomorrow. Break a leg tonight John Paul.

So yeah...

So most of this week, my computer has either been disabled, or simply turned off. The reason? While surfing on Monday, I seem to have downloaded some spyware and a virus (the New Poly Win32 virus), which has made using this computer very difficult, so this might be a truncated post. My parents, along with my grandmother and my aunt Claudia will be coming next week, and will bring with them Robert's desktop, which he doesn't need at Valpo. So I'll likely be switching computers sometime Monday or Tuesday, at which point I'll be totally up to speed with emails and IM's.

Its been an interesting week, but I want to focus on just a few issues, two from sports, and one news story.

First, golf. I watched most of the final round of the PGA Sunday, mostly in part to Phil Mickelson being involved. Like many people, I tend to prefer Phil to Tiger, for the same reason people root for John Daly, Phil is more human, more approachable than Tiger. I began rooting for Phil in 1999, when I heard a Detroit radio host criticize him for saying he would leave the US Open if his wife, Amy, went into labor. When I heard that, I immediately saw Phil as someone who actually had his priorities in the proper order, and therefore, as someone to root for. The fact that he survived being labeled, "Best Player never to win a Major," for so long, also made him human. It really shouldn't surprise anyone that he drew such crowds of vocal support Sunday and Monday, in many ways, he's closer to the rest of us than someone like Tiger.

Part of the worship of Tiger, and the subsequent derision directed at Phil for so long can be explained by the movie Searching for Bobby Fischer. Joe Mantegna's character, the father, is a sportswriter, and wants his son to have more of a "killer instinct" to have more of an all-consuming drive to win at allcosts, the same qualities he admires in the athletes he covers. Josh's mother, Joan Allen, loves that her son is sensitive to other people, and is, in many ways, a saint. She doesn't really want her son to become some cold, unfeeling chess machine. In the end, it's Mantegna's character who learns that his son, the person, is much better off being the kinder, more sensitive person, than the killer. What people admire about many athletes, like a killer instinct, like their single-mindedness, can often make them wretched to deal with outside of those arenas they are used to. They might not know how to relate to people, how to be anything but the athlete or coach. What I love about Phil is that its obvious his family is the most important thing in his life, that he'd rather be a great father than a great golfer.

The Randy Moss issue, frankly, is incredibly stupid. Personally, I'm not shocked he admitted to smoking marijuana, and frankly, neither shopuld anyone else. He hasn't been a part of the substance abuse policy, and it hasn't seemed to effect his performance on the field, so frankly, I don't see the real issue people have with him. The issue might well be why the NFL only tests once a season for illegal drugs, essentially allowing someone to smoke 11 months out of the year, except before camp.

I admire Cindy Sheehan. I can understand why, for example, she seems to have been somewhat radicalized, especially with regards to Israel. She has been, by far, the most effective messenger of the anti-war movement, one who has an incredibly powerful story. Has it helped that it is August, traditionally the slowest news month? Of course. It's helped that there is very little activity in Washington, nothing to distract the news cycle from Sheehan's protests. The President has mostly appeared cold and unfeeling, as someone more interested in working out and tooling around his Crawford mansion (a ranch is a working farm, with animals. The Bush "ranch" is not a working farm, after all, he's only there about two months a year."), then dealing with Cindy Sheehan. The Republicans can't attack her directly, though theirr proxies on radio and on Fox are doing so. It will be interesting to see what happens when Bush goes back to Washington, but right now, things at Camp Casey certainly seem to be interesting.

That escalated quickly, I mean that really got out of hand fast.

I wanted to use today to talk about just a few things that have been in the air for the last couple of weeks.
The Native American mascot issue: I have always been of one mind about this. Frankly, the offensiveness of something should be judged the offended party, not the offenders. I believe the outrage over the issue that we've heard, frankly, just comes from white people afraid of having these vestiges of their unfettered dominance over the culture swept away. I understand that in some cases, like the Seminoles or Utes, the schools might have the support of the tribes. If they do, they should probably be allowed to keep those names. But frankly there are teams that need to look at their mascots. Illiniwek, for one, is offensive to many whites (including myself), as well as many Native Americans.

This one is for John, but it’s a question I've been wondering about for a while. Why is it, that with Mad TV being on for more than a decade that we've never seen anyone go from SNL to Mad TV (like a featured player, or well, there's no other way to say it, someone who got fired) or someone going the other direction. It would seem that Mad TV would look for the cache of stealing an SNL person, or that SNL would really benefit from stealing someone like Nicole Sullivan (when she was still on the show, or the guy who played Stewart.) The one guy I think the move would help the most is Frank Caliendo, because it would allow Darrell Hammond to finally leave SNL, and give Caliendo, who is seriously talented, a wider forum. The only difference between the shows seems to be that Mad TV is taped. Would the SNL people really be that nervous about hiring people because of that? I don't know.

Rush Limbaugh has offered to mediate the Donovan McNabb-Terrell Owens situation. Yes, Rush Limbaugh. The guy who got fired because he made remarks saying people wanted McNabb to be successful because he was black. Yes. This seems a good idea.

Ok, I just wanted to post this, from Dr. Dobson's website. Its from a doctor who tries to give families advice on how to prevent their children from being gay: "Meanwhile, the boy's father has to do his part. He needs to mirror and affirm his son's maleness. He can play rough-and-tumble games with his son, in ways that are decidedly different from the games he would play with a little girl. He can help his son learn to throw and catch a ball. He can teach him to pound a square wooden peg into a square hole in a pegboard. He can even take his son with him into the shower, where the boy cannot help but notice that Dad has a penis, just like his, only bigger."

Now, for a totally different (and not totally, freaky, crazy weird) piece of information- The Bears just signed Jeff Blake. Blake really seems to have never gotten over losing his job in New Orleans to Aaron Brooks. I don't know how seriously he can compete for the job of starter, nor how effective he would be when he got there. He always had the "Mad Bomber" reputation in Cincinnati, but I don't know if you can take the Bengal out of him, just like it takes time to "de-Clipperize" NBA players.

One more thing. I believe I'm not alone in saying that "American Dad" lacks something compared to "Family Guy". One reason, I think, is that there aren't the fun and random pop-culture references and random occurrences. It's all about how funny Stan is because of his job. His identity is all about his job. Peter Griffin really doesn't seem to work all that often, so his character seems more rounded and not as job-centered. The funniest moment, for me, on "American Dad" is the weird 2 or 3 minute interlude with the two electrical workers who find the golden, jewel-encrusted, you know, fecal matter, in part because it was so totally random.

Stories, and sorry, Chicago

So I went to watch the Red Sox play the Pale Hose at Adam and Shannon's and I then came home. I went to check on the Lions score (and they lost, but Joey played well), and see that Rex Grossman was carted off the field with a broken ankle. I have to admit that I laughed a bit. While viewing the Bears off-season from afar, it was obvious the one thing they couldn't afford to have happen was to have Grossman go out. Now comes an interesting question. Do they stay with Chad Hutchinson, who isn't great, and go with Kyle Orton as the future guy? I think they should go out and sign Vinny Testaverde, who at the very least is a legitimate quarterback, and could compete with Hutchinson, and could be a legitimate QB to start the season with, one that would give them a shot. It's too bad for Grossman, who I like, because, he keeps getting hurt. Its not like he's failed, he just hasn't been on the field. The question will be why was he out in the second quarter of a preseason game, where you’re almost asking for something bad to happen? Still, I guess this was the great failure of the Bears this winter coming back to bite them. Now Chicago will trudge down Michigan Ave. and consume Billy Goat burgers, and Mr. Beef Italian beef sandwiches, along with plenty of Old Style, to drown the pain. I guess it could be worse.

Here's this week's stories:


Truck accident causes phone outage; What happens next?
By Jim Shilander
Staff Writer
ALTON — An accident involving a tractor-trailer knocked out phone service to Alton, Barnstead, New Durham and other communities for more than two hours Monday, Aug. 8.
According to Alton Fire Chief Alan Johnson, the truck was traveling on Rte. 140 at around 10:30 a.m., and was either riding too high, or simply connected with low hanging telephone wires in the area, causing the outage. The broken cable also caused an accident, as a trailing motorcyclist was struck by the wire. Johnson reported that the truck had been stopped later that day.
What concerned Johnson, and other officials in the area, most, was that along with local and long-distance services, 911 service was also lost in these communities. The problem, Johnson said, came was because of the lack of a default number provided by the telephone company used by the towns. "If you lose the main lines in other towns, the calls will go to a default number. If you dialed 911 right now (during the down-time), it would tell you the switch was out of service." Johnson said the only service in Alton came through the dispatch center.
All told, the outage lasted more approximately two and one half hours. But very soon, according to Johnson, there might be a move to change the situation. "This is an issue that I see – there’s currently no default number for the town of Alton."
Barnstead Police Chief Ken Borgia echoed the remarks made by Johnson. "This is an issue that is going to be discussed with the selectmen. Hopefully we can get this resolved before any future incident." According to Borgia, Barnstead Fire Chief George Krause was also concerned about this, and had in fact looked at the problem in the past.


Board hears opinions on driveway ordinance
By Jim Shilander
Staff Writer
ALTON — Residents spoke up at Monday’s Board of Selectmen meeting, worried about the possible ramifications of proposed restrictions on driveways in the area.
The Board had looked at these restrictions in response to Fire Department concerns about the length and steepness of many new driveways. The department questions whether or not the town’s vehicles would be able to reach these homes in an emergency.
Fire Chief Alan Johnson appeared at the meeting, along with photographs he had taken of areas which concerned him (see photo, page A5). "We’re having issues with some of the larger roads," said Johnson.
He identified the area around the Alton Shores development as a problem and said that delivery trucks had had a difficult time there as well.
Johnson also pointed to the number of calls the Department had received, more than 100 in July, as evidence as to why the board should at least look at the possibility of setting up restrictions. The initial draft of such rules being looked at by the board included a provision that a homeowner could receive a waiver on the restrictions if they signed an indemnification to the town.
Public input began with Fire Department member Ned Consentino, who wondered what would happen in the future with the indemnifications after a house was sold.
Earl Bagley told the board he believed a certain pitch, or steepness, of a driveway could not be maintained by a homeowner, and that "somewhere down the line, you need to say how long a private road (can be)."
Landowner Van Hertel said that he was "very strongly opposed to the ordinance." Hertel believed that the proposed restrictions unfairly burdened owners of existing lots, and felt that if the town were to put in an ordinance, it should be for new lots only. Hertel was also concerned about the restrictions on the slope of the driveways allowed in the area, citing the hilly nature of much of the land in Alton.
Residents spoke up about another side to widening roads: the greater likelihood that someone may speed. Some questioned whether or not the fire department really needed to be concerned about this. Scott Williams, a member of the department, said, "We’ve never not been able to get into a driveway." Board chairman Alan Sherwood said the board was primarily looking for a compromise, and that the board would take into account the input from the meeting in working with the fire chief to set up another draft.
Other Business
The board announced that there would be an open house Saturday at the Town Hall, from 9 to 11 a.m. in conjunction with Old Home Days.
The board granted approval of waivers for an improved septic design at the Half-Moon Cottage Colony. The new system would be taking the place of an old, outdated one.
The board also announced a return to a more traditional schedule in September. The selectmen agreed to meet on the first Tuesday of the month (after Labor Day), Sept. 6, and then meet on the third Monday, Sept. 19.
Resident Greg Fuller brought up potential safety hazards, especially for children, at the Swap Shop at the town dump.
Finally, the board voted to accept the offer of Health Trust Service to take over the billing responsibilities for retired town employees. Currently, town employees needed to take time to work on sending mailings out.


Planning Board approves Goodrich application
By Jim Shilander
Staff Writer
BARNSTEAD — After a lengthy series of questions, the Barnstead Planning Board approved waivers for the current plans for Clarke Goodrich’s subdivision along Narrow Road, and ultimately accepted and approved the plan at their August 4 meeting.
Much of the controversy about the plan stemmed from its location, as it sits between to parcels of town owned conservation land. Members of the planning board are trying to come together with Goodrich on a plan for what might happen to the land if Goodrich sold or passed along the property.
Secretary David Allen and others urged a solution, which might give the town some right of first refusal on portions of the subdivision if it was to be sold or passed along. Goodrich initially was hesitant, stating, "I can’t predict the future about this land. I have no intention of developing beyond the subdivision…let future boards look at what might happen in the future." Eventually, however, Goodrich said that the area behind the lots was considered "unbuildable," with hilly areas and wetlands, and Goodrich and his representative said they would look into the possibility of placing such a note, giving the town right of first refusal on that portion of the property, on the plans.
The other main point of contention was the maintenance of the road being put into the area. Goodrich said that the residents of the subdivision would keep up the road. There was some concern among board members about whether the road would continue to remain private in perpetuity, however.
Goodrich said he "would intend on owning the road, to keep it from being a hassle to the town." Member David Kerr, however, worried that the current plans, which called for the area to be used as vacation homes, might not change and that the area might well become permanent dwellings. The board did, however, ultimately accept the environmental waiver as well, and Kerr again voiced his worries about future road ownership and traffic when he voted "no" on the conditional approval of the application.
North Barnstead Road
Much of the public attending the meeting were there to address the board about the property owned by John and Frank Capone and Anthony Alba. The abutters are concerned about a sub-division, which would create six new lots on a 10-lot subdivision (there are already four buildings in place). Current problems with drainage along the back of the property, abutters feared, would be exacerbated by the new buildings. Board members pointed out, however, that the applicants were not responsible for correcting the current problem, only to minimize the impact of their own property. However, the board did urge the applicants to have someone look at the drainage issues raised by the abutters.
The most controversial moments of the night came in the discussion of whether or not the board would waive the fiscal impact study for this subdivision. Board members were concerned that the newly built properties, which would be permanent, needed to be looked at in terms of how much money the new buildings would cost the town in education and maintenance.
The applicants said they did not understand the need for such a study, especially since the previous applicant (Goodrich) had been given such a waiver, and was putting in more new lots. Alba said that the houses would be bringing revenue into the city and asked, "What will be the burden to the town?" Ultimately, however, the board voted to require the impact study, as well as to require a look at the environmental and drainage issues involved at the site.


Barbershoppers bring ‘Harmony’ to Alton
By Jim Shilander
Staff Writer
ALTON — After a five year hiatus, fans of harmony and barbershop music can again find a home for a weekend in Alton, as barbershoppers return to the town for the "Harmony on the Lake Festival," Aug. 19 and 20. This is hosted by the Alton Centennial Rotary Club and the Nashua chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society.
For more than 50 years, barbershop quartets made their way to Alton, with the help of Alton residents Lester and Aida Downing. After their deaths, says Event Doug Dore, chairman of the Alton Centennial Rotary Club, "it was getting very hard (for the Downing descendents) to get help the last few years. There was no one on this end to help these things."
This year, the Rotary Club has revived the tradition, working with selectmen (to put an event in Alton Bay), with Prospect Mountain High School (to hold a large concert in the school’s auditorium), and the American Legion (to provide an "after-glow" event for the singers).
The high school is the change most exciting the singers, according to Dore, "A lot of the barber-shoppers said the old school wasn’t air-conditioned, and the concerts were on hot August nights. The auditorium at the high school has air-conditioning."
The festival kicks off Friday at noon in Alton Bay’s Railroad Square Park at the town boat docks, and will culminate Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. with a concert in the auditorium of Prospect Mountain High School (Route 28, south of the Alton Traffic Circle).
There will be several free informal workshops on Saturday. Everyone is invited to show his or her talents by joining in songs in harmony or participating in a one-hour "learn to sing" lesson. Quartets will entertain those who prefer to relax on the Winnipesaukee Belle, an old Mississippi river paddle wheeler, which will depart from the Alton Bay town dock at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and at 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. on Saturday.
There will also be a silent auction, vendor stands, information on local community organizations, barbershop history, and a variety of food booths, including a spectacular southern BBQ, in the area around the docks.
The biggest event will be the Barbershop Harmony Show, held at PMHS Saturday evening, Aug. 20, at 7:30 p.m. This show features barbershop choruses and quartets from around New England singing a variety of songs that celebrate the "golden age" of American songwriting.
Highlighting the program is "The Granite Statesmen" Barbershop chorus, which features 50 performing members in an all-male chorus. The Granite Statesmen’s president, Roger Menard, said the "barbershoppers are excited" about returning to Alton.
"There (are) a lot of happy memories, and a lot of excitement about returning." Menard also pointed with excitement at many of the other events on the schedule.
Dore said he was also hoping to take quartets out on the Bay on his pontoon boat "to sing to the boats." Dore says that in the future, the Rotary Club is looking to expand the festival to include other areas of Lake Winnipesaukee as well, perhaps taking various quartets to the other ports on the lake via pontoon boats.
Menard described barbershop as "a unique and traditional American art form." In bringing it back to Alton, he says, residents will again have the opportunity to "learn, listen, sing and eat." A full schedule of events at the festival can be found at www.granitestatesmen.org, and tickets for the Saturday event can be purchased at the Profile Bank in Alton.


Local crafters show at annual fair
By Jim Shilander
Staff Writer
NEWBURY — Artisans from towns across the Lakes Region, and across various mediums, are among the more than three hundred participating artists participating in the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen’s Annual Fair at Mount Sunapee Resort.
The event, which runs until Aug. 14, features "about 200 booths," according to Carol Fusaro, a public relations representative for the group. "More than 5,000 people were there Saturday (Aug. 6, the opening day of the fair)." Tents house demonstrations by artists from various mediums, as well as musical groups and the booths themselves.
Jennifer Kalled, of Wolfeboro, says she has been exhibiting since the late 70s. Kalled has been working in jewelry for the last 27 years, and works "primarily in 22 and 18-carat gold, with precious and colored stones." Kalled is also quick to point to her use of drusy quartz, which comes from the inside of geodes. Kalled’s booth was also a family operation, her daughter, Alie, assisted her mother by modeling jewelry and answering customers’ questions.
Teresa Taylor, of Barnstead, who runs Salty Dog Pottery and is an exhibitor at the event, and has been for 29 years, says that the event "gets bigger every year." Taylor primarily works in clay, creating what she describes as "functional and decorative pottery." She said she builds most of her pieces by hand, or by using a potter’s wheel. Taylor also says that her use of a salt-fired kiln makes her unique among her peers, "most potters don’t use that type of kiln."
Wolfeboro etching artist David Olson was among the group of artists who were the first to exhibit at the resort in the early 70s. "It was really fun. It was a very small community. We had tents on Lake Sunapee, and our kids would slide down (the ski hills). Olson and his wife, Susan Dean Olson, a teacher at Kingswood Regional High School, remembered listening to radios with various other craftspeople the night Richard Nixon resigned from office. Olson’s work primarily consists of his hand colored etchings of New England scenes, which he creates by using special equipment to put the design on a zinc or copper plate, then printing and hand coloring the design.
Alton has two of the more unique artists at the event. Nancy Stillwagon, creates what she calls "quaints (quilted paintings)," by painting or drawing on linen fabric, and then "quilting the focal points to create depth and softness." Stillwagon has been exhibiting at the event for more than 20 years, and has been working on her unique art form since she was 17.
Sandra White, of Alton, is the only artist working in paper at the event. Her art form, quilling, is the creation of images using tiny, rolled, pieces of paper. White says that she has been exhibiting at the Sunapee event for 19 years, and that her art form, one dating back to the middle ages, is still unique. "I haven’t run into anyone else in 30 years doing quilling."
Mirror Lake photographer Mark Klein, who specializes in "Rural images" of New England, is also an exhibitor.
Awards for Excellence presented at the preview party included the E.L. Grodin Best Collaborative Design Award, which went to Sarah Burns of New Durham and Dustin Coates, of Etna.

"I will smash your face into a car windshield, and then take your mother Dorothy Mantooth out for a nice seafood dinner and never call her back."

Tomorrow is the Lions first pre-season game. Last week, when they held a public practice at Ford Field, Joey Harrington was booed lustily by some of the fans. To be frank, I've never understood the large segment of Lions of Lions fans who so vehemently dislike Joey Harrington. There seems to be so much resentment, whether it’s about him playing the piano and the sometimes subtle and often not so subtle questions about his sexuality. The calls for Mike McMahon, I always felt were silly, because, let's be frank, all McMahon could really ever do is run around like a crazy person, he couldn't actually hit anyone throwing the ball to save his life. Harrington has struggled, but last year was, by far, his best year, and with the improved supporting cast, you would think there would be more support. Still, there seem to be a large number of fans hoping and praying Jeff Garcia is in by week four, essentially hoping Harrington fails. I am really hoping, frankly, for a Drew Brees type year from Harrington, just to shut those people up.

While at the gym today, I watched the PTI interview with Terrell Owens. Frankly, for a long time, I could understand and even sympathize somewhat, with Owens, because contracts aren't guaranteed in the NFL. But today with the PTI interview, and the petulance he exhibited really made no one happy (one other thing. The one thing that disappoints me about PTI is the fact that they rarely seem to really push athletes to answer questions. Today it was Wilbon and Ryan, but I've noticed Tony do it, along with others. Part of it, I think, comes from the way athletes deflect those questions, but still, I would have liked to have seen T.O. and Rosenhaus pushed a bit harder.) The Old School NFL Live type guys really seem to detest him at this point, as I'm sure many of the writers do. Also, Owens needs to realize that he can only live off of the Super Bowl for so long, especially since his team lost. Had they won, he would be a hero, but they lost, so he merely became an interesting footnote. There doesn’t seem to be any logical takers for Owens (though how about this, Mushin Muhammed and Thomas Jones to the Eagles, T.O. to the Bears?), so he won't be dealt. He won't be released. We probably have another Keyshawn situation on our hands. Last week in SI, Peter King made mention of the fact that this NFL season seemed to one of the most anticipated ever, and he's probably right. But the fact that the Owens saga has so dominated the headlines would have me worried if I was in the NFL offices. And isn't it funny, that with a lot of great stories in baseball, the summer has really only had three huge sports stories (Raffy, Owens, and LB)? And one more thing, when Owens talked about how he was a grown man, did anyone else want him to finish the sentence by saying "I'm the man who discovered the wheel, and built the Eiffel Tower out of metal...and brawn?"