2012 Oregon Ducks Pocket Football Schedule

I collect Oregon Pocket schedules and was able to pick some up at the Spring Game  for my scrap book.  Got to love those 2012 Rose Bowl helmets. Go Ducks.... win the Day!

Sat, Sep 01 Arkansas State Eugene, Ore. TBA Sat, Sep 08 Fresno State Eugene, Ore. TBA Sat, Sep 15 Tennessee Tech Eugene, Ore. TBA Sat, Sep 22 Arizona * Eugene, Ore. TBA Sat, Sep 29 Washington State * at Seattle, Wash. (CenturyLink Field) TBA Sat, Oct 06 Washington * Eugene, Ore. TBA Thu, Oct 18 Arizona State * at Tempe, Ariz. TBA Sat, Oct 27 Colorado * Eugene, Ore. TBA Sat, Nov 03 USC * at Los Angeles, Calif. TBA Sat, Nov 10 California * at Berkeley, Calif. TBA Sat, Nov 17 Stanford * Eugene, Ore. TBA Sat, Nov 24 Oregon State * at Corvallis, Ore. TBA

* Conference Games

Fun Saturday at Spring Game in Eugene

Had a great time at Oregon's Spring Football Game in Eugene yesterday.  Took a charted bus to Eugene. It left Medford at about 7:45 AM and on the way up  watched the replay of the 2012 Rose Bowl win by the Ducks on DVD on the bus. After fighting traffic getting into  the Autzen parking lot we made it into the stadium about 10 minutes before kickoff.  It was a nice day and the temperate was just right. They had a record crowd of 44,000 people (More than the Oregon State  Beavers get for regular game in the fall) The most interesting thing in the game was the QB duel between veteran Bryan Bennett and  redshirt freshman Marcus Moriota from Hawaii. Moriota won! It was exciting every time he got the ball and he is very fast and deceptive with the ball. He has good command and could "read" the entire field.  He was a lot of fun to watch.  Bennett is ok and Colorado last year showed what he can do.  We will  need both before the 2012 season is over.  At halftime we  went to the Duck Shop  in the Mo Center and bought a framed panorama picture of the 2012 Rose Bowl Victory Celebration. The picture here does not do it justice.The picture is taken at night. It will go as a matched pair with my other panorama of the game taken early in  the game while the sun was high in the sky


After the game went over to PK Park for the Oregon vs Cal baseball game.  There was a record crowd of 3700 for that game and it was a fun game even for this non baseball fan. The Ducks won in a close game.
 The bus then too the long trip back to Medford and we got home about 8 PM for a long but fun day in the sun.  It will now be a long four months till football season.  When are the football magazines coming out? :) It looks like the Oregon Club of Southern Oregon is organizing an away game trip to Cal in Berkeley for the November 10th game in Cal's new remodeled and seismic safe stadium. There is also talk of organizing a Amtrak train trip out of K Falls to Seattle for the Washington State game where the Seattle Seahawks play. Go Ducks!

The Spring Game and Goodbye Autzen

Tomorrow is the Oregon football Spring Game and today is the last day to renew season tickets for the 2012 football Season. I will be taking a charter bus to Eugene tomorrow for the Spring game but today  I will not be renewing my season tickets . All good things come to and end and this is one.  Our family has had season Oregon football tickets for 22 years but not next year.  I will still be going to games at Autzen  but just not as often. When we originally bought season tickets, the Ducks had just come of their first bowl game in a long time, the 1989 Independence Bowl in Shreveport La. We have had two tickets and the kids in their teenage years would take turns traveling to Eugene for the games.  Even when my son was a college student at Willamette University in Salem he would meet me at the games. However, both kids are now adults living in the Eastern time zone. My wife doesn't like crowds and we are both getting old and a three hour trip to Eugene, attending a 4 hour game and then driving three hours home is not as much fun as it once was. In addition, they have raised ticket prices to make purchasing season tickets a major investment.  One fan in our section, after the last price increase, kiddingly ask if we all gotten second mortgages on our homes to buy the tickets. Finally, after going to the Rose Bowl and winning it last season, the first time in 95 years for my Ducks, there aren't many more mountains to climb. Don't worry, I am still a crazy Duck fan but I will be watching more Duck games in front of my big screen high definition TV where there is a restroom just down the hall and the hot dogs are less expensive. I will miss interaction with fellow Duck fans but with my ipad and twitter there will still be lots of interaction. As usual, I will have the TV sound turned down and will be listening to the games with Jerry Allen and Jorge on the Duck Radio broadcasts.

I still plan on making at least one home  game per season at Autzen and  one road trip each year to an away game in the San Francisco bay area (Stanford or Cal) or a trip to Seattle for a game with the Washington State Cougars. ( The Cougs want to play one game in Seattle for their fans in the metropolitan area.

As far as tomorrow(Saturday) the University of Oregon Ducks will hold their Spring Football game at Autzen Stadium in Eugene. The Oregon Club of Southern Oregon is sponsoring a bus trip to Eugene for the football game and an Oregon baseball game after the football game. I am looking forward to the trip.

Noonan: A Bush League President

PEGGY NOONAN, who voted for Obama, writes another devastating column in the Wall Street Journal. A few quotes: 

 He looks pleasant but lacks joy; he's cool but lacks vigor. A lot of what he says could have been said by a president 12 or 20 years ago, little is anchored to the moment. As he makes his points he often seems distracted, as if he's holding a private conversation in his head, noticing crowd size, for instance, and wishing the front row would start fainting again, like they used to.......

 How odd to have a Democratic president who doesn't seem to like humans all that much....

 It is still so surprising that a person who seems bored by politicking has risen to the highest political office in the land.......

  All of this looks so bush league, so scattered. Add it to the General Services Administration, to Solyndra, to the other scandals, and you get a growing sense that no one's in charge, that the administration is paying attention to politics but not day-to-day governance.....

click here to read the entire column

Mitt Romney:"Hold on a little longer. A better America begins tonight"

National Review online has excerpts of Mitt Romney's speech after the polls close in the primaries in New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delewar  and Pennsylvania.

After 43 primaries and caucuses, many long days and not a few long nights, I can say with confidence – and gratitude – that you have given me a great honor and solemn responsibility. And, together, we will win on November 6th!

***********

Four years ago Barack Obama dazzled us in front of Greek columns with sweeping promises of hope and change. But after we came down to earth, after the celebration and parades, what do we have to show for three and a half years of President Obama?

Is it easier to make ends meet? Is it easier to sell your home or buy a new one? Have you saved what you needed for retirement? Are you making more in your job? Do you have a better chance to get a better job? Do you pay less at the pump?

If the answer were “yes” to those questions, then President Obama would be running for re-election based on his achievements…and rightly so. But because he has failed, he will run a campaign of diversions, distractions, and distortions. That kind of campaign may have worked at another place and in a different time. But not here and not now. It’s still about the economy …and we’re not stupid.

********

I see an America with a growing middle class, with rising standards of living. I see children even more successful than their parents – some successful even beyond their wildest dreams – and others congratulating them for their achievement, not attacking them for it.

This America is fundamentally fair. We will stop the unfairness of urban children being denied access to the good schools of their choice; the unfairness of politicians giving taxpayer money to their friends’ businesses; the unfairness of requiring union workers to contribute to politicians not of their choosing; the unfairness of government workers getting better pay and benefits than the taxpayers they serve; and we will stop the unfairness of one generation passing larger and larger debts on to the next.

Jed Babbin:"Lost Sense of Duty"

When a dozen or more Secret Service agents chose to party with hookers at the Hotel Caribe in Cartagena, Colombia, their decision was a deviation from the military-law enforcement culture which needs to be as closely examined as the misbehavior they apparently engaged in. Part of it may be a diminution of character, as Peggy Noonan wrote in the Wall Street Journal......

(see my post below)

But it is much more than that. The deviation from Secret Service practice and tradition demonstrated by the hooker party was a knowing and intentional abandonment of their duty.....

And in those off-duty times, duty is ever-present. Yes, character is part of it. Men of character don't carouse with prostitutes wherever they find themselves, they don't take illicit drugs or hit the booze to an extent that they can't be at 100% alertness and strength to do their jobs when they report for duty -- that word again -- the following day.

The sense of duty -- a deep commitment -- isn't something a person who is dedicated to their purpose can abandon. It's ingrained in body and soul, a habit and creed.....
Link to entire column

The Holly Theater Restoration Project

Last night my wife and I attended the "Grand Facade Relighting Ceremony" which is the first stage of the full restoration of The Holly Theatre in Medford, Oregon.Link to Holly Theatre Restoration Website

The Jefferson Public Radio (JPR) Foundation now owns the building and hopes to have the inside restored in about two years. JPR has previously restored a theater in Redding, California.

The Holly Theatre was opened on August 29th, 1930 with the Technicolor musical "Hold Everything" staring Joe E. Brown. The Holly's last  film was shown on October 30th, 1986. Since then it has been an eyesore in downtown Medford.

The Holly has a lot of memories for our family.

I first attended the Theatre in about 1957 or 1958 to see the movie "Heaven Knows Mr. Allison" staring Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr and directed by John Huston. The movie is about a U.S. Marine and a Catholic nun hiding out on a South Pacific island held by the Japanese during World War II. I did not grow up in Medford, but my folks on a Sunday were visiting some  friends in Medford, and I talked them into dropping my sister and I off for a Sunday Matinee while they visited. (See first picture above to what The Holly looked like when I attended in the 1950's through early 1970's)

I next started attending the Holly when I moved to Medford for the summers of 1972 & 1973 to work as a law clerk for a Medford law firm while in law school. I remember one of the first dates with my wife, to be, was to see a double feature of the re-release of "The Graduate" and "Carnal Knowledge" both directed by Mike Nichols.

Right after we were married in the mid 1970's we rented an apartment about two blocks from the Holly and would be first in line each Friday night for the early show.  We are both short and wanted to get our favorite seats at the top of the tunnel leading into the theater auditorium so no one would sit in front of us. In those days there were only four indoor theater screens in Medford and most new movies opened on Friday night. There were no matinee showings during weekdays.I loved walking by the theater to look at the posters to see what the coming attractions were. In those days there were no DVD's, VCR's and no HBO.We got old movies from the  San Francisco bay area stations on cable and  cut up for commercials.

After our children were born our son's first movie was at the Holly to see "Sesame Street Present: Follow that Bird" starring Big Bird.

About this time the Multiplex type theaters came to Medford and the Holly was thought obsolete and closed in 1986 (See second picture for what The Holly looked like when it closed after a "cheap" makeover in the mid to late 1970's.

After it closed, I got to know one of the early owners of the building, and bought four of the old seats for my "movie room" aka "Man Cave." I then went down to the Southern Oregon Historical Society and bought  a picture of the outside (first picture above" and one of the inside for framing and hanging in my movie room at home. I had to restore the seats and scraped years of gum off the bottom of the seats and years of spilled soft drinks. I painted them and re- upholstery them and they look great.

As the pictures above show, JPR, has done an excellent job of restoring the exterior and I have my fingers crossed that they can complete the job. I am not a big fan of Public Radio, but I have to give them a big  "pat on the back" for this project.

Link to Medford Mail Tribune story on last nights ceremony. Look at picture for the guy in the plaid shirt. He must have stolen it from the Richard Dreyfuss character in" American Graffiti" (1973)

"Faster,Farther, Stronger"

I am one proud dad.  Last Sunday's Krispy Kreme 5K in Lexington, Kentucky.   For me, I would have gone for the Krispy Kreme Donuts ! Just looking at him makes me want some.

P.S. In 18.47 a 39 Second PR. ( 5 K =  3.125 miles)

Noonan: America's Crisis of Character

The nation seems to be on the wrong track, and not just economically.

• By PEGGY NOONAN

Every story that has broken through the past few weeks has been about who we are as a people. And they are all disturbing.......

The leveling or deterioration of public behavior has got to be worrying people who have enough years on them to judge with some perspective.
Something seems to be going terribly wrong

To read the rest of this excellent column click on the link.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303513404577354221282508372.html

Dick Clark RIP

From 1956 until 1989 Dick Clark was the host and producer of American Bandstand and became a Baby Boomer icon. He died today at 82.  So long Dick.

Long live Rock n' Roll !

Romney to Obama: "Start Packing"

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/04/romney-tells-obama-to-start-packing-in-abc-news-exclusive-interview/

Latest Gallop Poll:   Romney 48%
                                  Obama   43%

New 2012 Oregon Football Poster Released!

The picture is from the 2012 Rose Bowl game won by the Ducks.  Got to love those helmets.

Let's Go Ducks..... WIN THE DAY!

Fall Election Set: Ward Clever vs. Eddie Haskell

 Yes, the Fall Election is Set: Ward Clever vs. Eddie Haskell

Yesterday, Congressmen  Paul Ryan said Mitt Romney reminded him of Ward Clever of "Leave it to Beaver" in that he has the politeness and judgment of Beavers dad.  Well, if Romney is Ward Clever then President Obama is Eddie Haskell. In fact that explains Barack Obama perfectly.

After over 13 miles!

"Most people race to see who is the fastest. I run to see who has the most guts."

Oregon Duck runner Steve Prefontaine

A day at the Beach

A Dogs life ! Wiley Wickre at  the Outer Banks in North Carolina.

Obama's New "open mic" Incident

  Obama: "After Easter I will have more flexibility"

  Easter Bunny: "I understand. I will transmit this information to Santa."

Thanks for the Tweet from Karl Rove.

George Will: "a demagogue such as the Huey Long from Chicago’s Hyde Park, "

George Will has written a column in the Washington Post on who Romney should pick as his running mate.  However, I found more interesting the swipes he takes at President Obama.  He likens him to Huey Long the deprecation era governor and later Senator from  Louisiana who was a demagogue and the basis for Willie Stark in Robert Penn Warren's novel "All the Kings Men." (see quote above in title)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/romney-needs-a-heavy-hitter-as-his-vice-president/2012/04/06/gIQAB0sVzS_story.html

A few other quotes from the column:

Barack Obama’s intellectual sociopathy — his often breezy and sometimes loutish indifference to truth — should no longer startle....

Obama’s defense of reactionary liberalism — whatever is must ever be, only increased — is not weighed down by the ballast of scruples..... 

 sufficient to refute Obama’s meretricious claims and derelictions of duty

Winston Churchill: "The Second World War"

One of my prized possessions is my 6 volume set of Winston Churchill's History of World War II. As a small child I would admire and read a set owned by my uncle.When I was in high school I bought a paperback edition and wrote my senior high paper on my favorite volume , "The Gathering Storm." As an adult I purchased the hardback edition and it sits on a shelf in our dinning room. Churchill wrote the  history, out of office, after the war when the British people defeated him in the first post war election .The history became a best seller and  for it he was awarded  the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953.Whenever I cannot find anything else to read I reread the history.  It never grows old.

 Tonight I watched the DVD documentary, "The History Channel Presents: Winston Churchill,"  and learned that he once told one of his researchers while working on the history:

Five wasted years, we have just been playing with the shadows of the past.  What a waste! I could have done so much if I had been in office.

Even Churchill could , on occasion, be  wrong.

UPDATE:

Just a reading of the titles of  each of the 6 volumes stirs the imagination and brings those days to life.

First edition (hardcover) in six volumes


1.The Gathering Storm (1948)

2.Their Finest Hour (1949)

3.The Grand Alliance (1950)

4.The Hinge of Fate (1950)

5.Closing the Ring (1951)

6.Triumph and Tragedy (1953)

CURL: Divide and conquer — Obama knows exactly what he’s saying

Joseph Curl of the Washington Times on President Obama's attacks on the Supreme Court:

"in a nutshell, is Mr. Obama’s plan to divide and conquer. Rise up, America, against your nation’s Congress, your nation’s highest court — and even America’s Constitution.

His desperation is now palpable, and it’s only April. This is going to get ugly, people."

http://p.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/apr/4/curl-divide-and-conquer-obama-knows-exactly-what-h/

Obama doesn’t have workable solutions for unemployment, the economy , the ballooning deficit or gas prices. He doesn't want to talk about the growing forces of oppression in the Middle East or the Iranians getting nuclear weapons. He is in over his head and he will try and distract us with his bluster and cockiness. He will spend his time giving speeches in swing states as if that is a solution to our problems, because he does now know how to govern. It is much easier giving speeches than sitting in the Oval Office facing the tough problems that confront America. He doesn't have solutions for those problems. He therefore will try and divide America. Rich vs. poor, black vs. white. He will demagogue the Supreme Court, Congress (even though the Democrats control the Senate) oil companies, big business, Wall Street, and  the Catholic Church.

UPDATE;
Peggy Noonan

"Oh, for Some Kennedyesque Grace: Obama makes his campaign strategy clear. It's divide and conquer. "http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303302504577326000396303394.html

Associated Press (AP) "in tank" for Obama !

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/associated-press-chief-offers-lavish-praise-obama_635342.html

According to the Weekly Standard:

Dean Singleton, chairman of the Associated Press board, introduced President Obama this afternoon at a speech to news editors in Washington. But Singleton didn’t just tell the audience the president was the next speaker—the supposed newsman offered lavish praise for the Democratic president.

In the Presidential  campaign  of 2012,  the Main Steam Media (MDA),  which includes the  A.P., is going to turn their full fury and power upon the Republican Nominee, Mitt Romney, and the Republican party to protect and reelect Barack Obama. Remember that when you are reading an A.P. story in your local newspaper or a new reader is reading A.P. copy on TV or radio. Obama is their guy !

At one time the Associated Press was fairly factual, but not anymore !

Primary Day!

Republicans vote in the District of Columbia, Maryland and in Wisconsin.  It's been 10 long days since the last primary in Louisiana. Romney's march to the Republican Convention continues.