The Hayhurst/Stutzman/Wise debate

Well, that was entertaining, wasn't it? Here are my thoughts on the performances.

Stutzman: I felt he was strong and polished in appearance (if such things merit your attention), and I felt his responses to Hayhurst's questioning were much stronger than the attacks themselves. His bad spots came in his "outing " of Wise as having run as a republican before, then following that up with his softball question to him about the federal gov't's place in education. It made them seem like even more of a glaring double team against Hayhurst.

Wise: He came off a lot like Stutzman's mouthier running-mate. I would have liked to have heard more about why he was different than Stutzman. But he got some great broadsides in on Hayhurst, and one on Marlin: when he asked what Stutzman planned to do about standing up to GOP leadership on the issues, a question that Marlin answered by failing to answer. The thing that sunk Wise, for me, is that he really seemed to have no clue what he meant on the free trade question. He said, "I'm a free trade sort of guy", and then spent the rest of his answer bashing it.

Hayhurst: Tom, tom, tom. You really did yourself very few favors here. Besides the fact that that last cup of coffee before the debate was way unnecessary, let's look at the holes you sprang:
1. Mentioning Souder over and over until Wise called you on it like the little midget kicking you in the shin. If you wanted to draw the line that Stutzman=Souder, fine, but to keep doing it set you up for the fall. In a related note, the "You're running against Hayhurst, not Pelosi" line would have played better if you were debating Dan Coats. Not so well here.
2.The whole "Balanced Budget Amendment" thing. Common sense (and Laurie) points out that if you force a spend-happy government to balance the budget without including a SPENDING FREEZE, you will end up twice as fubared as before because they will be more likely to up the taxing than to cut the spending. And asking Wise that question was a softball right back at you. For a moment, I thought all three candidates were working against Hayhurst.
3.I know it was a note of politeness on their part, but I really wish somebody would have busted you for spending half of each response talking about the question before.
4.The one thing I hadn't thought of until Wise got you (again) on it: You sound just like Stutzman and Wise NOW... what happens when Pelosi et. al. start twisting your arm? I'm not accusing you of being a CINO... just wondering about your ability to be tough under that kind of pressure.
Unfortunately, for me, the one good thing (that wasn't something that everybody agreed on) from Hayhurst was his stance against free trade, a subject I've loathed from day one. Hayhurst's agreement on "sealing the borders" was refreshing and appreciated, but I wonder if he realizes how few friends he'll make in the White House and Congress- especially among the Californians who depend on illegals registered under "motor-voter" laws to get elected in the first place.

Stealing a page from Heather and Mark, I'll give Stutzman a B, Wise a C+ and a lecture on plaigerizing, and ask Dr. Tom if he wants a retake on this one.

NHFFL week 5

Tonight, I've sworn I'm not going to fight with this stupid "white space problem "I have every week with HTML. Why they would program something to have this damnable gap is beyond me, and I repeat the same proceedure every week, only to have to repeat it and repeat it, until magically when I do the same thing for the 100,000th time, it actually works. If it works tonight, fine; if not, excuse the inconvenience of having to roll down to the standings.

Ehh-HEM Moving on, this was one of those funny weeks. Both undefeated teams go down, and two teams scored 47 points- and lost. First we look at the Elks-Angels matchup (which oddly enough is the only one-owner matchup we've had so far). A big day for the Angels' Cowboy connection of Tomy Romo and Miles Austin and (in the same NFL game) Chris Johnson's 2 TDs helped them hold off the Elks 57-47. The other Undefeated was at the other end of the spectrum; the T-Cubs got a long score from Robert Meachum to top the Buzz Lightyears 23-16, the first time Buzz has been under 44 points all year. In the meantime, the KCAs racked up 27 points in about 20 minutes early in the late games to post a 47-21 win over the Beagles. Arizona's feast day against the Saints netted the A's 18 points. The Clock BBQs rode 15 early points from Matt Forte to a 39-25 win over the hapless Ducks. SVA broke open a close game with an Antonio Gates TD, and stretched it with a 12-spot from the Jets Monday night, to rout the Rangers 44-21. And Finally, the Rhinos roll up 37 points on just the Sunday and Monday night games to erase a 20-point deficit and keep the B2s winless, 52-47.

Next week's biggest game might just be the Rhino's last gasp. Having just lost to Buzz 56-28 two weeks ago, they face them again with a share of first place in the Scarlet Division on the line.

.

PURPLE	W	L	PF	PA	RP
KCAs	4	1	237	166	494
SVA	3	2	181	140	356
Beagles	2	3	120	179	140
Rangers	1	4	106	190	99
GOLD
T-Cubs	4	1	170	126	386
Elks	4	1	215	183	362
Clock BBQs	2	3	162	166	246
B2s	0	5	187	244	158
SCARLET
Buzz	4	1	219	122	496
Rhinos	3	2	201	204	275
Angels	2	3	180	276	66
Ducks	1	4	195	195	0

Chris' FCS page #4

On a week where the FBS shook with the losses to #s 1, 9, 14, and the routs of #s 13 and 18, I bring you the relative tranquility of this weeks FCS football. I was looking at my ratings vs the coaches poll. The 10 teams in their top 25 not in my top twenty have a combined record of 29-26; the five teams in my top 20 not in their top 25 are 24-5. Go figure.

The top three hold the same this week. Delaware (their #2) retains #1 with a 26-7 pasting of Maine; James Madison (their #6) stays at 2 with a narrow 17-13 win over Towson; and Montana St. (their #10) holds onto 3rd with another shootout win, 44-31 over Portland St. The next 4 spots are climbers. Liberty (26) goes up to 4 with a 44-20 romp on Charleston Southern; North Dakota St. (17) moves up to 5 with a 34-29 win vs tough Youngstown St.; Appalachian St. (their #1) moves into 6th after a desperate 34-31 battle with hard luck Elon; and Wofford(25), who moved into my countdown with an upset of #16 last week, climbs 6 spots to 7 with a 33-31 classic win over last weeks' #5 Georgia Southern (13), who then drops to 11th.

Jacksonville St. (3) and UMass (8) hold their spots at 8 and 9 on my chart; William and Mary (5) move into the top ten at 10 after a 26-7 rout of URI. Western Illinois (15), who vaulted to 4th last week with a win over then #2 N. Dakota St., plummet to 12th after losing to previously winless South Dakota St., prompting them to abandon their invasion of the Dakotas; South Carolina St.(12), who were a victim of the numbers game last week, move back up to 16th with a 34-13 win over Norfolk St. Stephen F. Austin (their #4) slips a pair with a last minute 32-27 win over McNeese St.; and Villanova (7), taking a week off after their beatdown by William and Mary last week, hold at 15th.

Four of my last 5 teams rank no higher than 31st on the coaches poll. Coming in at 16th is undefeated Bethune-Cookman (42), fresh off a rout of winless Delaware St.; Montana (12) whops hapless Idaho St. 30-7 to climb to 17th; the Dayton Flyers (45) enter at 18th after a narrow 21-20 win over doormat San Diego; Jacksonville (31) slips to 19th after a 39-34 slugfest with Drake; and Robert Morris (43) catches hold of the last spot on the way down after edging Monmouth 17-16. South Dakota (3-3, last week's 11th) and Texas State (3-2, 20th) drop out after sustaining losses to teams they should've beat this week.

Scanning the schedule next week, it looks like the Armageddon matchup will be #16 Bethune-Cookman and #13 South Carolina State. Since this game would be #42 vs #12 on the coaches poll, I guess it will tell us how good I really am.

Step into my time machine week twenty-four

Today's trip features a star-studded journey past the likes of the Statler Brothers and Johnny Mathis, all the way to Santana and Led Zeppelin! Plus, what was really in... The Letter. Climb on in!



10 debuts in the hot hundred this week in 1975, and I knew 4 of them-plus I'm going to mention one more. Coming in at 100 were the Statler Brothers with I'll Go To My Grave Loving You. At 94- this one was not one I knew, but I did listen to it- the follow up to Pilot's hit Magic, called Just A Smile. Having already burned their big UK hit (that flopped here) January, I thought it might be worth a listen, and it was. Way up at 76, James Taylor comes in with soft pop hit Mexico; at 74, Calypso (actually the b-side of a certain John Denver song we'll be seeing higher up) enters the chart. And WAAY up at 46, Elton John rockets in (he is a rocket man, y'know) with Island Girl. The big dropper this week is the Isleys' Fight the Power, falling 20 to 53; and guess what? We get to see a big jumper before we get to the top 40 this week! Nights On Broadway by the Bee Gees shoots up 27 to #56 this week.



How about we start the specials with my personal tops of the seventies countdown. We're at #35, which is Terry Jacks' Seasons In The Sun. This ultimate tear jerker was originally called Le Moribund when recorded in Europe by Belgian artist Jacques Brel, and was actually about a guy killing himself because of a cheating wife and a backstabbing best friend. Jacks took up the English version of the song after the Beach Boys abandoned their attempts to record it (and I have heard the Boys singing both versions- the original words are just creepy. "Now that the spring is in the air/ with your lovers everywhere/ Just be careful, I'll be there"). #34 is another visit to Carole King's Tapestry album, this time the top 10 hit So Far Away. 33 is another non-released track, and maybe one of the most emotionally charged songs of all time, Fleetwood Mac's The Chain from the album Rumours. 32 is Bread's great ballad If- a song that hit #1 in the UK in March of our beloved 1975 as done by, of all people, Telly Savales! And finally at 31, a song that's 36 and on its way out of this weeks' countdown- Barry Manilow's Could It Be Magic.



Coming into airplay alley this week are 5 tunes, 2 of which I didn't recognize when I played them. Not one of those is Linda Ronstadt at 39, up from 53 with Heat Wave. Up from 50 to 38 is one of those two, George Harrison's You. The other is the Ohio Players' Sweet Sticky Thing at 37, up 8. Moving a fast 14 to 34 are the Captain and Tenille with The Way That I Want To Touch You; and climbing 9 to 32 is the CCR-less John Fogarty with Rockin' All Over The World. We do have an Almost but not quite this time; Michael Martin Murphy peaks at 24 with Carolina In The Pines. Murphy, who started his career in a folk band with Mike Nesmith of the Monkees ( and in fact wrote on of my favorite Monkees songs, Why Do You Keep Me Hanging 'Round) re-released this song on the country charts in 1981, and it peaked at #9 there.



As long as we're in the middle of the chart, here's a curiosity I just noticed. KC and the Sunshine Band had recently dropped out of the top ten with former top dog Get Down Tonight, landing at 21. Since then , it repeated at 21, slipped one to 22, and this week climbs back up 2 to #20! Talk about stubborn!



Only one into the top ten this week, only one out- Feelings, having peaked at 10 last week, drops to 14 this week.



Number ones of other years this week Begins in 1997, where the Billboard #1 this week was the Princess Diana remake of Elton John's Candle In The Wind, which was beginning a 14-week run that would not end until January 10th of the next year and leave it one of the best selling singles of all time. 1987 saw Whitesnake at #1 with Here I Go Again; 1977 was the beginning of Debby Boone's 8-week rampage across the radio with the severely overplayed You Light Up My Life. At 1967 we find The Letter by the Box Tops, and this neat story:



The track was recorded at American Sound Studio in Memphis in a session produced by Dan Penn. Previously a musician and engineer at FAME Studios, Penn had been hired as production assistant to American Sound's owner Chips Moman, who Penn felt was shutting him out as a collaborator. Penn recalls: "Finally, I just told [Moman]...'Look, we can't produce together...I think I can produce records [alone]...But I do need somebody to cut. Give me the worst one you got'." Moman suggested Penn record a local five man outfit who had been pitched to him by disc jockey Ray Banks (Penn - "Chips was just graspin'. He'd never heard [the group]") and also passed on to Penn a demo tape of songs cut by his friend Wayne Carson Thompson which included "The Letter". Thompson's father dabbled in songwriting and would suggest ideas to his son, who had written "The Letter" after his father had suggested: "Give me a ticket for an aeroplane" as a potential opening line for a song. Penn met with some of the members of the group - who were eventually dubbed the Box Tops - "and told them to pick anything they wanted from this tape [by Thompson], but make sure that we do 'The Letter'" which Penn considered the one outstanding song.
The session for "The Letter" began at 10 o'clock on a Saturday morning and took over thirty takes wrapping at either three or five o'clock that afternoon. Penn met Box Tops' vocalist Alex Chilton for the first time at the session: "I coached him a little...told him to say 'aer-o-plane", told him to get a little gruff, and I didn't have to say anything else to him". (Composer Thompson, who says he played guitar at the session, was thrown by Chilton's vocal, having imagined the song being sung in a higher key.) Penn - "[Chilton] picked it up exactly as I had in mind, maybe even better. I hadn't even paid any attention to how good he sang because I was busy trying to put the band together...I had a bunch of greenhorns who'd never cut a record, including me...I borrowed everything form Wayne Thompson's original demo - drums, bass, guitar. I added an organ with an 'I'm a Believer' lick." Penn added the sound of an airplane take-off to the track by recording off of a special effects record played in an office adjacent to the recording studio. When the track was previewed for Chips Moman he suggested the take-off sounds be excised, to which Penn responded: "Give me that razor blade right there...[and] I'll cut this damn tape up! The airplane stays on it, or we don't have a record."



Finally in 1957, we find Johnny Mathis with the classic Chances are. I got looking at his discography, and was surprised- for as popular as he was and is, he's had only 6 top tens, and his only other #1 was Too Much Too Little Too Late with Denise Williams some 20 years later.



I'm going to split the top ten in two - 5 now, 5 after the next installment of the top albums of the seventies. Coming in at 10, up one, are Sweet with Ballroom Blitz. Run Joey Run, last week's top dog, runs down to #9 this trip. Caught in its wake if David Bowie's Fame, dropping from 3 to 8. Orleans moves up 1 to 7 with Dance With Me; Helen Reddy does likewise to 6 with Ain't No Way To Treat A lady.



Our album countdown takes us to October 24th 1970 and Santana's Abraxas. Their second lp, it then dropped for 4 weeks before returning on Thanksgiving week and closing out the year. This album included Black Magic Woman (a #4 hit that was actually a cover of a Peter Green Fleetwood Mac song) and Oye Como Va (a #13 hit, who's opening lines roughly translate to Check it out, my rhythm; originally done by mambo star Tito Puente in 1963). Interrupting it's reign was Led Zeppelin (once again) with Led Zeppelin III. This lp included Immigrant Song (#16, and the genesis of their "hammer of the gods" nickname), along with Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp and a song I recently heard on my pandora station, Gallows Pole. The new year, 1971, began with George Harrison at #! for all of January and half of February with his 3-disc debut album, All Things Must Pass. This album had a who's who of guest artists on it, including Ringo Starr; John Lennon (according to some); Badfinger; Eric Clapton with Derek and the Dominos; Billy Preston; Gary Wright; Maurice Gibb, on keyboard on one song; Bob Dylan wrote one song for the album, and Harrison also covered Dylan's If Not For You; and finally, on the bongos on one of the songs, a young Phil Collins, prior to his joining Genesis. It also had 2 singles: the number ones My Sweet Lord and What Is Life.



Top 5: The Eagles fly up 4 to #5 with Lyin' Eyes; The Spinners edge up 1 to #4 with Games People Play. Neil Sedaka blasts up 3 to #3 with Bad Blood; Dickie Goodman laughs his way to number 2, up 2, with Mr. Jaws; and that means the new top dog this week in 1975 is....


John Denver, higher as promised, with I'm Sorry.








That's it for another journey. Keep on Humming!

My dad's favorite saying...

...used to be during any of his beer-fueled stories when at the conclusion, some admirer/enemy/total strangers would stand up and say, "G-- d---it, Woody, you're right!" Well, today is my turn. Leaf back to my August 26th post ("now playing qb for the Cardinals... Emmit Kelly") where I made such joyful fun of the Cards' QB tandem of Matt (whadda I gotta do to prove myself? play football?) Leinart and Derek (lemme see... the guys on my team are the ones in the same uniforms as me... right, coach?) Anderson. Only weeks later, Leinart was singing "do you know the way to Houston, USA", and Anderson became the annointed one. Four fun filled weeks of disaster later, Anderson has played his way out of a job he basically had all to himself, as the Cardinals are set to name BYU grad Max (hello, is there anybody here... anybody?) Hall as the new standard bearer.

4 weeks preseason, 4 weeks season; 8 weeks has got to be the shortest time in history for any football team at any level to have two qbs stink their way out of jobs.

As I type this I'm trying not to watch my Reds finish getting no-hit by Roy Halladay in the opener of the baseball playoffs. Could life be any better?

Sure! I could be on the unemployment line like the Dolphins' Special teams coach, after my 'Fins gave New England enough points in the second half Monday night to win not only the game, but quite possibly the next one.

The ball game is over. Halladay was a base on balls away from a perfect game. Gawwwd...

By the way, in interests of fairness, I want to publically thank Congressional candidate Tom Hayhurst. After the post last week for which Charlotte took me to task, I looked into Hayhurst. Having questions, I e-mailed him and received responses from both himself personally and his staff. Nothing catches my attention more than a politician who doesn't feel he must reply in a form letter. I'm not completely convinced, but Dr. Tom makes a pretty good case.

NHFFL week 4

Well, the league average dropped 16 points this week- it's the first bye week. I didn't get the memo on that, on two fronts- first, the B2s had NO running backs (three guys off and one hurt); second, the State Ducks ignored the situation and set the year's new point record! The Angels also suffered for my stupidity, having no active QBs- at least in this case, though, it couldn't have made less difference.

This week was an inter-division games. The Purple showdown for first had the KCAs topping the SVA 30-23, with Michael Bush finally scoring his first TD and Phillip Rivers being, well, Phillip Rivers. The lower-case game had the Beagles beating the punchless Rangers 23-9 behind two Maurice Jones-Drew scores. In the Gold Division, the B2s were within Monday Night of upsetting the unbeaten Elks, despite their only points coming from their kicker and Defense. But the Elks had Steven Gostkowski on Monday, and pulled out a 30-25 win that kept them spotless at 4-0. The T-Cubs kept pace on Rashard Mendenhall's 2 scores, beating the Clock BBQs 34-21, and moving to 3-1. In the Scarlet Division, Buzz kept up his awesome domination of the league with a 56-28 romp over the Rhinos. Which is close to their year's average (50.7-24.7). Not only are they outscoring the league by 13 points, but have given up 11 fewer points than anyone else. The poor Rhinos get to enjoy life in second place to that juggernaut. League's leading scorer Payton (the Cape) Manning had two TD passes, L.T. scored twice, and T.O. chipped in a 78-yard catch for Buzz. Finally, the Ducks scored the most points in a single game this season, and the Angels become the first team in league history to trigger the bonus (in my ratings point system, if the worst team's rating is below zero, everyone gets adjusted up so that the low man has 0), as the Ducks rout the Angels 71-15. ( Keep in mind, the Angels had the 4-0 preseason.) The Ducks had 3 guys score for the first time, every active RB and WR (they had one guy hurt) scored, and Chris Johnson chipped in 2 TDs. The Angels had NO QB this week, but if they had the points from every starting QB in our league this week, they'd have still got beat by 8 points.

Next week's feature game is Buzz (4-0) vs T-Cubs (3-1), while the Elks try to stay unbeaten against the seemingly hapless Angels. The owner's race belongs to the girls: Laurie and Shenan are both 7-5; KC is 6-6; while I muddle along at 4-8.

.

PURPLE	W	L	PF	PA	RP
KCAs	3	1	190	145	346
SVA	2	2	137	119	264
Beagles	2	2	99	132	166
Rangers	1	3	85	146	119
GOLD
Elks	4	0	168	126	356
T-Cubs	3	1	147	110	326
Clock BBQs	1	3	123	143	172
B2s	0	4	140	192	142
SCARLET
Buzz	4	0	203	99	484
Rhinos	2	2	149	157	219
Ducks	1	3	170	156	240
Angels	1	3	123	229	0

A typical walk part 7

So today we went through the addition and in the 1st entrance to the woods. It was 9:50 when we started out, so I wasn't expecting much in the line of wildlife. Silly me.

About 20 yds from the bridge in the woods, we saw our old friend , the tan-colored fox. He got disturbed by a heads-down jogger who never saw him, and ran across the trail just to the south of the bridge. We took the trail along the ravine and came out the hidden entrance. I decided to cross California Rd. and see how construction was going. The building is enclosed now, with windows and all, but no siding up yet. Since it is enclosed, ordinance apparently requires a NO SMOKING sign posted by the door. I found that a little amusing, but you know how those construction boys can be!

Anyway, and the reason for the map, is that we went straight over to the river from there. The dam must be raised, because the river is way low, and mud flats abound. (On the map, we're at that little tongue of gray at the north of the now-non-existent ball diamond.) You see that chunk of tree-covered land in the middle of the river? this is an island-type deal covered with some kind of brush about 6 feet high. A big blue heron was jigging for food right between this and us, totally oblivious to my watching and Scrappy's splashing. Just then, I saw a head poke out from the far bank, then another. Three deer crossed from the IPFW campus bank to the island. They had to get about belly deep for two or three steps in the middle, then came up the other side. I told Scrappy to look, and he actually saw them as they disappeared into the tall brush.

Now Scrappy, fancying himself the great deer hunter, immediately decided he had to go after them; but as soon (and it was quick) that he discovered the closest path from him to them involved water, he was happy to listen to me and begin working our way back up along the bank. The map shows an also non-existent turnaround just north of us; this is all grass now, with trees shielding the river shore and turning where the creek enters the river. At this corner we discovered a little spot where used concrete slabs had been dumped to shore up the bank, and if you go in and sit there, you have a really good view of the island. Scrappy by this time had figured out that the deer had crossed the island and was ready to move on. Someday, I'll have to go on my own so that I have the time to stop and enjoy all the neat little secluded views we've tumbled onto.

About where you see that bright light-green dot on the map is the back entrance to the trails that start at "Tina's Landing". You go in there, and the creek bank is just a few steps in. Scrappy quickly deduced with some heavy air-sniffing that the deer had come across just on the other bank here. He valiantly tried to cross over, but butt-deep water was enough for him, and after continuing to sniff a bit longer, we went on down the trail. Coming out, we entered the Plex and Scrappy crossed their trail again, just south of the IPFW soccer field which you see in the upper right of the map. Of course, with him, crossing the trail means that he smells it, crosses it, realizes he went too far, and spends as much time as I allow heavily sniffing in increasingly frantic circles trying to figure out where the scent went. By this, I deduced that the deer had kept moving, heading on to the woods where we had started. Unlike Scrappy, though, I don't believe in chasing them just to be an annoyance, so I led us on home.

To me, this is the best way to worship God- to walk through His world and realize how much He loves us in the wonderful nature He gave us. Thank You.