Early 2011 Ramblings

The Coaching Carousel

Once again the NCAA, the supercilious governing body for collegiate sports, sports its own hypocrisy. Finding that five members of the Ohio State University team guilty of various and sundry (and I do mean sundry) lapses of judgment, the sachems levied a four-game suspension. To be served during the 2011 football season, thus allowing the miscreants the opportunity to play in the bowl game. Money talks.

Meanwhile, coaches are blithely walking away from contracts, implied obligations to players, schools, and alumni as they move to what is always dubbed “my dream job.” The latest, Brady Hoke, who takes an overall losing record from his days at Ball State, and most recently, San Diego State to fill his larder at Michigan. You can’t truly demean a man who is merely trying to make his family secure, but the Aztecs opened the coffers to try to stem this defection. If you can’t live on over $1,000,000 a year something must be wrong.

Major Dick Winters

Made reluctantly famous by the Stephen Ambrose book and Steven Spielberg/Tom Hanks HBO mini-series, Band of Brothers, Dick Winters was true to form to the very end. The man who claimed not to be a hero, but to have served in a company of heroes, passed away, and news of his death was made known only after the funeral.

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition
                                     Henry V, Saint Crispin’s Day speech before the Battle of Agincourt

The Rhetoric of Death

The tragedy of the shootings in Arizona is that, a tragedy. Six dead, another 13 wounded, a congresswoman the target of the attack, a federal judge a target of opportunity, a 9-year old girl slain.

I ask that you only listen to the rhetoric. Whether it is the sheriff of Pinal County, or one of the pundits, or the somber news anchors, or even the deer-in-the headlights Congressman Robert Brady, (D. PA)*, ask yourself a simple question or two.

Are they stating a fact or an opinion? Are they reporting news, or speculation?

We have a former FBI profiler, who has never met the perpetrator of these crimes, opined for several minutes about the progression and escalation of behavior, and on and on and on.

Of course there will be another cry for gun control, a debate between two sets of zealots. While I strongly believe in the right to bear arms, and am a gun owner myself, I don’t necessary see the need for a 30-shot clip for a handgun. (To stay on the tracks of this train of thought, this is only my opinion.)

*Representative Brady would like to extend the same protection for hate speech and threats enjoyed by the President to all members of Congress.  Other than a trampling of freedom of speech what could possibly be wrong with this lamebrained idea?

Movies and Books


After bemoaning the dearth of outstanding movies in 2010 and the paucity of great books, 2011 has started out with a bang. In the first case, literally. The Coen Brothers’ treatment of the classic 1969 western True Grit is better than the original. Then again, anyone reading this would have done a better job as LeBouef than Glen Campbell. But it is Colin Firth in The King’s Speech who has turned in a stunning performance of the stammering Bertie, who reluctantly became King George VI.

On the book front, another nod to Chris Britton. The man is money when it comes to book recommendations. This time he steered me to Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. This is the type or rich novel that John Irving, Richard Russo¸ and Michael Malone once wrote.