On a bitter cold Thursday evening, a driver of a local funeral home van stopped at a QuikTrip leaving the engine running as he went inside for a purchase. Like so many, this driver could not bear the thought of returning to anything less that a toasty vehicle when he made the cold walk from […]
Groundhog Day loops back around on Tuesday, February 2nd. Indeed, we wake each morning to more of the same endless days of isolation, social distancing and masking. The Coronavirus’ societal impact arrived near the time of the Spring Equinox, morphing the usual time of optimism into pessimism. The long year of 2020 departed leaving us with […]
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Hank Aaron: Baseball’s Quiet Man
A quiet man passed away quietly this past Friday. Henry Louis Aaron was 86. Best known for breaking Babe Ruth’s all time home run record, Hammerin’ Hank, as he was known by opposing pitchers, possessed greatness that until the latter part of his career went underappreciated by the Baseball world. His incognito changed when seemingly […]
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HOCKEY’S BEST: GRETZKY vs. MESSIER
Winning five Stanley Cups in seven years, the Edmonton Oilers stand above all other dynasties that followed them. The Oilers were led by Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier, the two best players to ever don a uniform for the same club. Born within eight days of the other on opposite ends of Canada, the […]
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Balanced on Ballast
Balanced on Ballast Along the graded landscapebalanced on ballastspiked astrideperpendicular tieslies alignedparallel linesof forged steel rails. Ceaseless seamless sequencefor coming transport hencevista’s unseen spacesfar’way distant places. Symmetric stillremains untilbold whistle call hails coming thrall‘tis iron horsewith fearsome forceits’ powerful thrusteats miles with lustheadlong it’s boundshaking the ground in hurried paceto destined placeskipping verstssinging verseturbine basesets the […]
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John Lennon Remembered
JOHN LENNON REMEMBERED We remember dates for murdered icons. JFK assassinated on November 22, 1963; brother Bobby, the 6th of June. Julius Caesar stabbed on the Ides of March, and Honest Abe martyred on Good Friday. John Lennon took his bullets on 8 December 1980, outside his home when a deranged fan tried to kill […]
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The Impulse to Fight
Best known for his novels Animal Farm and 1984, George Orwell would seem an unlikely apologist of Adolf Hitler. Though no supporter of the Fuhrer, Orwell acknowledged Hitler’s underlying appeal to the Germans that entices us all: An inherent desire to fight. This impulse to fight finds vent in our own country as evinced by […]
For most of our history, the nomination of a Supreme Court justice summoned a mere passing interest. However, in the past 30 years, political stakes have increased to such an extent that each vacancy on the Court ignites a firestorm. Too much rides on a Supreme Court nomination as the party in power seems more […]
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The Incomparable Bob Gibson
Incomparable: “Eminent beyond comparison.” The Webster dictionary defines that single word that best describes Robert Gibson. Certainly, there are other great pitchers in major league history, some of whom won more games—Tom Seaver, Steve Carlton, Greg Maddux to name but a few—but none of them toed the rubber more memorably. Gibson’s unique qualities ranged from […]
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The Late Great Lou Brock
Louis Clark Brock’s career defies the modern day statistical number crunchers who attempt to rank players with the precision of diamond cutters. Statisticians whiff on the true measure of Brock’s greatness because his dynamic play and clutch performances cannot be quantified. While he owned impressive career numbers, the whole of his game was greater […]