Odds and ends.

Topic #1: In the last week we lost one of tv's greatest moms and dads. Barbara Billingsley (June Cleaver) and Tom Bosley ("Mr. C") have left us for the great sitcom beyond. They were never "perfect parents", and were never meant to be. But the love they brought to the role and the job came through. Name a tv dad since Bill Cosby we can say that about. Rosanne will never hear that in retrospectives of her role.

Topic #2: James Harrison of the Steelers "might retire" because of the new rules against helmet to helmet hits and his $75,000 dollar fine for one of the two dirty hits he made against the Browns. His agent says he doesn't understand how he can play the game if he gets fined over "good clean hits". Several other players on both sides of the ball have likewise complained. You know what, guys? If you can't play without putting yourselves and others in unnecessary and easily avoidable danger, then feel free to quit! I don't miss Jack Tatum and I won't miss you. If I was Dan Rooney, I'd go right down to the locker room, give Harrison a gold pin and a handshake and say, "Anyone else thinks they cannot function without intentionally trying to injure fellow players, follow him out." I just hope the league remembers to go after the handful of RBs I've seen that think a helmet is an excuse to act like a rutting mountain goat. Frankly, I think if you're an NFL player, you saw the hit on Mohammed Massaquoi, and you still dislike the new rules, you are an idiot and should be made to play without the helmet you obviously don't need.

Topic #3: Can someone explain to me how it is, when Marlin Stutzman basically walked Hayhurst through this whole farm-subsidy thing during the debates and in his press conference, Dr. Tom still thinks this is a worthwhile thing to assault Stutzman on? I guess he must be trying to win the "too stupid/lazy to think for ourselves " vote, because all you have to do is a little research into the subject to learn that this hound don't hunt. I don't tend to believe that all the stupidity in campaign attack ads come straight from the heart of the candidate. But if I did, I'd be insulted by the level of Hayhurst's ads.

Topic #4: I used to like Dan Coats back in the day, but there's something about being a lobbyist-particularly for things that are allegedly against your convictions- that lines "lobbyist" up with "lawyer" in a list of somewhat reprehensible occupations. I've thought about Rebecca Sink-Burris, the Libertarian, as a viable alternative (Brad Ellsworth, you say? Don't make me laugh while I'm typing), but her semi-isolationist foreign policy take concerns me. I'm listing heavily towards write in candidate Jim Miller in this race, if only to show the RNC that I don't care for out-of-staters picking my candidates.

Topic #5: My next post will be #200 in my just under 10-month career. Let's all light a candle tonight in hopes that I come up with something worthwhile!

PS: Does anyone else besides me think that the guy who came up with the "we can't afford Dick Dodge" ad for Cody Ross is the same guy who did the "Cody Ross can't make up his mind what he wants to be when he grows up" ad for Dick Dodge? Just sayin'.

NHFFL week 6

Week six saw Buzz rediscover his offense- but not his defense. In the Scarlet showdown, the Rhinos win 53-41. Buzz still owns the tiebreaker because they beat the Rhinos by 28 earlier in the year. But now they are tied for 1st in the division, and now Buzz slips to 2nd in the points race (which means virtually nothing other than it helps me "break ties" without looking up tiebreakers) to the KCAs, even though they lost 50-39 to the Clock BBQs. Buzz could have used some more even scoring: Peyton (the Cape) Manning (9), L.T. (12), and Jeremy Macklin (15) accounted for all but 5 of his points, while the Rhino kicking and defense outscored Buzz 17-5.
In the KCAs loss, Matt Forte, Mike Tolbert, and Dez Bryant all got TDs Sunday day and Joseph Addai and Austin Collie tacked on 2 more in the night game for the BBQs, who move into contention now that the once undefeated Elks are struggling. They lost their second straight, 37-31 to the Rangers, who win just their 2nd game. Tony Gonzales finally livened up and caught 2 for the Rangers, and newcomer (to the Rangers and to the Seattle Seahawks) Marshwn Lynch tacked on one as well.

The B2s are finally on board with a win, 32-15 over the Fiery Beagles. After scoring exactly 0 in the early games, the 'Tubers' got 9 from kicker Matt Prater and 15 from A.P. and Percy Harvin in the 4:00 games. In this week's "inter-owner" game, the T-Cubs rout the SVA 49-31 to take over the league lead all alone at 5-1. The T-Cubs had 33 points just from their wide receivers in this one. Finally, the Angels lowered their points-against-per-game average to an even 55 with a 54-32 loss to the reviving Ducks. Aaron Rodgers had a long TD pass and ran one in himself, and Brandon Jacobs (2), Ben-Jarvis Green-Ellis, Calvin Johnson (a long one), and Braylon Edwards all chipped in for the Ducks.

Shenan (what a surprise) is running away with the owner's race with an 11-5 record. KC is 9-9, Laurie 7-9, and I'm at 7-11 after a 2-1 week. I get an inter-owner game next week when the KCAs play the B2s; all the winning teams are split up this week, with perhaps the biggest game being the Buzz Lightyears vs the State Ducks. The Ducks have averaged 50 ppg after their 0-3 start, while the Buzz has scored 57 points the last two losses after nearly averaging that per game in a 4-0 start.

.

PURPLE	W	L	PF	PA	RP
KCAs	4	2	276	216	500
SVA	3	3	212	189	346
Rangers	2	4	143	221	157
Beagles	2	4	135	211	134
GOLD
T-Cubs	5	1	219	157	480
Elks	4	2	246	220	377
Clock BBQs	3	3	212	205	316
B2s	1	5	219	259	238
SCARLET
Buzz	4	2	260	175	498
Rhinos	4	2	254	245	345
Ducks	2	4	249	227	328
Angels	2	4	212	330	330

Chris' FCS page #5

I found it hard to believe how un-seriously the AP voters take the FCS. Someone gave South Dakota State a vote after their upset of then#5 Western Illinois last week- despite the glaring fact that it was their first win against 4 losses. In fact, 6 teams with losing records totalled 297 votes- more than the 14th ranked team. By contrast, serious voters in the CBSSports 120 for FBS teams didn't hit a losing team until its 48th spot. I'm calling you out FCS football voters- get serious or resign your vote! A little professionalism would go a long way, and all you seem to have is a little.

Anyway, here's the better top twenty. Delaware goes to 7-0 with a 24-17 win over URI and holds onto the top spot. Liberty moves into the second slot after a 41-7 rout of VMI, up 2 spots. I moved media darling Appalachian St. into 3rd, up 3, after a 39-10 trouncing of the Citadel. Wofford follows them into fourth, turning a struggle early into a 45-14 romp over Western Carolina. Jacksonville St. also followed them up 3 notches to 5 with a 24-0 blanking of Tennessee St.

Bethune-Cookman vs South Carolina St. was kinda the game that would show if I was any good at this or not, as we discussed last week. I was vindicated when the 16th ranked B-Cs beat the 13th ranked Staters 14-0, which moves B-C into 6th and State down to 20th. The air continues to leak out of James Madison, as they fall 28-14 to New Hampshire for their second straight loss and they drop from 2nd to 7th. Montana State falls from 3 to 8 after an embarrassing 34-7 loss to Northern Arizona. When you dance with the devil as much as they have, I guess it's not surprising.

Stephen F. Austin recovered from their near thing against McNeese last week with a 30-7 pasting of a decent Central Arkansas team, and move into the top ten at #9. William and Mary take their week off, so I leave them at 10th. Western Illinois shakes off the aforementioned loss to South Dakota St. - kinda- edging Youngstown St. in a nailbiter 40-38. UMass tumbles 3 to #12 after an 11-10 loss to the Richmond Spiders; and Villanova moves up to 13th with a 48-18 ripping of Maine.

Jacksonville has hung low because they have a tendency to play close, high scoring games. Not so this week as they rip Valparaiso (who nobody plays a close game against), rolling to a 63-7 lead AT THE HALF and a 86-7 final. This was good enough to move them up 5 to 14th. Robert Morris was also impressive, moving up to 15 after a 38-0 blanking of Albany. Dayton started out sluggish but recovered to top Butler 33-13 and climb 2 into 16th. Southeast Missouri St. joins the club this week with a 41-24 win over Austin Peay; they replace Georgia Southern, who lose their second straight, 35-27 to Chattanooga. North Dakota State loses to Illinois St. 34-24 and drop from 5th to 18th; and Montana avoided dropping out yet again on a FG with 23 seconds left to top Portland St. 23-21. The win kept them hanging on at 19th.

Next week's big games include #1 Delaware vs #10 William and Mary, and #9 Stephen F. Austin facing conference and state rival Sam Houston St. (4-2). Also, Montana takes their turn with the slayers of their state rival, Northern Arizona.

A typical walk part VII

We were invited on a Brown County excursion this weekend, but how can you really top what we have right here? Last night we took a sunset walk, and among the other events of the trip, you got a spectacular view of yellow and orange leaves backlit by a yellow and orange sun from the inside. (Really wish at that point I'd have took the camera.) The "other events" being a glimpse of 2 deer a ways off and another round of Scrappy's "new trick"-running over a hole that doesn't have a particularly interesting scent (and thus ignored) and falling chin first into it.

This morning, my goal was to reach the woods with dry feet, a challenge with a moderately heavy dew. The soccer fields were white with frost burning off as we watched. The meadow, though, was already out of the shadows and drier, so we went in the first side entrance. We followed the main trail, orange with fallen leaves, down to the ravine trail. The east side was full of squirrels. About halfway down I decided to go down into the ravine and explore. Scrappy is a good one for this- attempting to go down where it's too steep, refusing to go down when I start, wrapping me in his line just as I start down. Eventually we get down in one piece, and backtrack along the edge. Soon we found a trail that took us to the creek. It ran along the south bank and led us to a score of pretty overlooks and landings, which Scrappy took full advantage of to go splashing along. He would love me to go wading with him; he gets mad when I won't follow him along where the shore disappears.

We dove and weaved amongst the trail and pseudo-trails most of the way to the bridge at the Plex entrance. About halfway between the entrance and the fireplug on California to the west, there is a 30-ft wide space that the trees were ripped out almost to the creek bank for some reason, and allowed to grow into tall grass. ( There's another unexplainable spot like this, though much smaller, just on the southeast side of the woods bridge.) As we crossed that, the trail (at least the section big enough for ME) died off, and we went up the tall grass and out a side trail to the roadside.

As we entered the Plex, three big deer ran across the road to the woods. Scrappy saw them, gave them his by-now-famous dumbfounded look, and decided to chase them by going the wrong way. Once I convinced him to go the right way, he aggressively followed their scent until, as usual, he lost it when I decided I wasn't going down the trails I assume are on the north side of the creek to follow them. Satisfied with the morning walk, I headed us up the Plex road towards home. Before we left, I saw one more neat sight- perched on one of the flag-stakes that IPFW uses to delineate the cross-country path, was a momma bluebird. Scrappy didn't notice; he was too busy designing a way to catch his line on the stake.

Step into my time machine week twenty-five

Welcome to the twenty-fifth anniversary of Time Machine! This week, Yet another new number one, a lot of strange coincidences, a cameo by a Vice President of the United States, and not everyone makes it out alive. Sure you wanna go?



In a week where 16 songs hit the hot 100 and we only know 4, only 2 songs break into the top forty and we know 'em both! The four newbies are: You Sexy Thing by Hot Chocolate at 98; Our Day Will Come by Frankie Valli (who is still climbing with the Four Seasons higher on up) at 72; That's The Way I Like It by KC and the Sunshine Band (here's our first coincidence- Get Down Tonight just missed being the big dropper this week!) at 71 ; and my all time Simon and Garfunkel favorite, My Little Town, at 69. The big mover- just barely- is Silver Convention's Fly Robin Fly, jumping 28 spots to 52; the big dropper awaits in the top forty.



Our first special this week will be the countdown of my favorite 70's tunes. At 30 we find Crosby Stills Nash and Young with Carry On (which we'll hit again coming up); 29 is Dance With Me, which we'll see in the top ten coming up; 28 is Someone Saved My Life Tonight, which we recently had as a top dog. 27 is Baby Blue, the last hot 100 single for the star-crossed band Badfinger. It was written by their equally star-crossed and late leader Pete Ham.



By 1975, with no income and the band's business manager non-communicative, Ham became despondent and he hanged himself in the garage of his Surrey home. His blood alcohol was .27%. He was 27 years old. He left behind a pregnant girlfriend (his daughter was born one month after his death). Ham was a sensitive man. His suicide note had the statement "I will not be allowed to love and trust everybody. This is better." And an accusatory blast toward Badfinger's business manager, Stan Polley, with Ham writing: "P.S. Stan Polley is a soulless bastard. I will take him with me." Others of Polley's artist and business clients accused him of corruption over the years. News of Ham's death was not widely disseminated at the time, as no public comment was made by The Beatles, Apple Corps Ltd or Warner Bros. Records. (Wiki)



And at 26, you see we're getting close because here is what I believe is the greatest song of the rock era- Don McLean's American Pie.



As I said, we have a real short list of top 40 debuts this week, but they both fly into the chart. At 35, up 21 spots, are the Bee Gees with Nights On Broadway. And at 19- yes 19- up 27 notches, is Elton John with Island Girl.



The next Feature is our almost but not quite, and that would be Austin Roberts with his tear jerker Rocky. Austin got one of his first gigs when he was tabbed to be the lead singer of a cartoon band in development (a la the Archies) called the Mysterious Five. But plans changed, a dog got added, and soon he was singing the theme song for- you guessed it- Scooby Doo, Where Are You? The song Rocky actually peaked at 9 on Billboard, but here on the Cashbox charts, it peaks just one step short at 11.



Two songs make the top 10 this week in 1975, two drop out. The week's big dropper is former top dog Run Joey Run, and he runs down 22 notches to 31. Also, follow former top dog Fame drops from 8 to 15.



The Number one albums countdown takes us to late February 1971 and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar takes over the top spot. The double-album Rock opera featured three singles. Superstar by Murray Head and the Trinidad Singers was first released off the stage track and peaked at 78; Head then re-released it on his own and it hit 14 in 1971. More complicated yet was the song I Don't Know How To Love Him.



"I Don't Know How to Love Him" had originally been published with different lyrics in the autumn of 1967, the original title being "Kansas Morning." In December 1969 and January 1970, when Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice completed Jesus Christ Superstar, Rice wrote new lyrics to the tune of "Kansas Morning" to provide the solo number for the character of Mary Magdalene (Rice and Webber's agent David Land would purchase the rights to "Kansas Morning" back from Southern Music for £50). [1] Now entitled "I Don't Know How to Love Him", the song was recorded by Yvonne Elliman which was completed between March and July 1970. (When first presented with "I Don't Know How to Love Him", Elliman had been puzzled by the romantic nature of the lyrics, as she was under the misapprehension that the Mary she'd been recruited to portray was Jesus' mother!)



Helen Reddy actually released her version before Yvonne's was rereleased from the album. result: Helen hit 13, Yvonne hit 28 with the version I prefer. In the UK, the scene repeated itself- the release was delayed just long enough for Petula Clark, of all people, to put out a version. Result: Yvonne hit 47, Petula 42. The third single off the album was Yvonne's Everything's Alright, which peaked at 92; but my fave off this album (which English teacher Mrs. Hursh played for us, I believe in Bible Lit class* ) was What's The Buzz. JCS was only up there for one week, took a 9-week hiatus, and returned at the end of April for two more weeks.



Why the hiatus? Because, Janis Joplin had died of a heroin overdose, and her last Album, Pearl, took over at #1. One song, Buried In The Blues, was actually recorded as an instrumental because Janis died before she could do the vocal track. In addition to the #1 Me And Bobby McGee, one of my favorite Joplin songs, Cry Baby, hit 42, and Get It While You Can (ironic, eh?) hit 78. After Pearl finished and JCS spent its last 2 weeks on top, Crosby Stills Nash And Young spent the week of May 15th, 1971, on top with the triple-live Four Way Street. In addition to versions of the groups hits (Suite: Judy Blue Eyes, Teach Your Children, Ohio, and Carry On*, it also had solo hits of the members, including Graham Nash's just-released Chicago, Stephen Stills' Love The One You're With, and Neil Young's Cowgirl In The Sand and Southern Man.



Now about this damned *: Carry On, which has been mentioned twice now, was also introduced to me by Mrs. Hursh, who lent me her Deja Vu album. Ain't coincidence grand?



This week's top ten leads off with the Ritchie Family's reggae/disco hit Brazil moving up 1 to #10. Sweet moves up one as well with Ballroom Blitz at 9. Up 5 from 13 to 8 is Jefferson Starship with Miracles; John Denver takes a big leap off the top dog seat, landing at 7 with I'm Sorry. Holding at six is Helen Reddy (her again, too?) with Ain't No Way To Treat A Lady.



Our look at the top dogs of other years this week is in the 8's. In 1998, we find the Barenaked Ladies who spent one week at #1 with, well, One Week. Also spending one week on top in 1988 we have UB40 with Red Red Wine, a Neil Diamond song that peaked at 34 in its first released in 1984, but hit the top when some dj discovered it might make a good dance tune for the clubs. In 1978 we have Exile with Kiss You All Over, which also received a new life in a slightly different form when Exile went country (but never re-released). 1968 saw the 5th of 7 weeks at #1 For what most people know as one of my LEAST favorite songs, Hey Jude by the Beatles. And 1958's #1 this week was Tommy Edwards with It's All In The Game. This classic was actually based on a melody written by Charles Dawes in 1912, years before he became Calvin Coolidge's VP. Lyrics were written some 39 years later, in 1951, but the first version that Edwards recorded peaked at 18. It was amped up for an early rock audience ( though hardly rock itself) in 1958 and it was this version that hit #1. It was the only top ten for Tommy, who died of a brain aneurysm in 1969 at the age of 47.



Home stretch now! As promised hours ago, Dance With Me by Orleans climbs 2 to #5; Lyin' Eyes is at 4 for the Eagles, up one; also climbing one is Games People Play by the Spinners, to #3. Neil Sedaka reaches #2, up one, with Bad Blood; and that means our new #1 (although Billboard, the spoilsports, peaked it at #4) issssss....



Mr. Jaws by Dickie Goodman!


Did you survive? Good! See you next week!

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