I Love It When Words Come To Me

Joe Posnanski is one of the best sports writers in the business today. He was, at one time, at the Kansas City Star, but is now working for Sports Illustrated. His articles come up on my feed reader regularly and I always anticipate what he has to say.

One of the most recent posts by Posnanski is on the passing of Nick Charles, a sportscaster for CNN. I heard the news over the weekend, but I had no idea who he was since I usually don't have cable or satellite TV and, if I did, I probably wouldn't get my sports from CNN.

So I read Posnanski's article primarily because he is usually good, but secondly, I read it to be introduced to Nick Charles and why his life made the news. I am so glad I did, because I found the words for something that I have been having trouble explaining.

My recent layoff caused me to think about my life and work and why I do things and what things are worth doing. I have always known that I liked to write, but I would not have had an easy time explaining why. "Why do you want to write?" somebody might say. Or, "What would would you like to write about?" is another version. Nick Charles provided the answer during his interview with Joe Posnanski.

Posnanski went to see Charles because Charles was dying and both men knew it. As their time together was ending and Posnanski was headed for the car, they had this exchange:

Nick: "Do you know what you're going to write about me?"

Joe: "No, not yet."

Nick: "Will the words just come to you?"

Joe: "I don't know. I hope so."

Nick: "I'll bet they will. I love it when words come to me."

And there it was - "I love it when words come to me." That's why I write. I want to say something, to feel something. I want the reader to feel something, to imagine something, to connect with what I've written. Not for my sake; not because I wrote it, but because, in sharing the written word, maybe we'll experience an affirmation of a previously unspoken certainty.

Like I did when I read Charles' statement.

I recommend that you read Posnanski's article, even if sports isn't your thing. But be ready feel something - the words came.

The River Road? You Can't Miss It

In case you didn't know, this is the River Road.

Photo from Fox News.

Two Films From Peter Falk

Like a multitude of people, the TV show 'Columbo' introduced me to Peter Falk. I thoroughly enjoy that show and Falk's portrayal of the rumpled detective is iconic. Watching Falk makes me think about acting. I have never aspired to do so, but Falk's style, his presentation, his comfort in character, his apparent joy in his work makes the craft appealing.

Many remembrances have flowed in the wake of Falk's passing. Aside from his role in 'Columbo' there were many movies. 'Princess Bride' gets some mention as well as 'It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World'. But let me tell you about two films that weren't mentioned that I found enjoyable.

The first is called 'Checking Out' and was released in 2005. IMDB says, "A famed stage actor reunites his family for a party, and plans to commit suicide afterwards, unless they are able to convince him not to." We've seen it twice and one of Falk's lines has become a quote around our house. Here's the trailer:

The other film, also released in 2005, is called 'The Thing About My Folks' and stars Paul Reiser along with Falk. From IMDB, "Ben's (Reiser) dad Sam (Falk) shows up one night with a note from Ben's mother (Sam's wife of 46 years), that she has left. While Ben's wife and his three sisters try to find her, Ben takes Sam on a day trip to see a farm house that's for sale. The day trip turns into a road trip while dad and son explore their past, their relationship, and why Sam's wife might have left him." This one has a road trip/coming of age feel to it, but it's not heavy. I particularly enjoy watching Reiser and Falk interact with each other.

The trailer is below.

I recommend them both.

Winnipeg Jets

The NHL's Atlanta Thrashers were recently sold to a group who intend to move the hockey club to Winnipeg, Manitoba. This will mark the return of NHL hockey to Winnipeg, which had a team in the World Hockey Association (WHA) from 1972-79, and that franchise, along with Edmonton, Quebec and New England (Hartford), joined the NHL when the WHA folded. The franchise moved to Phoenix in 1996 to become the Coyotes.

It has been announced that the new Winnipeg team will be called the Jets, as was the previous squad. No announcement has been made that I know of pertaining to the logo and colors, but this gives us a chance to look at the old ones. As always, I copied these logos from Chris Creamer's site.

1972-1974: Classic old school look. Hadn't succumbed to the 70's yet.

1979-1990: Definite 1970's update, but not a bad one. No harm, no foul. I do like the treatment on the word 'Jets'.

1990-1996: Another relatively harmless update. I do not care for the 'Jets' mark in this as much as above. I am not fond of the 'J' laying over the top of the 'N' above it. But what that does is separate out the 'WIN', which is a nice touch. I also like the drop shadows in red on the 'J' and the top of the 'S'. These nice touches are actually better than the effect of the logo in its entirety, I think.

Lincoln Brought Them All Home

After Abraham Lincoln's death and funeral service in Washington D.C., his body was carried westward to Springfield, Illinois and its final rest. Along the way, the train stopped and the body was transported to government buildings in order that citizens could pay their respects. Stops were made in about 10 cities including Philadelphia, New York, Cleveland and Chicago. And over the hundreds of miles where the train never stopped, still the mourners came to the tracks to observe the passing.

From the book:

The twenty-day death pageant transfigured Abraham Lincoln from man to myth. On the day he was murdered, he was not universally loved - even in the North. His traveling corpse became a touchstone that offered catharsis for all the pain the American people had suffered and stored up over four bloody years of civil war. For whom did they mourn? For their slain president, of course. But the outpouring of national sorrow could not be for just one man. "Not for you, for one alone;/Blossoms and branches green to coffins all I bring," wrote Walt Whitman. And so they mourned, not for this one man alone but for all of the men; for every son, every brother, every lover, and every husband, and every father lost in that war. It was a though, on that train, in that coffin, they were all coming home. Lincoln's death pageant for Abraham Lincoln was a glorious farewell to him and to the three hundred and sixty thousand men of the Union who, like their Father Abraham, had perished for cause and country.

All Men Seek Happiness

I have often commented that 'Desiring God' has been the most influential book, except the Bible, that I have ever read. Its author, John Piper, celebrates Blaise Pascal's life today on the Desiring God blog with a quote from Pascal that was key to Piper's understanding.

"All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves."

These words of Pascal's resonated with Piper and they resonate with me. Piper's reaction was also mine:

"I suspected this was true. But I always feared that it was sin. That wanting to be happy was a moral defect. That self-denial meant renouncing joy, . . . "

'Desiring God' goes on to explain that we should seek our happiness, provided we seek it in the only place (person!) in which lasting happiness can be found.

Joseph

I have been reading the story of Joseph lately. Today I am struck by another aspect of the purposes, designs, and sovereignty of God.

Why was God pleased to use Joseph in the manner He did? And the question is not meant to focus on Joseph, but God. Joseph, about whom the Bible makes no critical observations, is put through the wringer. He had not wronged his brothers, yet they despise him. He had not wronged Potipher, indeed, he was faithful to Potipher under the most difficult circumstances, yet Joseph is thrown in prison. In prison, he rises to the top again, yet is forgotten by one who received help from Joseph.

Why?

Why does God put this man of apparently noble character through this ordeal? Keep in mind, God could do anything He pleases in any manner He pleases. In other words, it is not necessary for God to put Joseph through the ordeal for the outcomes we see to occur.

Jacob and his family could have been led to Egypt to escape the famine another way.

God did not have to send the famine.

Pharaoh's advisors could have been inspired to think of the plan.

Potipher's wife did not have to have a roving eye.

The possibilities are innumerable.

But God chose this particular way.

Why?

Why send a faithful man through the grinder?

70's Saturday Today

On the way home from hunting and gathering, I had the radio tuned to a station that features music from the 70's on Saturday. Get this - they call it "70's Saturday." Pretty handy, I think.

At one point, the Boz Scaggs song 'Lido Shuffle' came on. I had not heard this song in a long, long time and it immediately took me back to a period in my life. On a similar note, I remember the MASH episode where Hawkeye suffers from an allergy and other symptoms and Sidney, the shrink, comes to help him. There's something in there about smells being a powerful memory trigger. Maybe. But songs can do it too.

So, 'Lido Shuffle' stirs up memories of listening to rock music way too loud at 'The Ranch, ' cruising around Missouri State, nee SMSU, showing the campus to a guy from out of town who, as a young father, was trying to persuade his toddling son not to admire Darth Vader so. I told him I liked Vader and he said, "Yeah, but you're not four."

So, what does 'Lido Shuffle' remind you of?

This is a live version and not the one of 30 years ago and Boz obviously can't hit the high notes anymore, but I find it compelling nonetheless.

Writers Write

More from W.P. Kinsella's "Shoeless Joe,"

"Writing is different," Salinger insists. "Other people get into occupations by accident or design; but writers are born. We have to write. I have to write. I could work at selling motels, or slopping hogs, for fifty years, but if someone asked my occupation, I'd say writer, even if I'd never sold a word. Writers write. Other people talk."

Memorial Day Photos

On Monday I got out and took some pictures of flags, and people, and people with flags. I came home and cropped and colored. I'll let you look at these.

A Thousand Words Paint A Picture

Writing. This is how it's done:

I had to go to Iowa City again that night. As I tucked Karin into bed in her room with curtains covered in kittens and ballerinas, I said, "Is there anything I can bring you?" figuring on an ice-cream bar, a Dr. Pepper, or a slice of cheese pizza, which, incredibly, she likes to eat cold for breakfast.

"Bring me the flowers, Daddy," she said. "I want some to touch when I wake up in the morning."

That night, after my meeting, I drove back to the spot we had visited by day. It was like a cathedral, the filtered light of stars and streelights peeking through the thatch of blossoms and leaves.

From the jumble in the back seat, I took a large Styrofoam cup that had once held a cherry Coke, and, walking along the dark street rather sheepishly, scooped handfuls of petals from the the overflowing gutters, wondering how I would explain myself if someone chanced to ask.

I carried them home on the seat beside me like an urn of ashes, and placed them on the night table beside Karin's bed. I watched her sleeping; she slept on her back, her right-hand palm up beside her head. She looks like Annie run through a copying machine that reduces things in size. I bent and kissed her freckled nose. I will probably never love her more than I did at that moment.

- from "Shoeless Joe" by W.P. Kinsella

Why Not Believe Him?

Governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, is one of the men on the current political scene that I admire most. He is a straight-talker. He is not afraid to mix it up with anybody with whom he disagrees, not maliciously, but honest and tough. And generally he's on the right side of the issue. He's taken on New Jersey's budget deficit which has required him to face down unions over benefits and the City of New York over a tunnel project.

Naturally, there is talk of Christie being presidential timber and he very well could be. Every time, however, the subject is brought up to him, he says no. He says he was elected to do a job in New Jersey and that he intends to do it.

Still the talk persists. According to this story, a group from Iowa visited the governor and encouraged him to run. They were also told no.

What we love about Christie is his straight talk and he's had to deal with tougher customers than donors from Iowa. He said he's not running for president. We believe him on the other stuff, why not this?

Concerning Jim Tressel

Pretend you are somebody else. But not for just a moment or for a prank. Pretend for years that you are somebody else. Can you do it? Former head football coach Jim Tressel did.

Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel resigned Monday after nearly 6 months of questions, suspensions, and suspicions. The final straw that finally got his employer, Ohio State, to pressure him enough to quit was the Sports Illustrated column that I just finished reading.

It is a damning document that paints Tressel as complicit in NCAA infractions, lying to keep the NCAA and Ohio State in the dark, and putting up a facade of ethical, even Christian behavior.

From the ESPN column by Pat Forde concerning Tressel:

"And now Tressel has been forced out of his dream job, one of the top five in America. If he's honest with himself, Tressel must wonder today how much easier life would have been if he'd just done the right thing when he got that first email warning him that his players were breaking the rules.

But this has been a lie-and-deny operation from the beginning, and now it ends with Jim Tressel's meticulously polished reputation in tatters."

Instead of heeding the Henry Kissenger maxim "whatever must be revealed eventually, should be revealed immediately," Tressel fell back on his fine, button-downed reputation and covered for his players.

More from Forde:
"When the revelations of sold memorabilia and comped tattoos from an alleged drug trafficker first came to light in December, this was all about the players who broke rules and scoffed at Ohio State traditions. Tressel, at that time, was the blindsided guardian of standards and scruples who was disappointed that his players would do such a thing.

What a charade that turned out to be. Tressel knew for months what his players had done, and hadn't told any of his supposed superiors at Ohio State. When emails made that clear in March -- when the coach was cornered -- the school lamely offered up a two-game suspension in 2011."

As bad as all this is, we've seen cheating coaches before, not to mention other boorish behavior from these guys who are supposed to be teaching young people. However, with the garden variety cheat, he doesn't usually make a show of being clean. He just tries to avoid getting caught. Tressel's not like that. He was selling honesty, Elmer Gantry-like, while he was watching the program rot. The troubling thing is his deliberate charade.

The sweater vest, the tie, the pressed shirt, the Bible reading and texting of Psalms. All of it designed to make outsiders think he was clean when he wasn't. It's the calculated deceit that really gets me, I guess. This dude is cold.

And, for me, it makes it hard to care about college sports very much. I thought I had an idea what they were about. Now, I'm doubting it.

Yes, It's Been Tried Before, But We're Expecting Different Results

From the post 'Unexpectedly' on the 'Powerline' blog:

"Why is it that after two years, bad economic news is still 'unexpected?'"

The post has a suggested reason:

"It's obviously going to be hard to achieve the unacknowledged goal of many mainstream journalists - the president's re-election - if the economic slump continues. So they characterize economic setbacks as unexpected, with the implication that there's still every reason to believe that, in Herbert Hoover's phrase, prosperity is just around the corner."

I think this is pretty good analysis. After the policies this administration has pursued and enacted, it shouldn't surprise anyone that there is bad economic news.