Yesterday was January 1, and we now have a new NCAA Division I football champion. Congratulations to the ________ of ________ University, who persevered through a grueling playoff run against top teams in each round, and then dominated _________ in the final game to win the well-deserved championship trophy. Oh wait, that’s not the...
Pictures Of 2010
Here, in chronological order, are a few of my favorite images from my camera in 2010. You might have seen a couple of them in Shoulblog or Facebook,, but most are published here for the first time. As always, click on the thumbnails for a larger view. We had a snowstorm early in January,...
A Christmas Card
This year, I’ve been looking back at the year 1980. There’s one more story before the year winds down. ***** North Central College is laid out predominantly in a narrow north-south strip, with the athletic facilities at the south end, and the library and a couple of the dorms at the far north end....
Bracket For The NCAA Football Championship
(Note: This is the Who, What, Where and When. The Why can be found here) Honestly, this is so easy those NCAA guys could do it in their sleep. Take the top 12 teams, rank ’em, and pit ’em against each other, giving the top four a first-week bye. The second week, No. 1...
An Odd Note During The Game
Our romp through the year 1980 continues. Previous posts are here, here, here, here, here, here and here. ***** The NCC swim teams spent more than a week at the Horizon Motor Hotel in Fort Lauderdale, waking up early to do grueling three-hour workouts in the mornings, and then spending the afternoons recovering. That...
1980: A New Setting
I’ve gotten a little behind in my reliving the year 1980, so will try to catch up a little bit here. In September, I went away to college. Yes, I had done this before—to Missouri University in 1977—but Mizzou was sort of the expected thing to do, and I knew a lot of people...
Speaking Of The Rolling Stones…
A friend of a friend posted this on Facebook, and I just had to pass it along. At various times, I have tried listing my All-Time-Top-Five-Favorite-Songs (try it sometime; it’s a lot harder than you think), and I usually come up with two Rolling Stones songs—Sympathy for the Devil and Gimme Shelter—in that list,...
Boycott The Bowls!
NCAA Division 1 Football is only sports league that holds its meaningless exhibition games at the end of the season, rather than the beginning of the season. Check ’em out: there are 34 college bowl games, beginning with the “New Mexico Bowl” on December 18, right on through the “Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl” on...
Lyrics In Exile
One of my favorite lines from a music review comes from way back in 1977, after Linda Ronstadt released the Simple Dreams album. About her version of the Rolling Stones’ song Tumbling Dice, the reviewer wrote something to the effect that “the lyrics meant so much more when when we couldn’t understand them.” I’ve...
Marathon Dreams (Continued)
So I’ve run two half-marathons this fall. Add ’em up, and that equals … a marathon! So I should be satisfied, right? Actually, yes, I am pretty happy. The Lewis & Clark Half Marathon on October 3 was my first road half-marathon in several years, and it was also something of a learning experience....