Black History Month - Coming and Going

    I tried to dedicate a bit more of my learning to African-American history this month by paying attention to more history, knowledge, stories, and even participate in some African-American things. I then wanted to share and relay these lessons to others. Since the summer of 2020 I have wanted to attend some Black churches, and I thought that I could follow through with it this month. I did pretty well the first few days of the month, but then I lost the verve and missed out on more opportunities.

    As stated in a National Geographic documentary about Black History that I watched some of yesterday, "Black History (in the U.S.) is American history." Right. I have said so and thought so before. We celebrate all of it, and we recognize the bad, too. All of it is us. Our world. Our country. Our heritage. We share it.

    This past year and half, going on two years, I have had good experiences with African-Americans personally. They were not bad before that. But things came into better focus for me in this regard. It is the post George Floyd, Black Lives Matter times. We try to get it.

    What else did I want to convey? This month is good to remember and assess our shared history. Accomplishments, victories, setbacks, disgraces, all the things that have been and made us who we are. 

    Let's do things right and remember.

    Speaking of remembering, there were a couple more things that I had in mind for this post, but I have forgotten them. Perhaps I will recall them soon.

    That is it for now. No, I remembered a couple things.

    Oh yeah. As I was wanting to visit and participate in some African-American based churches in my community, and thinking of time to do so this month, I was spending some of my time helping a brother in my congregation who has been largely down on his luck, who has been scammed for thousands of dollars, who is in debt and his job has been pulling back on his hours, social security is claiming that he was overpaid by them and want thousands of dollars back, which he does not have. He is in debt, can sometimes not pay his rent, or have food for money. We have people (including myself) dealing with Adult Protective Services to help him.

    So this has kept me from spending more time doing some other things. And this gentleman I speak of? He may be Black. Or partially, anyway. But to me, that part is immaterial. He is our brother, no matter his skin nor heritage.

 I want to be a bit more like MLK, in a month we think a lot of him, or since January too. His federal holiday. We celebrate our combined and shared histories, our heritage and futures together.

    We will succeed or fail together. 

    Long live these dreams.

The X Factor for IU Basketball 2023

    Indiana did it; I watched the whole thing. The Hoosiers clad in red beat the hometown Boilermakers on a Saturday night, this the second time we have beaten them this year. But this was in their lair, Mackey Arena.

    Whew! Purdue is really good. I told my wife, or I am telling you: if IU cannot win it all this spring, I would like to see the boys from West Lafayette do it. It can be an Indiana thing. Still. That would be nice. It has been way too long, for either program. Indiana since 1987 and Purdue, like never. They claim some national championships in the earlier 20th century, before the NCAA tourney started in 1939.

    I will discuss some of the history of the March Madness champs in another blog post. Like, who are the one-time winners? How often does that happen? Which schools have multiple championships What are the numbers of each?

    For now, assessment of the Indiana squad. I think that the X factor might be Trey Galloway. Of course, that goes with saying that the senior big man All-American Trayce Jackson-Davis and the freshman all-world guard Jalen Hood-Schifino keep doing their masterful magic on the floor. Both of these guys are the horses, the engines, that make this team a better IU unit that they have been in years. As good as 2016, if not better. Possibly as good as in 2013, when they fell apart at the end of the season. But they were a number one seed and predicted by many to win it all. Ten years ago. But their biggest whiff of success came in 2002, another time coming up short.

    Could this be the year? I think that they may have the right pieces to go far and even win it all, but the man who might make the difference is Indiana's own Trey Galloway. When he does his thing, the Hoosiers are hard to beat. Yesterday in West Lafayette he almost dunked it on Zach Edey. 

    Let me repeat that. 6'5" Galloway almost dunked the basketball on 7'4" center All-American Zach Edey. They call him the crazy man. He hustles and scraps, and he attempts to boldly do what is needed to win. He steals the ball, puts pressure on ball handlers, goes aggressively to the hole. The cup. The bucket. He plays off his teammates, he makes the passes to put them in good positions to score. He knocks down long shots and makes athletic lay ups.

    He may be the difference in the next month.

    Race Thompson is a huge part, as a big man starter, and Miller Kopp is crucial, as a man who is counted on from outside. He gets some inside hoops too. The bench is a big part of rest for the starters and added energy, in sometimes sharpshooter Tamar Bates, the uber athletic Jordan Geronimo, and the crafty but foul-prone Malik Reneau. 

    Some would assert the "X" factor is the more than two month injured super speedy 5th year point guard Xavier Johnson. He broke his foot in December and is looking to return pretty soon. There are two more regular season games left, then the Big Ten Tourney, then on to The Tournament.

    Coming up this March of 2023.

    The X factor. Do the Hoosiers have it? 

    I think they do. But hey, I have been wrong about these guys so many times before...

    Go IU! Fight, fight, fight!

 The Promise of Spring - 5783

    Most of the Western world is in 2023 as we measure it, because we acknowledge the birth year of Jesus Christ. Seculars have changed A.D., Anno Domini (the year of the Lord), to the less culturally biased Common Era. This nomenclature has removed some of the reference to the Divine as the Christian world has framed it. Muslims have their calendar, which dates from 622 based on when the Prophet Mohammed first began his legacy. Peace and Blessings be upon him. Sala allah alehee wa salem. In the Jewish history, long, illustrious, and also full of trauma and pain. But this can be said of Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, agnostics, animists, heathens (shout out to Asatru and others), and even the so-called peaceful atheists. 

    Genocides and wars have come in all packages.

    Recently my oldest daughter, close to making her own history by graduating from college, re-read some of her baby book with her grandmother. Relayed to me by my wife, I had written some twenty years ago when our firstborn was in diapers, that I wished to explain some geo-politics to her someday.

    I am grateful to be reminded of this past wish, and perhaps even more so appreciative and even humbled to have survived the last two decades to reflect and still postulate on such things.

    

    The WORLD in 5783

       

     The world as we know it. What is happening? What do we think?

    Where to start? My wife and I watched a show with a British commentator this past week, he bemoaning the state of our planet, as it has about 8 billion inhabitants and still increasing; we are chopping up and burning our natural environments with its autochthonous flora and fauna. Too many "ugly" human mouths are destroying the planet, and millions of us live in poverty, like the water-based slums of Lagos, Nigeria. We have forests of eucalyptus trees bereft of birds and other wildlife where former pristine trees and underbrush reigned. There are mountains and heaps of trash and refuse that pile up across the globe, not to mention the plastic globules and invasive rubbish that infiltrate our seas and oceans. He thinks that us humans are the most ugly species. I get it.

    Global warming is real, and non-sustainable natural habitats are a common thing. Some places on the planet seem to have it right (see Southeast Alaska). There is hope for greener pastures, pun intended. Cobalt in Congo will lead to batteries that will reduce carbon emissions. Less fossil fuels burnt will mean less industrial and environmental contamination and the further poisoning of our earth.

    Environmental issues are dire and foreboding, with some glimmers of hope. On the governmental and political side, things have been messy, perhaps messier than normal.

    Russia is doing terrible, nasty business in Ukraine. A war in Europe that was unthinkable to most of us, just 18 months ago. Now we are a year in. We are at the end of February, Black History Month in the United States, where we both celebrate and mourn for the triumphs and tragedies of the African-Americans of our country's history. In my area of the country and this amazing spinning orb we have strong hints of spring. Warmth, rain, buds of trees, birds. It seems a not too vicious winter is almost over.

    Thousands are dying and suffering in Ukraine for these reasons of war. Not too far to the south in Turkey and Syria, tens of thousands have died due to a vicious earthquake. Some survivors were remarkably saved.

    Another winter leads to another spring. The cycle continues.

    Spring for sports fans brings a lot of hope and wonder. Us basketball fans watch as the players and teams that we may pine for over the cold months are establishing their resumes and chemistries to create magic in March, as March has been the year for college teams to shine for generations hailing back to before World War II. Indiana fans such as myself are particularly hopeful as my Hoosiers beat Purdue again within a month, and are poised to make some noise in the coming weeks. While the BYU Cougars are not as good as hoped, they still have talent and reasons to play for. Who knows? They could win their tournament and dance in the madness of March? Good madness, that is.

    Baseball is resuming, already in full swing (pun intended) for the college ranks. The professionals are warming up and teams like perennial losers San Diego have hope. Maybe even the Mariners? Why not? I want the teams that have never won to end up triumphant this fall. My Nats and White Sox would be fun to watch excel, too.

    

    China is brutish and bellicose. Russia is even worse at present. A North Korea nation is lead by a sycophant. Iran kills a minority woman for not wearing her head scarf properly. Natural disasters wreak havoc on millions. Some nations cannot contain their terrorist or rebellious groups, to include much of Africa, and certain parts of Asia. The Western Hemisphere is more or less peaceful, but we have pockets of problems, obviously Venezuela, or Haiti, with problems of violence rife in Mexico and Central America. Mostly due to illicit drug sales.

    Those illegal drugs cause most of the violence and homicides in the United States, including, in my opinion and practically the estimation of no one else, or a seldom few, THC and marijuana factors that lead to mass shootings. The media and politicians blame the deadly guns (I hear so many pundits lament this constant tragedy!), the mechanisms of random and senseless violence are impugned, but the causes are ignored. And millions celebrate and pass laws to continue to legalize pot.

    Shame on our collective ignorance.

    What else can I share?

    Israel and Palestine go more rounds in awful operations of death and despair.

    But we do have the promise of spring. May more light and peace cover the earth as we lengthen our daylight ours.

    That was rarely the picture in Afghanistan the last two decades. Warmer temperatures meant fighting season.

    The Taliban are in control there now.

    Myanmar is a repressive place. Millions have suffered there. There is good and bad in all societies, but I believe that peace shall come. Better heads will prevail. 

Iceland Poem #2 19FEB22

 Iceland Poem #2 19FEB22 (Written there)

    We the Vikings! The remnants of 

    the former race

    We carried over the tongue 

    of the ancients, the vocabulary

    of the older, seafarers of     

        

    a thousand years since

    a pure way of maintaining

    thoughts and family

    The people of Iceland

    Grafting people in, generation

    After the next

    Those from Chile (2019), Venezuela (2023)

    and Poles and Bulgars

    Arrival on shores and into bars

    Where work is solid

    Society is free - the capital far north

    64 degrees, further than any other

    A large, wide open city

    A people, comfortable in their

    Culture - a land

    A land for the language of Vikinga

 Frederick Smith - A Decent Goy Begat My Dad

    Part of life is figuring out who we are. For those of us who believe in the Bible, we believe that we are chosen of God and are of a royal generation. Who begat you and your line?

    

    Did he go by Fred? I should ask his daughter Barbara, who I did meet in person.

    

    This man was not to marry my grandmother, whom I never met. He was only to impregnate her. 

    Good enough. (A phrase of my father). I never met Frederick, and neither did my dad. Once I thought that my dad told me that he may have briefly met him, possibly as my dad was a teen in his small town. Fred's wife never knew that my dad existed, I guess. They would have three daughters, who never knew of my dad. Until about 60 years later.

    I cannot complain about what happened in Massachusetts in the 1930s while so much worse was going on in Russia back then, come full circle to 2022 and 2023 and those Russkies (Russies) are up to nothing but bad in Ukraine. Times change, and times stay the same.

    So, my dad learned to not get the mother pregnant before marriage, and my sisters came out more legitimate, as it were. And we met three of our four grand-parents, albeit one was really our great-grandma. (See above). Her name was Clinch, not Smith. And that was the name that stuck, to this day and beyond.

    Things went good by and large.

    Much better than Russia.

    And even Germany, of course. Smith was likely descended from the Brits. Which leads me to questions of how to submit and track genealogy. That, for another post.

    I am blessed, Frederick Smith.

    Biological grandpa. I may meet you someday. I did not meet my adopted grandfather either, who died too young. Guy, son of a Harvard trained dentist. He begat another Guy, who passed on some more than ten years ago. I knew this Uncle, who technically was my great uncle. Father of five Clinch boys, who have gone on to have many more. From New England (most recently Maine) to Iowa, that is what I know.

    Oh, yeah. You were not Jewish; you were Christian from a land that had been dominated by stalwart Puritans. You were Protestant of some type, and then your son, my father opted for leaving traditional Christianity and became a Latter-day Saint. Which has become my legacy. And my family is more or less constituted as such.

    Yeah, family. About time. And history. And in the back of it, or front of it, I believe that I am among the Chosen. From inauspicious beginnings and continuous cycles of life come God's faithful.

The name above does not fit my biological grandpa. Our Smith would have been born around 1914-20. I cannot recall his middle name, but he is buried in Wilmington, like the Clinches. Only a few yards apart.

Who are the Chosen of God? That remains to be seen. Jewish, Christians, and Muslims think we are headed there. We are all woven into the fabric of the tapestry of God's children.

Tokk Fyrit (Tok Firit) 19 February 2023

Tok Fyrit (Tok Firit) 19 February 2023

    

    Thank you - Iceland             (THANK YOU ICELAND!)

    A place far off from

    much of the world

    Across dark, lonesome

    Cold, fecund-of-fish seas

    in February                            (CAN YOU FEEL THE COLDNESS?)

    

    They speak the tongues

    and grammars

    of their forefathers from 1,000 years ago

    

    the Great Leifur Erikkson

    -not just Leif, as we read in our childhood

    history books and tomes from 

    the library

    

    Iceland is alive and well

    Tok fyrit, ob se geth, bless bless, and all of it

 Has There Been a Clippers Sighting?

    The West is more open than the East in the NBA, as my friend at work Chris has aptly surmised. This is the state of the best basketball league in the world, 2023. The Denver Nuggets are playing at a better than normal average, but some trades from the east to the west have shaken things up a bit. Kyrie Irving with the Mavs, Kevin Durant with the Suns, the Grizzlies are decent, even Sacramento is balling.

    The Lakers have made some moves to get better, but they have been on life support, even with an amazing ageless Lebron King James. Although he has missed games with sore ankles...

    

    I am excited for the woebegone Clippers of LA, because they have always been behind the eight ball, and now they have my Hoosier boy Eric Gordon back, back where he started from!

    With Zubac as a decent center, George and Leonard dong their things with some Terrence Mann a few other supporting cast members, like Morris and Batum, perhaps these guys might go far.

    Here's hoping!

Go Clips. Make L.A. a winner again, only different.

    

 Thieves of All Kinds

    People be thieving. Yep.

    Have you ever stolen? I have. I have stolen and "tactically acquired" things over the years. A toy phone when I was four or five. A piece of candy from a store. (Both returned with help from my mom.) Some food items that were left behind, or "not taken care of". Finders keepers? What else... Well, most of us do not blatantly steal from others. Other than those that take advantage and "borrow" things, there are maybe four types of thieves.

    White collar thieves

    Blue collar thieves

    Hostile thieves

    Deadly thieves

    Which type has the most?

    White collar thieves are bothersome, because they make off with millions and even billions of dollars. Some get away it, like all types of criminals who never get caught. They are despicable, if not more so than the petty thieves, because they abuse all of us trying to work hard and save, getting ahead for honest days of work and lifetimes of sacrifice and integrity.

    Shame on them and you, you unrepentant spoiled and niggardly crooks! Taking the rest of our hard-earned dollars and investments, our hopes and dreams. 

    Some say many politicians other corporate types wind up stealing from all of us. I know a former mayor of San Bernardino who accuses former president of the U.S. as doing so, mostly while business owner and governor of Texas. There are a lot of people in power who are accused of being crooks and thieves, like Tricky Dick Nixon himself, ironically.

    Blue collar thieves are caught in every level of society. Maybe lawyers are of this ilk, but do it more legally. Not ethically: legally. They are almost or really are of the white collar variety, depending on how much they steal from their clients and competitors within court. Teachers take and abuse funds, people in almost all fields of work.

    Shame on y'all!

    Hostile thieves are those that mug, break into homes and steal, take stuff from doors at deliveries (porch pirates), and try not to be seen, or take valuables (see pick pockets, shoplifters, etcetera) without directly interacting with those that they steal from. This includes robbers, who do confront their victims but try not to hurt them. I hate you and I think you are cowardly scum, but I also feel sorry for you. Stupid dorks. Let people hold on to their own possessions, you dweebs! Who do you think you are? Who gave you the right to take other people's stuff? May God strike you down with a pox and severe burning.

    Lastly, the deadly types of thieves are willing to kill to gain their booty.

    What do they care when they are willing to take lives to get their dirty wealth? This includes those that kill others to get their life saving, or score an insurance policy, or doctors who may kill patients to get away with some type of nefarious bounty.

    Wow.

Taking earnings and lives is not cool.

    Stop it.

    Stop taking other peoples' stuff. Earn it like the rest of us.

    

 Family Relations 506

    In college we have undergraduate classes that are normally labeled 100 through 400. If we go on to Master's Degrees or Doctorates, then the classes are listed in the 500s and up. I am at those stages in my life, it seems. Advanced studies in family relations. For the record, I did some remedial math in two colleges that were in the 90s. 

    My mom has left the known world for now. Gone 9 years this spring. Memories and photos remain. Stories and feelings. She left other material remains and heirlooms, but probably more spiritual and emotional legacies and memories.

    

    My dad is of advanced age (mid 80s is advanced, yes?), and is getting married tomorrow. The bride is about 17 years younger. The mother-in-law is only a couple years older than my father. They all seem to be happy, which is good.

    My oldest sister is not happy. She has her reasons. I can understand. She lives pretty close to the aforementioned, which complicates matters. 

    My next older sister is happy with it, it seems, and lives much further away. More than twice as far as me. I live a day's drive away.

    None of us are talking that much.

    Back when I was taking my 100 and 200 and 300 level classes as an undergrad in the university, or universities, it was harder to talk long distance. Those calls cost a lot. We sent more postage back then.

    We were apart, but we mostly tried to communicate.

    Now we have the means in the world, but we are separated by lines of animus, or apathy, or faults that have developed over time and space.

    Yep, we are in some kind of post-graduate funk.

    I still talk to my step-father, and my step-mother has been gone 14 months now.

    Step-siblings? And step-nieces and nephews? They are very distant now. Things have changed.

Murder then and Now

    The Holy Bible records Cain killing his brother Abel as the first murder in our human history. I believe in the Bible, and I also believe there were evolutionarily many, many iterations of human bipeds or whatever we were for thousands and thousands (or even millions) of years to become what Adam and Eve and the rest of what humans became, as spoken of in Genesis, possibly 4,000 B.C.

    

    I believe in the Creation of the world by God (Jehovah, Christ), and science. To me it is all true. Another truth from time immemorial is that we humans kill each other. Too much.

    In the last 100 years, or say 110 years, we have done it in industrial droves. Before that the Turks were committing genocide on the Armenians. There should be many more Armenians than there are today in the 21st century. And maybe less Turks? And more Kurds? Certainly we are missing many more Jewish than there are, thanks to an extreme German nationalism that took control for a very harsh time closer to the middle 20th century. Killers.

    Stalin and Mao, their respective Napoleons, grand sickening killers.

    Who, by what name, do we call all the killers in the Congo in the last 25 years? Whose names are those to receive the blame and opprobrium of killing, in the numbers of awful genocide, in our more recent lifetimes? We had Milosevic or Karadzavic (sp?) in Serbia, former Yugoslavia.

    Nowadays we have mass shooters that do their terrible deeds, stealing lives (a lot of them to due with THC and so-called recreational marijuana usage and abuse, and we have other killers, some because of domestic violence, some due to greed and pure evil. Gang violence, random rage incidents, other alcohol or drug-induced madness and anger. This happens enough in the United States.

    But the mass killers: North Korea, China, Russia now in Ukraine...

    We have enough problems keeping people alive through means of avoiding accidents and health issues. We do not need more killers, more murder.

    But it is a part of who we are.

 Mice in the Circle of Life

    On a Saturday I checked my gear. I don't look at it a lot. I was hoping to review this small, packed space, and find a lost library book. Well, that was more the next day. As I opened my locked area this first morning, I felt the new reaffirmation that my book was not there. But really, I was there to check on some other equipment. However, this book has been missing for almost a year. I may have to shell out the 30 bucks for it. Not the worst. But I am still holding out hope to find it. I have never lost one before... Perhaps someone else lost it. I did leave the country for a while...

    But instead of going through my things thoroughly, I was faced with some weird papery and even plastic and metal shavings. Nothing in my brain alerted me about small vermin or mammals that like to burrow and gnaw. I removed some of the shavings, and I carried on.

    The next day came, however, and then I saw the damage. A hat had a hole in it. A plastic reflector light arm band had some gnawings in it. I am not sure if works yet. I found more holes, more shavings, and then the offending member. A little packet of pretzels had awoken this burrower. 

    A laundry bag had been eaten through. Damage. No other bags of food had been ravaged or penetrated. I removed those. They were more protected than the pretzels. Maybe the metal parts caused damage to the mouse. Or rat.

    What Chinese year is it? Is it the year of the Rat? No, it is the rabbit.

    Oswald, the brother of Mickey, is a rabbit. We have one at work.

    And I digress, really, but I am sharing the scene. The scenes in my mind. The time and place this deep into the winter of 2023. We had some cold rains and some wintry mixes later.

What else to say? No more pretzels, no more random food items in that place. Although there might be some candy or stuff in that gym bag...

    March will inform us more...

    

NBA 2023 Prospects and Hopes - Western Conference

    There are maybe five potential winning teams in the East; I talked about that already in a previous post. Now for the West. This is a pretty open year compared to many seasons of the past. Last year, 2022, the resurgent Golden State Warriors came back and prove triumphant, and are a legitimate dynasty. Way to go, Steph et al.

    Now some people are picking the quite effective Denver Nuggets; they have one of the best centers in the league, and they are pretty well balanced and successful. That would be a new one. Have they ever won it all? But wait! The Phoenix Suns, who made the Finals in 2021, just got Kevin Durrant. Could that change everything? Yes it could. The Los Angeles Clippers just traded for an old favorite, Eric Gordon, who played one year at my alma mater, Indiana, and with some other ballers like George and Leonard, they might do the trick. The Memphis Grizzlies are not bad. Who else? Could the Portland Trailblazers or the Sacramento Kings have what it takes to get to the finals? To win it all?

    I think it is going to be among the Suns, the W's (Dubs), and the Nuggets. Although the Clippers would be a sweet outcome. Not so much for Kawahi, but for George and now the returning EG, the Smurf of yester years. And the Clippers would be an amazing story.

    Who is doneski? The Spurs, the Jazz, the ... Rockets. Maybe Oklahoma, but then again they are good, better than their record so far, and maybe, possibly the Lakers. New Orleans and Minnesota? These would be big surprises.

    

NBA 2023 Prospects and Hopes - Eastern Conference

 NBA 2023 Prospects and Hopes

    A lot of trades and moves have happened thus far into February; some teams are jockeying for primacy in the National Basketball Association. For championship and playoff hopes this season. Some teams are desperate, like the Lebron James-led L.A. Lakers. They got many new folks; we will see if they can salvage their season. And even make the playoffs, let alone contend for the championship.

    Who are the best contenders? Let's talk about the East, first.

    Boston Celtics. They have good chances, good players, some injuries, some recent additions, but based on last year's very impressive run, they have perhaps as good a chance as any. They have a ton of rings from the past, and their last was with Paul the Truth Williams, KG and Ray Ray Allen. That was a while ago, over a decade. Paul? Maybe not him, that name... who later tried to give the Clippers a lift.

    Who else in the East?

    Obviously, the Milwaukee Bucks. They won it two years ago, and they may be good enough with some healthy players now.

    The Philadelphia 76ers may be good enough. Embiid, Harden, and maybe some enervated talent around them good get hot. I have buddies that really like Maxey. It could happen...

    Anyone else? The Atlanta Hawks made some moves, but certainly the New York Knicks are not that bad. I do not think anyone else has a chance. The Chicago Bulls? No. The Cleveland Cavaliers have better chances than many, but I was laughed at in the face for suggesting that they could go far a year ago. But that was before that they acquired Donovan Mitchell from the Utah Jazz. 

    The Brooklyn Nets just got rid of Kevin Durant, so that changes much hopes there, plus them offloading Kyrie Irving. That experiment clearly failed.

    So, the East is as such:

    Boston, Milwaukee, then Philadelphia. Or Miami. No one else really stands a chance, unless New York surprises us all. The have-nots: Indiana, Orlando, Toronto, Washington... Detroit! Charlotte. Anyone else left behind among the losers?

I think that is the East.

How about the West?

Lebron, Kareem, Wilt, and those Before

    I watched with my son as Lebron passed up the needed points to achieve the all-time scoring record of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The latter passed up Wilt Chamberlain back in 1984, when I was 13 years-old. Back then my dad would watch the Lakers once they made it to the NBA Finals, probably not watching many regular season games. But I saw the Lakers a lot by the end of the season, as they were perennially prominent back in the 1980s. I grew tired of them by the late 80s, for sure.

    Kareem surpassed Wilt Chamberlain. Wilt the Stilt filled up all the statistical ledgers. Rebounds. Assists. Blocked shots, even though they did not bother to count block shots back then as they do now. Or maybe not steals, either. Wilt probably had a few quadruple-doubles. Blocks, steals, possibly adding up to a quintiple-doube. Yeah.

    Wilt became great because those before him played hard and competitively, and he grew in stature to dominate the sport as it grew in popularity and money generated. The first generations of players did not make much money, but it grew in marketing and status, contracts and the business end.

    Now we have the multi-millionaires of the modern day.

    Chamberlain made a lot for his day, I am sure, and Abdul-Jabbar made even more. Even though he stupidly, foolishly squandered most of it. As smart as he seems and purports to be, sometimes I wonder. HOW do you lose that much money?

    Lebron is loaded, beyond most anyone's dreams.

    I hope that these successful men and now women are helping many others with their generated wealth, their prestige and fame, their supposed wisdom and largesse.

    Has Kareem taught us enough about what not to do?

    Does Lebron teach us enough about life and dos and don'ts? 

    Perhaps that is not their ultimate role. Perhaps Charles Barkeley is right about athletes not being role models. But they are.

    We need to learn from all of them, all the successful, great players and personalities.

    And keep moving forward.

IU Men Are Off the Rutgers Schnide - Confidence Growing

 IU Men Are Off the Rutgers Schnide - Confidence Growing?

    The men did something that they have not done since 2019: beat non-basketball power Rutgers. We had a losing record to these guys overall, like 8-7, until tonight. The Scarlet Knights have been part of the bane and symbolic of Indiana's futility for a while now. These guys of Bloomington have been repeatedly flummoxed, outhustled, and beaten by the guys in Jersey for a while now. Six games in row. Some of those game meant a lot. And IU continually crumbled.

    But not tonight. Not on an early 6:30 pm Tuesday night affair at Assembly Hall (Simon Skodt), a week after being bashed a bit in College Park by the Terrapins, who fought back hard against Michigan State in East Lansing, but there lost to the Spartans, who have struggled. Rutgers was in second place in the Big Ten, with Indiana knotted up in a large tie with many other teams. 

    Indiana was leading in double figures multiple times in the first half, the crowd was rolling with it, but a Swedish player named Oskar Plomquist hit three straight threes, some other Knights played up and IU only led by three, 38-35. An underwhelming feeling came to us fans, it was palpable.

    IU got some good runs in the second half, but a combination of more turnovers and good play by Rutgers kept them close. Some players stepped up for the Hoosiers and scored, like Malik Reneau, a fab frosh who has been clutch of late, and Trey Galloway who tipped in a tremendous follow up late. All-everything Trayce Jackson-Davis recovered an air ball by Race Thompson, who had some errant shots throughout the game, and that helped the Hoosiers seal it.

    Jalen Hood-Schifino has some spectacular buckets and moves in the first half, as did Jackson-Davis, mostly above the rim, and the sharp-shooter Miller Kopp earned his stripes, from long range and inside, too.

    Indiana might be finding the right moxy to make this, if not a banner year, at least a pretty good to remember some good nights and games. 

    Winning. Which is what Indiana basketball is supposed to do.

    Like, we beat number one Purdue last weekend. Have I mentioned that?

    Hoosiers! Fun to watch.

 Poem about Countries in 2023

    India will have more souls this year than China

    by all estimates

    Especially considering the Chinese not counting all their dead from the Hubei-based

    Corona virus - ravaging many since 2019.

    Now almost four years ago.

    

    Millions apparently suffer from symptoms of the long COVID

    We have many reports in the U.S. and England, anyway

    Indonesia has some 277 million people

    Many, many, catching up with the American nation

    Pakistan has passed up Brazil as number five

    Muslims abound in nations mentioned, plus Bangladesh

    And Nigeria

    Problems in Palestine and Israel

    Killings in synagogues and West Bank towns like Jenin

    Religious and political animosities abound;

    I wanted to be a diplomat of peace as I took the national foreign service exam

    Just saying. I tried, maybe not hard enough.

    I have taken Arabic over the years, too.

    Just saying.

    I enjoyed my share of Shabbos services and Friday prayers while in the Arab Middle East, too

    I am Christian, but I admit as any sane person that we should all get along.

    Millions of refugees from Syria have found their sports in neighboring lands, like 

    Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey

    Iraq has its problems, including Iran

    We hear very little from Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, the other central Asian republics

    Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan

    We learn of the sadnesses of Afghanistan (tristezas exist in Spanish, I think, as a plural)

   

    Sri Lanka has not been in the news much lately, which is good, I think

    What of South America? Central America? The Caribbean?

    I hear about some Canadian things on the radio.

    I learn about Mexico through work.

    Europe, we are observing the winter of the discontent and violence of Ukraine,

    Much of the western nations going without Russian fuel

    Could Greece be okay? After all the years of corruption, scandal, and bankruptcy? Hopefully 

    Less dependency on energy costs than the frozen parts of the mountainous and northerly climes

    Africa: 55 nations to count. 

    Even more ethnic groups from within.

    I suppose Libya is better than normal... Or what we saw it go through... 

    Tunisia, too

    We can be racist, ethno-centric, or at minimum cavalier about these places

    "Stay crazy, Libya!" (a government analyst regarding the Area of Operations that she covered as a paid professional, when leaving that post with a post-script)

    Yes. We can be morally dubious ourselves, when viewing and analyzing these far off, far flung

    Almost forgotten. But no, we have people making their livings off of such places.

    I have.

    

    Many more places to go: Myanmar, where Orwell shot an elephant when it was Burma

    Cambodia, of which I wear a ring from my mother (Chere res plau trau, "take the right road", in Khmer, pronounced CA-MAI)

    Vietnam, still pumping out the coffee and making money, now that they have overcome the bloody Commies that we fought and spat over for more than a decade of Western and U.S. turmoil

    Still licking our wounds

    But now we have new enemies and battlegrounds anew, because of Al-Qaeda and other would-be world destroyers and despots, generations of our troops returned

    Russia and Ukraine? 

    The fighting continues throughout this winter

    2023 sees the conflict continue

    Countries disapprove, disenvest

    Some tacitly approve

    Buying up the fuels and commodities

    What of Chile? Forest fires

    Peru? Rampant protests

    Guatemala? Haven't heard much

    Cuba, D.R., the smaller islands

    St. Kitts? I heard a report...

    Trinidad and Tobago online for better relations, I saw something about it

    I like to read the Economist, and my Church magazine, the Liahona now,

        and other journalism

        and books

    All things related to all of them

    We will learn more going forward.

    

    And wax poetic too.

    South Africa and Mozambique and Seychelles and Mauritania-- I mean Mauritius, (not Maldives my friend from work)

    And anon