Statue of Joe Paterno removed from Beaver Stadium

No bowl games for 4 years, statues taken down, scholarships lost, massive fines imposed, wins vacated.

By now we have watched countless hours of coverage on ESPN and other news stations involving the sanctions levied by the NCAA toward Penn State. Yesterday was a veritable media blitz covering all of the sports talk radio, local and national news broadcasts, newspapers and internet message boards.

Former players, students, coaches from teams from all over the country all had microphones put in front of them to give their opinion of the penalties against the University and the football program in particular.

Everyone has an opinion on this matter.

Some have stronger opinions than others.

Whether you agree or disagree with the punishment fitting the crime, it does not change the fact that there is a lot of healing that needs to take place for many people involved, regardless if they are directly or indirectly impacted by these events and resulting consequences.

My only hope is that some of the public figures just quit talking about it altogether.

Bobby Bowden was taking numerous opportunities yesterday to talk about the subject and used his typical – good ol’ boy, golly gee whiz’ attitude. Bobby, stop with the Elmer Fudd impersonations here. A polite comment such as “this is a hard way to back into a record” and then just walk away.

I do feel for the Paterno family. Many of the things that have happened this week I am sure are viewed by them as a direct attack on their family, their pride and most importantly to them, the legacy of the good things that their beloved Joe stood for.

Unfortunately every time they make another press release – which seems like every single day – the perceived reality in their statements appears to be far out of touch with the pulse of most of the sports fans who are following the proceedings on a daily basis.

Another side bar to this entire event is what will happen to the current football players who have been given free rein by the NCAA to go elsewhere and not have to sit out and miss any time. Head coach Bill O’Brien will have his hands full trying to keep existing players and also try to make sure the kids that have already committed to the program as freshmen to be will continue to uphold that early promise and attend the university.

Many of the football players could look to other programs , and as some speculate this could essentially turn into a college free agency scenario for this year.

Since it is late in the summer and football is just around the corner, it is unlikely that many players will leave Penn State due to the timing of it all. No matter how high the talent level, it would be difficult at this juncture to leave and go to another school and still play this year for another program. It would require a lot of things happening in the lives of those young men in a short amount of time.

As we continue to discuss this entire topic over the next days and weeks, it is important to remember that a lot has happened here in a short amount of time.

More importantly…….. It has all happened because nothing was done for a long amount of time.

Until Next time…just stay classy.

The events that occurred in Aurora, Colorado, are still being unraveled. All that we know for certain is that a single man entered a theater showing the latest Batman movie, activated a tear gas canninster and proceeded to discharge firearms with the intent to kill. He killed and maimed many as they tried to escape. We also know that he booby trapped his apartment to kill and maim anyone who tried to enter.

Plenty of questions can and have been asked. Where and how did he get the guns and ammunition? How did he get police issue tear gas and a bullet proof vest? How did he get into the theater through an emergency exit? Of course the most important question is: why?

Over the weekend almost every news show had something on about the tragedy. After interviewing as many survivors who were willing to be on air, the line of politicians was brought out. I appreciate the respect that was shown to the survivors and the relatives of the victims. I wish I could comfort each of them. I hope that each of the injured recovers and that the victims relatives and the other survivors can recover as well.

I am disappointed that so many politicians see this as an opportunity to extend their personal agenda. Some came out wanting to drive more gun control. Others came forth with more obscure suggestions. The benefit of these discussions is that the police are being given a chance to properly and completely investigate this crime. I have great faith that when give a chance the police can complete their job.

Water for Elephants (Photo credit: Djumbo)

The first time I started reading Water for Elephants, I put it down after about a dozen pages.  It didn’t grab me, so I stopped reading and went to something else.  Then I decided to give it another chance and quickly finished it.

Plot

The story in set in the 1931 and follows Jacob as he runs away from his life after a personal tragedy.  He jumps aboard a train bound for parts unknown.  Had this been a normal train, Jacob may have ridden for several hundred miles, jumped off, and found a job in a factory somewhere.  But this is no normal train – it’s a circus train.  After a rough introduction, Jacob’s training as a veterinarian lands him a job as the circus vet.  Jacob soon falls hard for the beautiful Marlena – who is, of course, married to a sadistically cruel man.

The book pulls back the tent flap and gives an interesting look into the life of the circus workers.   Not just the more glamorous lives of the performers (who are granted two buckets of water per day for washing!)  The working men often didn’t get paid, and at times would just be thrown from the moving train (redlighted).

Characters

The book’s characters are definitely very entertaining.  The love triangle of Jacob, Marlena, and August forms the backbone of the plot.  It’s very easy to cheer for Jacob and Marlena, even though Marlena is cheating on her husband.  (However, he’s jerk, so he had it coming).

The supporting case is also strong.  While the Jacob and Marlena are clear protagonists and August is the main antagonist, several of the other characters flip between roles; at some points helping Jacob and at other points hindering him.  The circus animals also play a large part in the book, notably Rosie the elephant.

Gotcha

One thing I enjoyed about the book was a very clever “gotcha”.  I enjoy being tricked by an author as long as it’s not something completely out of right field (such as a character presented as a human suddenly becoming the pet goldfish in the last scene).  In Water for Elephants, we are tricked, but the author is being completely fair.

Verdict

I loved the book.  Those who are interested in circuses, life in the 1930s, or animals may enjoy the book.  Sara Gruen’s other books also have animals as a central focus.  Although I really enjoyed Water for Elephants, I’m not sure I’ll read her other books, as I don’t generally read animal books.
 

Johnny’s longshot to win the Open Championship.

It is one of the best weeks of the year. By that I mean it the Open Championship. It is not the British Open as we Americans tend to call it. This is THE OPEN. Sorry Ohio State, this is the only event that deserves to use the word THE before itself.

Why such strong feelings about this glorious golf tournament? The Open has been around the longest. It all started in Scotland in 1860 at Prestwick Golf Club. The first playing of the tournament was restricted to professionals, (mainly who were caddies, greens keepers, club makers or ball makers by trade) and attracted a field of eight who played three rounds of Prestwick’s twelve-hole course in a single day. The winning score of 174, was shot by Willie Park Sr. who beat Old Tom Morris by two strokes. The following year the tournament was opened to amateurs; eight of them joined ten professionals in the field to make a huge field of 18, and the Open Championship was on its way. Before this time golf had been played and some club tournaments had taken place, but more often than not Match Play was the rule and Money Matches between top professionals from various clubs were often played before and after the actual Open Championship itself.

Royal Lytham and St Annes Golf Club

This year we go to the great course Royal Lytham & St Anne’s.  The Open was last played here when David Duval won it and was still a force to be reckoned with on the PGA tour. Royal Lytham & St. Annes is not your typical seaside links golf course that is the norm for most Open Championships. This is the only course in the current Open rotation which begins with a par 3 golf hole. (this is unusual for any golf course actually, but it is something more frequently seen on the elder courses in Scotland, Ireland and the British Isles). Another unusual quirk is that the golf course has 3 par 3’s on the front 9, and just one on the back.

A lot of spectators can even get a front row seat for this one….from their houses! This is another rarity in Open golf courses in that there are residences on three sides of the golf course.

The venue has not hosted too many Open Championships when compared to places such as St Andrews, but the former champion list is quite impressive. Bobby Jones, Bobby Locke, Peter Thompson, Bob Charles, Tony Jacklin, Gary Player, Severino Ballesteros, Tom Lehman and David Duval. Of this list, only Lehman and Duval are not members of the World Golf Hall of Fame.

155 players tee it up this weekend. Many of those golfers in the field are people that even devout golf aficionados have any knowledge of. There are some European and Asian Tour players that will test your meddle in name pronunciation.

Tongue twisters such as Pryad Marksaeng, Joost Luiten, Mardan Marmat, Thongchai Jaidee, and Rafa Echenique will keep Ivor Robson on his toes while he announces the players to the first tee.

The set up seems fair, but unlike some Open sites, there is an extra premium on driving the golf ball. The rough, off of the fairways is exceptionally tall and thick this year on the heels of what is even by British standards, extra rainy conditions.

Attending the tournament in person is still one of the best deals in golf. Last I checked you could get a week long pass to watch all of the action for basically the equivalent of $250- $300 USD. Try getting in for that for the entire week at the Masters!

As always set your alarm early and get up to watch the quirky holes, bad bounces, lucky bounces, horrible lies, strong winds, maybe even rain, and weather that can change faster than it takes Kevin Na to play one golf hole.

The Open is golf at its finest. Golf as it was meant to be played – over sand dunes, humps and hollows -not on overwatered and perfectly manicured greens, fairways, bunkers and tee boxes.

My pick this week – Tiger Woods. He needs to get off the snide and win another major. He seems to play pretty well when under the gun. He will be under a lot of scrutiny with unsubtle British media – especially if he is in the hunt…I think he will respond well this time.

Looking for some random candidates? Here is a short list for your fantasy golf pools – Sam Walker – Barry Lane – Greg Owen and Paul Broadhorst.

Longshot to win it? Francesco Molinari – he played well last week at the Scottish Open, might be his time to break out and win something big.

Until Next Time, Stay Classy North Berwick, Scotland

When you start writing a story of any kind, you must consider the audience you are addressing. This involves age, education, cultural background and gender. Let’s consider each of these elements individually, taking into account basic dos and don’ts. The first consideration is age.

When considering age, even the words and sentence structure may be important. For younger readers, simple and repetitive is best but not the only way. Direct stories with lessons are received well. Relationships and expressions of love have to take the younger reader into account as well. Writing about a mother’s love or father’s is appropriate. Including displays of affection between the parental characters can also be appropriate. The fumbling expressions of love between others can almost require humor, unless that is the lesson of the work, that expressions of love can seem really strange to a young person. The Dr. Seuss series of books are the most obvious examples to look at for communicating with the youngest of readers

For teens and young adults, topic must appear significant and adult. This is especially true for expressions of love between young people. Most successful young adult books mirror the experience of the readers. Older people, especially parents, just do not understand the depth of their love and everything is life altering. The Twilight series was so successful because it met this formula.

As the audience age increases, stories can become more complex or more simple as the individual tastes of readers stratifies. Complex mysteries, investigations, histories or intrigues grabs attention, as well as the simple story of good over evil or social reconciliation. In these stories, the opportunity to address love interests in a more intimate form becomes a valid option. How explicit the story becomes will definitely limit the acceptability of the work across your readership.

The true art is spanning multiple if not all age groups. Even rather young readers, although they may not be able to read it themselves, love hearing more complex stories. The Grimm’s fairy tales and The Hobbit, Treasure Island, Around the World in 80 Days are just some examples of such complex stories that appeal to younger readers. They are also stories that young adults and even older readers enjoy. If we consider the handling of love and relationships in all of these works, we can see a consistent method. In all of these works, true affection is repaid with true affection except in the case of acknowledged evil. Abusing the affection of anyone is repaid with terrible consequences. Thwarted love due to evil is redeemed and the evil is punished.

This article focused on writing about relationships across various age groups. There are similar paths when evaluating gender, cultural background and education. For example, you would not want to target a religiously serious group with sexually explicit material. You also would not target teenage boys with a story about a mother tickling her baby’s toes. This may seem obvious, but it is always a good plan to read you work with your target audience in mind.

I’ve had my Kindle out quite a bit lately, and I’ve found some pockets of time in which to read.  Here’s a rundown of my past, present, and future reading.

Past

I’ve written about my favorite author, Lawrence Block, on many occassions.  He’s primary a mystery writer, but he also writes a monthly column for Linn’s, a stamp collecting magazine.  Block has collected many of these columns into a Kindle book, Generally Speaking.

I’ve been snapping up pretty much any Block Kindle book that’s avaialble for a good price, and I think I got this for $2.99 (it’s $4.99 now).  I don’t actually collect stamps, but I don’t collect baseball cards, so I assumed there would be enough parallels to make the book interesting.

Generally Speaking is an interesting insight into the hobby itself.  While it does cover topics related to the stamps themselves, there’s also a bit of travel, geography, history, and zoology included, as Block shares his experiences as a collector.  One interesting tidbit is that Block and his wife are world travellers and make an attempt to buy a stamp and have it canceled at the post office of each country they visit.

I learned quite a bit about stamp collecting while reading the book.  More importantly, though, it was a very interesting read.

Present

I bought Water for Elephants several months ago, and it had languished on my digital bookshelf (digital end table?) since then.  I read the first few pages, didn’t particularly like the way the book started and stopped reading it.  Recently, I decided to give it a second chance to plowed through the first few pages to see if I could get to a part of the book I liked.

At this point, I’m about a third of the way through.  Based on what I’ve read, and some foreshadowing in the beginning, I have an idea how this may turn out, but there are a lot of unknowns that have to unfold.  While most of the book occurs 70 years in the past, we occassionally get a present day scene of the narrator, who is now in his 90s.

A very interesting tale so far, and I’ve found myself peeking ahead on my Kindle.

I do wonder, though, why the Waterford Crystal company didn’t introduce a line of Waterford Elephants around the time the movie came out.

Future

Once I finished with Water for Elephants, I’ll likely sit down with an old favorite, Lawrence Block’s Burglars Can’t Be Choosers.  The Burglar books are funny, and I just realized that it’s been a while since I’ve read one.

I’m also being tempted by the siren call of The Hunger Games.  I very rarely re-read books so soon after reading them for the first time, but I may make an exception in this case.

What about you?

Now it’s your turn – what are YOU reading these days?

Antonin Scalia

A trendy right-wing talking point that was very popular around the times of the Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor confirmation hearings was how deplorable the concept of “legislating from the bench” is, or how horrible a “activist judge” is. Essentially this means that a judge has not applied existing law or legal history and has instead applied their personal or political views and feelings to decide the outcome of a case. In fact, Justice Antonin Scalia has claimed that judicial activism upsets the balance of power between the three branches of government by granting drastically more power to the judicial branch.  Ironic, considering his recent opinions.

Just a little bit on Scalia history, he was appointed by the Republican Bronze Idol himself, Ronald Reagan, in 1986, and his nomination came shortly after a highly contentious SCotUS confirmation hearing – thus he faced much less scrutiny than many other prospective SCotUS judges have. He has criticized his fellow Supreme Court judges before in highly hyperbolic fashion, calling colleagues who disagree with him “perverse” or “irrational.” He’s also had controversial cases where he’s refused to recuse himself, most notably in a two cases; the Sierra Club vs. a federal fossil fuel task force headed by Dick Cheney, Scalia’s duck-hunting partner, and the now infamous Citizen’s United case where he was a personal guest of billionaire Charles Koch who was a zealous vocal and monetary supporter of Citizen’s United.

While behavior like that can be overlooked as it technically falls within the boundary of established guidelines and SCotUS precedent, two recent dissenting opinions written by Scalia show he has clearly decided his personal political feelings outweigh his responsibility of being an impartial reviewer of established law. In June Scalia penned the dissent in Arizona v. United States and said that the role of the state should outweigh the role of the federal government in immigration cases because in the first 100 years of our country’s history states had vast experience in dealing with non-citizens crossing state lines. Lest you be behind on your history, let me remind you that a massive percentage of “immigration” in the US from the late 1700’s to the mid 1800’s dealt with African American slaves moving throughout the Southeast US. Even if he had cited specific non-slave times when states where better equipped to handle immigration than the Federal Government, article 1 section 8 of the US Constitution states Congress is responsible for naturalization, the most commonly used term for immigration in the 18th century.

Second was his dissent on the Affordable Care Act, widely known as “Obamacare.” In the dissent he says that the Supreme Court accepts Congress’ power to tax those who don’t have health insurance yet can afford it (the individual mandate) is akin to Congress having power to “force” you to participate in Social Security simply because you “breathe in and out.”  I.E. Scalia is taking a widely accepted and proven safety net from the time of the Great Depression and more or less calling it totalitarian. I suppose he forgot that political and economic misfortune caused hundreds of thousands of elderly to die a lonely cold death before Social Security existed. Later in the dissent he says that because the individual mandate should be thrown out, the whole law should get thrown out. The last time I heard an argument like that was in the movie “Animal House” when Otter was arguing Delta’s right to exist in front of the Student Court.

If Scalia keeps this up, I’ll hold him in about as high intellectual regard as Delta House.

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SOLD!

This is the third installment in my series involving the building of our new home.

This past weekend we sold our existing house. It was on the market for about 7 weeks.

The previous two times I have sold homes they have been sold very fast (both in under 20 days). I was getting a little nervous as we had a ton of people look at the home, but had not been able to sell it. A few weeks back we received an offer that that was pretty strange but thought we had it sold…and then at the last minute with negotiating the prospective seller pulled the plug on the deal and then proceeded to start making comments on why they did not want the house in the first place.

Rule #1 of selling a home…Don’t make it personal.

For about 2 days I was pretty ticked off about this first deal falling through. “if you didn’t like these things about my house why did you make an offer in the first place” was my thinking! I will freely admit I was mad. But after some smooth talking by my wife and more reasonable thinking, I figured out that this was likely a bad offer anyway. They had strange need for cash at closing some weird clauses and oddly constructed contingencies of moving into the house and closing on it. In the end it was best that this did not work out at all.

Rule #2 of selling a home – Hey Realtor – Don’t make it personal to the clients!

– Rule #1 in my case could have been avoided altogether if not only the prospective buyers realtor but also my realtor would have NOT mentioned these “personal feelings” at the time the other party decided to not proceed with their offer. All this did was escalate my blood pressure and since they had walked away from their initial offer on our home, it really didn’t matter what they thought about my house anyway.

Rule #3 of Selling a home – Being the Bridesmaid is a GOOD thing!

We had another family that came to our house 2 times in 2 days. They stayed and looked at our place for a LONNNNG time each time they were there. We found out that they ultimately decided to go with another house. Instead of being disappointed, I was excited! Even though we did not get a potential sale, it told me that obviously our house was in the running which meant it was just a matter of time before we found a buyer.

Rule #4 – It happens when you least expect it.

We were going to have an open house on Sunday. We had a showing on Friday and another on Saturday, and had an offer by 3 pm on Saturday afternoon. It was a good offer, near full price and was clean as a whistle. In the end this is all I could have hoped for.

Now my family begins the arduous task of needing to move into an apartment in the interim while our new home is being built. They are breaking ground on our new house as we speak, and it is anticipated to be completed in mid-November. The people buying our home have a closing date with us that is less than a month away!

In the meantime, more of our household contents is off to the storage unit, and the daily necessities such as beds, living room furniture, clothes, pots pans, my sons toys and of course our beloved dog – Max- are off to the pet friendly apartment we will call home for the next 4 ½ months. On the bright side the apartment we are moving into is close to where we live, and has a pool, and a small stream…pool will be good for me.

Until next time, Stay classy Overland Park Kansas.

John Carter, Warlord of Mars (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I will admit up front that I did not see John Carter in the theater, I watched it on video. I had high expectations. I had read all of the John Carter stories, and they are the comic book type stories that were written to make into movies before there were movies. The technology has advanced to make the special effects believable and Disney as the studio meant that there would not be unnecessary violence or adult content.

I was disappointed. Things just happened, with little or no explanation. The scenery and non-human characters were wonderfully portrayed, but the development was lacking. Now this next comment is just a pet peeve, but every one was chained when captured, but no-one ever unlocked the chain. Instead they would cut the chain with a sword. Now does that make sense? I was also disappointed by the apparent copying of entire chunks from other movies. The most blatant was the arena battle which was a re-enactment of the arena battle from Star Wars Episode II.

They did develop the undying love between the two main characters. Their interaction kept the movie from being turned off before the climax. The actors and actresses themselves played their roles very well, especially the villain. The “others” who are trying to control the action fall into the standard trap of most action films. They explain their complicated plans and expose their weaknesses just prior to trying to kill the hero, resulting in his escape and victory. It completely eliminates the need for the hero to have a brain, which in this case he does not.

My recommendation is to wait until the video is in the discount pile if you really think you want to see this movie.

I will be taking a break from movie reviews for a while and return to writing about writing next week.
 

 

Tim Lincecum

Tim Lincecum (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One of the most starting occurrences of the first half of the baseball season has been the fall of Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum.  Licecum won the Cy Young award in 2008 and 2009 and finished in the top 10 in Cy Young balloting the last two years.  This year, he has been absolutely horrid, with a 3-10 record and 6.42 ERA.

One possibility is for the Giants to option Lincecum to AAA.  (Note to casual fans: “Options” refers to the ability to send a player back to the minor leagues without exposing them to waivers.  A team can typical option a player in three different years).  While some have stated that this could backfire by causing Lincecum to doubt how the team values him and cause him to leave via free agency, I think this is a viable option.  Lincecum is getting crushed in nearly every start.  Surely his self confidence is taking a hit.  Maybe a handful of starts in AAA to work on his delivery and build some confidence by winning a game or two would be a good thing.  Alternately, the Giants could use Lincecum out of the bull pen for a while to get him into a different mindset.  Worrying about losing Lincecum to free agency should be a secondary concern – if Lincecum doesn’t return to form, he won’t have any value as a free agency.

Greinke’s busy weekend

Zach Greinke got ejected on Saturday for spiking the ball in frustration after a close play at first base.  He had thrown just four pitches in the game, but managed to lose the game by allowing one run to score.  Since he hadn’t pitched much on Saturday, he also started Sunday’s game.  He allowed three runs on five hits in three innings of work.  It’s hardly surprising that he didn’t pitch well, since the whole series of events likely disrupted his normal routine.

All Star Game Break

I absolutely love the All Star Game.  The day of the game is one of my favorite days of the year.  I thoroughly enjoy seeing the stars from the various teams take the field to represent their leagues.  I am a fierce fan of my own National League.  I do think that the rosters have gotten too large, however, mostly due to the idea that each team must have at least one representative.  I’d be in favor of abolishing the idea.  I’d prefer to see a standard 25 man roster composed of the best players in the game.

MLB also needs to look at the issue of fan balloting.  I like having fans vote, but the currently system is open to abuse.  You can vote 25 times per email address.  I personally have an unlimited number of addresses (by virtue of a catch-all email account) and could conceivably cast millions of votes.  I’m not sure I’d go as far as limiting it to one vote per person, but someone needs to be done.

The downside to the All Star Game, of course, is that there’s a three days break during which no “normal” games are played.

Some brief thoughts at the break.

• After many felt that he was finished, David Ortiz has resurrected his careers.  Kudos to Papi for fighting through the very tough times.
• The Orioles are 45-40, but have a run differential of -36, while Cleveland is 33-41 with a -29 run differential.  If those run differentials continue to be in the red, expect those teams to fall out of contention.
• The Pirates not only are in first place in their division, but have the second best record in the National League at 48-37.  If the Pirates can go just 34-43 in the second half, they would have their first winning record since 1992.  I was still in high school in 1992.
• Last year, Reds  minor league shortstop Billy Hamilton had 103 stolen bases for low A Dayton.  This year, he already has 104 for high A Bakersfield and is on pace for around 150.  Hamilton stills needs a lot of work defensively, but if he can eventually reach the Major Leagues, he could be a lot of fun to watch.

Other sports

Ray Allen signed as a free agent with the Miami Heat.  When the Boston Celtics failed to agree to his request for $9 million per year (they offered 6), he signed with the Heat for $3 million.  This is a clear case of Allen chasing another title, and it makes a lot of sense.  The Heat beat the Celtics in the playoffs in spite of Allen; adding Allen to the Heat should put them heads and shoulders above the rest of the league.

Jeremy Lin signed an offer sheet with the Rockets that would pay him about $28 million over 4 years (the fourth year is a club option; $19.2 million would be paid ove the first three years).  The Knicks can still retain him by matching the terms of the offer sheet.  It wasn’t so long ago that nobody wanted Lin, and he was forced to crash on his brother’s couch.

NASCAR driver A.J. Allmendinger has been suspended following a positive drug test.  His team was made aware of the suspension 90 minutes before Saturday night’s race and had to rush in a replacement driver, who arrived 8 minutes before he had to get into the car.  This could be the end of the line for the drive I nicknamed Nut Bell (almond is a nut, dinger is a bell).