Sports shorts

Just a pair of quick stories here.  First, the last fantasy football post of the season.  Last week was the Purple vs the Gold, and in the main row of games on Saturday, the Gold built up a 40-6 lead and by the end of the day was up 44-21, mostly because of Superfreak Cam Newton and his 18 points.  But Sunday night, enter Aaron Rodgers (who put up 18 of his own) and his trusty sidekick Mason Crosby, and when the smoke cleared, the game was 44-all.  The last active roster player on Monday night was Michael Turner for the Gold; and if he couldn't score to give his team the win, Drew Brees would need to get 24 reserve points for the Gold as the Purple reserves were way ahead.  Turner failed, Brees got 12, and the Purple had an amazing 71-59 OT comeback win.

Also, Lokomotiv played game 5 this morning.  They were home in front of a crowd of 9,000 facing league-leading HC Donbass.  (and yes I see the easy punchline, and am ignoring it.  Perhaps if they were 2-13 like the Colts...)  Danill Yerdakov scored his 13th of the season (2nd with Loko) to put the good guys up 1-0 at 2:20 of the 1st.  Sergei Varlamov tied things at 6:16 of the first, and took the lead in the second.  With Jan Krasvoski and Rafael Akhmetov drawing tripping penalties just 34 seconds apart, Donbass scored on the two man advantage at 9:34.  But less than a minute later, Alexi Kruchinin tallied his 6th of the season (2nd with Loko) to re-tie the game at 2-2 .  Just after 2 minutes later, Oleg Misyul got his first of the season to put Lokomotiv up 3-2.  But as coach Petr Vorobiev noted afterwards, the young team got reckless in the final stanza, and Donbass tied it at 11:49.  After a lackluster 5-minute OT period, it went to the shootout.  While Donbass goalie Evgeni Tsaregorodtsev stoned Loko shooters including Oleg Yashin, veterans Varlamov and Denis Kochetkov beat youngster Nikita Lozhkin to give Donbass the 4-3 win.  Next game, also in Yaroslavl, pits us against basement-dwelling Titan Klin, from a town 53 Mi. NE of Moscow.

For Aliahna

Wide awake today, I awoke
And the warm light beat down on me
as the waves rolled gentle lullabye
on the porcelain sands where they lie
And I but sat, in peace unknown
watching the water and the golden glow
I saw not time, and was content
nor knew of pain, of earth's torment
But something buzzed within my mind
of a thought, left with world behind
a tiny thing that would not rest.
T'was then upon the low dune's crest
the Little Girl appeared to me
and soft strode across the shoreline weed
to take her place upon the rise
where I'd sat watching waves go by
Nothing was said for longest time,
tho' time was not, in peace sublime.
And then I saw, in corner eye,
Her turn towards me, and subtly sigh
as if she knew that troubling thought
that dwelt within, where strife was naught.
I did not move, afraid to ask,
while soft clear eyes took me to task
"I forgave them already, " she said to me,
and nothing more- I turned to see
her smile; ashamed, I could but look
and remembered this pain that she forsook.
And in my eyes, the question came,
lips parted in words silent and plain;
Her smile was answer to tortured thought,
and angel's voice said, "How could I not?
"Whatever the reasons, whate'er the fears,
"whate'er they did, they sent me here!"
I watched as she turned towards the waves
and watched as I did ere she came;
And smiling, turned back to the sea,
and let it wash the thought from me.


-----------------------------------------------

If you don't know the story behind this, read here with extreme caution.

More fun with wastebook

Okay, I've gone through and found another group of lovingly stupid selections our congress has foisted on us, courtesy of Sen. Tom Coburn's Wastebook.  I might add here that I have seen several selections where he has added, "President Obama/Bush/both has called for the elimination of this program."  Obviously they aren't calling loud enough.

#80- This is our #1 "that's rich!" selection.  $425,642 to a program which teaches local lawmakers in INDIA (who holds about $40 bil of our national debt) how to use communications to improve at their job.  Can you imagine anyone from OUR government passing that on with a straight face?

#84- "That's rich!" runner-up: $306,000 to bring students from Denmark, France, Germany, and the UK here to give them college-level classes on "civic activism and environmental leadership."  Hello?  Does anyone remember the French Revolution?  The fall of the Berlin Wall?  GREENPEACE???  I think they have these issues covered.  If not, just send them the pamphlet on Targeted Sheep Grazing.

#79- the Air Force spends $51,474 to make a pagan worship site for the .07% of cadets that are Wiccan or what have you.  Yes, that's three out of 4300.  And it's basically a ring of thirteen boulders with a wishing-well looking altar-thingee in the middle and an outer ring of boulders.
Martin Savings:  120 large boulders (more than enough) can be had for $10,800- $3,000 more for comparable faux boulders.  The wishing well can be had for $670.  Dump 'em off, suggest a little DIY, and voila!  You can do the whole thing for $11,470, a savings of $40,004.

#76- Third place on our "That's rich!" segment.  The San Francisco International Film Festival gets $50,000 from the NEA (yeah, don't go there).  Not so bad- UNTIL you do a little digging and find out that corporate sponsorship ALREADY IN PLACE totals $2.179 MILLION.  That 50 K could have CERTAINLY been used more wisely here:

#73- Our good friends at USAID decided to commemorate their own 50th anniversary- with parties in Afghanistan (bet that one was lively), Albania, Bosnia/Herzegovina, "East Africa", El Salvador, Kosovo (another favorite "duck and cover" tourist destination), the Phillipines, and South Africa (which unlike "East Africa is a place you can find on a map).  Total cost: $156, 273.  $97,000 of that went to the Phillipines, with a banquet, a school painting contest (don't know if that means schoolkids painted, or schools got painted), videos, and a presentation on environmental awareness(?).  They also blew $12,000 of it in the anomolous East Africa, including a dinner and a banner featuring USAID.  Which left $7900 each for everyone else.
Martin Savings:  With catering for a two-meat banquet running $11 per person, they came out pretty good, until you factor in delivery.  Not sure how much a powerpoint presentation on Environmental awareness would cost, but I did find a blog that estimates that UK companies waste the equivalent of $12.16 billion on powerpoint presentations per year.  I can't imagine we take a back seat there.  And that poster, depending on where in East Africa you are in, would need to at least be in English, French, Portugese, Swahili, and Amharic. If you'd have done all parties like the ones the "lower six " got, you could have done them for $63,200- a savings of  $93,073.  But then schools/kids wouldn't have painted/been painted, and the children of powerpoint consultants would have starved.

Christmas Message

Tonight I watched midnight mass on TV, as has been my custom the last few years.  I am sorry that Fort Wayne’s Current Bishop does not see fit to televise the mass locally, as John D’Arcy did.  However, 21Alive decided to air midnight mass from Buffalo, NY, for which I shall be thanking them shortly.  In his message, the Bishop started on a topic I’ve wrestled a lot lately- the battle against the poor, unfortunate atheists.  Indeed, even tonight, the subject came up.

I felt moved to offer the olive branch to a group I’ve tilted against much lately, the FFR people.  But instead of being an ass as I have been to my shame in the past, I posted them a simple prayer.  Of course, I received the usual barrage of insults and crassness that I’ve come to expect from them.  I merely responded, for a change, that I realized that I was sowing seeds on the hard road, but God has done greater things, and left it at that.

So I was only mildly surprised to hear the Bishop lead off with a story of dueling billboards seen at a nearby overpass.  One atheist and announcing you don’t need a god for love, peace, or anything for that matter.  The other stood up for the real meaning of Christmas.  But the Bishop’s point in bringing this up became apparent next, and it was in two parts.  First, you’ll never win battles for Christ on billboards.  Second, the presence of such people and attitudes on this earth stands to remind us that we are to be about faith, about our relationship with God, a one-on-one thing that transcends societies and religions and histories.  “You’ll never be able to prove God scientifically,” he warned, because belief in God is about faith, not proof.

And if you have any doubt about that, argue with an atheist.  Assuming you find one willing to speak on an intellectual level, instead of those who just think they write clever crap for Bill Mahre, you will find that they will shut off your every avenue, and will not respect your personal relationship.  I’ve done a lot of this in the past, and I think tonight I got told I was doing it all wrong.

I cannot trade ideas on an intellectual level with these people- not because I’m non-intellectual (the nice way of putting how I’ve been described), but because we have two different, competing, and diametrically opposed mindsets.  I can never reach them on that level.  I can only reach people of that mind by living my faith first, and letting them observe it for themselves.

Am I good at that? No, not currently.  I hope tonight was a start, but posting prayers isn’t the same as just showing Christ through my life.  As Laurie can tell you, it’s hard to take the argument out of a Martin.  And there are times you have to stand up and be counted.  My hope, though, is to put it in Jesus’ hands and get better at it.

And the first thing I’ve got to do is give up the notion that I can prove faith by their rules.  In fact, Jesus pointed me to the ultimate verse that proves that point:

Luk 19:38  saying, Blessed is the King coming in the name of the Lord! Peace in Heaven and glory in the highest!
Luk 19:39  And some of the Pharisees from the crowd said to Him, Teacher, rebuke your disciples.
Luk 19:40  And He answered and said to them, I tell you that if these should be silent, the stones would cry out.
Not much chance of establishing that one “logically”;  But in faith it’s so easy to do.

From all of us to all of you, a safe, happy, and God-blessed Christmas.

A Scrappy Christmas walk

So we got all dressed up (because Daddy can't handle the temps as well as he did a year ago), and I put on the new gloves that wonderful son o'mine got me for Christmas:

And set out.  Scrappy first wanted to stop off at the rocks that mark the only thing they left when they decided that a wild meadow wasn't as necessary as an 18th and 19th soccer field:

And then moved on across said soccer fields.

Looks nice, don't it?  Too bad the brain surgeons that came up with the project failed to take into account- this is a WETLAND.  The woods sits on a ridge that half drained into the meadow.  It stays soggy long after better drained areas are completely dry.  And, they didn't install any drain tiles.  Just bulldozed, flattened, and compacted.

Think they MIGHT have a problem when they go to play in the spring?

Anyhow, at this point we dealt with the first of two problems we encountered.  It seems when I cinched up my belt prior to leaving, I missed the belt hole, and said belt was now disengaging itself.  No, no pictures for this one.

So we come into the woods, where that nice trail that they just constructed is having the same problem as the fields, for the same reason.

Which, of course, didn't stop Scrappy from enjoying the first ice of his year:

Or his enjoyment of the woods as a whole.

So down the ravine trail we went, and I've never seen it this wet in the ravine:

Into the plex we went, and as we crossed the wooden bridge, four young joggers passed us.  Scrappy was oblivious.  Down the trail behind the IPFW soccer field, around to the point where they had to jump the fence into the closed field.  Down the field to where they could jump the fence again and continue along the river.  All the time, Scrappy is oblivious- until they head back along the river, the farthest point away they'd been the whole time.

And then, he notices.

One last, lonely soccer ball.  Goodbye, socceristas!


Scrappy wishes everybody a Merry Christmas!





the great seventies countdown week four

The Bangles are playing on the mood music as the crowd murmurs and waits for the host.  Just as they sing "Time goes by so fast... when you're having fun..." the host makes his appearance.  "Merry Christmas to all of you," he begins, "and thank you for coming to our show."

260- The Rockford Files, Mike Post, 1975, #10.  A great tune, a great show.  I used to sit up late and tune in the fuzzy picture out of channel 50 in Detroit to watch reruns.

259- Brother Louie, the Stories, 1973, #1.  A powerful tune, of which I learned 2 things this morning. #1, the keyboardist for the Stories was Michael Brown of Left Banke (Walk Away Renee); #2 was the song was a cover of a Hot Chocolate song that went #1 in the UK.

258- Go All The Way, Raspberries, 1972, #5.  Eric Carmen before he went all morose.

257- Suite: Judy Blue Eyes, Crosby Stills and Nash, 1970, #21.  A song I got out of the stack of old jukebox records that Bill Riley was selling at the Zulu store.  Had Long Time Gone on the flip side.  Prompted me to buy So Far, which really got me into them- if not their politics.

256- Sail On, Commodores, 1979, #4.   Oddly enough, I like most of America, had the follow up single, Still, at #1 but not this- and yet, this is the song that more endured.

255- Delta Dawn, Helen Reddy, 1973, #1.  I mused a while back that, in a world of perfect mental health, Helen would have lost three big hits- this one, Ruby Red Dress, and Angie Baby.  All her heroines were nuts- and no jokes about I Am Woman at this point!

254- El Dorado, Electric Light Orchestra, 1974, b-side of Boy Blue (USA) and Wild West Hero (UK), non-charting.  The title cut of one of the best integrated pieces of music I own, it is the end of the dream- and trying to get back there.  This was the song fundementalist groups claimed Jeff Lynne recorded satanic messages on backwards-  which pissed him off enough that he DID put backwards messages on Face The Music.  If you're playing records backwards to see if there's something there, you have WAY too much time on your hands.



253- Sad Eyes, Robert John, 1979, #1.  Wow, three #1s already today!  I remember the first time we heard this (on Kasey Casem's American Top 40), we said this should hit #1 if people had any taste.  It had debuted at 36 and the next week it moved only 2 notches.  When we didn't hear it in the 30's or 20's, we figured the American public had went and let us down again.  Then it played at #19, and the rest was history.

252- We May Never Pass This Way Again, Seals And Crofts, 1973, #21.  The perrenial graduation song is one of those that has grown on me over the years- in five years, this might rank even higher on my list.

251- One Of A Kind Love Affair, The Spinners, 1972, #11.  For me, about everything by the Spinners should have hit #1.

250- Never Gonna Fall In Love Again, Eric Carmen, 1976, #11.  And here's "the morose" Eric Carmen, trying to see how many hits at #11 in a row we can get.  Forever linked in my mind with contemporary Fooled Around And Fell In Love, due to seeing them both in Dick Clark's American Bandstand top 10 one sunny day.

249- Love Hangover, Diana Ross, 1976, #1.  Bizarre for the times, still a great dance hit.

248- Almost Cut My Hair, Crosby, Stills, Nash, And Young, 1970, Unreleased.  A great tune from Deja Vu, David Crosby at his best-  "But I'm not giving in an inch to fear/ 'Cause I promised myself this year...  And I feel... like I owe it... to someone..."



247- Clap For The Wolfman, the Guess Who, 1974, #6.  Wolfman Jack was everywhere in the mid seventies, but this was the best of his cameoes. 7th top ten in the US, 16th in Canada.  You guys up north always did have better music, eh?

246- Hypnotized, Fleetwood Mac, 1973, B-side of For Your Love, Non charting.  Pre- Nicks and Buckinham, with Bob Welch singing lead.  From Mystery To Me, the Mac at their dreamy best.

245- Lukenbach, Texas (Back To The Basics Of Love), Waylon Jennings, #25 (six weeks at #1 on the country charts).  The News-Sentinel used to put the top tens down every Saturday, and I remember how long it stayed at the top of the country charts.  I actually listened to country (a rarity for me) to hear this song, the first time I'd done that ( and certainly the only time on a non-Rosanne Cash tune).  And I loved Willie Nelson at the end.

244- Brandy, Looking Glass, 1972, #1.  One of those songs everyone loves- and that's what made it a one-hit wonder, as Looking Glass was generally much less pop.

243- Turn To Stone, Joe Walsh, 1975, #93.  Let me just say, I love Joe Walsh, whether solo, James Gang, or Eagles.  One of his best solo tunes.



242- The Night Chicago Died, Paper Lace, 1974, #1.  Another song that everybody immediately loved.  Except the "get the story right" crowd, I suppose.  Would have been a two-hit wonder, but Bo Donaldson's cover of their Billy Don't Be A Hero charted first and higher.

241- Here Come Those Tears Again, Jackson Browne, 1977, #23.  This one, and not Doctor My Eyes, made me a JB fan.

And with that, the lights come up on another performance.  "Go home and treat your families to the best of you this Christmas," the host tells them.  "Be the present they want." 

Lokomotiv game 4

The boys from Yaroslavl go to 3-1 with a 4-1 win in front of 2,670 in Izhevsk, a town that sits on the NW side of a circle formed by Perm (Molot Prikamye), Yekaterinburg (Automobilst), Cheylabinsk  (Traktor), Ufa (Salavat Yulaev) and Kazan (Ak Bars).  Kirill Kaputsin put us on the board with a power play goal at 2:30 into thew match, and Maxim Zyuzyakin got the first of his 2 goals at 14:07.  Less than 3 minutes later, a penalty on Vladislav Vorobyev for a high-stick led to a power play goal for Izhvesk to cut things to 2-1.

Less than 5 minutes into the second stanza, Oleg Yashin tallied his 8th of the year (and 3rd for us) to push it to 3-1, and Zyuzyakin got his 2nd of the game (third of the season) shorthanded  with 38 seconds left in the game.  For a change, Lokomotiv outshot the opposition 44-33, and this time it was an even younger goalie in the nets.  Pavel Shegalo, 18 years and 10 months old, stopped 33 of 34  For a team that’s given up one goal or less in three of four outings.

The kids get their first real challenge at home Wednesday against HC Donbass, a Ukrainian outfit who is 22-7-5 and hasn’t lost since the 20th of last month.

Maxim Zyuzyakin

• Club: Lokomotiv
• Number: 61
• Position: Forward
• Height: 177
• Weight: 73
• Birth Date.: 13/01/1991
• Nationality: Russia
• Age: 20 years 11 months
• Clubs by season: Locomotive