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It started with a banana

And now, scenes from a morning ride. These horses were unimpressed:

The Yankee is wearing purple for Elise, the beautiful, beautiful young daughter of a friend of hers who died early this year. There was a “virtual race” today, a fundraiser to help pay medical costs.

It was a nice ride. My legs felt good and the little hills we chose didn’t seem much of a challenge for a change. I spent most of the time thinking of the pictures and videos of that little girl’s face. When I found myself in a lull I remembered how much that 3-year-old loved to do burpees. That’ll make you laugh, a tow-headed baby doing toddler burpees with enthusiasm and giggles. You can cover a lot of ground quickly that way. Over the last few miles it all slowed down and I found myself thinking of her mother and father and the empty spot in their home.

So we rode 35 km in the midmorning sun and that was delightful. Guests came to visit and that was wonderful. We went to the wedding of one of The Yankee’s former students and that was lovely. Beautiful bride selfie:

It all made for a full and rich day of emotion. It started with a banana and ended with brunch finger foods and, ultimately, will conclude with my being too tired to eat a proper meal. But I spent the full day with my wonderful wife and we managed to cram a lot of a day into the waking hours. It was a good trade, even if the horses weren’t impressed.

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19
Apr 14

A Saturday outside

I so rarely see cyclists on the road. They’re almost always, always going the other direction. And, without fail, I am struggling up some tiny incline when they go by. They’ll just be breezing along happily and I’m obviously struggling to turn over the pedals. It is uncanny.

I think I’ve passed maybe four or five cyclists on the road in a casual day’s ride because they are always going the other way. But I saw this guy, and that was pretty great:

Right through this area, recently, my CatEye said I touched 40.5 miles per hour. I can be a little faster through here, I know:

Around midday, on a cool, overcast, windy, rainy day, a spring day that featured a public football practice, thousands of people were crawling over campus. And this was hours before the actual festivities. Auburn folks are ready for some football:

We went to the baseball doubleheader instead. In the first game we listened to the crowd and the audio from the big screen. We could hear a tailgating band and the marching band each vying for attention. It was a wonderful day to be on campus with friends, a group which keeps growing each time we get together.

This guy’s been in the group for a long while. He was born just after the Georgia game two years ago. (His mom was at the tailgate right at her due date. Where were you?) He’s a cool dude:

A year ago, now, some of us were listening to scanners in Boston again. This is what we heard:

I loved that one call: “America.”

Friday / friends / history / photo / video — Comments Off
18
Apr 14

A Doolittle anniversary

Today marks the 72nd anniversary of the Doolittle Raid. I wrote a story about Dean Hallmark, who piloted The Green Hornet, the sixth B-25 to take off from an aircraft carrier.

That story led to me befriending Adam Hallmark, one of the finest men I know, and his beautiful wife Jessica, some of his friends and a handful of the soldiers with whom Adam has served.

Adam gave me a print of Dean’s plane, which I hang proudly on my office wall:

That little profile taught me more about a particular tale of courage and atrocity. Because of it Lauren and I took the opportunity to visit Dean’s grave at Arlington.

I had the distinct honor and privilege to meet one of the Raiders, 98-year-old Lt. Col. Richard “Dick” Cole:

It all solidified my respect for what a group of 80 bold, audacious volunteers set out to do.

It is important that we remember, so that others may never forget, brave men live by the motto “Toujours Au Danger.”

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4
Apr 14

Where I pretend to say smart things among smart people

I had the good fortune to take part in two panels today, the first one was titled The Ethics and Political Implications of the Edward Snowden Document Leaks. The description in the conference program was:

This panel will explore the ethical and political implications of the classified United States documents made public by Edward Snowden. Many of the released documents indicate that government agencies have spied on Americans and foreigners, and the revelations have sparked sharp criticism and anger from several foreign leaders. Reflecting the conference them, panelists will discuss the ethical considerations of Snowden’s and the government’s actions and envision how these revelations might impact both future domestic and foreign affairs.

For my part I recalled what Lenin said about useful idiots. That’s pretty much where we are with Snowden at this point, I think. I talked about how all of this is going over with the American public in surveys, including one I found just this morning about how the security revelations are apparently changing people’s online habits.

Here’s the scene from the second panel, which featured some of the region’s finest political scholars — and me!

The title of the panel was Envisioning the Future: A Roundtable on Themes of the 2014 U.S. Midterm Elections. The description read

Panelists will discuss emerging themes of the 2014 U.S. midterm elections. Among the topics that will be addressed are: political issues facing the electorate this election cycle, political communication strategies in light of changes in campaign-finance regulation, and technological shifts in campaigning. Reflecting the conference theme, panelists will look forward to the upcoming elections based on analyses of recent campaigns and issues.

The word of the day was “Obamacare.” No one will run on anything else in the midterms. We talked about Scott Brown, since he was topical today. It was also important to bring up the Supreme Court’s finding on aggregate limits.

We had a late lunch at a place called Red Gravy, a high end Italian joint nearby. It was tasty. We had dinner at the House of Blues, which was a continuation of last year’s Hard Rock Cafe misadventures. I’m not sure I’ve ever laughed more than at those two tables. This is always a fun conference, no matter the city. It is the people, not the restaurants or the burgers or the panels and papers, but the fun and funny folks we get to visit with for a few days.

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3
Apr 14

A day at the conference

Took part in a panel this morning. It was titled The Future of Campus Journalism. The description:

What are we teaching our journalism students? What should we be teaching our journalism students? Given the prolonged state of flux of the journalism industry, it is more important than ever for educators to be conscious of the ever-changing nature of the skills that our students will need to be able to adapt in today’s job market. Panelists will share their experiences with and suggestions for journalism education, both in the classroom and in the newsroom.

I talked about entrepreneurship, partnering with other entities on campus — Samford’s JMC teams with the business school and the law school for combined degrees — and initiative.

Other conference things took place. We attended sessions and other sessions. We visited the welcome mixer and then had dinner across the street at the Palace Cafe:

It was one of those places that was widely suggested to us by friends. (Tell people you are going to New Orleans and everyone has a restaurant list.) I had the braised pork shank:

It only needed to be bigger. And there was banana’s foster, which was prepared and fired in front of us. All the people infatuated by fire recorded the moment. The maitre d made a note of it and called the fire marshal, I’m sure. There was also cheesecake:

Tomorrow I’ll get to take part in two panels at the conference. Also, Wrestlemania is being held in New Orleans. The fans are starting to filter in. And some of the wrestlers. I think Mark Henry is staying in our hotel. That guy is massive.