Friday
13
Dec 13
Just a quick question
Saw this at Chipotle, for dinner tonight:
I understand the vegetarian — as I am halfway one these days, it seems. The vegan group, goes without saying, too. But this last group? I can see it if you are somehow allergic or under a strict dietary program or, of course, if this fell under a religious belief. All perfectly valid considerations, all easy to explain.
But who writes bacon-averse? Who would ever want that label?
I mention this in jest, of course.
My burrito had both the pinto beans and the black beans. And it was delicious.
6
Dec 13
Who ratted out that dog?
The SEC championship game is in Atlanta tomorrow. Auburn will be there, facing Missouri. There are a lot of signs like this around town just now.
We’ll be there too. Auburn and Mizzou each received 16,000 tickets. Auburn makes theirs ridiculously difficult to acquire. Missouri was kind enough to simply sell them online, so a lot of Auburn folks bought their tickets from Missouri. Given the proximity, and the weather out their way, it should be something of a home game for the team in blue and orange.
It is hard to believe, and easy to get caught up in. Another conference championship is a possibility, just four years removed from the last one and one trip around the sun from last year’s unfortunate season and we’re going to watch a championship game tomorrow. Hard to believe.
Things to read … This has been making the rounds. A Stanford student wrote this about the Iron Bowl:
Stanford beat Notre Dame, but all we can talk about is the SEC and its raucous finale of Auburn-Alabama. And for once, I have no problem with that.
Even as a West Coast man, I cannot tear my eyes away from the Southland drama that exploded into being on Saturday night. It was the single most unlikely play in football unfolding at the absolute perfect moment. It remains wondrous and unknowable, some quantum shiver in nature slowly solidifying in our minds. As I write, the eyes of a thousand sportswriters still flicker desperately across the ghostly pages of history, searching for some apt comparison or even just something to describe what happened — even just words.
Now, more than ever, there are no words.
That guy is pretty good. Meanwhile, I turned my Iron Bowl post into a larger story with bigger pictures. Slightly new text, much more interesting format. You can read it again here.
Speaking of photos, When White House Photos Are ‘Visual Press Releases’.
Also speaking of photos, here is a photographer being tackled by security for trying to do his job and photograph a protest. Little by little, we’ll chill journalists.
This dog is a cat burglar:
That’ll be the day’s cutest video. This one, a time lapse from the space station, will be the most awesome:
And, now, the most truthful headline you’ll ever read. A pair of shoes for Christmas: ‘It’s a small thing, but it makes a huge difference’:
At an elementary school in Huntsville on Thursday, a boy about 8 years old went to his little brother’s pre-K classroom and approached the teacher. He said his little brother didn’t have shoes that fit, and asked if it would be OK if they went to the on-campus HEALS clinic. He’d heard the HEALS staff gave out shoes.
The 4-year-old brother was wearing a pair of worn-out shoes that were four sizes too big, and a too-big pair of athletic socks that were dirty and full of holes.
“The little brother was so upset and embarrassed by the whole situation that he started crying,” said Pam Clasgens, development director with HEALS, a local nonprofit organization that provides school-based medical and dental care for children.
If you’re looking for a charity, this one will make a lot of kids very happy.
29
Nov 13
We are just waiting, it seems
Busy day today. But it all felt like we were just waiting for the big game. Which, in a way, I guess we are.
Straightened things in the house. Then I made other messes and tried to keep them under control. We started the process of decorating the Christmas tree. We purchased it Wednesday night, carried it inside and it slipped right into the tree stand. It took two twists and then simply holding it straight while we tightened the screws. It was the easiest tree we’ve had so far. The man with the chainsaw knew his craft.
That evening we also put out the decorative trees outside, two three-foot tall pieces of exterior decoration. This involves a ladder. On the ladder I removed the porch light fixture. It exploded on contact, which was no worry because it was do for replacement after the holidays anyway. We removed the lightbulbs and installed one of those devices that turns your socket into an electric outlet. Then we plugged up the trees. Now, from a light switch inside, the trees can be lit. This is better than going outside and plugging and unplugging the things. We have simplified our pre-fab, pre-decorated trees.
By next year I’ll look for the technology that allows me to simply think “Light” and it will be so.
We went for a run this afternoon. I felt pretty bad at the start, with poor form and sore and sluggish in all the wrong places. So, I decided, the solution was to run more. I did the regular route through the neighborhood. That intersects with our town’s time trial route. When I’m riding that I sometimes see people running, so I decided to jog down that road. There’s a turn and I can make a big circle around a few neighborhoods. I managed to get in five miles. (I do not know what is happening.)
One of those miles actually felt good. And after a snack the rest of the day was grand.
We have company. Brian, a former co-worker and old friend, is in town to cover the big game. Scooby, a college friend, is in town for the big game. She joined The Yankee and I at the Celebrity Home Run Derby, benefiting the Hudson Family Foundation. Here’s the highlight package the athletics department produced:
Patrick Nix and Frank Sanders were there, too. They did not recreate their famous play:
Nix came off the bench, cold, against Alabama to throw that ball to Sanders on his first snap after Stan White went out with an injury. Nix is supposed to have said that he was born to complete that pass. Several years ago he told me once that, when he was a child, he tried to block Van Tiffin’s field goal in the Iron Bowl. He crouched behind his sofa and leaped into the air as Tiffin made The Kick. How could you not love a guy who believed like that?
The stars are lining up for Auburn. Sanders is being honored tomorrow. He was there with both of his college quarterbacks. Stan White made an appearance in the putting part of that video, alongside Philip Lutzenkirchen and PGA winner Jason Dufner. A large handful of great Auburn names have been filing into town for the big game tomorrow.
Had dinner at Niffer’s. They were packed, as you would expect for a game day weekend where everyone is waiting. Brian snagged us a good table.
We’ve all stayed up too late. Too busy with tasks, busy with visiting and busy with waiting for the game tomorrow. We’re going to have a great time, of course. Who’s going to win, I don’t know.
22
Nov 13
The last leaf
And, now, the last leaf on my indoor tree:
This tree sheds them all at once. This morning there were only two leaves left. I watched one of them fall away, like Leonardo DiCaprio in so many nautical films.
Last year this tree dropped leaves almost overnight. I thought I’d killed it somehow. But, you never know and it doesn’t take up that much space. So I watered the soil and stared at the branches and then, this spring, the leaves came back even larger than they were the year before. At this rate we’ll have to buy a new house just to support this tree within six years.
So I thought I better document the strongest of them all. I’ll keep you updated.
Caught a late showing of the new Hunger Games movie this evening:
The movie is pretty good. The Yankee says it was a consistent adaption from the book. I’m sure fans will love it. I have a problem getting past a nation willing to allow themselves to digress to a situation like that. I’m told that is never really explained, which is a great way to escape a difficult theme for the author, who can then launch into a social commentary on whatever she likes. And then I read about it:
Collins says the idea for the brutal nation of Panem came one evening when she was channel-surfing between a reality show competition and war coverage. “I was tired, and the lines began to blur in this very unsettling way.”
Uh huh.
By the way, ever heard of Koushun Takami’s Battle Royale?
Things to read …
World Bank raises Philippine typhoon aid package to almost $1 bln:
On Saturday, the national disaster agency said the death toll from Haiyan had risen to 5,235 from 5,209, with more than 1,600 still missing and over 4 million displaced people.
Apart from the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank also pledged a $523 million loan and grant package to the Philippines, as foreign governments and international aid agencies committed about $344 million in cash and relief goods.
The government initially estimated the reconstruction cost to reach as much as $5.8 billion, with more than 1 million houses totally or partly destroyed.
Southeastern Raptor Center to auction off eagle’s Iron Bowl equipment:
Auburn University’s Southeastern Raptor Center is offering Tiger fans a piece of Iron Bowl history. On Friday, the center opened a live auction for the handcrafted lures and jesses that will be worn during the eagle’s pre-game flight before Auburn and Alabama face off Nov. 30.
Mobile-only Internet users face a harsh new digital divide:
‟There’s a misconception that just because someone has Internet access, the digital divide,” the gap between those with Internet access and those without, “has been eliminated,” charges Ortega, who heads a chapter of the digital literacy group One Million New Internet Users.
The problem, Ortega argues, is that large swaths of the population, groups that are predominantly poor and non-white, are largely relying solely on smartphones for Internet access. It’s created a two-tiered system where the rich have access to expensive, high-speed broadband Internet at home and everyone else is relegated to slower connections on mobile devices that seriously limit users’ ability to contribute to the digital conversation.
Ortega views this emerging digital divide as one between “digital consumers” on one hand and “digital contributors” on the other.
This is, in this story, a socioeconomic issue. That’s an interesting, and perhaps overlooked, perspective.
One of those stories every reporter should keep close, because there’s always going to be another one you can write just like it, and it might be as good as this one, What Became of JFK’s Gravedigger?
In 1980, Pollard suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed. He retired and sat at home in his home on one of Washington’s more modest streets with a box of mementos that included a clipping of the famed gravedigger column. He had hanging on the wall by the television a commendation from the Army for his service to the president on that November day in 1963.
Pollard also had on display the text of Kennedy’s inaugural address and its call to “ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your county.” Pollard had gone straight from serving in the Army in World War II to spending more than three decades digging graves in Arlington with quiet care and unwavering dignity. He had demonstrated that person can give full measure to America’s greatness by imparting nobility to a humble task.
And he had already made sure that he and his wife would be buried in Section 31, just a short ways from the Kennedy memorial.
That line in the second paragraph there, that’s magic.
Hope you have a great weekend ahead of you!
