Experience Autzen - Civil War 2011

You will want to watch this. It brought tears to my eyes. This is why I travel three hours to Eugene and three hours back to Medford each game day !

Click on the title for a better view of the video.

The Ducks have done it again !

No, I am not talking about their performance on the field. I'm talking about how they have sucked me into me being obsessed about them..... again ! Every year I tell myself to just sit back and enjoy the football season. It was easier after they lost their first game to LSU. I didn't have to worry about another trip to the National Championship. I even stayed home and watched a home game on TV. I went on the trip to Stanford half way expecting the Ducks to lose and told myself that would be "OK" as the trip was so much fun and I was going to see our daughter. Well, they beat Stanford and now are playing in the first ever Pac 12 championship and a right to go to the Rose Bowl ! Ever since I watched the Ducks, on TV, play in the 1958 Rose Bowl it has been a dream objective of this Duck fan. The family has made two trip there once in 1995 and then in 2010 (1994 & 2009 seasons). However, unless the Ducks beat a desperate UCLA team on Friday it will not happen. All I can think about is the game. Where is the perspective.... where is the "enjoy the journey". They sucked me in again ! The world and country may be going to Hell, but this week, all I care about is the Ducks. I can't even get excited about the Republican Presidential nomination race.

Go Ducks....win the Day.... beat the Bruins!

Pac 12 Championship & "Slick Rick" Neuheisel

As a result of the Oregon Ducks beating the Oregon State Beavers in the Civil War game on Saturday 49 to 21 the Oregon Ducks are the 2011 Champions of the Northern Division of the Pac 12 in football and will host the first ever Pac 12 Football Championship in Eugene Oregon on Friday December 2, 2011, at 5 pm PST. The game will be broadcast live to the entire nation on the FOX network. The winner will go to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.

UCLA is the winner of the Pac 12 South having backed into the Championship with a terrible 50 to 0 loss to U$C Saturday night when both Arizona State and Utah also lost.

There are many news stories out of Los Angeles that the UCLA coach, Rick Neuheisel will be fired after the Championship game for failing to win enough games at UCLA.

Oregon Duck fans have given Neuheisel the name "Slick Rick" for any number of reasons the following are just two examples:


Oregon fans learned to hate Rick Neuheisel when he went for a fake punt in the Cotton Bowl when his Colorado team lead Oregon with a big lead late in that game.He then went to coach for the hated Washington Huskies and led his players back out on to Oregon's midfield "O" after he had defeated Oregon for a little celebration and picture taking. No love lost there!

Thus Oregon fans have two goals in the Friday night game; one, to make the Rose Bowl and two, to watch "Slick Rick" shown the door by UCLA.

As the first Pac 12 Championship game I am excited to be living history by attending the game Friday night. My grandchildren, 50 years from now, will be able to say grandpa was at the first Pac 12 Championship game and it was in Eugene, Oregon at the home of the Ducks, Autzen Stadium.

Go Ducks.... Win the Day! Beat the Bruins.

CIVIL WAR WEEK 2011 (Part Six)

It's Thanksgiving Day and I can't wait for the "Civil War" game to start between Oregon and Oregon State on Saturday.

This game has been weighing heavily on my mind for at least three weeks. I believe the Oregon Ducks have across the board superior talent. On the other hand, the Oregon State Beavers have often beaten Oregon Duck teams due to more desire. Most of Oregon's players are from out of state and sometimes we have lost to the Beavers because of complacency and failure to realize how much the Beavers want the game. That could be the case on Saturday. Oregon State teams often come out like rabid dogs and play their hearts out.I respect them for that!I have been told that this Oregon Duck team has more of a "blue collar" ethic, than past teams, and they will need it on Saturday. In past years we have spoiled Oregon States bid to the Rose Bowl by beating them and they will be out for revenge. This year there will be no Bowl Game for them..... this is their bowl game. If we lose we will probably go to the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio, Texas. If we win we will host the first ever Pac 12 Championship Game the following Friday. The Beavers would feel on top of the world if they could deny us that chance. The winner of that game goes to the Rose Bowl. It would be their greatest game in history and they would remind us of that fact for the next 100 years ! We have only one mission and that is to beat the Beavers. The Vegas gamblers have Oregon favored but I don't believe it. Oregon players can NOT be overconfident!!!!!

We need to jump on them early and put a figurative stake in their heart early.



Thomas Hobbes once wrote that "the life of man,(is) solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." Hobbes never won a "Civil War" game.... but he was dead on if you lose.

As former Oregon State football coach Dee Andros, once said about the "Civil War" "it's for the right to live in the State of Oregon."

Time goes so slowly waiting for the game.

Go Ducks! Win the Day!

An English Thanksgiving, 1942

Click on the title for an interesting story about Thanksgiving in England in the dark days of World War II. Early in the war Japan was still advancing across the Pacific and Germany held most of Europe. America was still gearing up for war and American soldiers were just beginning to arrive in England and introduced the American holiday of Thanksgiving to the English people who had been standing alone against the Nazi juggernaut.

In those dark days, Americans took special pleasure in displaying their homegrown holiday to the Mother Country. The English were dubious at first but slowly realized they were being invited to share in something very special.

Helping to win them over was an extraordinary act of generosity very much in keeping with the spirit of the holiday. Merchant ships had carried tons of frozen turkey across the submarine-infested Atlantic for the big day. Then the Yanks announced they would donate all of it to the thousands of British war wounded in hospitals. Instead they would dine on roast pork and eat plum pudding for desert, alas without the standard rum sauce.

To read the rest click on the title.



Happy Thanksgiving America !

Movies and the Holidays

It's almost Thanksgiving so let's take a break from the "Civil War" and Politics and write about movies released during the Holidays.

One of the best parts of the Holidays, along with collage football bowl games, is taking the family to the movies at a local theater. Hollywood likes to release good movies for the Thanksgiving-Christmas-New Year Holiday period because people have more time for going to the movies and in most parts of the country outside activities are limited because of the weather. After spending lots of time inside with relatives at home it is liberating to get out of the house and go to a movie.This year we are particularly lucky because so many good movies are being released. The following is the release date and names of some movies I would like to see.

November 11, 2011

"J Edgar"

Directed by Clint Eastwood with Leonardo DiCaprio as J. Edgar Hoover of the FBI. Hoover was one of my hero's growing up. Some conservatives have given the movie bad reviews for liberal revisionism of history .... the screen writer is a noted liberal but Eastwood toned him down a bit.

November 18, 2011

"The Descendants"

George Clooney as a father living in Hawaii trying to reconnect with his daughters. I have watched the previews and it looks good. Clooney for all his politic is a good actor and this looks like a good drama/comedy for an adult family to watch.

November 23, 2011

"My Week with Marilyn"

Yes, Marilyn Monroe during the time she spent in London filming "The Prince and the Showgirl" in 1957 as told by a Brit who served as her escort.

December 8, 2011

"New Years Eve"

Intertwined story lines on New Year's Eve like the movie "Valentines Day" from last year.

"Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy"

Based upon John Le Carre's 1979 miniseries about Cold War espionage.Gary Oldman and Colin Firth. Saw the previews and it looks good if you like spy vs spy.

December 16, 2011

"Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows"

Robert Downey Jr returns in a second movie about Sherlock Holmes. I like Holmes and I like Downey.

"The Iron Lady"

Meryl Streep as British Prime Minster Margaret Thatcher. Wild horses can't keep me from seeing this movie. I love the "Iron Lady" who along with Ronald Reagan won the Cold War. She was and is one of my hero's.

December 23, 2011

"We Bought a Zoo"

Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson in a movie about a family who moves to the countryside and buys a zoo. Directed by Cameron Crowe of "Elizabethtown" and "Almost Famous" fame. I will see almost anything directed by Cameron Crowe. He is on of my favorite of the current directors.

December 25, 2011 (Christmas Day)

"War Horse"

World War I drama directed by Steven Spielberg about a boy and his horse. This is a MUST see for me. Some say the battle scenes equal those of "Saving Private Ryan."

What with college football and basketball I may not be able to see all of these movies at the theater this Holiday season but those I don't get to see will make my Netflix Queue.

Republican Debate

50 years ago a nerdish kid in Junior High School (Middle School) was awarded the DAR Medal for "Excellence in History." 50 years later, last night, his adult children attended the Republican Debate held at the DAR Hall (Constitution Hall) in Washington DC. The nerd was me. I was not a very good student in Junior High but I did have a passion for history that continues to this day. Our children are together this Thanksgiving Holiday Week in Washington DC and were able to attend last nights Republican Debate. Their mother and I watched the debate on CNN intently trying to spot "the kids" but the camera shots of where they were sitting were just too distant and the picture too small. After the debate they called us with a "blow by blow" description of their adventure.

One proud Dad !


As to the debate I felt all the candidates looked good or better than their prior debate performances.There were no big winners or losers. Cain and Perry did OK but were out of their depth. Backmann and Santorum had their moments but in the end it was Romney and Gingrich who looked like they could lead this country as President.

I continue to support Mitt Romney as the best candidate to beat Obama and to lead a divided country in troubled times.

Civil War Week 2011 ( Part five)

Some interesting facts about the Civil War Game from Wikipedia:

1.The Civil War is the colloquial name for the annual college football game in Oregon between the Oregon State Beavers and the Oregon Ducks. First played in 1894, it is the seventh-oldest college football rivalry game in the United States.

2.The game was first played in 1894 and has been contested 114 times as of 2010.

3.The game was not contested in 1900, 1901, 1911, 1943, and 1944 and two games were played in 1896 and 1945.

4.The first reference to the "Civil War" name was in 1929 and came into common use in 1937. Prior to that, it was called the "Oregon Classic" or the "State Championship Game."

5.The University of Oregon holds a series lead of 57-46-10.

6. In an effort to mitigate rioting, the 1912 and 1913 games were played at a neutral site in Albany following riots after the 1910 game.

Some of my Most Memorable games:


1972: After a 30-3 UO victory at Corvallis, Ducks fans stormed the OSU field to take down goal posts; after taking down the south goalposts, Beavers fans attempted to defend the north goalposts, resulting in a large brawl. ( I was there after having returning to Oregon after two years in the army.

1992: Oregon won the game in a wind and rain swept game in Corvallis 7-0. (I took my two young children to the game. We were seated in the end zone under the Beaver scoreboard on open air bleachers. The wind would come up under the bleachers and blow our yellow ponchos up into our face. It was cold and wet ! At halftime the Ducks were ahead by 7 points and we took a vote to stay or leave and I lost and we headed back to our car. While walking back a Beaver STOLE the duck hat off of my then 8 year old son and disappeared into the rain. I learned then if I hadn't learned it before to hate the Beavers. We listened to the rest of the game on the radio as we drive back to Medford.)

1994: Oregon needed a win in front of a hostile Parker Stadium crowd to secure a bid to the 1995 Rose Bowl, but they trailed 13–10 in the fourth quarter. Duck quarterback Danny O'Neil took the Ducks on a 70-yard drive that culminated in a 19-yard pass to Dino Philyaw to give them the 17–13 win and their first Rose Bowl in 37 years.(I was watching at home on TV with my family and came close to a heart attack from the tension.... several times I had to go outside to "cool off." After the game I opend my bottle of Len Casanova Wine, personal autographed by the Oregon Coach who had last taken the Ducks to the Rose Bowl in 1958, and we all had a drink. )

2001: Oregon came into the game needing only a victory over their arch-rival for the team's first outright Pacific-10 Conference championship since 1994 and a trip to the Fiesta Bowl; the Beavers needed a win to secure a winning season. After OSU initially took a 6-3 lead into halftime, Oregon rallied behind a Keenan Howry punt return for a touchdown to give the Ducks a lead they would not relinquish, amidst a driving rainstorm. Final score: Ducks 17, Beavers 14.( I was there and after Howry made his touchdown the heavens opened up and it just poured very hard and everyone was ecstatic and were energised by the rain and I looked above into the pouring rain and celebrated with everyone else giving little care to the fact we were all getting soaked)

There are more games and more memories..... some good ... some bad..... and some sad.

Let's Go Ducks Beat the Beavers !!!!

CIVIL WAR WEEK 2011 (Part Four)

What would Civil War week be without this golden oldie photo.

Go Ducks Beat the Beavers!

CIVIL WAR WEEK 2011 (Part three)

Tomorrow, on Tuesday November 22 the Oregon Club of Southern Oregon will have their annual Civil War lunch at the Rogue Valley Country Club at 12 noon. For many years and for the last two years the lunch has been a joint lunch with the Oregon State Beavers. Not this year ! The Oregon Club of Southern Oregon asked the Beavers to join them for lunch; but, due to lack of enthusiasm for their team, the Beavers were unable to find enough fans who would attend !

Oregon Coach Chip Kelly will appear through the magic of video teleconferencing from Eugene.

Let's Go Duck..... win the day and beat the Beavers !

CIVIL WAR WEEK 2011 (Part two)

Who will represent the Pac 12 in the Rose Bowl? The winner of the Pac 12 Championship Game on Friday December 2nd, 2011. The game will be played by the winners of the NORTH and SOUTH Divisions of the Pac 12. This will be the inaugural game of the Championship. The games this week will determine the teams.


NORTH DIVISION

1. If the Oregon Ducks beat the Oregon State Beavers they will represent the NORTH DIVISION and will host the game at Autzen Stadium.

2. If the Oregon Ducks lose to Oregon State then Stanford will represent the NORTH DIVISION and will host the game at Stanford. Stanford has completed their Pac 12 regular season games and will play Notre Dame this week.


SOUTH DIVISION

According to TED Miller of ESPN

1.If UCLA beats USC next weekend, UCLA is the champion.

2. If UCLA loses and ARIZONA STATE SUN DEVILS beats California, and Utah beats Colorado, the ARIZON STATE SUN DEVILS are the champs (the Bruins lose a three-way tiebreaker due to a 2-3 divisional record versus 3-2 for the Sun Devils and Utes; ASU eclipses Utah due to a head-to-head win).

3.If UCLA loses and Arizona State loses, and UTAH UTES wins, the UTAH UTES are the champs.

4. If all three lose, UCLA is the champion


REMAING PAC 12 GAMES:

Friday, November 25th

A. Colorado at Utah

12:30 PM

Salt Lake City, Utah

FSN
************
B. California at Arizona St.

7:15 PM

Tempe, Ariz.

ESPN

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Saturday, November 26th

A. Oregon St. at Oregon

12:30 PM

Eugene, Ore.

ABC
********

B. Louisiana-Lafayette at Arizona (el stinko game)

1:00 PM

Tucson, Ariz.

No one would put this on TV

*********

C. Washington St. at Washington

4:30 PM

Seattle, Wash.

Versus

**********

D. Notre Dame at Stanford

5:00 PM


ABC

**********

E. UCLA at USC

7:00 PM

Los Angeles, Calif.

FSN

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Friday, December 2nd

PAC 12 CHAMPIONSHIP GAME TBD at TBD

5:00 PM

FOX

CIVIL WAR WEEK 2011

"No time to wallow in the mire"

Here in Oregon this is Civil War Week. The week of the game between the Univeristy of Oregon Ducks and the Oregon State University Beavers. The game will be on ABC TV next Saturday in Eugene at Oregon's Autzen Stadium. The game will be on ABC TV at 12:30 PST.

Someone said the "Civil War" game "is for the right to live in the State of Oregon" or at least the right to live in the State of Oregon with your head held high. This is one of college footballs oldest rivalries. The oldest west of the Mississippi. Here in Oregon, Ducks and Beavers can be found in most offices, families and neighborhoods. It's brother vs brother, neighbor vs neighbor and coworker vs coworker so it truly is a Civil War. These two teams and their fans do not like each other.

One of my favorite Civil War stories is from World War II. One of the Band of Brothers featured in the HBO mini series, Don Malarkey, is a University of Oregon alum. His studies were interrupted by World War II and he was in the paratroopers in England preparing for the D-Day landings. Eisenhower and Churchill came to view his unit before the beginning of the invasion and Ike asks Malarkey what he did before the war. He said he was a student at the University of Oregon in Eugene, and Ike asks him who won the last Oregon vs Oregon State Football game. Of course Ike played football for Army at West Point.

It is fun to walk around the tailgate parties before the game because you see Ducks and Beavers together. There is a scene in the movie Gettysburg where a confederate general tells a British Army officer who is there as an observer just before Pickett's charge that "All Virginia is here today". At each Oregon vs Oregon State Football game I like to think "all Oregon is here today."
Jon Wilner, of the San Jose Mercury news in California rates the rivalry football games in the Pac-10 and rates the "Civil War" game as the #1 rivalry game when he writes:


1. The Civil War.

These days, Oregon-Oregon State has the best combination of passion, significance and competitiveness.

The passion takes the form of hatred — much closer to the Arizona-ASU situation than a healthy dislike.

OSU looks with jealousy at its richer, more-famous, more hip neighbor and wonders what might have been if Phil Knight had gone to OSU. The Ducks hate OSU because they’ve been told to hate OSU for decades.

The games are usually high scoring, although not always close, and the home team has dominated this decade.....


Without question, Oregon and Oregon State have been the most successful natural rivals in the conference in recent years. And that makes the Civil War the league’s best rivalry.

I first learned to hate the Beavers in the late 1960's when the Beavers, regularly under coach Dee Andros,( The Great Pumpkin) beat the shi* out of Oregon Duck Teams and did it with such relish.


A number years ago Dee, long retired, not too long before his death, came to a joint Duck/Beaver "Civil War" lunch in Medford and gave a passionate speech about the "Civil War" game that made me want to strap on a helmet and start playing right there. When Dee Andros walked into the banquet room he was wearing a god awful bright orange blazer and a black and orange striped tie. A local young TV sports reporter, who had probably just moved to this area, walked up to him and asked him if he was an Oregon State fan ..... it brought a smile to my face.

(Dee Andros was a veteran of World War II where he served four years in the U.S. Marine Corps. He was awarded the Bronze Star and spent more than a month under heavy fire on Iwo Jima. He was present at the famed moment when Marines raised the American flag on Iwo Jima.)

In my lifetime I can remember twice when the Duck were denied a trip to the Rose Bowl because of a loss to the Beaver..... The first, was in 1964 when I was in high school and listened to the game on a transistor radio at a speech tournament I was competing in. The Beavers won and went to the Rose Bowl. The second, was in 2000 when I spent part of the game at a hospital with a dying relative.

This has been a bad season for the Beavers and they would dearly love to knock the Ducks out of the first ever Pac 12 championship game which will determine which team from the Pac 12 will go to the Rose Bowl. A win by them will make their season and Oregon fans will hear about it from our Beaver "friends" for the next 12 long months.
Oregon with all of our success should remember they hate out guts ! After they lost to Stanford the Beaver fans chanted "Beat the Ducks" as Stanford walked off the field at Oregon State. Win the game and Oregon will host the first ever Pac 12 Championship to determine who goes to the Rose bowl

Just remember Ducks, the Beavers will come at us like mad dogs !

Let's go Ducks Win the Day!

Go Ducks beat the Beavers.

LET'S GO DUCKS !!!

On Saturday the Oregon Ducks will play the U$C Trojans at Autzen Stadium on ABC TV at 5 PM PST. Let's win the Day.

UPDATE:

Rather than celebrating tonight the Oregon team and fans should view the loss of #2 Oklahoma State to Iowa State as a cautionary tale about over confidence. Just win the Day!!!!!

No More New Music CD's After 2012 ????

According to the website "The Digital Bits" most new music albums will no longer be issued on CD's after 2012 as the music companies are going to go almost exclusively to downloading from iTunes and Amazon etc.

It seems the online magazine Side-Line is among a number of publications reporting that all the major music industry labels are preparing to abandon the Compact Disc format by the end of 2012, in favor of download/streaming only releases via iTunes, Amazon and other digital music services

Click on the title for more information. I will miss the CD cover art and the ability to display your CD on shelves and to organize them on shelves. Fortunately I have most of the music I love already on CD's and organized on shelves above my home computer. Yes I also have my music on my iPad, Mp3 player, Microsoft Media player and Apple iTunes on my office and home computers. However, it's like a book library I like the feel and look of CDs. You can put your hands on them and a crash of your computer will not destroy your library of music. I will probly in many cases, after the stop making new music CD's, download them and burn them on CD's. However the cover art always looks better on a purchased CD than when printed off my printer.

Fort Apache on Blu Ray 2/21/12

Good news ! The first of John Ford's Calvary Trilogy , "Fort Apache" staring John Wayne and Henry Fonda will be released on Blu Ray DVD on February 21, 2012. Can "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" be far behind for Blu Ray releases??? Something to look forward to after football ends with the Super Bowl !

ESPN Gameday & Oregon vs Stanford (UPDATED)

I have been looking forward to a trip to Sanford University for the Stanford vs Oregon football game for some time. However,sometimes reality does not match your anticipation of an event. Not this time. We had a great trip to the San Francisco Bay Area this last weekend.

THE TRIP DOWN

On Veterans Day (Friday) my wife and I left Medford on a bus chartered by the Oregon Club of Southern Oregon with 42 other Duck fans for Stanford. We stopped at a gaming casino for an hour for lunch near Corning, California. We then worked our way through the heavy traffic in the Bay Area and arrived in Palo Alto, at Dinah's Garden Hotel. Our daughter met us there. She lives on the east coast and flew into SFO and got a rental car and was already at the hotel when we arrived.

My wife and daughter retired early and so I met some friends at the adjacent Trader Vic's for a late dinner.

ESPN GAMDAY







All the way from Medford I hauled a telescoping 13 foot painting pole to be used for a flag pole for use at ESPN Gameday. My daughter and I got up early about 5 AM to make the trip over to the Stanford Campus for the 6 AM national live broadcast of the ESPN Gameday show. Our daughter drove her rental car with myself and two other fans and we arrived just about 6 AM. We walked over to the show and I waved my Oregon Duck flag for the two hours of the live broadcast. Our son in Kentucky and my wife back at the hotel called us on our cell phones to let us know they saw the flag. I could also see it on the giant big screen they have at the show. My friend Bob brought us some hot chocolate and we had a GREAT time. The Stanford fans are a mellow bunch and their was a lot of good natured rivalry between the two groups of fans. Both schools bands were there and while it had rained the night before the weather was prefect for the live show. Lot's of Oregon fans were there with crazy signs ! Our daughter had a sign that said "The ducks don't need Luck!" (For non football fans the star QB for Stanford is Andrew Luck)




DINA'S GARDEN HOTEL




After the show we went back three or so miles to the hotel and got my wife and the three of us had breakfast at the hotel restaurant in a sea of green and yellow. A Stanford couple came into the restaurant and their eyes got very large looking at all the Duck fans.

Dinah's Garden Hotel is a very unique place and I would highly recommend it. It is not your cookie cutter hotel. The grounds are a very tropical with lush foliage and a meandering water pond between the buildings. There are Japanese bridges over the pond and lots of real ducks that populate the pond and walk right up to the slider from your room to your patio. One duck even wandered into our room. I kiddingly told the front desk crew it was a nice touch bringing in all of these live ducks for we Duck fans. After breakfast we went back to our room to rest up for the 5 PM game.




PRE GAME

The bus we came down in took us over to the Stanford campus about 2:30 pm . We got parked and my wife, our daughter and my friend Bob and I went on a tour of campus. We saw lots of Duck fans and were able go by the Hoover Tower of the Hoover Institute a conservative "think tank" on campus. The tower is named after President Herbert Hoover. Stanford has a beautiful large campus and must spend a fortune on landscape maintenance. All the building are in a early California style with red tile roofs.

We then walked by a lot of tailgate parties for both Oregon and Stanford fans. Stanford is known for their fancy wine and cheese tailgaters parked in a grove of trees.

THE GAME




The game was broadcast on ABC TV nationwide starting at 5 PM. Stanford the leader of the Pac 12 was favored and it was their time in the national spotlight. Their QB, Andrew Luck was the leading candidate for the Heisman Trophy. The Oregon Ducks won the game 53 to 30 !!!!!! Games like this are the reason you go to games. There were a lot of Oregon fans that made the trip south and a lot of Duck fans from the Bay Area. Going to an away game creates a lot of camaraderie for the visiting teams fans. I have been going to games for many years and this was one of the most exciting of my lifetime. Games like this is the reason you go year after year. I yelled and yelled as did most other fans to support the team as the "12th man." I got the most excited when Oregon's defence would sack the Stanford QB. Our daughter got as excited as I did and even my wife, who is not a fan of crowds, had a good time.After the game I called our son in Kentucky who watched the game on TV.
When the bus got us back to the hotel we had a drink and late dinner at Trader Vick's to celebrate the victory.



Early Sunday morning I got up to say good by to our daughter who was taking an early flight out of SFO back to the east coast for work on Monday. I walked her to her rental car and waived good by. With her living on the east coast we don't get to see her as often as we would like and it was special that she could join us for he weekend. Fortunately it is not too long till Christmas when she will make a trip home to Medford. The only down side of the weekend was our son in Kentucky couldn't join us. However, he too will be home for Christmas and he and I have plans to go to an Oregon Basketball game in the new Matt Court in Eugene.


BUS TRIP HOME

Sunday on the way back a bus load of happy fans stoped at the In-N-Out in Redding California. This is the northern most In-N-Out restaurant in California. There are none in Oregon. They make some of the best burgers in the world and Oregonians whenever the go to California plan at least one stop at an In-N-Out. We got to the restaurant and there was a line of Duck fans out the door. It was like Eugene after a game.We got in line and got our burgers and the line still ran all across the parking lot. We saw some people from Medford we know and then the Oregon band drove up in two buses and the line got bigger. On the way back to the bus a local reporter from a Redding TV station interviewed my wife and I on the game and the reason so many Duck fans had converged on this fast food restaurant. This morning I got an email from someone I know in Chico, California, who said he saw the interview on the local TV station.

U$C UP NEXT

Next Saturday we play the U$C Trojans at Autzen. Time to put Stanford behind us and move on to the Trojans. Win the Day! Let's Go Ducks.

Debate History

Presidential debate History was made last night in the CNBC Republican debate from Michigan. As a political junkie I have watched virtually every Presidential Debate since they started on TV with the Nixon/Kennedy Debates in 1960. Last nights memory loss by Texas Governor Rick Perry was the most embarrassing moment in all of those debates both for the general election and the primary debates for the nomination in either party. I found it personally difficult to watch... as I felt for the guy. I have been there many times when the mind just will not spit out the information you know is in your brain. I have the excuse of calling it a "senior moment" or a "brain f...." with people I know.

I watched President Gerald Ford tell a national audience in the Ford/Carter debate in 1976 that Eastern Europe was not under the control of the Soviet Union.

In 1980, I watched the Reagan/Carter debate when Jimmy Carter was asked a question about a treaty to limit nuclear arms. Seemingly out of nowhere, Carter said, "I had a discussion with my daughter, Amy, the other day, before I came here, to ask her what the most important issue was. She said she thought nuclear weaponry –- and the control of nuclear arms."


Last night was much worse because Perry has had other bad debates and this just confirmed what many people believe about him..... ie he is not very bright or interested in policy and is not fast on his feet. He just lost his talking points. Even if you like Rick Perry and rationalize that this happens to all of us, now and then, there is the sick feeling, in the pit of your stomach, that this guy would be in over his head in a debate with President Obama. Perry may go on in the campaign but he lost the race last night.

The clip of Perry in last nights debate will be shown and used as an example of a debate "slip up" for generations to come.

My bet is the non Mitt Romney crowd will now coalesce around former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich. For me, my candidate, Mitt Romney did a very good job last night.


Update:

The following Michael Barone comments on the debate echos my thoughts when he writes:

Gingrich had an electrifying interchange with CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo when she asked him to give his solutions on health care in 30 seconds. As an infrequent CNBC viewer, I have to ask, Is Bartiromo always this obnoxious and ineffective at the same time?

She came across as a very unpleasant person.

John Ford Honored by Stamp

In 2012 the United States Postal Service will issue a stamp honoring film director John Ford. When Orson Wells was ask to name the great film directors he said "John Ford, John Ford, and John Ford." As a kid growing up in the 1950's and 1960's no film maker shaped my view of life more than John Ford. Even without knowing who was directing the movies his movies left an impression of what was important in life. "How Green Was My Valley", the Calvary Trilogy (Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and Rio Grande) "Drums along the Mohawk", "Young Mr Lincoln," "They Were Expendable", "My Darling Clementine", "The Quiet Man" and who could forget "Stagecoach." I watched many if not all of these movie at the Drive In Movies with my parents. Just last night I re watched "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" on DVD and gained new insights as to the movie and Ford.

The stamp series will also honor Directors Frank Capra,Billy Wilder and John Houston.

Frank Capra with his "Mr Smith Goes to Washington" and 'It's a Wonderful Life" both with Jimmy Stewart were films that have stayed with me through the years. I never tire of watching them.

For more information click on the title for a link to directedbyjohnford.com the only site on the web dedicated to film director John Ford.

DUCKS WIN !!!!!!!!!!!!!! WASHINGTON WEEK Part VII

The Oregon Ducks beat the Washington Huskies 34 to 17 in Seattle tonight at the "Mistake by the Lake" to set up next weeks showdown between Oregon and Stanford at Stanford in the Bay Area. ESPN Gameday will be there!!! Go Ducks beat Stanford and win the Day!

It was fun to see the Husky fans desert their team in the fourth quarter as they headed for the exits. This is the 8th game in a row now that the Ducks have beat the Huskies. Life is good!!!

WASHINGTON WEEK Part VI

GAME DAY! Oregon Ducks vs Washington Huskies at 7:30 pm PDT on Fox Sports Northwest/ Root TV.

Oregon expects every Duck will do his duty ! Win the Day .....Beat the Huskies...... Let's Go Ducks !

"High Tech Lynching"

I am supporting Mitt Romney but it brings my blood to a boil watching what is happening to Herman Cain by Liberals,the Liberal Media and people hiding behind the press as "Anonymous Sources".Unless a person is willing to step forward I give absolutely no credit to what they whisper to a friendly member of the press.

The same people who protected Bill Clinton and called his accuser's who did step forward, with allegations of physical abuse,"trailer park trash" and "bimbos" are now going after a Black Conservative just as they did against Clarence Thomas. It will not work .... it will not stand !

Former Senator Fred Thompson wrote yesterday at National Review online:

To many people, not just Republicans, this is just another instance of dirty Washington politics indulging itself, obsessing over trivia while Rome burns. Cain, a very intelligent conservative, upsets the liberal paradigm of what African Americans are supposed to believe. Many Cain supporters involved in the tea-party movement have themselves been called racists in the recent past. Now, with the economy in the tank, the nation broke, the European Union on the verge of throwing the entire Western world into recession if not worse, and former Democratic senator and governor Jon Corzine’s company having “misplaced” $200 million of investors’ money, our burning national issue is whether Herman Cain made some improper remarks over a decade ago.

Click on the title for a link to the rest of Senator Thompson's column.

UPDATE:

Just got this email from someone who read my blog post above:

I saw your blog. I'm not sure if you saw the CNN interview, but they had the accuser's lawyer on the show the other day and they asked him several times if he thought what Herman Cain did amounted to sexual harassment. Each time the lawyer danced around the question saying "I believe my client has brought these accusations in good faith." Not even her own lawyer was willing to stand up and explicitly say that what he did amounted to sexual harassment. Then, they go through the trouble of getting a waiver on the confidentiality agreement, and upon the conclusion tell us they won't go into the details. Also the Politico weasels tell us that they decline to give the details out of "sensitivity" to the alleged victims. I can't think of a more bull-sh*t excuse than that. All of this seems to indicate that the accusations and details leveled at Herman Cain are so petty and benign that it would embarrass the weasel Politico reporters and accusers to detail.

That's a good point.... the liberals can do more damage by leaving it to our sweet imagination than giving us the real ambiguous details.

WASHINGTON WEEK Part V

Last season the rivalry between the Oregon Ducks and the Washington Huskies became even more heated when the Washington Athletic Director insulted the Oregon Ducks while attending last years game at Autzen Stadium in Eugene. Here is my post from last year outlining the insult and it's repercussions:

Want to know why I hate the Huskies so much..... well their Athletic Director just gave us another reason that will last long after this season is over. He was interviewed on Husky Radio at the game at Autzen Stadium in Eugene and this is what he said:


Mahler to Woodward:
“What do you make of this place? When you come down here, you see the new baseball field, you see the brand new turf, you see the atmosphere. And don’t know if motivation is the word but obviously this is kind of where Washington wants to be, ranked #1 in the country and have all eyes on them.”

AD Woodward:
“Sure, it’s not really where we want to be Softy, because it’s an embarrassment what their academic institution is, and what’s happened to them as far as their state funding has gone. In my mind it’s a wonderful athletic facility but they’ve watched it at the expense of the university go really down.
“The athletic facility is impressive. The fans at Oregon should get down on their hands and knees at night to Phil Knight and pray to him because this is an incredible facility he’s built.“


He tried to clarify the statement today but it didn't work. The man is a clear example of an arrogant Husky JERK that we have known for way too long.

Oregon beat his team 53 to 16

UPDATE:

After a very weak "if I offended anyone" type apology yesterday the Washington AD Scott Woodward was ORDERED by the University of Washington President to PERSONALLY apologise to the Oregon AD and the Oregon President for his comments.

Last week a sports reporter for the Oregonian wrote that the rivalry between Oregon and Washington was for old timers like me. Well, thanks to Mr Woodward I think we can keep it going for another 50 years. The old grudge about the 1948 Rose Bowl was getting a little old anyway. I really HATE those guys!

Go Ducks .... win the Day beat the Huskies.

WASHINGTON WEEK part IV

Click on the title for a great TV ad for Saturday's game between the Ducks of Oregon and the Huskies of Washington. These teams and their fans don't like each other !!!!

"The Perry Paradox"

DANIEL HENNINGER of the Wall Street Journal makes a telling point about Rick Perry when he writes today:
.....

Texas' pro-business bias goes back about 175 years—and never died. "It's just that they believe in the whole Horatio Alger myth down here," said Mr. Booth. "It's hard to understand if you haven't lived here."

And so Perry's Paradox: Rick Perry is a success because he nominally presides over an American tiger state, a genuine free-market economy that doesn't much need—or want—his tender loving care. If the job before us is unwinding an unimaginably vast, smothering national government, is Lone Star Gov. Rick Perry the man for that job?

This much is obvious: Texas, not California, better be the American future.

To read the rest of this excellent column click on the title for a link.

WASHINGTON WEEK Part III

Don't believe me, click on the title for a link to a video of Ted Miller of ESPN who answers the question of why Oregon-Washington is the Pac-12's most bitter rivalry.

"I really hate those guys"

"Why We Can't Escape the Eurocrisis"

Gerald O'Driscoll Jr of the Wall Street Journal gives a good explanation of why what happens in Greece is important to Americans.

First to the EU. The underlying dilemma is that governments have promised their citizens more social programs than can be financed with the tax revenue generated by the private sector. High tax rates choke off the economic growth needed to finance the promises. Economic activity gets driven into the underground economy, where it often escapes taxation.
Nowhere is this truer than in Greece....

In Greece and elsewhere in the EU, the banks support the government by purchasing its bonds, and the government guarantees the banks. It is a Ponzi scheme not even Bernie Madoff could have concocted. The banks can no longer afford to fund budget deficits, yet they cannot afford to see governments default. Governments cannot make good on their guarantees of the banks......

.... U.S. banks and financial institutions are exposed to EU banks through funding operations, issuance of credit default swaps and unknown exposure in derivatives markets.

The sad fact is that there is not enough money in the EU to pay off the public debts incurred by the governments. Most countries have long since squeezed as much tax revenue from their citizens as they can........

Americans must not be smug about the suffering of Europeans—our financial system is thoroughly integrated with theirs.....

To read the rest click on the title for a link.


Mr. O'Driscoll, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, is a former vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and later Citibank.

WASHINGTON WEEK Part II (The Pick)

THE PICK

This is a story I never tire of telling.
On October 22, 1994, Oregon football changed. The 1994 season didn't start out that way. Oregon lost to Hawaii, Utah and Washington State. There were only 25,000 fans at Autzen for Utah. At that game I looked around the parking lot and wondered "where is everybody?." The Ducks had beaten U$C in LA but we thought it was a fluke. Then came the Washington game in Eugene on October 22, 1994. I didn't want to drive three hours from Medford to Eugene to watch another Washington "blow out" of the Ducks. I had been there too many times before. In those days with two teenage children at home my kids took turns going to the games with me as we had two season tickets. It was my daughter's turn and so we drove to Eugene. I always like to park on the campus side of the Willamette River and take the footbridge over to Autzen. On a nice day it's a wonderful walk over the river and through the woods to Autzen. I parked on Franklin Blvd. and walked by the New Oregon Motel. It was full of Husky fans. We had also stopped by the book-store on campus and it was full of Husky fans. We got to the game and took our seats in SECTION 13 and the game started. Washington was ranked the # 9 team in the nation. Oregon kept it close. Oregon was leading by four points when Washington scored to go ahead 20 - 17 with 7:44 minutes to play. The game seemed to unfold as it had so often. "nice try"..." a moral victory" ... "close but no cigar". NOT THIS TIME. Danny O'Neil Oregon's QB led the Ducks on a 98 yard drive to regain the lead. It will forever be known as "The Drive." The Ducks now led 24-17 with 2:40 to go in the game. Washington then started their own drive and advanced to the Duck 8 yard line with 1:09 to play. With each yard the Huskies made, every Duck fan knew that Washington would score and win the game as they had so many times before. " So close, but no cigar." Then there was a play that will live forever in every Duck heart. Washington had plenty of time to give the ball to heralded tail back Napolean Kaufman. Instead, QB Damon Huard threw the ball in the flat toward Dave Janoski. Kenny Wheaton the Oregon CB timed the throw perfectly and stepped in front of the Washington receiver and intercepted the ball and ran it all the way back for another Duck touchdown to win the game 31-20. I was standing watching the play with my daughter. We both began to jump up and down!!! We then hugged as we both jumped up and down!!!. It was redemption! My daughter and I will always have that moment in time. On my dying day I will remember it. The play became known as "THE PICK". It is shown on the big screen at every Oregon home game just as the team comes on the field. Jerry Allen, the radio broadcaster's call of the play, has become a favorite of Duck fans... "KENNY WHEATON'S GOING TO SCORE....KENNY WHEATON'S GOING TO SCORE" I have a framed print of the play hanging in my office. After the game the many Husky fans looked crushed. The three hour trip back to Medford was like floating on air. Oregon went on to win the Pac 10 Championship that year and the entire family went to the Rose Bowl. It was the Ducks first time since 1958.
It was the beginning of the Golden Age of Duck Football !

last week Kenny Wheaton was inducted into the Oregon Duck Hall of Fame. He was introduced at mid field at halftime of the Washington State game on Saturday. As he left the field on our side those of us in sections 12and 13 started chanting "Kenny.... Kenny.... Kenny" and he gave us a wave.