Public Figure Punishment and Race

As you may have heard, Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who helped his team win the Super Bowl a couple times, will be suspended the first six games of the 16-game season for "violating the NFL's personal conduct policy." The punishment, handed down by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, involved "a 20-year-old college student who accused him of sexually assaulting her in a Georgia nightclub in March." The district attorney declined to prosecute, fearing he could not make his case, but he spoke in rather damning terms at a press conference HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE. I didn't to the whole thing, maybe 10 of the 40 minutes, but it was enough. This is not the first time allegations about Ben's sexual improprieties have surfaced.

What surprised me, but should not have, is this barrage of comments suggesting that he fared better or fared worse because he is white. Just Google Roethlisberger race. Some people complained that Michael Vick, dog killer, got only a two-game suspension; however, he also went to jail.

1. Is the punishment adequate, too much or too little?
2. What does race have to do with it, if anything?
3. Should Ben get traded to another team? CAN he get traded?
4. Does the NFL Commissioner have too much authority as "judge, jury and executioner", as one pundit called it? In other sports, there is an appeals process, but the only appeal to the NFL Commissioner is to the NFL Commissioner.

My thoughts: it's a judgment call, it got the QB's attention, but I wish action had been taken on some of these earlier incidents; much ado about not much, but race still gets infused in EVERYTHING; another team would be crazy to take him; yes.

--ROG

Sports and Weather

I understand why people don't care about sports, I really do. There are lots of particular sports I don't care much about myself. What I don't get is this antipathy towards the things that others happen to enjoy. The Super Bowl, which had the highest ratings ever of any US TV show, apparently dethroning the M*A*S*H finale of 1983, is such an example. Don't want to watch it? Fine. But there's no reason to suck the joy out of other people's pleasure.

I was rooting for the New Orleans Saints, and even predicted that they'd win. Some are puzzled about how important the Saints' victory would be for the city of New Orleans. One pundit sniffed that if the victory would help New Orleans get over Hurricane Katrina, wouldn't a Jets victory have done the same for New York City after 9/11? Well, no.

Anyone watching the aftermath of the August 2005 devastation will recall that the Superdome, home of the Saints, was at the epicenter of the disaster. Thousands of people lived there for days. The roof collapsed. The team ended up playing its home games elsewhere for a time, including San Antonio, Texas. The refurbishing of the Superdome and the win by the Saints, who had never even GOTTEN to a Super Bowl, let alone won one, was a fitting climax for both the team and the city that embraced each other in a most profound manner.

Of course, the real reason for watching the Super Bowl: the commercials, which you can see here or here. My favorite was the Betty White/Abe Vigoda Snickers commercial. While Betty White has been a regular working actress (the movie The Proposal and the TV show Boston Legal, e.g.), now at the age of 88, there's been a running gag whether Abe Vigoda, a star on Barney Miller, was even still alive. I also liked the Dave Letterman ad; yes, late night TV rivals Letterman and Jay Leno were actually in the same room at the same time; see this. I liked the Simpsons ad for Coca-Cola; reminds me of an ad with MC Hammer losing all his bling AND the ad with Mean Joe Greene being offered a Coke. I enjoyed the Google ad. I've long admitted my thing about chickens, so a couple of Denny's ads - for a promotion that's now over - stick in my head.

Whereas I've long tired of the E*Trade babies. Even the sweet Clydesdale commercial for Budweiser has become predictable. I can't imagine wanting to see ANY of the movies advertised. The commercials Casual Friday and I Wear No Pants were so close to each other, I thought they were for the same product; they weren't. The Tim Tebow ad, with his mother, the reportedly anti-abortion message from Focus on the Family, was mostly, "Is that all there is?" And, most unfortunately, I thought the Census ad was an ineffective use of taxpayer money.

As for the music, Queen Latifah's America the Beautiful was a bit wobbly and flat in the beginning, but Carrie Underwood's a capella rendition of The Star Spangled Banner was OK, but the last note was painful. I love the band, The Who's halftime show seemed off. The harmonies didn't work, and the medley segues were clunky. But the drummer Zak Starkey (Ringo Starr's son) was energetic, and they finished strong with Won't Get Fooled Again.

Meanwhile, it's been cold in Albany, but all the snow that has been hitting the Delmarva peninsula, Philadelphia (32.3 inches in 2010) and up the coast, repeatedly this winter, has so far missed Albany. Likewise, whatever snow off the Great Lakes may have affected Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse, but Albany has been so far immune. Baltimore has been hammered; 41 inches this calendar year through February 8, more than Buffalo (36.1). All my NYC friends have made snarky remarks about Albany winters, but Albany has had only 8.3 inches of snow since January 1, the most 2.4 inches on January 3.

ANOTHER storm's coming up the coast yesterday and today. Again the mid-Atlantic will get pummeled. What Albany gets will depend on the track of the storm, from an inch or two to six or eight. And it'll still pale in comparison with what NYC's going to suffer today; expect massive airline delays and cancellations.
ROG

Super Bowl QUESTIONS

1. Do you watch the Super Bowl? (That's American football, BTW.) If so, is it for the commercials, the game or the halftime entertainment? Do you have special food for the occasion?

And speaking of halftime, don't you find it interesting that it is The Who performing when the game is on CBS, since The Who provide the theme songs for all those CSI shows on CBS, such as CSI: Las Vegas, CSI: Miami, CSI: New York, CSI: Kalamazoo, and CSI: Portland (both the Oregon AND the Maine shows).

If you don't watch the game, do you have a ritual for that? I had friends who always went to the movies on Super Bowl Sunday.

And those of you outside the United States: can you even access the Super Bowl?

2. Do you know how to write 44 in Roman numerals?

3. Do you have a rooting interest? I'm pulling for the New Orleans Saints, who have NEVER won a Super Bowl, and I can imagine would be a psychological boost to the city post-Katrina. I wouldn't be devastated if the Indianapolis Colts won, and they are rightly favored.

4. What do think of the Pro Bowl, the all-star game of the NFL, being played the week before the Super Bowl (i.e., today), instead of the week after? Strategically, it makes sense to have an all-star game during the season, as it takes place in most other sports. On the other hand, since the players from the Super bowl won't be playing the game, and they were the best two teams all year, it's a bit of a lesser product.

Football 101.
***
A couple Who covers - Betty LaVette and the Ukulele Orchestra.


ROG

MOVIE REVIEW: The Blind Side

Seems that I either don't see films, or I do see films and don't seem to have time to actually review them.

Way back on New Years Day weekend, the wife and I got a babysitter and went to see The Blind Side, written and directed by John Lee Hancock, based on the Michael Lewis book I did not read. I HAD been getting a lot of information about this film quite a bit, though as much in Sports Illustrated as I did in Entertainment Weekly. Incidentally, The Blind Side refers to a quarterback getting hit while he's not looking and the import of an offensive tackle protecting the QB's vulnerability.

The movie tells the true story of Michael Oher (pronounced like 'oar', played by Quinton Aaron), a large, undereducated and mostly homeless black young man. He gets taken in by the Tuohy family, who are white, specifically by Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock), with her husband Sean, a successful restaurateur (played by an almost unrecognizable Tim McGraw) succumbing to his spouse's single-minded compassion. Their two kids, the boy S.J (Jae Head) and the girl Collins (Lily Collins, who looks amazingly like the young woman she portrayed) go along with the mom's mission, S.J. quite enthusiastically.

The family, and some insightful teachers, help Michael fulfill his potential, both in class and on the football field. Michael also helps the Tuohys to learn about themselves. Oher eventually becomes an All-American offensive left tackle at Ole Miss and a first round draft choice with the Baltimore Ravens.

I liked it. Indeed, both my wife and I enjoyed it more than some critics (70% positive on Rotten Tomatoes), who used terms like "utterly unsurprising, unchallenging feel-good flick mostly ignores larger social concerns in telling its implausible tale." Even some positive reviews suggest that it's a predictable "feel-good sports/biographical drama...by-the-numbers. Yet for the most part, this cinematic 'comfort food' goes down pretty well."

There was also criticism from more than one corner of the "institutional racism" in the film, that it is "rich white folks with big heart save poor black kid" that "needed to be more sociably responsible in its portrayal of blacks," and that "all black people are not ghetto waiting to be saved." I'm rather torn on this point. It's true that most of the black people in this movie were poor and from the ghetto- Michael's birth mother was a drug addict - and that the major black character, other than Michael, was a particularly obnoxious dude. All of this is true, yet I don't know how much responsibility a single film is supposed to balance the portrayal of black people. My sense is that, prior to Michael, the Tuohy's didn't KNOW black people, so the folks they DID see fit the stereotype. Was the writer suppose to inject an upwardly-mobile black person, other than the woman from the NCAA?

Interesting note: many of the recruiting coaches, such as Phillip Fulmer, Lou Holtz and Nick Saban, play themselves, and I read in SI that not one of them is still with that program, noting the rapid turnover of college football head coaches. The real S.J. Tuohy, who's now 16, has been razzed by opponents of his basketball team that his daddy needs to adopt someone for his team because "You suck!" And Michael Oher has been hazed by his Ravens' teammates over the sentimentality of the film; I was pleased that in his last game of this season, he was getting kudos from the commentators for his play.

In any case, this movie lives or dies largely on Sandra Bullock's portrayal of Leigh Anne Tuohy and she's totally convincing in the role. Ms. Tuohy also liked it, commenting that she was pleased that Ms. Bullock had "nice ta-tas."

ROG

Football/Baseball QUESTIONS

Football season begins today. (This is American football, not what we heathens call soccer.) All that other stuff for 17 weeks is merely prologue.

I need to rank the teams in the order I WANT them to win, not who I think WILL win. Right now, I think San Diego beats Minnesota in the Super Bowl, because the Chargers played their starters maybe a third of the time last week and STILL beat Washington. OK, it WAS a lousy team, but Indianapolis lost to Buffalo, FCOL.

1. *New York Jets (A) - I seriously thought they were toast after losing 10-7 to Atlanta at home a couple weeks ago. then they beat/were allowed to beat the 14-0 Colts and division-leading Bengals so they can play the Bengals AGAIN this weekend.
2. New Orleans Saints (N) - it'd be good for the city. Losing their last three makes me nervous about their chances.
3. *Philadelphia Eagles (N) - call it mid-Atlantic bias.
4. San Diego Chargers (A) - my sister lives in SD, I've seen them play. what can I
say?
5. Indianapolis Colts (A) - if only for the favor they gave the Jets.
6. *Arizona Cardinals (N) - still think it's unnatural playing football in the desert, but like Mary Richards in the premiere episode of the Mary Tyler Moore Show, they got spunk.
7. *Green Bay Packers (N) - they're GREEN, which IS a plus.
8. Minnesota Vikings (N) - always liked the Vikings. Why could Favre played like this LAST year with the Jets? Oh, because this is a better team.
9. *Baltimore Ravens (A) - eh.
10. *New England Patriots (A) - they've won too often this century.
11. *Cincinnati Bengals (A) - have a history of being thugs.
12. *Dallas Cowboys - when did they have an election and pick the Cowboys "America's Team"? I sure didn't vote.


Meanwhile in the Baseball Hall of Fame voting, Andre Dawson FINALLY made it in. "The Hawk" I’d have picked for sure. But there were FIVE BLANK ballots? Ticks me off.
Though in fact, without the five blanks, Bert Blyleven would have ended up with 74.9% (400/534) of the vote, with 75% needed, and no, they don't round up. Now THAT would have hurt. And tell me, why doesn’t Lee Smith get more love? I also would have voted for Roberto Alomar, and yes, Mark McGwire.

QUESTIONS:
1. Who do you want to win the Super Bowl? Who do you THINK will win?
2. What did you think of the HoF balloting?
ROG

Roger Answers Your Questions, Scott and Jaquandor

Queries from veteran Roger queriers,

First up is the noble Scott:

Is there a team you are rooting for to win the Super Bowl?

Besides the Giants, who just don't deserve it this year (41-9 loss to Carolina yesterday?), gotta be the Saints. Partly it a parochial hope that a Super Bowl appearance will once again point out the aftermath of Katrina and how much is yet undone in the recovery. Also, can't help but think it would give the city a real boost; they've already postponed some Mardi Gras events in anticipation of getting to the big game. And yes, I thought losing to the Cowboys was probably a good thing; get the loss out of their system. (So naturally they lose to Tampa Bay yesterday.) The perfect season was a curse for the Patriots a couple seasons back, so the loss to the Jets - who are still in playoff contention - theoretically will help the Colts. Or not.

What is your favorite Christmas family tradition?

I'm still grasping at any kind of tradition. We had a tree the last three years, but not the previous two. What we eat varies; this year it was lasagna! And while I sing on Christmas Eve, it's hardly a FAMILY tradition, since my wife and daughter weren't there. In fact, I didn't see my daughter at all on Christmas Eve, though I did talk with her twice on the phone. The tree decorations I used to have seem to have disappeared. So it's not so much tradition; it's jazz improv, and it's all good.

Do you do a lot of decorating inside and outside your house for the holidays?

Outside, not at all. Inside, the Christmas cards - and we got a LOT of Christmas cards this year, more than ever - go around the entryway to our living room. In fact we had so many, we put a few on the other side, the entryway back into the hallway. There's the tree. There's red garland on the railing heading upstairs. We do have a creche.

The daughter constructed a snowman from paper, which we hung up. She also made some drawings that got put around the house.

What Christmas gift made the most lasting impression on you?

That would be the Beatles in Mono box set that I got in...2009. It wasn't just that I got the music; it was something I wanted and Santa delivered that singular package that was more than Santa is inclined to spend on a one item.

What was the best Christmas gift you received as a child?

Seriously, a Johnny Seven OMA (One Man Army); I played with that forever and STILL turned out as a pacifist. Tom Hanks got one as a kid, he once told Leno.

Although the family getting a color TV in 1969, when I was 16, was huge, too; we literally saw the world in a different way. Watching the Wizard of Oz the next year, in particular, was a revelation; a "horse of a different color", indeed.

Merry Christmas to you and your family, Roger!

You too, Scott.

The best of the west, western NYS, that is, Jaquandor asks:

Do you cook? If so, what? Do you have a favorite ethnic cuisine? If so, what?

I did cook. And I was functional, not inspirational, at things like chicken. But I don't particularly enjoy it, Carol's better at it, and I get home close to 6:30 pm. I tend to make eggs, pancakes, oatmeal, grilled cheese sandwiches, those kinds of things on the weekends.

My favorite ethnic cuisine is lasagna, which I used to make in the winter, though the recent Christmas meal in fact was made by the wife and mother-in-law; I shredded the mozzarella. I also used to bake, but likewise Carol's more ept and I, rather inept. Damn, I just remember a time I confused baking powder with baking soda in a pancake recipe; it was AWFUL.

And do you have a strong opinion one way or the other on Governor Paterson?

Notice that David Paterson's positives have gone from the low 20s to the mid 30s. Still not great, and still losing to Andrew Cuomo by 40 points, should the attorney general run in a primary against him. But perhaps there is a recognition that he's at least TRYING to balance the budget, whereas the state legislature is unable/unwilling to. I wonder if those television ads, like this one are having an effect.

I have a question for you; do you think those Saturday Night Live parodies hurt him with the electorate? I've been under the impression that the NYS voters and SNL watchers are not that linked, but I could be wrong.

I can/do argue with some of his choices; his cuts to education and libraries seem particularly short-sighted. But I haven't written him off politically, especially if Rick Lazio, who ran a TERRIBLE campaign against Hillary Clinton in the U.S. Senate race in 2000, turns out to be the GOP nominee, rather than Rudy Giuliani.

ROG

Truth, or a Variation on the Same

This is one of those breakfast blogs Dan VanRiper said I write.

The New York Times recently ran a story about how Rosa Parks WASN'T =the first black person to protest treatment on the bus. How did these others get ignored by history? Because history is arbitrary and not generally 100% accurate. And as a friend of mine put it, "Food for thought about figureheads...Teenagers don't get respect!"

Jackie Robinson was not the first black to play major league baseball, only the first one in several decades, which does not at all diminish his breakthrough. Meanwhile, the black players who reintegrated the NFL, friends of Robinson, BTW, are all but forgotten, or were until this recent Sports Illustrated story. Even if you're not a sports fan, read it, if you haven't. One writer has suggested these players ought to be in the football hall of fame.

My wife, who teaches English as a Second Language, tells me that sometimes only the primary teacher in a classroom is considered the "real" teacher by some students, whereas the specialists (ESL, speech) are though of more like teachers' aides. This is particularly true when the primary teacher is a male and the specialist is a female, and all of the specialty teachers in her schools are women. Stereotypical gender roles, even in our "enlightened" 21st century, come creeping back.

I've mentioned that when I was my daughter's age and in the hospital for an uncontrollable bloody nose, I was slackjawed to discover a male nurse and a female doctor; even at five and a half, I could be surprised that the world wasn't as I expected it to be.

I was listening to the podcast KunstlerCast #90: The Demise of Happy Motoring this week. The host, Duncan Crary, didn't know that "Happy Motoring" was a catchphrase of Esso gasoline (later Exxon). Duncan told Jim Kunsler said he'd Google the phrase, and I ended up doing the same. Apparently, Esso tried to be culturally diverse in its ads. Here are the Esso logo morphing into folks from the British Isles, and, showing some real stereotypes, these American folks.

Here's 18-and a half minutes of sharp political commentary. Eighteen-and-a-half minutes? Shades of Rose Mary Woods!

There seems to be no clear consensus on the meaning of Boxing Day.
ROG

Sports Questions and Samhain

The World Series continues into November. In the Northeast, no less. This really bugs me. With two rounds before the Series, somethings gotta give. Maybe a 154-game season, which Major League baseball used to have until the 1960s, when it went to 162 games. And while they're at it, couldn't they starts some games earlier, so I kids could watch past the third inning?

I suppose this is sacrilege, but I wish the Yankees, and some minor league teams, and maybe others, would get rid of "God Bless America" during the 7th-inning stretch. It started after 9/11/2001, but now it's become a "new tradition". And at the last Hall of Fame game I attended, "honored America" with a scratchy and warped Kate Smith recording. And some people are now getting bent out of shape if television doesn't cover the singing of same, even when TV doesn't cover Take Me Out To The Ballgame, which follows.

In the NFL, I was really happy that Denver beat New England a few weeks ago, but I found it unfair that the Patriots never touched the ball offensively in overtime. There's got to be a better way than a coin flip. In the college game, each team at least gets a chance to score, not a perfect model, but clearly fairer.

So what's bugging you about sports? Maybe it's the relatively new scoring system in figure skating; I happen to like it better than the 6.0 standard. I read that some are advocating for more instant reply in baseball; not sure how that would work. The example is a ball, not a home run ball, that was judged as foul by the umpire but fair in the replay. Where would the batter, and even trickier, the runners, end up? I'm not opposed out of hand, but I can't see how it would work.


Swiped from Uthaclena: In Druid tradition, Samhain is the time of the dead, when the veil between the worlds thins and spirits walk the land of the living. It is the feast of death and rebirth, and the New Year of the Celtic calendar with the fall of the last leaves, the heart of the Autumn, the beginning of the Darkened Days, and the Quiet Time to listen to the Wisdom of the Crone. At this time we celebrate and commemorate our ancestors and elders who have passed into the Otherworld. But, fear naught, for the Sun will be born anew, and Light and Life will return to the world!

Solemn Blessings to you all; hold fast to the seed of Hope, and dream of Better days!


ROG

Oh, Yeah, Television. I Remember Television

The wife and daughter left to visit parents/grandparents Sunday afternoon until Monday afternoon. I had this impressive list of things to do. Not the least of which is to remove clothes from the armoire I have and put them in the new dresser I bought from my in-laws the day before. I always disliked the armoire I have currently. I didn't ask for it, I didn't buy it, and I felt it was imposed on me. But my clothes had to go SOMEWHERE when Lydia took over the room which had a massive closet where my clothes used to reside, especially for socks and underwear.

One time. one of my sisters rearranged my armoire, so that all of my T-shirts were in one large section. I realized early on that I HATED this. Moreover, my T-shirts hated it. I may have mentioned this before: Karen Sammler, a character on one of my favorite shows of all time, Once and Again, would organize her underwear and socks in such a way that they would each get used approximately the same number of times. In the armoire, the most recently-washed T-shirts tended to get washed, put away and be the only ones I could easily get to. I suppose I could have rearranged them back, but that wasn't optimal either.

So when I put my T-shirts in the dresser drawer - ah! There were T-shirts in there I hadn't even SEEN in two years. It takes SO little to make me, and the T-shirts, happy.

I should have emptied the rest of the armoire, but I discovered this device in my living room that discovered I could watch anytime I wanted, without negotiation, called the television. Since I was over two weeks behind on everything, save for The Office, I decided to actually watch some of the new and old shows I had recorded.

The Office (NBC): watched with the wife the Pam and Jim wedding show. My, Dwight seems even nastier this year than before, with real potential to create actual harm.

Modern Family (ABC): I've seen only seen the first episode and I failed to record the second. It didn't really come together for me until the family actually came together at the end. Look forward to seeing again.

Glee (FOX): I missed that premiere episode in the spring. When my wife and I saw it rebroadcast this fall, we weren't sure it was worth seeing again; it seemed a bit facile. But the second show sealed the deal. It featured my adoptee Victor Garber as the father of the lead character. Jane Lynch's character seemed less shrill and more devious.

The Good Wife (CBS): I decided to watch this because it features actors from other shows I've watched. Not only Julianna Margulies from E/R, but also Josh Charles from Sports Night, Christine Baranski from Cybil (and a lot of other stuff). Also, Matt Czuchry, Rory Gilmore's obnoxiously pompous boyfriend in Gilmore Girls, who plays the same pompous jerk here, and Chris Noth, doing some cross between his characters on Law & Order and Sex in the City. I thought the premise - woman stands by her man after sex scandal a la Silda Wall Spitzer with Eliot, then needs a job - was pretty thin, enough for a one-off movie but hardly a series. But after two episodes, I am looking forward to see what happens, how it plays. The secondary story about her home life (two kids and her mother-in-law) has potential.

Brothers and Sisters (ABC): The tease of the first episode suggested trouble for one of Nora's (Sally Field) children, and intentionally make you think it's one rather than another. I was irritated. But I'm two eps behind, so i haven't seen the resolution.

Grey's Anatomy (ABC): Yes, I'm still watching it. I thought the premiere was a rather good example of how people grieve, in this case, the death of George; it's not all at once, and you can postpone the pain, but not really avoid it. the second show was about cutbacks and a whole other type of pain and grief. Izzy (Katherine Heigl) hasn't irritated me as much as she has in previous seasons, but I'm not unhappy that the actress will be taking off time to make a movie.

But I also watched football. Not a whole game, mind you. Overtime of the Broncos over the Patriots; are the Broncos for real? Interesting how the Red Sox and the Patriots seem to be on the same arc - ultimate success to also-rans. I also watched a little baseball, primarily Game 3 of the Yankees over the Twins. Caught the baserunning blunder on the Twins' part and homers by A-Rod and Posada. But I just couldn't stay up another half inning to see if the Yankees would hold the lead. (They did.)

People often ask me if I saw "last night's JEOPARDY!"; the answer, almost invariably, is "no". So they often tell me what the Final JEOPARDY! answer is, testing me to see if I would have correctly gotten it, but almost always, some major element of the answer is missing.

Well, back to sharing the set with the wife and child; it was fun while it lasted.

ROG

QUESTIONS I Found On the Internet

But first, to wake you up: perhaps the worst Also sprach Zarathustra you may have ever heard (1:30).

1. Do You Wear A Watch? The implication is that people wear Rolexes or nothing, that watches are unnecessary in the world of cell phones and other devices that time and that the only people who wear watches do so for style, not function.

For me, though I have a seldom-used device, I would rather wear a watch. the problem, and it is of long-standing duration, is that watches don't seem to like ME. I swear my biorhythms have killed more watches than I thought would be humanly possible. So I don't. But I would.

2. When you were a child, did your parents kiss you? If they did, did they kiss you on the cheeks, the lips, the forehead, or where? If you are a parent/grandparent, where do you kiss your child.

I have no recollection of my father ever kissing me. In fact, on the few times he hugged me, it tended to be of this one-arm variety. My dad kissed my sisters, this peck on the cheek thing generally speaking. My mom kissed me, usually on the cheeks, but occasionally on the forehead.

When she was a baby, I kissed Lydia everywhere. Now I tend to follow her lead. Sometimes it's on the lips, though she told me recently that my beard was scratching her. So now it is usually on the forehead, though yesterday it was on the lips.
***
A tremendously detailed response to someone who wanted a book banned.

I found this article about NFL schedules being practically set in stone in my Google Alerts; somewhere both the words Roger and green appear. Regardless, it's a good piece about how how the slow start by the former Super Bowl teams is NOT about scheduling parity.

How soon will the daughter want this:

You may recall that the silhouetted version caused a bit of a stir, but the actual doll, not so much.
ROG

Autumnal aspirations QUESTIONS

What are you looking forward to this fall?

For me:
TELEVISION: the usual TV shows (JEOPARDY!, The Office, 30 Rock, news programs). The only new program I've recorded is Glee, and that only because Jane Lynch, who I liked in movies such as The 40 Year Old Virgin and Best in Show is in it. I haven't even read the TV Guide with all the new shows yet; anything else I should be watching?I'm already passing on Cougartown; the whole woman as "cougar" thing is bothersome to me.
Then there's sports. I'll probably watch more baseball in October than I did from April through September. Football, probably from Thanksgiving on, unless I get lucky.
CHURCH: Choir began last Thursday. Homecoming Sunday is tomorrow. And there's a wedding, but since the bride hasn't announced it yet, I shan't.
EVENTS: Definitely attending a talk by Douglas Blackmon, author of Slavery By Another Name on September 24 at the Albany Public Library. Really want to see the The Civil Rights Struggle, African-American GIs, and Germany photo exhibit at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY sometime in October.
Also want to go apple picking and leaf gazing, the latter preerably in Vermont.
***
Learn more about picture above here.
ROG

I is for Indian

As every American fifth-grader knew when I was growing up, the aboriginal people of the Americas were called Indians because the Europeans who headed west to get east thought that they had reached Asia, probably the East Indies (Indonesia, et al), but it is THIS place that's involved in the current discussion:

There developed real confusion when saying Indian whether one meant someone from the Asian subcontinent or from the Americas.

Subsequently, there was a movement by some Americans to use the term Native American instead of American Indian as more "sensitive" to the first Americans. Yet there were and are many entities that still use the term Indian, from the American Indian Movement to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, part of the US Department of the Interior to the new Museum of the American Indian, pictured above, which incidentally is staging an exhibition of Native American comic art.

So what do the people involved feel? Seems from this article that there is really no consensus:

A 1995 Census Bureau Survey of preferences for racial and ethnic terminology (there is no more recent survey) indicated that 49% of Native people preferred being called American Indian, 37% preferred Native American, 3.6% preferred "some other term," and 5% had no preference. As The American Heritage Guide to English Usage points out, "the issue has never been particularly divisive between Indians and non-Indians.

Further:
In the end, the term you choose to use (as an Indian or non-Indian) is your own personal choice...The recommended method is to refer to a person by their tribe, if that information is known...[W]henever possible an Indian would prefer to be called a Cherokee or a Lakota or whichever tribe they belong to.

The 2010 Census is coming up and the Bureau will be using "American Indian or Alaska Native" as the designation for native peoples, just as it did in 2000. At least one of the reasons may lie in this true story I heard from someone who works at the Bureau. Census forms are tested periodically. In some neighborhoods with large immigrant populations, Census was finding an anomaly; a large number of people were checked as Native American, often inconsistently within a family structure. It soon became evident that the new arrivals were checking their country of origin for themselves, but their children who were born here they designated as Native American. The children WERE native to America.


Still, I am still quite uncomfortable referring to the Major League Baseball team in Cleveland or the National Football League team in suburban Washington, DC by their respective nicknames. It just feels wrong to me. At least the NFL team doesn't have that dopey grinning logo, Chief Wahoo, which reminds me very much of the caricatures of black people in old minstrel shows.

For those of you not into sports or from the United States, the topic of sports nicknames "honoring" Indians at the high school, college or professional level has been an ongoing debate, as you can see, for instance, in this article.


ROG

The 43rd Annual Football QUESTIONS

There was this article in the Wall Street Journal last week suggesting that the formerly hapless Chicago St. LouisArizona Cardinals got good because they changed their logo from this:
to this:

It noted that most of the logos, at least have sterner visages.
The Denver Broncos to


The New England Patriots
to

The Seattle Seahawks
to

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers
to

Of course, the tougher logos don't necessarily translate into greater football glory.

But my questions have to do with the game tomorrow.

Will you watch? Starting at what time? Do the participants affect whether you watch? Do you know who the participants are? Are you more interested in the game or the commercials? Or did you say, "What game?" If so, do you have an anti-Super Bowl tradition, such as going to the movies?

I'll watch, starting at about 5 pm EST. Who participates doesn't alter my watching. I will probably record it as well, if only so I can catch the commercials if I need a break to tend to the child.
***
Super Bowl XLIII and Its Viewers.
ROG

Football, Baseball, Obits

So who had the Cardinals vs. the Eagles in the NFC title game in their preseason picks? I'm going to need to see some proof.

In the past two weekends, I've seen at least parts of all eight games, which is more football than I watched the previous 18 weeks combined. Thanks to the magic of the DVR, I actually saw the Pittsburgh/San Diego game on Monday morning. The only one of the eight I saw in real time was the Eagles/Giants game on Sunday afternoon. To which I can only say, How do people actually watch commercials anymore? Not only are they annoying, they are replayed endlessly; a particular Subway commercial was effective in making me wonder if I'll ever go to one of their restaurants ever again.

So now I have to pick my rooting interests for the rest of the way:
1. Philadelphia Eagles - making the playoffs through an improbable set of circumstances the last weekend (two potentially playoff-bound teams losing to lesser opponents while the Eagles demolished the Cowboys) with a quarterback, Donovan McNabb, who was benched for a time this season. I always like McNabb, who played in Syracuse (yay, upstate NY!) and whose pick was booed by some of the Eagles' fans before he'd even put on his helmet for the first time.
2. Pittsburgh Steelers - yes, I'm rooting for the two PA teams. Call it geographic bias. But I like the QB, Ben Roethlisberger. I especially like receiver Hines Ward, who really embraced his Korean heritage a couple years back.
3. Arizona Cardinals - the Cinderella team, though it's been the Team of Destiny for Couch Slouch, Norman Chad for a few seasons now. The problem is that: 1) I can never remember where the Cardinals actually play. Chicago? No, that was many years ago. St. Louis? No, not any more, though St. Louis has the Rams that used to play in Los Angeles. 2) I'm not a big Kurt Warner fan. I'm sure this has something to do with his excessive religiosity. He also was less than stellar in his brief stint as Giants QB.
4. Baltimore Ravens - I just don't like the Ravens. And I particularly don't like Ray Lewis.

BTW, I really enjoyed Jaquandor's take on football. It's not a football blog, but he has some good insights:
Odd synchronicity: this weekend saw action by all three quarterbacks who lost Super Bowls to Tom Brady (Kurt Warner, Jake Delhomme, Donovan McNabb) and the one who beat Tom Brady (Eli Manning).
But on one point, I think he's wrong:
I think there should be no points but the team recording the safety should automatically take possession at the 50 yard line. The problem with that is that a team could intentionally go out of the back of the end zone and the team would have potentially better field position than it would if it had to punt from the back of the end zone. Now, talk about putting the ball on the 20-yard line of the team suffering the safety; THAT might be better than two points and receiving a free kick.
***
I thought Rickey Henderson's vote to the Baseball Hall of Fame was obvious. My only surprise was that he was eligible. I thought he was still playing ball somewhere. He probably won’t, but Rickey should go in as a member of the A’s.

As for Jim Rice, I’ve favored him getting in for as long as I can remember. This is what I wrote two years ago: Jim Rice 13th year. PRO: Eight All-Star teams (1977-’80, ‘83-’86). Seven .300 seasons, four 200-plus hit seasons, three 100-plus run season (consecutively from 1977-’79),30-plus HR four times, 40-plus HR once, and 100-plus RBI eight times. Led AL in total bases four times in 1977 (382), ‘78 (406), ‘79 (369) and 1983 (344). One of 31 players with 350+ home runs and a .290+ career batting average. Only player in history with three straight seasons of 35+ home runs and 200+ hits. CON: Prickly relationship with the press, who would note that the one time his Red Sox got to the World Series (1986), they didn’t win.
That he got in during his final year of eligibility suggests that the voters spent less time on his personality and more time on his stats.
***
Patrick McGoohan has died. I watched The Prisoner religiously. I also saw him in other things such as Braveheat, but The Prisoner was his signature role.
***
Ricardo Montalban also has died. I wrote about him only three months ago.




ROG

The Year in Review: Politics, Sports

2008 was only the second time in ten attempts I've voted for a successful Presidential candidate - any guesses to the other time?

I also voted for Obama in the New York state primary. My, that was SO long ago, back in early February. Like many people, I suffered from election fatigue. So silliness such as the Barack the Magic Negro song kerfluffle, played on Rush Limbaugh's radio show, doesn't even register.

But here's a terrible thought: perhaps the Republicans were (gulp) right in in their winner-take-all primaries. In the same vein, I have also finally figured out what's so very RIGHT with the Electoral College. People say, correctly, that it's undemocratic. EXACTLY! It wasn't designed to be democratic, it was meant to be definitive. Obama won with about a 53-47% vote. BUT he also won with a landslide ELECTORAL vote. The results of the election were not in question. And the system works most of the time. OK, not in 2000. Or 1888. Or 1876. Or 1824. But most of the time.

Imagine a close election, say 1968. Nixon and Humphrey were virtually tied in the popular vote. But Nixon's Electoral College victory codified the race. Let's say there were no Electoral College. There would have been canvassing of votes all over the country. Or even 2000, where the canvassing was limited to Florida.

There's some merit, though, in doing what Maine and Nebraska have done; allocate electoral votes by Congressional district, with two votes going to the winner statewide. This would put more conservative parts of "blue" states and more liberal parts of "red" states in play, and that we in upstate New York would be barraged with the same campaign of ads that the folks in Ohio and Florida get. Wait, I said there was merit to this? Well, for the local media bottom line, for sure.

Caroline Kennedy for Senate? Don't much care. Whoever is elected would have to run in both 2010 AND 2012. But she's getting killed in the "vetting" process. There's also the more parochial issue that upstaters in New York want an upstate Senator, since there hasn't been one since Charles Goodall finished the term of Bobby Kennedy. An AP story this week suggested that some "caretaker" take the seat now, someone with no desire to run in 2010, like Bill Clinton, or Mario Cuomo, or Eliot Spitzer. OK, not Eliot Spitzer; seeing if you were paying attention. But Governor David Paterson does not want a caretaker candidate; he wants whoever he appoints in 2009 to be on the ballot in 2010, possibly, one could speculate, to enhance his own chances for being elected governor in hios own right.

I've been pretty obsessed with the Constitution this year. Do you know which Amendment took 203 years to be passed?

BASEBALL

Congrats to the Phillies and the Devil Rays. What a difference a season, and a name change, makes.

I started reading a Bob Costas book from 2000, which I seemed to have misplaced. Regardless, the points he made helped me realize that interleague play, as it's currently constructed, is fatally flawed. Where in the NFL, all the teams in a division play common opponents (the NFL East playing the AFC North in 2008, e.g.), Major League Baseball has this romanticized notion of Yankees-Mets, White Sox-Cubs, etc. Nice, but When getting into the playoffs is determined by this, it's not particularly workable. Let's say the White Sox had a weak team, and the Yankees a strong one. This is advantageous to the Cubs and problematic for the Mets.

Also, how is it that the AL West has only four teams, while the NL Central has six? This is competitively unfair. Short of expanding MLB to 32 (four 4-team divisions in each league a la the NFL) or contracting two teams to 28 (two 7-team divisions, maybe with two wild cards, in each league), I don't know how to make the system more equitable.

I'm also distressed that the Yankees can afford to get two front-line pitchers in the offseason (LHP CC Sabathia's seven-year contract; RHP A.J. Burnett's five-year contract). They are playing by the rules; it's the rules that have to be fixed, with a greater amount of profit-sharing than the "luxury tax" has created. (Oh, and why isn't the Mark Teixeira deal showing up on the MLB transaction list?

Will Francisco Rodriguez (K-Rod) be the end of late-season collapses for the Mets?

FOOTBALL
There's a bowl game today at noon on ESPN2 that I never even heard of, the International Bowl, played in Toronto, ON CANADA, but I have a rooting interest: the Buffalo Bulks, which had been a terrible team, but won some incredible games down the stretch this season. Not only is it an upstate team, it's a SUNY school (as is U Albany and SUC New Paltz, my alma maters), the school declined its only other chance to go to a bowl game 50 years ago.

On the pro level - Go, Big Blue! (That's the defending Super Bowl champs, the New York Giants, to the uninitiated.)

ROG

Roger Answers Your Question, Arthur

Arthur @ AmeriNZ, that blogger and podcaster from New Zealand via Illinois asked:

Oddly enough, recently I bought "This is the Moody Blues" on iTunes (to replace the vinyl copy I had), and this was one of the songs. I still love it.

A question? Well, by way of preface, there's an Australian talk show host called Rove McManus (the show is called "Rove Live") who ends every celebrity interview with the same question: "Who would you turn gay for?" The current Prime Minster of New Zealand answered Brad Pitt, though he as asked by some one not quite the stature of Rove.

So, in my best imitation Australian accent, I ask, who would Roger turn gay for?

When I was in high school, I had this conversation among some of my male friends. I suggested one of the guys from our high school swim team. Interestingly, at least three of that group of friends turned out to be gay, though they were in the closet at the time, at least to me.

I suppose if you had asked me 25 years ago, I might have said Tom Selleck. This in spite of the fact that I almost never actually watched Magnum, P.I. In fact, the only time I specifically remember watching the show is when it had a crossover with Murder, She Wrote, a show I'll admit to watching fairly religiously. Cabot Cove, Maine: highest per capita murder rate in the WORLD. But Selleck's politics, I've discovered are rather right-wing, so not him.

I suppose George Clooney. He's rich, handsome, talented, and his politics don't suck. Incidentally, it was never Brad Pitt for me, even in his Thelma and Louise days.
***
No one asked me, but I do have rooting interests on this last weekend of the regular season of the NFL:

The New York (New Jersey) Jets: I'd like them to beat Miami, which COULD go from being the #3 seed to out of the playoffs. So, I'm also rooting for Buffalo to get to 8-8 and beat New England. For good measure I think I want Jacksonville to beat Baltimore, but it ain't gonna happen.

The Philadelphia Eagles: this for Greg. Not only must the Eagles beat the Cowboys (I ALWAYS root against the Cowboys), but Oakland should beat Tampa Bay AND Houston must beat Chicago. Yeesh.

The Carolina Panthers: my mom, one sister, one niece live in Charlotte. They'll probably still be in the playoffs, but it'd do them well to beat the Saints.

The San Diego Chargers: the other sister and one niece live in the San Diego area. So if the Chargers beat the Broncos, they'll be in the playoffs! At 8-8. Yuck.

ROG

What are YOU doing on Thanksgiving?

From the BLS: What activities do you have planned for this Thanksgiving? Perhaps cooking and enjoying a meal with family or friends, playing sports or watching sports on television, doing volunteer work, or shopping? Here’s a look at some BLS data behind those Thanksgiving scenes.

For me:
Cooking? Perhaps a little, but I'm at my in-laws, so it'll mostly be table setting and clean up.
Meal - yes, most definitely. I don't know why I don't have turkey at other times of the year. I LIKE turkey.
Watching sports - maybe; if my father-in-law is, then I am.
Doing volunteer work - actually I had planned on having done that already by helping move furniture around the church on Monday for the EQUINOX Thanksgiving dinner in Albany, but then my daughter got sick with pink eye, the scourge of day care centers everywhere, and that plan went out the window.
Shopping - not if I can help it. Shopping on Thanksgiving Day should be limited to buying forgotten cranberry sauce. And NO ONE loathes shopping on Black Friday more than I do. Though online shopping is not out of the question.

The American Farm Bureau Federation tells us that the Classic Thanksgiving Dinner is Still Affordable. For those of us lucky enough to still have jobs, I suppose. For which I AM thankful.
***
The presidential cookie poll.


ROG

Walk-Off Balk

There's this fun website Win Expectancy Finder that determines the likelihood that a baseball team with a lead of X in the Y inning is likely to win the game.

I discovered it in a conversation in salon about one game in which a team with a five-run lead in the sixth inning stole a base. The losing team seemed to think that this was somehow unsporting and (allegedly) threw at a subsequent batter. The WEF shows that a team with a one-run lead in the eighth inning was statistically more likely to win the game than the team in the first scenario, yet no one would chastise a team up 3-2 to try to pad its lead.
***
I have a Google alert for Roger Green. What I get a lot of is the Brett Favre drama, with NFL commissioner ROGER Goodell arbitrating between Favre and the GREEN Bay Packers.
***
I understand why teams play preseason football games. What I don't know is why anyone WATCHES them, let alone thinks they're significant. It's August; football weather requires at least a sweater. At least when they play hockey in June - another anomaly in my mind - it means something.
***
Synchronized librarians.
***
I haven't tried it yet, but I'm intrigued by this guy who you call up and he writes your life story. On a postcard. Any of you done this?
***
We had an intern this summer, and she said that this website "captures the essence of Roger". I think that's good thing.
***
It pains me, it really does, for tI used to ban the very mention of her name from this blog: I've begun to see Paris Hilton in a more positive light.
***
Local artists make good. Including one I know.
***
The Psychology of Color.


ROG

Sports Fan QUESTION

Siena College, which is very near Albany, did a Sports Fanship Poll, which claims that 73% of All New Yorkers (i.e., people from NYS, not just NYC) are Sports Fans: 89% of Men, 58% of Women. SRI reports that 18% of folks are "Avid" fans, 31% are "Involved" fans, 24% are "Casual" fans and 27% are "Non-fans."

There was certainly a time when I was an avid baseball and football fan, and briefly, an avid tennis fan. I was at least an involved basketball fan. But now, I'd put my interest level at least one level down. I don't participate in fantasy leagues or listen to sports radio, though I've been known to comment on a sports blog or two.

It also revealed that people think athletes are poor choices for role models, though Derek Jeter and Tiger Woods are a couple exception. For me, it usually has to really stand the test of time. I've been fond of Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (a JEOPARDY! champion). Muhammad Ali standing up to the US government forever affected me.

The survey said that people believe that kids learn teamwork, discipline from sports, but that the coaches need to lighten up. I think some of the parents need to lighten up as well.


I'm interested in how you see yourself.

1) Are you an avid fan, involved fan, casual fan or non-sports fans?

2) Who, if anyone, would you consider a sportsperson who is a good role model?

3) What are the positive and negative aspects of sports?

4) Stolen question: what is your favorite times of the sports year? Mine is early September: the NFL season starts, the baseball races heat up, and the U.S. Open (tennis) is in its second week.

5) If you have a subscription to Sports Illustrated, do you receive the swimsuit issue or do you opt out? If you do receive it, do you have an annual conversation with your significant other about it?
***
I went out and bought one of those instant publications after the Giants' Super Bowl win. On page 1, the editorial mentioned the fear that the team wouldn't even get a "playoff birth", rather than "playoff berth". Having read Evanier musing about typos, this definitely made me chuckle. It wasn't the ONLY typo I found so far, but I've been looking.

ROG

Book Meme

Before I get there: I'm not sure I'm happier about the Giants winning the Super Bowl, 17-14, or the Patriots going 18 and ONE.

I generally gauge a Super Bowl commercial by whether I can remember it he next morning, without notes, without notes. I remember hot air balloons fighting for Cokes, the annual "awww" commercial from Bud of dog training horse, a talking baby throwing up on e-Trade, that GoDaddy commercial tease to see Danica Patrick on their website, and those pandas in Chinese "dialect" for some career builder site which I expect to engender some warranted controversy (after it aired, I said, WT...). Oh, yeah, the first Victoria's Secret ad since 1999, but I had read about that in AdAge; it was tame for VS.
***
I'm fairly sure I've done this before, but since Nik tagged me, not only will I answer it, I will endeavor to give answers different from the ones I gave last time. Whenever that was. If I can remember the answers I gave last time.

1. One book that changed your life?

The Closing Circle: Nature, Man, and Technology by Barry Commoner. It came out in the 1970s, and I ended up voting for Barry Commoner for President in 1980.

2. One book you have read more than once?

The Fate of the Earth by Jonathan Schell. Despite the dire predictions, it's also such a hopeful book that a segment was used at a wedding I was at.

3. One book you would want on a desert island?

Oddly enough, Joel Whitburn’s Top Pop Singles text. It will allow me to recreate some of the songs in my mind.

4. One book that made you laugh?

Pajama Time by Sandra Boynton. I swear this children's story was inspired by rap music.

5. One book that made you cry?

This is so hokey and cliched - Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt.

6. One book you wish had been written?

The Bible. I'd leave in the good stuff.

7. One book you wish had never had been written?

I like Nik's answer: "Well, the whole genre of right-wing Let Me Tell You Why Liberals Suck books by O'Reilly, Coulter, Limbaugh, et al I guess. I find them bankrupt as literature and usually preaching to the converted anyway."

8. One book you are currently reading?

A book about cubicles that I hope to review soon.

9. One book you have been meaning to read?

I have shelves of them. If I pick one at random: Wired by Bob Woodward.

10. Now tag five people.

Well, I have to pick Eddie, who broke the pledge that Nik had been holding to;
Kelly Brown, because of her mysterious mind;
Deborah, in the hope that the meme will travel through Europe;
Uthalena, who hasn't posted since early September;
and
Fred, because it's been a long time since I've asked him to. ROG