Has it really been thirty years?

Thirty?

The Lake Placid Winter Games of 1980 gave the national spirit a Super sized injection of self-esteem. 53 Americans were taken hostage at the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran in November and the economy was in the dumpster.
We needed a distraction. And then, speed skater Eric Heiden earned five gold medals and instead of cashing in with endorsements, he went to medical school.
Even better was the U.S. men’s ice hockey team. Back then, professionals were not allowed to be in the Olympics. Team USA was made a collection of college kids. Coach Herb Brooks told them they didn’t have enough talent to win on talent. The Soviet team on the other hand, was subsidized by their Communist government making them professionals. They had been together for years. Team USA, a few months.

Those of us old enough to remember where we were when we heard the news we beat the Soviets often forget the game was tape delayed. And, that wasn’t the Gold medal game, which was two days later when Team USA beat Finland.
Instantly, it became known as “The Miracle on Ice”.
Al Michaels’ call was a masterstroke of understatement.

In last week’s episode of The Family Guy, Chris has a date with a girl. She has Down syndrome and explains her father is an accountant and her mother’s the former governor of Alaska.Well, now they did it. An outraged Sarah Palin was offended and strikes back on Facebook and elsewhere, complaining to FOX Hollywood but not FOX News, where she is paid for her opinion.
Andrea Fay Friedman, the actress who played Chris’s date, was interviewed by The New York Times.
It has been a busy month for Sarah. A few days before, White House Chief of Staff was quoted as using the phrase “fucking retarded”…last August. Sarah Palin called for the President to fire Emanuel. Emanuel didn’t get fired but did apologize to many, including Tim Shriver, whose mother founded the Special Olympics.A day or two after that, Rush Limbaugh said there would be a retard summit at The White House.
Sarah Palin did not call for Rush to be fired.
See, it’s okay for Sarah Palin to use her son and her rage to keep her name in the news. But when Rush uses the same language, she is silent.
This was summed up best by Stephen Colbert!

Feb

18

Small-town Pastoralism

February 18, 2010 | 1 Comment

John Mellencamp

Indiana Democrat Senator Evan Bayh announced this week he will not run for re-election. This has resulted in a flurry of speculation. Some of it honest, some of it on Facebook and, some of it…way ahead of things!
Then, there was this thought: What if native son John Mellencamp ran to replace Evan Bayh? At first, it’s a wild idea. After a second glance, he would make a great candidate. For starters, Mellencamp was born in a small town.
After fidgeting with stage names, Mellencamp had some hits in the early 80’s and then hit his stride. When he and others feared farmers were neglected by President Reagan’s trickledown economics, Mellencamp helped organize Farm Aid.
If you believe popular music reflects our society (hey, there’s a Hutchins Commission reference!) then John Mellencamp has been doing that for thirty years. His songs have been of young love, small towns, rock and roll; unions…and so catchy Senator John McCain used one in his songs in the 2008 campaign until Mellencamp told McCain to knock it off. Of course, some believe the idea Mellencamp would be unfit for elective office.
To them I say Ronald Reagan.

Feb

15

ALTRUISTIC DEMOCRACY

February 15, 2010 | 2 Comments

Just a few years ago, John Edwards was the Democratic nominee for Vice President. His was a compelling story. He came from a humble family, graduated from college with honors and earned his JS Degree. He was a fantastic lawyer and later was elected to the U.S. Senate. In 1996, he and his wife lost their 17 year old son, Wade to a traffic accident.
Between his personal history, ideal marriage, professional background and his record in the U.S. Senate, he seemed to be an ideal candidate for President. But then…, there were rumors he had an affair.
The rumors continued after the election and Edwards denied them until recently, he could no longer hide from the truth. But ya know what hurts? Oftentimes, a defeated presidential candidate is offered a job in the victor’s administration. (Such as Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State and from what I can tell, she is doing a great job.) When he ran for President, John Edwards` platform was poverty. His philosophy was simple…if the poor became middle class, they’d become homeowners, better taxpayers, better consumers, better savers, better citizens.
Normally, a married man who had an affair who fathered a baby is not front page news. But this is a case where a very smart and accomplished man in a very and chose badly. Very badly.
And today, he could be a valued advisor to our President. Instead, he is a middle aged man getting a divorce and having to figure how to work out his relationship with his soon to be ex-wife, his ex-mistress and his baby daughter.
And now, there’s a sex tape.
Yuck!

Thanks, John

Feb

9

The Swimsuit Issue

February 9, 2010 | 2 Comments

The first.

In the beginning, the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue was NOTHING like it is today.
There was no Super Bowl, the college football season ended on January 1. (There was a time when the major Bowl Games were played on New Year’s Day!) The NBA had 9 teams and the NHL had a grand total of six (count ‘em SIX) teams. MARCH MADNESS did not exist. As a matter of fact, back then the prestige basketball event was the National Invitational Tournament, the NIT.
Forty six years ago, championship Boxing matches and the Olympics were premier events. And while the 1964 Winter Olympics were going on, Sports Illustrated thought “Gee, this is a dead time in sports, how can we sell magazines?” And some guy said “A woman in a swimsuit!” And another guy said “Well how can we market that?” And another guy said “How about we script it to the man who might take his wife/gf to Florida for winter vacation for fishing or scuba diving or water skiing? And someone in marketing said “We can work with people with our advertisers who sell swimsuits and while we have pictures of women in two piece swimsuits, the editorial department can frame it: ‘Since you might vacation in the tropics this winter, you might consider purchasing her a swimsuit.’” And they did just that. Check out the articles in that issue. A piece on Olympic skiing, boating, (when was the last time anyone saw a story on boating in Sports Illustrated?) College hoops and soccer and finally a story on what swimsuits are for.
At least they attempted to tie in cheesecake with sports.

The SI swimsuit issue has become so big; the identity of the cover model makes it to late night television.

To me though, it may as well be MAXIM.

Feb

9

Crib notes

February 9, 2010 | 1 Comment

1. William Miller
2. Tom Eagleton
3. Sargent Shriver
4. Bob Dole
5. Geraldine Ferraro
6. Lloyd Bentsen
7. Sarah Palin
What do these people have in common?
Each ran as the Vice Presidential nominee` on a losing ticket. William Miller ran as VP to Barry Goldwater who was trounced in 1964. He later made a commercial for American Express. In 1972, Thomas Eagleton was the nominee for the Democratic Party…for less than two weeks. He resigned from the ticket when it was disclosed he had undergone psychiatric counseling. He was replaced by Sargent Shriver. Bob Dole was Gerald Ford’s running mate in 1976. Geraldine Ferraro was the first woman to appear on a National Ticket in 1984, when Walter Mondale chose her as his running mate.
Lloyd Bentsen was a four term United States Senator from Texas who was the VP nom on Michael Dukakis’s disastrous 1988 campaign and is best remembered for calling out Dan Quayle during a debate.
That brings us to Sarah Palin (sigh). At least the other six never resorted to writing on their hands.