I will be watching on TV tonight The University of Miami (FL) versus The Ohio State University, to be formal. This game could be the beginning of a new bowl format---The Hypocrite Bowl.
Both these teams, to understate it. are not exactly bastions of virtue and integrity. In the case of Miami, they have a long history of player suspensions and even arrests. Remember, if you are old enough, back in the early nineties when Miami played Notre Dame, they created t-shirts reading "THE CONVICTS VS. THE CATHOLICS". Ohio State has a more recent record of transgressions. The recent mess was big news of Jim Tressell, the coach fired---or allowed to resign---because of covering up players selling jersey and other memorabilia for tattoos and the like, resulting in five players suspended for the first five games of the current season. O.S.U. also has its businessman/President, Dr. Gordon Gee, he of the darling bow ties, noted for his cute bon mots and for looking the other way.
Both teams are symptomatic of the problems facing college football. College football is by any definition BIG BUSINESS. I saw an article in the papers today on the revenues of various universities for football. Texas edged Ohio State in revenue 86.2 mm to 86.1 mm. That qualifies as big business, and there were many school in the 80-85 mm category.
Some commentators are calling for a reality check and accepting the fact that college athletes should be given some "spending money" or expenses so that they can resist the temptations of unauthorized gifts. Admittedly, it has to be hard for some nineteen year-old athlete who comes from a poor background and is in college on an athletic scholarship to turn down the blandishments of some folded lettuce slipped surreptiously into his palm by a well-heeled alumnus or the use of a brand-new car.
On the other side of the coin, these temptations have been around for years, and you know the ground rules when you enter school and should have been exposed to the caveats of the N.C.A.A.
Tonight will be prime exhibits of this dilemma. THE CONVICTS VS. THE CONVICTS could read the t-shirts or, more gently, THE SUSPENDED VS. THE SUSPENDED, or CANES, CASH, COLUMBUS. Take your pick.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
SAME OLD, SAME OLD
Now that I have settled back in our Florida home, I can only note the old French adage: "le plus qu'il change, le plus le meme"---namely, the more things change, the more they are the same.
I note that the Senate Minority leader, Mitch McConnell, in response to the President's latest stimulus plan, has said, "It's D.O.A.---dead on arrival." Attaboy, Mitch, kill, kill, kill, right from the gitgo.
I note in the recent Republican Presidential debates that certain members of the audience, Tea Partyists. no doubt, cheered at the idea of letting the indigents die if they can't afford health care. Nice attitude, guys and girls. Do unto others before they do it unto you.
I note that professional sports just can't possibly get along without the threat of a strike and lockout. The N.F.L. wasn't enough; now we have the N.B.A. Owners are the same in all professional sports: maximum return in revenue and minimum outlay for the players. What the hell, the customers will pay for it anyway...
I note the rate of poverty in America has now reached 46mm people or up to 16.1%. The gap between the rich and the poor continues to accelerate. And we don't need entitlement and tax reform? Not to mention job stimulation.
I note the Euro crisis continues to accelerate. Do you think maybe the euro currency is not such a hot idea and the United States of Europe a giant turkey?
Where have I heard this song before?
I note that the Senate Minority leader, Mitch McConnell, in response to the President's latest stimulus plan, has said, "It's D.O.A.---dead on arrival." Attaboy, Mitch, kill, kill, kill, right from the gitgo.
I note in the recent Republican Presidential debates that certain members of the audience, Tea Partyists. no doubt, cheered at the idea of letting the indigents die if they can't afford health care. Nice attitude, guys and girls. Do unto others before they do it unto you.
I note that professional sports just can't possibly get along without the threat of a strike and lockout. The N.F.L. wasn't enough; now we have the N.B.A. Owners are the same in all professional sports: maximum return in revenue and minimum outlay for the players. What the hell, the customers will pay for it anyway...
I note the rate of poverty in America has now reached 46mm people or up to 16.1%. The gap between the rich and the poor continues to accelerate. And we don't need entitlement and tax reform? Not to mention job stimulation.
I note the Euro crisis continues to accelerate. Do you think maybe the euro currency is not such a hot idea and the United States of Europe a giant turkey?
Where have I heard this song before?
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
IS IT A BIRD OR A PLANE?
Like Freddie Kruger, I'm back--- in the U.S.A.--- after almost three months in England and really glad to be home. My old body is slowly adjusting to the time difference; it takes longer now. I had a good night's sleep, so I'm almost there.
What kept me awake and excited was the great championship match at the U.S. Open between Novak Djokovic and Rafa Nadal where rallies of pure power hitting were frequently twenty-five times across the net or more. Talk about two heavyweights duking it out! Djokovic has taken the game to a new dimension, somewhere in the warp speed area. He moves with incredible grace and style, all the while with power and precision.
With so many young giants on the horizon,physically and artfully endowed with power and grace, you never know who will emerge to challenge Djokovic. I only wish a few more of them were American.
Serena let her big foul mouth interfere with her tennis and deservedly was beaten thoroughly by Samantha Stosur. It's been awhile since the Aussies had a champion---and Sam deserved to win.
I've commented before how the combination of new technology in racquets---and now in strings---plus the conditioning of today's athletes who are bigger and stronger has totally changed the game. Any resemblance between today's games and thirty years ago does not exist. It's literally a whole new ball game!
What new version of Clark Kent with a racquet will zoom down from the skies? It will be fun to see. For now, Novak Djokovic wears the cape.
What kept me awake and excited was the great championship match at the U.S. Open between Novak Djokovic and Rafa Nadal where rallies of pure power hitting were frequently twenty-five times across the net or more. Talk about two heavyweights duking it out! Djokovic has taken the game to a new dimension, somewhere in the warp speed area. He moves with incredible grace and style, all the while with power and precision.
With so many young giants on the horizon,physically and artfully endowed with power and grace, you never know who will emerge to challenge Djokovic. I only wish a few more of them were American.
Serena let her big foul mouth interfere with her tennis and deservedly was beaten thoroughly by Samantha Stosur. It's been awhile since the Aussies had a champion---and Sam deserved to win.
I've commented before how the combination of new technology in racquets---and now in strings---plus the conditioning of today's athletes who are bigger and stronger has totally changed the game. Any resemblance between today's games and thirty years ago does not exist. It's literally a whole new ball game!
What new version of Clark Kent with a racquet will zoom down from the skies? It will be fun to see. For now, Novak Djokovic wears the cape.
Saturday, September 3, 2011
MY LAST ENGLISH HURRAH
This will probably be my last blog from England. We leave for America on 9/11, and this next week is going to be frantic, which it has been these last few weeks as we tried and succeeded in selling our house here in Eastbourne. The new buyer of the house, a charming lady in her sixties, is coming here on Tuesday to determine what of our possessions she wants. In England, everything not an integral part of the house is sold separately, and you must file forms showing these contents.. After she has picked her choices, we have arranged to ship certain items we like in furniture, cutlery, kitchenware and personal items by sea to our address in Florida. The day after we leave the shipping company will come in and pack up those designated items. After that is accomplished, an old friend who does cleaning for us will come in and pick up certain items chosen by her and put the house in order. Then the rest will be taken by an antique dealer/liquidator, who will come in shortly after we leave.
Then we must push to expedite the paperwork with the lawyers, hers and ours, so that we can sign the agreement, and some monies get transferred. Since we will be paid in sterling, I’m going to talk to our accountant here on how best at minimum cost to transfer the funds. Should I invest some of it in gold, in low-yield safe bonds or money market funds until final disposition is determined. That’s a nice problem!
All of which means, there is a helluva lot to do in the next eight days. Somehow we will muddle through and get it done. One of our daughters is here and can help in the disposal and packing process, thank God. Arranging the logistics for all these transfers of merchandise is tricky, but we will pull it off.
We are ready to come home. We have had a good time in spite of the English weather, which has forgotten to be summer a good part of the time. England is not the same---then, again, what is? Everything is expensive here, even more than in the states, and the mood of austerity and fiscal pain preys on everyone. As I said in an earlier blog, we’ll probably come back, health permitting, for shorter visits---but no more three months away, it’s too long.
I’ll blog at you soon from home soon.
Then we must push to expedite the paperwork with the lawyers, hers and ours, so that we can sign the agreement, and some monies get transferred. Since we will be paid in sterling, I’m going to talk to our accountant here on how best at minimum cost to transfer the funds. Should I invest some of it in gold, in low-yield safe bonds or money market funds until final disposition is determined. That’s a nice problem!
All of which means, there is a helluva lot to do in the next eight days. Somehow we will muddle through and get it done. One of our daughters is here and can help in the disposal and packing process, thank God. Arranging the logistics for all these transfers of merchandise is tricky, but we will pull it off.
We are ready to come home. We have had a good time in spite of the English weather, which has forgotten to be summer a good part of the time. England is not the same---then, again, what is? Everything is expensive here, even more than in the states, and the mood of austerity and fiscal pain preys on everyone. As I said in an earlier blog, we’ll probably come back, health permitting, for shorter visits---but no more three months away, it’s too long.
I’ll blog at you soon from home soon.
Monday, August 29, 2011
THE END OF AN ERA
By George, we’ve done it, in the immortal words of Henry Higgins. My wife and I have reached a sales agreement on our little house here in Eastbourne, East Sussex, England. I say “reached an agreement” because in U.K. a sale is never final until the final documents are signed before any monies are paid: no “earnest money” here, the sale really favors the buyer, not the seller. In any case, we will have a cash sale from a charming and, I suspect, affluent mother/daughter combination who live in a nearby East Sussex town. I think our house is intended for the daughter.
I am relieved to have this sale agreed before we leave for home in Florida September 11, but I hope we can expedite the legal paperwork, but, knowing lawyers, that won’t be easy. I’ve lost a few days to talk to our lawyer and the buyers because it has been Bank Holiday this past weekend through Monday, the equivalent of Labor Day in the U.S., just a week earlier. Time is running short. We have some household goods and furniture to dispose of, and I hope to get with the buyers to see what they would like to select from the house and then dispose of the rest, probably to Ali Baba and the forty Thieves, as I refer to liquidators who come in and pay 10 cents on the dollar, if you’re lucky.
We are taking some goods back to America and have made arrangements with an International shipper to come in, after we leave, pack up the items we want and ship by sea. When you ship by sea, it is not weight that counts but volume, and we will have a 25 cubic foot container for our stuff. We have a beautiful nest of four carved nest tables with silver inlays, inherited from my wife’s parents (who owned this house for sixteen years), plus another small table, some china items and personal effects.
On top of this, we have a daughter arriving for a short visit September1, who will return with us on the same flight to Atlanta where she lives, while we then fly on to Fort Myers, Florida. Naturally, we want to entertain her, but it is going to be a juggling act, doing things with her while we clear the house details. She is a great organizer and can be of help, but we also want her to have a good time.
It is the end of an era. My wife’s parents bought this town house, the middle one of three connected homes in 1977 and lived here until 1993 when my mother-in-law went into a nursing home and my father-in-law to live with my wife’s sister and husband briefly before he went into a nursing home. They died within seven months of each other in December 1993 and July 1994. So, it has been in the family almost thirty-five years.
We rented the house for the nine months we weren’t here and, in a couple of cases, for a year when we did not come to England. For the last ten years, we have rented, through an excellent letting agent to mature students who took good care of the house and would go home for the summer while we occupied the house. Their rent for nine months usually covered our expenses for the summer, which was a nice deal.
My wife and I,to a lesser extent, feel sad that we won’t be coming back to this house. It is in a wonderful section of town called Meads; in fact, Meads was once an independent village and, even now, has the characteristics of an independent village with its own center of town and shopping area. We are located next to the downs, beautiful rolling hills leading to the chalk cliffs overlooking the English Channel. We could even see the channel from our bedroom windows. We are about a mile from a famous lighthouse called Beachy Head, a light house standing next to sheer white chalk cliffs in the channel. This is the part of England over which The Battle of Britain was fought in 1940.
We’ll probably come back for shorter visits and rent a larger house or apartment for children and grandchildren when they visit, but not for three months.
Yes, it is definitely the end of a wonderful era in our lives.
I am relieved to have this sale agreed before we leave for home in Florida September 11, but I hope we can expedite the legal paperwork, but, knowing lawyers, that won’t be easy. I’ve lost a few days to talk to our lawyer and the buyers because it has been Bank Holiday this past weekend through Monday, the equivalent of Labor Day in the U.S., just a week earlier. Time is running short. We have some household goods and furniture to dispose of, and I hope to get with the buyers to see what they would like to select from the house and then dispose of the rest, probably to Ali Baba and the forty Thieves, as I refer to liquidators who come in and pay 10 cents on the dollar, if you’re lucky.
We are taking some goods back to America and have made arrangements with an International shipper to come in, after we leave, pack up the items we want and ship by sea. When you ship by sea, it is not weight that counts but volume, and we will have a 25 cubic foot container for our stuff. We have a beautiful nest of four carved nest tables with silver inlays, inherited from my wife’s parents (who owned this house for sixteen years), plus another small table, some china items and personal effects.
On top of this, we have a daughter arriving for a short visit September1, who will return with us on the same flight to Atlanta where she lives, while we then fly on to Fort Myers, Florida. Naturally, we want to entertain her, but it is going to be a juggling act, doing things with her while we clear the house details. She is a great organizer and can be of help, but we also want her to have a good time.
It is the end of an era. My wife’s parents bought this town house, the middle one of three connected homes in 1977 and lived here until 1993 when my mother-in-law went into a nursing home and my father-in-law to live with my wife’s sister and husband briefly before he went into a nursing home. They died within seven months of each other in December 1993 and July 1994. So, it has been in the family almost thirty-five years.
We rented the house for the nine months we weren’t here and, in a couple of cases, for a year when we did not come to England. For the last ten years, we have rented, through an excellent letting agent to mature students who took good care of the house and would go home for the summer while we occupied the house. Their rent for nine months usually covered our expenses for the summer, which was a nice deal.
My wife and I,to a lesser extent, feel sad that we won’t be coming back to this house. It is in a wonderful section of town called Meads; in fact, Meads was once an independent village and, even now, has the characteristics of an independent village with its own center of town and shopping area. We are located next to the downs, beautiful rolling hills leading to the chalk cliffs overlooking the English Channel. We could even see the channel from our bedroom windows. We are about a mile from a famous lighthouse called Beachy Head, a light house standing next to sheer white chalk cliffs in the channel. This is the part of England over which The Battle of Britain was fought in 1940.
We’ll probably come back for shorter visits and rent a larger house or apartment for children and grandchildren when they visit, but not for three months.
Yes, it is definitely the end of a wonderful era in our lives.
Friday, August 26, 2011
THE SLIMEBALL OF THE SUMMER SWEEPSTAKES
It’s always a close competition with so many horses asses competing for the title of Slimeball of the Summer, but here’s my list, in ascending order, of candidates. Change the order around any way you desire. You have to remember, I’ve been out of the country for over two months, so I may not be current on some recent sleazes that have not been brought to my attention.
10. Jim Tressell, former Ohio State football coach. Talk about really messing up big time. One of the plum coaching assignments, now kaput, because this Godly Man couldn’t tell the truth when he should have and made a bad situation worse. And the university for whom he worked is just about as bad.
9. Roger Goodell and his N.F.L. cronies. They almost cost us a football season. Drag it out, baby, and make ‘em sweat.
8. The Tea party for contributing to the gross ignorance of domestic and foreign policy. To hell with government, just CUT, CUT, CUT, the simplistic answer to all our problems.
7. Michelle Bachmann/Rick Parry---a dual entry for slander and untruths even above and beyond the pigsty of campaign politics. The wacky right is right on again for distortion and pure crap. Whose turn is it to be accused of treason?
6. John Boehner and Mitch McConnell, a joint award. As leaders of the Republican congress, these two were so intent on making the President look bad and playing 2012 election politics that they pushed the country to the edge of a financial precipice. Politics first, the economy second has been the byword for too long.
5.. The Murdoch triangle of Rupert Murdoch/ James Murdoch/Rebecca Brooks and the swarmy, sleazy, hacking mess and abuse of power where covering your ass was carried to a brand-new extreme. They may not get out of this one quite so easily.
4. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, that pillar of French politics with the ever-open fly, who escaped justice, thanks to a pile of money and a disadvantaged victim with an inconsistent background. Will he run for President of France? Don’t bet against it. Stay tuned.
3. The Pakistani Intelligence Service for years of disservice to the U.S.A. who supports their country and mission, only to have these bastards help the Taliban by providing shelter and, I’m sure, intelligence. A special thanks for allowing the Chinese to photograph and get a piece of the skin of the Chinook helicopter that crashed in the bin Laden raid. Of course, you believe them when they say they didn’t know bin Laden was there. Right, and your check is in the mail.
2. Colonel Gaddafi---almost #1 in a photo finish for forty-odd years of tyranny and crazed fanaticism. I hope they hang him by his thumbs, or, better yet, by his privates when they find him. Lockerbie is remembered!
1. President Assam of Syria in a tight race edges out Gaddafi. Under the protection of our dear loyal friends and allies, the Saudis, he has got away with murder and despotism on a wholesale scale for years. Now his bloodbath is beginning to catch up to him when even the Saudis are turning against him. He has not been our friend for a long time, allowing his country to be a conduit for terrorists,and loves to fuel up the Mideast fire. I really rate him #1 because he is still a clear and present danger, whereas Gaddafi has had it.
I’m sure you can add a lot more---but here’s a good start!
10. Jim Tressell, former Ohio State football coach. Talk about really messing up big time. One of the plum coaching assignments, now kaput, because this Godly Man couldn’t tell the truth when he should have and made a bad situation worse. And the university for whom he worked is just about as bad.
9. Roger Goodell and his N.F.L. cronies. They almost cost us a football season. Drag it out, baby, and make ‘em sweat.
8. The Tea party for contributing to the gross ignorance of domestic and foreign policy. To hell with government, just CUT, CUT, CUT, the simplistic answer to all our problems.
7. Michelle Bachmann/Rick Parry---a dual entry for slander and untruths even above and beyond the pigsty of campaign politics. The wacky right is right on again for distortion and pure crap. Whose turn is it to be accused of treason?
6. John Boehner and Mitch McConnell, a joint award. As leaders of the Republican congress, these two were so intent on making the President look bad and playing 2012 election politics that they pushed the country to the edge of a financial precipice. Politics first, the economy second has been the byword for too long.
5.. The Murdoch triangle of Rupert Murdoch/ James Murdoch/Rebecca Brooks and the swarmy, sleazy, hacking mess and abuse of power where covering your ass was carried to a brand-new extreme. They may not get out of this one quite so easily.
4. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, that pillar of French politics with the ever-open fly, who escaped justice, thanks to a pile of money and a disadvantaged victim with an inconsistent background. Will he run for President of France? Don’t bet against it. Stay tuned.
3. The Pakistani Intelligence Service for years of disservice to the U.S.A. who supports their country and mission, only to have these bastards help the Taliban by providing shelter and, I’m sure, intelligence. A special thanks for allowing the Chinese to photograph and get a piece of the skin of the Chinook helicopter that crashed in the bin Laden raid. Of course, you believe them when they say they didn’t know bin Laden was there. Right, and your check is in the mail.
2. Colonel Gaddafi---almost #1 in a photo finish for forty-odd years of tyranny and crazed fanaticism. I hope they hang him by his thumbs, or, better yet, by his privates when they find him. Lockerbie is remembered!
1. President Assam of Syria in a tight race edges out Gaddafi. Under the protection of our dear loyal friends and allies, the Saudis, he has got away with murder and despotism on a wholesale scale for years. Now his bloodbath is beginning to catch up to him when even the Saudis are turning against him. He has not been our friend for a long time, allowing his country to be a conduit for terrorists,and loves to fuel up the Mideast fire. I really rate him #1 because he is still a clear and present danger, whereas Gaddafi has had it.
I’m sure you can add a lot more---but here’s a good start!
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
AMERICA'S POOR GRADES
The President in a recent speech to the country referred to America as an AAA country, defying the downgrading of American credit by Standard & Poor to AA1/2. I think the American people---well, at least a good part of them---are AAA quality, but the politicians rate a “D”. Furthermore, let’s not make S. & P. the villain of the piece. Let’s put a large part of the blame where it belongs: on the politicians. By their inflexible stands, political posturing and lack of leadership, we got, unfortunately, what we deserved.
Certainly politics played a major role in creating a climate of turmoil and suspense which made a bad situation even worse internationally. Things were bad all over in a good part of the western world with our recession showing no signs of abatement and Europe in a euro crisis with the weak members hovering on the brink of bankruptcy. And, I might add, below the surface, a few things are rotten in the state of China. Psychologically, the inability of America to resolve the debt crisis quickly and thoroughly really gave a setback to our standing as the number one nation. Don’t think that didn’t contribute to the S. & P. decision.
To exacerbate matters even more, the debt crisis solution is a bandaid---a temporary patch until the matter can be studied further and recommendations made. It is not as if the problem was brand new, but we have refused to deal with it constructively and thoroughly for much too long. The world is seeing this, and it does no good for our respect.
I’ve been on the soap box much too many times about the politicizing of America and the dangers of polarization. I’m now seeing it from a different perspective here in England and realizing how important our leadership is in the world. We haven’t done a good job of leadership by example. I wish I could see a change coming---but I don’t. It’s really well past wake-up time.
We are going to have to work extra-hard to be AAA in every way.
Certainly politics played a major role in creating a climate of turmoil and suspense which made a bad situation even worse internationally. Things were bad all over in a good part of the western world with our recession showing no signs of abatement and Europe in a euro crisis with the weak members hovering on the brink of bankruptcy. And, I might add, below the surface, a few things are rotten in the state of China. Psychologically, the inability of America to resolve the debt crisis quickly and thoroughly really gave a setback to our standing as the number one nation. Don’t think that didn’t contribute to the S. & P. decision.
To exacerbate matters even more, the debt crisis solution is a bandaid---a temporary patch until the matter can be studied further and recommendations made. It is not as if the problem was brand new, but we have refused to deal with it constructively and thoroughly for much too long. The world is seeing this, and it does no good for our respect.
I’ve been on the soap box much too many times about the politicizing of America and the dangers of polarization. I’m now seeing it from a different perspective here in England and realizing how important our leadership is in the world. We haven’t done a good job of leadership by example. I wish I could see a change coming---but I don’t. It’s really well past wake-up time.
We are going to have to work extra-hard to be AAA in every way.
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