What happens to retired gladiators?

The National Football League (NFL) has not been using replacement referees this year, but there has still been a great deal of furor over many potentially bad calls by officiating crews.  The rules of american style football continue to change in order to protect the players, especially offensive ones.
[For those not as familiar with these sports related terms, the offense is not trying to OFFEND anyone, but their main purpose is to score points.  The defense can also do this, but unlike fútbol*, both team's offense and defense do not take the field at the same time.]

I agree with protecting these men from head injuries as much as possible, but it is certainly changing the nature of the game as I have known it as a spectator.  You cannot lead with your helmet on a tackle, you cannot hit people high, you cannot take out their feet with your legs (on purpose), you cannot horse tackle your opponent, etc.  Some of these changes are surely protecting players from potential career ending injuries, but they are also altering the game from a gladiatorial competition to more of a procedural exercise.

[borrowed from http://filmmusicreporter.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/gladiator1.jpg]

The instant replay rule and slow motion technology is helping the officials to make better calls, but you can still get away with things as long as no official sees you commit the infraction.  Individual interpretations of the rules also wreak havoc with the flow of the play.

As a long time soccer player (25+ years) I only received one yellow card during all that time.  I executed a beautiful pop-up slide towards a goalie when playing center forward, and the referee apparently believed that scaring the opposing defender was worth issuing a yellow card.  Technically the call was "Dangerous Play", but since I never came within a yard of the goalie, I take issue with that call.  The referee obviously was a big 'fraidy cat, but there is no replay booth in adult club soccer, and arguing with the referee will usually just get you a red card, which means you cool your heels on the bench for the rest of the game.

The normal duration of an NFL game is over 3 hours, and numerous trips to the instant replay booth (especially since every scoring play is reviewed) may tend to make the game even longer.  Most of the reviews happen during the commercial breaks, but I still don't like them.  I have not decided what I think about the coach challenge flags.

As I was stewing over the fact that my local CBS affiliate was not broadcasting the Ravens v. Jets game, I saw a very humorous commercial featuring Ray Lewis and Brian Urlacher, two defensive players that I admire very much.

If you are interested, you should check out this youtube video clip:  xbox commercial

The two men depicted in this commercial take very different perspectives on how to best enjoy their retirements.  I can relate to this comical presentation of life after retirement, as I try to figure out how to accomplish this gracefully myself.
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*  I like to use the spanish word for what we Americans (the USA variety of people living in this hemisphere) call soccer, as it is spelled differently than the NFL product.

Poll tax

I voted today in my local city election, and one of the reasons that I did so was to see if they were going to ask me for my ID, which is not required.  After I filled out the voter poll form, they did indeed ask me for my ID.  I said I preferred not to pull such info out of my wallet, and the male poll worker explained that it would be much quicker if I let them swipe my Michigan Driver's License.

borrowed from http://butnowwhat.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/school-poll-results.jpg

I asked, "what are the options?"  and was told that I just needed to fill out the affadavit on the reverse side of the poll form, which I did as required by the nice ladies behind the desk.

I explained that I had been in the military for 20+ years and I did  not want to be swiped if it was not explicitly necessary.  The women typing my name into the computer thought I was funny, and the man wandered off to the other side of the gym, since he was supposed to me manning the scanning machine, not harassing potential voters.....

I voted, I did not have to show my ID, I was happy!!!

Yum!!

Roasted pumpkin and squash seeds are the perfect salty, crunchy, toasty snack - learn how to make 'em!

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152314909894616&set=a.452150494615.237888.65398579615&type=1&relevant_count=1

Return of the falcon (sounds better than hawk, but is not taxonomically correct)

I was in my front yard yesterday, trying to remove the dead limb from a small tree, when all of a sudden there was a big commotion in the impromptu birdbath a bunch of robins and swallows had made out of uneven portion of the sidewalk.  I looked over just in time to see a beautiful grey bird swoop down and make a screeching sound, causing all the smaller birds to get the hell out of Dodge.  Not to suggest that my yard is the wild west, but there are a bunch of interesting critters that make appearances in my neighborhood.

[borrowed from Cornell, photographed/copyrighted  by Gerrit Vyn]

The most common are black or grey squirrels, redpolls, sparrows, morning doves, cardinals, wood peckers and the occasional possum, pheasant or rabbit.

In trying to identify my bird of prey from yesterday, I came across two websites which were helpful.  I a sure there are very more, but I only have SO much time to indulge in web surfing per day.  The better one was from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and can be reached here.  Another good one is a more local page from the Illinois Raptor Center.  It has some good explanations, but does not have all the bells and whistles of the Cornell page.

The way in which I think this fits with the "Don't mess with me (or my friends)" theme is that even though the hawk was outnumbered at least 10:1, as soon as announced its presence the other birds undoubtedly knew who was the boss!

My love/hate relationship with the 24 hour news cycle

The first problem is that the "cycle" has nothing to do with a pedal or motorized bike.

Way back when I was in college, oh so many years ago, there was no 24 hour broadcast TV news cycle.  Sure, there was news happening all over the world, at various hours of the day (and next day, due to the numerous time zones across the globe), but I wasn't listening to BBC World News on world band radio.  I actually had to sleep 7+ hours every day to have enough energy to get through my classes, athletics practice in the afternoon, various meals, and at least a few hours at the Regenstein Library every night.

I loved the stacks, but this shot below is not a picture of me.  The stacks have that great aroma of decaying books and the search for knowledge and enrichment.   

My favorite view of the library was the one with the Henry Moore statue over the sight of the location of the first contained nuclear reaction in the USA, which used to be the squash courts many decades before I matriculated at the U of C.  Of course this meant that I was OUTSIDE the library, which meant that I was just entering or exiting  the library.  It probably meant that I was on the way to a class, given the side of the library where the statue was placed in the mid 1980s.

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[borrowed from http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/.a/6a00d834518cc969e2013480da9fa1970c-800wi]

One of my favorite facts about the Reg (as we called the main library on campus) was that the donors required that the windows would have the same dimensions as the openings in many business envelopes, which the Regenstein family had patented, which then led to their huge contribution to the University of Chicago.  However, in repeating this student legend from 20+ years ago, I might be publicizing a UC urban myth rather than actually telling you the truth from the perspectives of the Regenstein family and the architects who planned the library.

[borrowed from http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/reg/reg.jpg]

If you are worried about partisan comments in these days of government shutdown in the USA, you should probably not read any further in this blog.  

There are facts, and then there are opinions.  The statement I just made about the shape of the library windows that I spent many hours peering out of during my college career (if I was lucky enough to get a carrel close to a window),  is my remembrance of some story I was told a couple of decades ago.  I could look up the details and confirm whether I am correct or not, but I like the story the way I have told it, whether it is the truth or not.

When telling allegorical or fishing stories, I am willing to accept a slight shading of the truth, but when it comes to my political leaders, I expect them to tell the truth.  They owe us that for paying their salaries.  But we don't seem to get a great deal of truth telling from the right side of the aisle these days.

To support full transparency, I have voted for predominantly Democratic candidates since I was first able to vote in the mid 1980s.  I also think that I am a person of principle and honor, and I do not like it when people tell lies to create hatred and fear in others.

[borrowed from http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/26537523.jpg]

You are probably wondering what the library at my college has to do with the title of this blog, but the point that I am trying to make that when I was in my 20s, you had to get news from the AM radio stations, the nightly network or local news, the newspapers that were kept at the main library on campus, or the grapevine.  There was no twitter, there were not a handful of cable TV channels that broadcast their own flavor of news for most of the day, and we didn't have easy access to that wonderful thing I like to call the "INTERWEB."

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE information.  I have a habit of gathering WAY to much of it before making a decision, but as a retired military officer, I also understand that you sometimes have to make a decision based on incomplete information.  But you also have to depend upon your information sources to feed you the right data so that you will be able to make an informed decision.

The crazy news cycle that we live in today encourages people to take sides and only listen to the pundits who are going to tell them what they want to hear, rather than the people who are actually speaking the truth.

So I would encourage everyone to do their homework and not take claims as gospel before you head off in one direction or another in these troubled times.