IU versus Purdue

They both have losing records.

They both have some good players; some will make a lot of money playing football professionally.

They both are at the bottom of the Big Ten standings this year, 2014.

They both are trying to build up from being so far down for so long.

No chance of bowls this winter.

I wrote all this before the game this morning.

I watched it on the Big Ten Network this afternoon.

Hoosiers 23, Boilers 16.

First two-year win streak for IU in the Old Bucket series since 1993-94.

About time.

Go IU. Some tough breaks this past year and season, but IU is still building.

Like the system. Keep it going.

Hoosiers: see you next year! 2015 will be a bowl year...we continually hope.

Will 2,000 yard running back Tevin Coleman be back as a junior? Doesn't matter.

IU will be back. Coach Kevin Wilson is doing his job.

Blog on, EMC.

Basketball: the Dance of the Streets and Small Towns

I grew up in a suburban existence, as many Americans do. I was exposed to a fair share of basketball- but it was not a passion in my neighborhood. Not a passion to my friends or their parents. Who was most interested in basketball besides my own parents, they who could miss huge local college games for other normal life matters? Probably my friend across the other side of Bryan Park, Patrick, whose dad was a huge Purdue Boilermaker fan of all things! Did people play heated games in the warm months outdoors nearby Pat's house at the park? I did not really play there until I was 17 and 18, so I wouldn't know.

Do you know where there are places, courts and neighborhoods, where basketball is part of the culture? Places where people live to get on the court and shoot and pass and block and rebound and dribble, and above all score, by jump shot or dunk, beating the opponent? In the United States there are easily hundreds, more possibly thousands of such places. In my hometown, a college town, a few places would qualify. On the IU campus there was the HPER building. I suppose the YMCA had its own charm for certain players, but the IU campus at that center with its multiple courts had real players and real athletes with real attitudes. You need that beyond the skill and technique, to have the passion.

In my church community there were a few guys that basketball, playing or watching, made them a bit passionate about, but it did not overlap into my neighborhood or household directly. So basketball passion came across to me in smaller but eventually unrelenting waves. And it took a while. Did I ever truly achieve it? As a player, maybe not, but likely as a fan, yes. Nevertheless, in all honesty, I have had a few fits of boiling moments of what seemed like passionate play in courts from Indiana to Utah to California to Virginia.

Basketball can be like dancing for some, or jazz for others. It is a type of art; a sport and a science. Almost a martial art or transcendental yoga, like tai chi. It is a dance, even though some do not recognize it as such. Some people love dance. I get it. Do it, watch it, analyze it, teach it, enjoy it. Dance is for those who do and for many others to observe. It is a beautiful thing.

When I was 14 or 15 my church basketball team went to a country community gymnasium in rural Smithville (not far south of Bloomington, Indiana) and we witnessed a passion from the folks down there. I knew some of them from my schooling. They stomped us. And they got loud. They killed us because it meant more to more of them than it meant for more of us. It was not just height, weight, age and speed. There was time invested. And they had put more energy and zeal into the game. The dance.

They seemed pretty passionate. But not all are. However, there is something about the state between Lake Michigan and the Ohio River, bounded by the Wabash and the Midwest Compromise, and the sport of the peach baskets, the netted hoops.

The main dance of my home state of Indiana. It is very much alive and well many, many other places and also now in many other lands. Have you heard of the passion in Lithuania? No joke. Spain is great at soccer (futbol), but they have multiple all-stars in the NBA. Greece has players. Italy. Croatia. Argentina. Brazil. Russia, Ukraine, even China. It has grown across the planet. Like jazz. Like dance.

A sportswriter was recently interviewed on Charlie Rose who wrote the book "Scribe". His name I since found out is Bob Ryan. He described the NBA as "steak" and college basketball as "really good hamburger". Fair enough, many would disagree. But running that analogy a little further, in Indiana the high school game is comparable to hot dogs. Cheap mixed pork meat in buns.

But the thing is, Hoosiers generally really love hot dogs, i.e., high school basketball. More than anywhere else.

In the 1980s, for example, the small state of Indiana had 18 of the top 20 sized basketball gyms in the country. Why? We love hot dogs/the high school game.

That can be the New York steak or Los Angeles hamburger. Delicious. Whatever the occasion or taste, they both hit the spot for basketball fans.

In dance, we talk of high-brow ballet, medium-rung ball room, and then what: tap or hip hop?

Well, Hoosiers like them all really. But the youngest and the lowest form can often be the most entertaining. Why? Because it is accessible, and it belongs to them.

Small town teams led by Larry Bird or Damon Bailey (from the other side of Lake Monroe as aforementioned Smithville) versus the big city mammoths like Eric Gordon and Greg Oden. Or the tweener teams like Jay Edwards from Marion or Jon Holmes from Bloomington.

Ciy, suburb, or rural village, the dance is what is prized.

Pass. Dribble. Rebound. Block. Shoot. Score. Win.

Just keep dancing on a cold Friday night.

Blog on, EMC.

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

Every killing rampage has a psychological or rational explanation for it. Sometimes it can be tacked up to irrationality (madness), but sometimes rational reasons can explain it in ways that seem rational, or justified.

Wars are sustained rampages.

So, what about Word War I, for example?

The Germans were feeling their oats as a young united and strong nation, wanting the iron-rich parts of Alsace-Lorraine that the former empire France was owner of. Oua la! A terrible war to "end all wars". We wish.

The Ottomons and Austro-Hungarians wanted more lebensrauhm; the three "empires" thought that this would work for their good. It didn't. They combined alliances to take over or hold at bay other rich or historically powerful cultures: France, Italy, Russia, parts of the Middle-East and Asia.

And the massacres across the continents occurred in this, the Great War. And sowed more hate and antipathy. For later wars.

Long time rivals France and England joined forces to keep the central European forces from overrunning them. And the US jumped in to finish the bloodletting. For then, 1918.

A lot has happened since. Massacres happen in small doses and waves. Human nature is the same, the tricks and toys change and adapt. But massacres continue. Bosnia, Rwanda, Congo, Sudan, Iraq, Iran, Syria...

Within each culture there is a belief, call it ethno-centrism at its worst, that they are the norm and the blueprint, the mold to be emulated upon others.

Surely the United States is guilty of this. Take it for good or bad. Are we too belligerent with these beliefs? Many times we can achieve cultural predominance through soft power, no military forces needed to "take over". Money and entertainment can go a long way. So we, as powerful Americans, are always challenged and perplexed how and when to intervene.

Hence, we got into Europe in 1917 to help end things there. We were in the Philipines actively not long before that. And then all the other overt and covert actions over the years in the last 100 years. Very much an issue. Do we meddle too much? Do we get others and ourselves killed when there are not good enough justified reasons?

Some people say, simply and forcefully: "Let everybody else deal with their own problems!" or "We are not the world police!"

But there are killers in the world.

And we must make up our minds, constantly: is it worth it?

Is it worth losing our G.I.s, our sons and husbands, our brothers and sisters?

Some would let sleeping killer dogs lie.

The US may be blamed of aiding some of those dogs.

But some are obvious...or not.

And thus, the debates of politics, military moves, and history...

It may never end in our life time.

Blog it. EMC

My Favorite Football Player

I have never had one overwhelming football player in the NFL that was my favorite.

I do now. Kyle Van Noy. Played his first game yesterday and got two tackles, after being hurt all season, his rookie year.

Go Lions! You and former BYU Cougar Ezekiel Ansah are very cool.

They are living in the world but living high standards of conduct. Exemplary.

Blog it. EMC.

Orson Scott Card-- Writer of a People...Or Not?

Orson Scott Card is a phenomenal science fiction writer, both in his own prolific production and in the audience who buys and reads him. He has been a giant on the scene for decades.

One of the biggest sci-fi authors of all time, doing fine in 2014.

He is not constrained to producing science fiction only, but also stretches his works into fantasy, religious novels, thriller-type mysteries, opinion essays and other non-fiction. He does a lot. He is read a ton, as mentioned. He is unabashedly Mormon, which means something to a lot of people that read him and hold him up as a standard. A little bit like the more recently huge writer Stephanie Meyer, these Latter-day Saint writers have proven that they can sell and capture the greater worldly attention of the masses. Not bad.

It makes me feel good as a Mormon, for sure. And it must be good that their works are so popular, right? But is there something missing... perhaps for me...and others.

So be it. I really like Chaim Potok, for example, and for me he speaks for Judaism (and let me posit that any "religious" writer is writing in some ways for all faiths, all people); I think that Potok has opened up avenues to the Jewish psyche and culture and belief-system like few other writers that I can imagine, which is usually through the vehicle of fiction, albeit realistic. And thus he does a fair share in his writing for all of humanity. Bravo for him and us. Like John Steinbeck, a more secular but definitely humanizing and powerful author. One of my personal favorites. These masterful writers do the whole human race a favor, not just "the poor" or the "Americans of the Depression", or "Mexican immigrants" or "post Holocaust Jews", but for all of us. That is great writing. Great literature.

Perhaps Orson Scott Card, or Scotty, as a few people I am friends with call him on a personal basis, is this type of writer for the LDS. Perhaps. But I have some reservations.

Like any person, any artist or craftsman, there are chinks in the armor. It is obviously impossible for anyone to be all things to all people. There is no such thing as universal acceptance or appreciation without caveats, especially when it comes to the masses . We Christians believe that Jesus is the Lord of all, and welcomes all, yet there are many who reject Him or those who purport to represent Him for different bases of criticism. Understandable. Some simply think of him as another historical figure, not much different than others. Messiah to mankind or another ins a series of martyrs in the Roman Empire? Or somewhere in between.

We can all judge for ourselves. Like with books.

I have not read all of Mr. Card's works. That is a tall order. The books and stories and articles that I have read of his I tend to enjoy and get pleasure and enlightenment from. My wife has read four of his books which I have not; she thoroughly enjoyed them and was engrossed. Nicely done. She also, to my liking, gets engrossed in the works of the aforementioned Potok. My daughter also read "Ender's Game", usually considered the seminal work of Card, which I think is appropriate for those far enough through middle school to read and contemplate. My wife and I enjoyed the movie a year ago (November 2013). Of course, the book is always better.

But speaking of better, perhaps I am too critical of things; perhaps I have little room to speak, but I think Mormons as a people can do better. Fiction or not, we LDS can produce even better works.

Will we?

If there is ever a Latter-day Saint writer, be it Stephanie Meyer or about 10 thousand others of the faith who hope to become popularly successful and meaningful in their craft of fiction or non-fiction, I do have hope that it will bring all of us, young and old, bond and free (LDS humor there, sort of) closer to where we need to be.

And where, pray tell, is that? Along with the greatness of the rest of humanity in art and literature.

And admittedly, like Card's character Ender Wiggins, we do await that day of success and accomplishment with some trepidation, but also with an undying hope and faith.

Keep writing everybody. And thanks, if any of the other writers ever read this, for sharing your gifts and talents. Humanity does not exist in a bubble. We are in this together, even the most spectacular "singular" feats are not islands unto themselves.

Tolstoy did not write "War and Peace" by himself. He got a lot of help. Possibly, from God above? I believe so.

And so we hope with our current and future books.

To bring the lowly pen and ink closer to a heavenly clime. It should happen.

Blog it. EMC

Click and Clack: Farewell

I did not know his name was Tom Magliozzi until the day he died. That was yesterday (Monday 3 November).

Sigh. He was 77.

But I did know him, to a degree. Yeah, it feels like a loss. I was accompanied by his voice for the last two decades, almost.

I guess he and his brother, younger by 7 years, Ray, had already retired a couple of years ago (2012). I did not know that until I looked it up today. The magic of media and a long career of work made that possible. Good job, NPR! (National Public Radio, in case you didn't know.)

Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers. I thought their last name was Tappet. But no, that was a play on words. Typical of their show. Ha ha. Cue the guffaws. Lots of laughs, fun conversation. Friendliness and silliness. Like my mom. Who had a similar Boston/New England accent. And sadly reminded by this passing, that she also passed this year, 2014. She was 73.

Ahh, the lifetime of memories.

I didn't really pay attention to Click and Clack until around 1996 or 97. They had been big for years. Welcome to the bigger world, Eddie. Bigger and smaller. Every year we either expand our mind or regress in our mental abilities, right? I never was that interested in cars, but I was always interested in people. These guys were real people. They embraced their loves.

Click and Clack were good at both people and vehicles. They were friends. And, owning a car myself, we cannot help but wonder what is going on under the hood, between the wheels. How do others deal with these problems? And then there is so many hours by ourselves in the car, often they, these car guy jokers, were the accompaniment. They helped cheer me up many lonely hours. And they fed the mind.

For me, my first major car problem was a bad alternator. Okay, I had to pay for a used alternator. Aw, a lifetime of additional car expenses! Never ends.

The cost of living. I got a good deal on it, that used alternator from a parts store in Orem, Utah. Especially a good bargain considering a friend helped me install it in his garage. Frugality. Kindliness. Making do. That was a good friend. I never met Tom, nor talked to him by phone, but I consider him a friend.

And those funny Boston accents. Another reminder of home. Parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins. Childhood.

It's part of my life, New England and Massachusetts. With this attachment to these people and places is the real fact that there is the ever present death. The pilgrims and Puritans are history. And so are these New Englanders.

We celebrate life after a good person has died. Another has joined the ranks of history! Well done, Tom.

And now in the dying time of fall, we celebrate life in its fullest and cheeriest.

Tom Magliozzi. Thanks for your personality, your brotherliness, and intellect.

Through talking about an area I have marginal interest, you made my life more complete. By being an avuncular brother on air. By really living bigger than just inside yourself.

I will miss you. Funny thing, radio. Media. Books. Art. We make friends with vicarious people across the years and climes.

And you were a welcome voice, Click, or Clack. I hope you meet my mom really soon. She is silly and loves to laugh. How many hours have I spent in a vehicle with her? Not enough. Thanks for bringing me closer to her.

We'll all take a ride later. And have some good laughs.

So, don't drive like my brother, Tom. Thanks for being one.

Blog on, EMC.

Alcohol Schmalcohol

Why Do Humans Drink? I don't like the Reasons

I have to get something off my chest.

I do not like booze! It makes me mad, sometimes.

I do not drink it, full disclosure, you should know. I do not see the overall good in it. I do use some mouth wash, which uses some alcohol for mouth cleanliness purposes. Occasionally my very good cook of a wife, or some posh restaurant where I dine may use some alcohol based drink (wine, rum, beer) to cook or bake for seasoning, but the fermented libation part is left out. No booze, just the remaining flavor. Understandable.

The thing that has brought this to the fore recently is another alcohol violation by a college basketball player at my school, Indiana University. Yes, my pleasure and displeasure derived from the fates of the Hoosiers may not be exactly rational a lot of the time, but Indiana basketball is a part of who I am. When they hurt, I hurt too. And they are hurting now, because of stupid reasons of alcohol consumption. And it is not the first time this year!

This is the third time it is affecting the team since February. 2014. Let's check ourselves, people.

IU players? Yes, and everybody else.

Do we need alcohol consumption to enjoy ourselves, to cope? No, I hope not.

I tell you: an emphatic NO. Live your life in a way that you don't rely on it, ok? Especially when it harms those around you. But my thing is, it never helps...

Last school year (2013-14 season), a second year Indiana player (who was underage) got caught drinking and driving after a particular sad loss to arch rival Purdue. This guy, Hanner Mosquera-Perea, was one of the few Indiana big men that could have helped their team perform on the floor better, more consistently. And then he missed games mid-season, thus leading to further team problems, and the squad finished the season 17-15, not even invited to the second tier NIT. Not even the smaller dance; Indiana was seeded 1st in the top tourney the year before! (To top it off, IU administrators decided to not accept even smaller dances i.e. post season tourneys like the CIT or CBI, which is a different bugaboo of mine...I digress).

Hanner drank irresponsibly and illegally, and did not kill or physically harm anyone, as some drunk drivers are wont to do... No harm, no foul, lesson learned. Right?

WRONG! After the underwhelming and disappointing season (returning PG Yogi Ferrell as a freshman had helped the Hoosiers to win the Big Ten title for the first time in years, 2012-2013), just referenced sophomore Point Guard Kevin "Yogi" Ferrell and new freshman largely contributing SG Stanford Robinson were arrested for underage drinking and forgery of IDs. What?!? Merely two months after Hanner's dopey move? At least it was not during the season, and at least it did not involve a vehicle that becomes a potentially deadly weapon every time operated. But these guys put themselves and their program in jeopardy. Do mistakes lead to a reputation for the team, and thus affect recruiting, which is near everything in college sports? Okay, two strikes, we're still up at bat.

IU got two good recruits in the last few months, the team (minus Hanner for visa problems) go up to Canada in August and gel more as a team. Sober and strong, right? Hope so.

But then comes the post Halloween debacle, the coup de grace-- and it involves two big men, a deadly weapon (a Jeep), illegal consumption of a minor, or two. Indiana cannot afford to lose any tall dudes, because they are short of them in the first place. One last minute recruit for this season (2014-15) that IU pulled in was Emmitt Holt, a 6'7" banger who was thinking of going to prep school this fall instead of a division 1 school like Indiana. But it worked out, hopefully for the benefit of all, despite his youth... Emmitt was another big body meant to shore up an already depleted and weakened front line.

Thought we were progressing in that department,until self-said youngling big recruit Holt, drove his Jeep under the influence of alcohol, then accidentally (how do accidents happen after you drive inebriated? Can a 6th grader answer this for me?) struck other big returning sophomore PF Devin Davis, whom he had just dropped off! Davis, who may or not have been under the influence (also underaged) laid unconscious on the ground after the mishap, apparently suffering a concussion.

The good news? Devin is okay and recovering. Emmitt seems to be okay, legal and school discipline ramifications withstanding. But I reiterate: can we stop "partying", Indiana Hoosiers? Is the alcohol and booze worth sacrificing the goals of your own life, that of playing basketball and succeeding at a great school, and be a student as well?

Have we learned, young students with tremendous athletic gifts?

A. Don't break the law. It exists for a reason, or many reasons.
B. Don't put yourself or others in harm's way.
C. Don't put your immediate desires or weaknesses ahead of your long term goals. And by the way, you only get 4 or 5 years to achieve team and individual goals while in college. Don't blow that away. You are part of a puzzle that literally millions of people are pulling for. Please do not squander that off the court.
D. Don't harm your associates and those who sacrifice and support you by doing foolish things that will harm them, bringing down a whole group, or series of associations and groups (which a major basketball team does).
E. Don't drink booze. And if you do, don't over-do it. And if you over-do it, please have a guard around who will prevent you from making some of the biggest mistakes of your life.

Years ago I was doing CQ (Charge of Quarters) Duty at a US Army barracks. It was the overnight shift which was usually uneventful. Me and another soldier would do routine checks of the barracks and the outside perimeter, which was not in a war zone and no one had weapons issued.

Easy, right? Not when one of our battle buddies was drinking and driving 20 minutes away. So he got busted, did not kill anyone, but we (particularly me) spoke to him as he sobered up and thought about the consequences while waiting for the First Sergeant to come in very unhappily extra early that morning. Leadership in these cases get calls at all times: 2:00 am, 3:00 am, 4:00 am, sometimes all of the above. That night it may have happened that way. By the time the First Sergeant finally did arrive (which I was hoping had been sooner), said busted soldier had left our barracks despite our protests to keep vigil on him, sauntering back to a barracks some half mile away.

Jerk. Jerk for driving drunk, jerk for making First Sergeant's night/morning/day miserable, jerk for making me and my cohort stress and scramble and run around after a full night awake and alert doing extra duty, just to finish before a twenty minute drive home to climb hill and dale to get the guy who continued to flaunt orders.

Jerk. Boozed up loser.

Now, I was friends with this guy, but part of my point is that he, as a friend and colleague, did not need this. We didn't. The police didn't. The US Army and tax paying citizen didn't. First Sergeant and his family did not need that. The community nearby did not need this extra threat to their well being. Soldiers exist to protect us, right?

Athletes on scholarship to gain glory and worldly success exist to represent us, and some of that requires good behavior off the court as well as stepping up on the hard wood. There are many parts of the equation of successful student athletes. That is how you get the chance to play in college sports and the school foots the bill. We long time graduates pay in tickets, TV rights and contracts and charitable donations to make this happen. We are part of the whole process.

Learn from mistakes.

And maybe learn this lesson from me:

You, I, they, we, do not need alcohol to have a good time.

And yes, it kills. My high school friend Kelly Chambers did not make it past her freshman year (happened before Christmas, first semester) at IU because a drunk driver smashed her and her mom on the highway. Drunk as a skunk, I hear. Mother and daughter gone in one fateful collision.

Thank goodness Emmitt and Devin did not have anything worse  befall them. For obvious personal reasons of theirs, but there is more to just them involved here. Alumni count on you.

Don't drink to have a good time, this Hoosier alumni pleads.

Sports athlete or not, you do not need it.

Alter your mind? Your senses? You are better than that.

I could give many other experiences against alcohol consumption, from parents, grandparents, siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, friends, etc.

Bottom line?

It stinks and I am fed up with those who think they need it, or thinking unrealistically that it does no harm.

Every sip harms you. And it ends up harming a lot of others.

Don't believe me?

You're wrong then. Get used to it. But please, get over it. Be better and happier without it.

Join the happy sober club. Having a lot of fun here. Go Hoosiers. Stay safe.

Blog on, EMC.