Every Book, Every Writer

    Sunday mornings is when I give myself more time to write. That involves thinking, and putting those thoughts into "action" as it were.

    How many books have we read? How many authors have influenced our brains and thoughts?

    How much of our collective wisdom and foolishness is re-distributed through the pages and web pages of the years?

    Some of us must publish. More.

Indiana and BYU End Their Football Seasons with Close Losses

    I watched games. Indiana had control most of the game, and lost to archrival Purdue in the fourth quarter. That was sad. But both teams finished with no bowls, both teams had tough luck seasons, 2023.

    BYU was up 24-6 at the half in Stillwater. Then they lost in Double Overtime. A losing season, first time since that more or less excruciating 2017 Kilani Sitake team.

    There were some good for both teams this year.

    I could go on...

    Favorite players. It was Cam Camper for IU, who got hurt and was done most of the last part of the year. For BYU? Maybe Eddie Heckard, who got many penalties yesterday, but also got a pick six to put the Y up in the first half.

    If the offense could have only moved the ball a little bit in the second half, we could have won and been going to a bowl game. 

    Indiana could have won in a few small ways, too.

    Ahh, I thought at least the Cougars were going to do it. I got out my two mags, excitedly. But now the Athlon magazine is right, no bowl for BYU.

    And no "I" on the bucket for IU. Another P on the Old Oaken Bucket.

    Good and bad this fall, but quite a few chinks in the armor.

 Being Thankful; Remembering Past Holidays of Thanks

    My dad has made it to his later mid-eighties, born in the Depression Era; he remarks that it is incredible that he has lived as long as he has. I am still clinging to my early fifties, and I find it remarkable that I can recall almost fifty thanksgiving holidays. We are blessed and grateful to make it this far.

    One of my earliest Thanksgiving memories was in Hanover, Massachusetts, the town not far from Cape Cod where my mother was raised. It was with her mother and father, both born in 1896. My mom's only brother Bill was there, with his lovely wife Ann. We were not too far from the first traditional Thanksgiving feast in Plymouth, Mass, on Boston Harbor, way back in 1620. Although I was reminded by my daughter in Florida today that there was a celebration feast convened with the natives by the first Europeans of Spanish persuasion back in the 1500s some two generations before the English Pilgrims of that historic colony.

    Most of my Thanksgivings as child took place in the house I grew up in Bloomington, Indiana. We would have multiple families over, usually from our church. We would have little pull-out kiddie tables for us youngsters. I recall one day in November in particular with quite a bit of snow on the ground. That might have been the mighty wintry Blizzard of '77-78 year. Luckily Star Wars had been out, and my little collection of figures kept me company over those long, cold and snowy months.

    My first Turkey Day away from home and family, if I am not mistaken, was as a full-time missionary in the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah. We read a lot of scriptures that day. I had been there for three weeks at that point. The following November I was in Santa Juana, Chile, enjoying home-made fries and bread from our doting mamita Eduvigis de Seguel. Perhaps we had no specific observance of the American holiday, an Abraham Lincoln construct during the U.S. Civil War, but we were eating well as the Chilean summer was getting warmer and warmer.

    The next Thanksgiving was at my dad's new house on the edge of Bloomington. My step-mother and her children and grandchildren came up from Bedford, a half hour south. I think that is where I could tell at least one tale of goodness from Chile.

    The next Novembers found me in Utah. I would eat, typically, with my sister's in-laws, a nice family that had lived in Bloomington for ten years. 

    1997 found me back in the Hoosier state, as did 1998. But in 1999 I had made it to the Golden State of California. Where was I for that Thanksgiving of 1999? Perhaps with the Frost family who lived close by? Hmm... not with David Zavala.

    No! I went up to Redwood City in the Bay Area to be with my sister and her growing family! Of course! It took me some reminiscing to recall how that went... It was with my childhood friend and my sister, his wife of 8 years, and their three little girls.

    By the fall of 2000 I was married and spending Thanksgivings with my wife and her extended family. Many holidays were spent driving to Glendora and watching games and playing in the backyard with my wife's aunts, uncles, and cousins.

    2001, while living in Los Angeles, might have been the same, as 2002 through 2004.

    2005 was a return to Chile, with our small family in Angol, buying cranberries in the Southern Hemisphere and sharing our gastronomic wares with some local families like Paula and her small daughter.

    2006 was in Ashburn, Virginia, but maybe we went to Indiana for the feasts there. Or, if not, we communed with local Saints in Ashburn, the Belmont Ridge Ward.

    2007? Monterrey, California, as 2008. We might have had visitors from my wife's family in the south come up to visit, or we ate and shared with some of the locals of that bay area.

    2009 was in Sterling, Virginia, but then, being close enough to grandparents in Indiana, perhaps we spent it there? Same for 2010 and 2011.

    2012 found me overseas in Afghanistan. Not sure if the wife and kids went to Indiana or stayed in Virginia. Well, they may have taken a young lady camping near Virginia Beach. A military base and cabins, perhaps. Or was that another time? Not the holidays, likely. 

    2013 through 2020 were variable. We took some vacations, like to the Navy accommodations in Virginia Beach. Maybe a couple trips to Indiana, before my mom passed in 2014.

    2021 I was in Kuwait at the Army base; that deserves its own separate story for another day.

    2022 was last year-- I recall what it was with my family, without our college daughter in Idaho, but with our senior college girl in Virginia.

    And now this one.

    Good enough, with visitors, happy enough.

    Blog enough.

 Surprise Attacks, Security and Prosperity

    October 7, 2023 was a terrible day. Two thousand Palestinian and Hamas militants infiltrated Israel proper and meted out barbarity and wicked acts. There is no justifying such cruel and inhumane behavior and violent attacks on anyone. I do not care how much we hate our enemies; it was so wrong.

    That said, Israel has been giving the Palestinian masses reasons since its inception in 1948 to hate the Israeli movement and its ever growing presence in Arab-Palestinian lands. Again, the retaliation is not warranted by terrible violence and death, but Israel should shoulder responsibility for creating a society of Arab hatred and belligerence.

    One case in point are the 750,000 or so Israeli "settlers" in the West Bank, the land designated to Palestinian and Arabs that increasingly is taking in more and more non-Arab and Jewish citizens, which is a constant violation of original agreements and an affront to millions of Palestinians (particularly poor Gazans), that have little room or methods for land in order to grow or live.

    Land, land, land. Palestinians have to have land in order to have a chance at peace. They were promised this since 1948, but it is decreasing year after year. 

    The wall surrounding the West Bank to ensure better security for the Israelis, preventing would-be violent attacks in the form of suicide bombers and other incursions into Israel proper, also encroaches on Arab lands. The Palestinians continually see their piece of the pie spliced off and taken. I am not sure how else to interpret what the government of Israel and its citizens are doing.

    Does Israel think that this will lead to ultimate security and peace? Ridiculous.

    Taking land. (Again, LAND, LAND, LAND) from Palestine is a losing proposition.

    It does not justify awful acts of violence or death, but it most people's opinion it does require action.

    Negotiations, settlements in the vain of diplomacy and statecraft that is not physical settlement and occupation. 

    How else should Arabs view the annexation of their land?

    In the late 1990s Gaza had an airport destroyed and their boat and fishing rights/privileges hampered, hindered, and/or taken.

    How do over two million people in a cramped 141 square mile "strip" propose to have enough production and prosperity without air or sea access, two things that are naturally a part of their geography?

    Israel can set up checkpoints and customs ports as they do everywhere else, but Israel took the more draconian step of denying all of it, unilaterally.

    Not good, Israel.

    Not good Arabs and Hamas, for attacking, torturing, (raping, burning), and killing Israelis who are innocent, but I hope we all see some of the reasons for anger in this region.

    Disparity of water rights, working, land, air, sea. Money and production have to be there for any peace to occur. 

    Until then, we should continue to expect the worst. Not another October 7th, we should pray and hope, but millions of Arabs who will not abide by Israeli forced living rights and what amounts to me as robbery of land and money.

    Land, land, land. Or territory, if you will. 

    I have harped on this before, but the U.S. can and should intervene. And we are too stupid, beholden to special interests, and cowardly to do more. 

    Shame on the Americans. Shame on us. This is not rocket science. But until we figure out how to help both sides, we will continue to see the nasty rockets across the Holy Land.

The Star Wars Saga Contains Many Allegories

Other than being a clever copy from Frank Herbert's Dune, Star Wars has many cross-over corollaries into the real universe, or galaxy that we share. What are they? Here is a few.

    1) Some have said that all the Star Wars story, according to George Lucas no less, is a tale about a father and his son. 

    Okay. That works.

    2) Good versus evil. The dark side versus the light side. That is the greater theme.

    3) Empires that oppress, large autocracies versus the minority freedom fighters.

    4) Large, awful regimes that commit genocides and run prison camps. Nationalist Germany, Soviet Russia, Maoist China, ad nauseum.

    5) Making it by in a chaotic yet systemic harsh world.

    Discuss.

Quest to Find that Fish, that Whale, that Quest, that Goal

    I said quest twice in that title, Jonny Quest. 

    Back in the days it was the Odyssey. Ulyssess or Odysseus went fighting monsters and looking for home. They went from island to island, stream to stream. All of us do this in our own ways. 

    Ahab went after the white whale. The old man went after his fish. David, the fictional son of Thomas Hudson, gets his flat bill swordfish in "Islands in the Stream".

    For some coaches it is the championship. For players, it is the same. Us fans hang around, scheming and dreaming.

    Who else? The political hero. The actor. The star. The local servant. The bread-winner, the mom. The soldier, the hero. The singer, the dancer, the artist, the poet. 

    We all go looking and searching.

    We all go on quests for the dreams.

    Quest on.

 Indiana Red in a Vast Sea of Killer Blues

    Ahh. Two games in the 2023 season, and my "hopefully" good enough Hoosiers, men's basketball team of my hometown, clad in white with red crimson trim, do not look as good as I and others had hoped. My Athlon magazine that I in good hopes purchased this fall picks IU to be a one and done NCAA Tourney team, meaning good enough to be in the final 68 in March. But, with struggles to win at home against lightly regarded Florida Gulf Coast and the once and future then 0-2 Army Knights. Noted that the West Pointers had three native Hoosiers that played their tails off. Good on them; love me some cadets of the U.S. military. But my civilian boys from all points of the map should blow them out, wipe the floor with them.

    Back to my civilian, and rather pedestrian-looking Hoosier boys: they need to shoot more and more often. Push the ball and be more aggressive. When they pass 8 times and throw away the ball, and get a dozen less shots than the lesser opponent, it does not bode well.

    Then there are the true-blue killers in the college world of division 1 men's hoops, who have dominated the college NCAA scene since I was a kid in high school and I (we) had hopes that our red-blooded Hoosiers could win it all every 5 or 6 years. Where to start? Duke, those Blue Devils. Knight's protégé Mike Kzezevsky. I mean Krzyz -ewski. Easy to spell, harder to pronounce? No, Coach K, the former Army point guard under Knight went on to win in 1991 and 1992. Then who else? UCLA with some blue won it in '95, then came the vaunted Kentucky Wildcats. There were kids in southern Indiana, in Bloomington, rooting for the Cats of Lexington! Oy, vey!

    Egads. It got bad. Then the blue-clad Huskies of Connecticut started winning the Championship regularly. Then the Tar Heels, who did it right after the Duke run, with an Indiana big man, no less. And UNC continued to do it with big dudes from the Hoosier starte-- from Bloomington, no less! With Sean May, the son of Knight's IU All-American Scott, leader of the last undefeated team in men's history. A record older than most people alive on the earth...

    And of course, Kansas has one its titles, from '88 to 2008, to more recently. And they are killers again this year.

    All these killer blue teams.

    Even the best Big Ten team in recent years, is the Maize and Blue Wolverines.

    Can the red and white, the Cream and Crimson boys somehow get it together?

    I dream banners of red; but that it from last century. Or, the Terrapins from earlier this one... Who beat my runners-up Indiana men.

    And who... No, I am lost in reveries. I can no longer bring myself to hope much more. The Cavaliers of Virginia has blue, and they won the ring with a former Indiana Mr. Basketball, of course.

    But there is Purdue.

    

The local rivals give me more blues.

No One Should Kill Others for Aggrievances, But there Are Reasons to be Angry

No One Should Kill Others for Aggrievances, But there Are Reasons to be Angry, Upset

One casualty was Gaza International Airport, a symbol of thwarted Palestinian hopes for economic independence and the Palestinians' only direct link to the outside world that was not controlled by Israel or Egypt. Opened in 1998, Israel deemed it a security threat and destroyed its radar antenna and runway a few months after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

Destroyed buildings of Gaza airport are seen in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa Acquire Licensing Rights

Another casualty was Gaza's fishing industry, a source of income for tens of thousands. Gaza's fishing zone was reduced by Israel, a restriction it said was necessary to stop boats smuggling weapons.

The above yellow highlighted sections I acquired from this Reuters article:

A brief history of Gaza's 75 years of woe | Reuters

We have to let people have the freedom of commerce.

Destroying airports and limiting fishing and sea access does not work. Sure, there are threats, but there needs to be better safeguard to check the boats and planes, coming and going.

People of the Book Should Get Along: But We Do Not

    We make up the majority of the planet's 8 billion souls, us people of the Book, as the Quran refers to us. Jewish, Christian, Muslim. If the two plus billion Christians and the going on two billion Muslims and the rest of the Jewish community could get along, we would have an amazing place to live in.

    But we do not. We do not get along, enough. Here in the United States, by and large we do pretty well. I would wager that in the whole Western Hemisphere we are doing all right when it comes to peace and cooperation. The violence is not between the religious denominations; there is more political and criminal violence, which is more secularized, not including rivalries and disparities among the religious affiliations. Most of the competition in the Western Hemisphere in regards to faith traditions is among the Christian sects and denominations.

    Europe has its problems of religious strife in the 21st century, but the Middle East shared by Africa and Southwest Asia have the worst issues. Right now: Israel/Palestine.

    Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed: none of them wanted us to hurt each other. Some can interpret the Old Testament and the Quran that advocate violence and combative upheaval achieve their goals.

    Most of us are not militant, however. We do not fight and kill for God, as Christians, Jews, Muslims.

    Some people blame organized religions for the current conflict, and most of the worst wars and conflicts in human history. I think that people exploit religious beliefs to achieve some pretty awful aims. But in my opinion it is not the religious belief itself that leads to the violence.

    Some have claims about the Muslim jihadis who lash out because of their beliefs and proclamations. It does seem that religious ideologies lead many of them to violence and war, true.

    But again, the Peoples of the Book, Jewish and Christians, and other brother and sister Muslims do not ascribe to these policies and agendas.

    We just do not know how to follow our respective faiths very well.

    So, am I blaming the religious followers more than those who exploit and neglect their respective faiths? No: I am blaming a lot of people who are hypocritical and abusive of the religious traditions that they fall under, be they Christian, Muslim, or Jewish.

    People of the Book. 

    We are not so good at living our ideals and sharing our lands and possessions in peace.

Arabs and Their Problems; Looking Out Living in Peace

    I wanted to be involved years ago, trying through official U.S. channels of testing, interviews, and colleague candidate competition to be among the State Department's diplomats. My plan was to get in on the bottom rung, work myself up to be a peacemaker for my country, my planet. Intercede in the violent conflicts and wage some calm between the hostile parties. It did not work out like that. I tried; perhaps not hard enough. What amounts to enough, was not then. Maybe I will have another shot someday, to be in such a position? Less likely. Perhaps I will be a permanent sideline witness to the horrors and travails of the millions who suffer and die across the globe.

    If I had perhaps succeeded in the early 2000s, and had I become some interlocutor among the nations, somehow representing our great land and its ideals, attempting to enforce peace in conflicts like those of the Israelis and the Palestinians, maybe I would only be another person to be ignored or ridiculed to think that Israeli Jewish citizens and Palestinian Arabs could get along without all the venom and death.

    Some think that the Holy Bible prophecies amount to so much agony and catastrophe, that there is no point in stopping the factions, that it is all a fait accompli.

    I disagree. I believe that we who live now could make a difference in peace negotiations in Israel and Palestine, and a lot of other places of violence and destruction. It does not have to be this bad. But others throw their hands up and say there is no hope. That we cannot avoid so much appalling blow by blow. Too many people dying and suffering, on all sides, there is nothing that we or others can do to stop it. 

    I demure. I dissent. I do not concur, that there is no hope. There are opportunities for us to help. There are reasons that we could craft and enforce to encourage hope and the will for peace, without the hate and malice. Some say we have no influence. That is wrong. We have a huge hand in what happens between the differing parties.

    But sadly, most of us Americans do not have the vision nor fortitude to make it happen. We lack for a lot.

    And, I am a part of the problem of no solution. Because I have not put myself in the position to be an effective tool of dialog, or maker of reconciliatory negotiations.

    I have not learned Arabic well enough. I have not advanced in my professional positions enough. I have not read enough, nor published enough, nor analyzed and pushed my thoughts enough.

    We-- I am a cypher in the sense of helping the situation. Wishful notions, all left whistling and sobbing in the night air. 

    Notions lying motionless with the thousands of dead and soon to die. The ever-marching cycle of wanton despair.

    This Holy Land which cannot be holy nor sacred.

 Indiana Basketball 2023

    I watched the first real game of the season last night. I was ... not too impressed. 

    Florida Gulf Coast looks better than what the Athlon Sports magazine picked them. Fifth in their conference? I think they will finish better than that. They have multiple three-point shooters,and they out-rebounded a pretty tall IU squad. A 7-foot Ware, a 6'9" Reneaux, a 6'8" Mbako, Banks a sophomore at 6'8", Walker (friend of a friend!) at 6'8".

    The guards Galloway and Johnson did pretty good, but we loved to see the fire and performance of pesky Gabe Cupps. Dude, he might be the difference. 

    But the bigs have to play better, rebound and defend the perimeter better,

    We have to move the ball faster, put up more shots. Maybe Peyton Sparks (who was hurt, not playing) would be a difference maker? He is 6'10".

    I hope it comes. The young big men have to find their places. And dominate.

    Otherwise... we will lose too much, I fear. I need to see better.

    Go Hoosiers.

Indiana Football: Hoosiers Give Me Hope in November (2023)

    Well, after playing tough against Penn State the last weekend of October, giving IU its sixth loss, the Hoosiers showed up in Bloomington and upset the Wisconsin Badgers, 20-14. So that is Indiana's third win, allowing them to think that they can maybe--MAYBE-- get some religion and win out the season. We have some teams that are beatable. They are:

    Illinois, that just beat Minnesota, which is only okay this year.

    Michigan State, that is not that great. IU upset them last year.

    And then Purdue, who has crushed our hopes many times before. But they are capable of losing big. 

    Basically, the worst three teams in the current 14 member Big Ten. Next year it will be 18 with the West Coast corner teams.

    Can Indiana do it? It would be remarkable! I will keep you posted. The good news: the offense and the defense (plus the special teams) are good for IU. The bad news: my favorite Hoosier receiver, Cam Camper, is out for the season with a leg injury. I met his family members at the Maryland game, where the Terrapins scored early and often, and IU's season seemed pretty lost to the dung heap.

    But now: we can hope.

    Go, IU! The week after the battler Robert Montgomery Knight died at age 83, the Indiana gridiron boys under Coach Tom Allen may have a prayer or two (or three!) left.

    Meanwhile, my other alma mater fell to 5-4, and has to win only 1 of 3 to be bowl eligible. But, they are not playing well. Hmmm...

    Which is a better place to be in? Cougars host the Cyclones of Iowa State this Saturday night. I will let you know. I hope. We cannot always assure all promises. Crazier things have happened.

 Baseball and Stuff, and a Guy Named Socks

    As a disclaimer, I suppose I should say that I am fortunate that in a time of a war between Russia and Ukraine, and Israel and Hamas, and a few others around the globe, and coming home from West Virginia upon a resounding defeat of my alma mater. Just a sport called college football.

    

    Changing gears for even slower pursuits:

    Baseball at the major league level has been around well over one hundred years. 

    RBIs are harder to accrue in the modern-day era than home runs. 

    This is the modern-day evolution of the game. In 2023.

    To be in the top 1,000 players of the all-time home runs or Runs-Batted-In category, you are no slouch, I say. The minimum to be in this category in RBIs is 556, that is shared by five players, to include one active player who is 31 years-old. Here they are.

    995.

Frank Bolling (12)  556 6190 R

 Chick Gandil (9)  556 4724 R 

Randal Grichuk (10, 31)  556 4261 R 

Andy Seminick (15)  556 4575 R 

Socks Seybold (9)  556 4121 R

    There you see Mr. Socks, born back in 1870, a mere five years after our great Abraham Lincoln died. He played his years from 1899 to 1908, his first year in Cincinnati and the last eight in Philadelphia, for the Athletics. Born in Washingtonville, Ohio, he is still counted among the greatest.

    Likely not for long. But it amazing he is here this much later.

    Top thousand, all time. I bet he had some good teammates.

    I think some people are worth remembering; perhaps he is one of them.

He played from age 28 to age 36. Did he have to play time in the minors? What was the baseball scene back in the 1890s?

    Maybe I should read some books or articles. The decade my grandparents were born.

Crazy, Passionate, Bobby Knight Brings Another Level of Frenzy to a Street Game

    Rest in peace Coach Knight. Yes, as many have said since yesterday when you passed away at age 83, you were one of a kind. Your passion and at times unorthodox practices and behaviors brought an increased amount of attention and hyperbole to the sport that had become valued across the United States and increasingly the expanding world, but it became bigger and better with you as a part of it.

    I grew up with his presence and players roaming the campus and my hometown. His first All-American center came into my parent's copy and type shop when I was a kindergartner. I missed him while I was in the bathroom, but the legend of this Indiana giant scraping the ceiling reverberated in my core. Later players would come and go, some moving on to the NBA where we would watch and hope that they could further win and succeed.

    We, in Indiana, with the rival Purdue up the road and all the other cross-country rivals, craved the whole process. Recruiting, first games, pre-season classics, conference rivalries, tournaments, articles, TV and radio shows, the madness and hysteria. The anticipation of the big game.

    Knight was part of the big show that brought us all together. Love or hate him, he made the game a bigger deal. And he, or the team, or the players, or the process hooked some of us for life.

    Did he learn invaluable lessons from his Hall of Fame coach at Ohio State? Undoubtably. Did he learn a few more things enrolled at Army and coaching there, mixing with commanders and historical icons? Without a doubt. Did he find the right people to feed and be consumed by his dedication and at times crazed yet calculated efforts and maneuvers? Yep.

    I write about a lot of things related to basketball and Knight; there will be more to come.

    See you in the heavens, coach.

    Kent Harvey, Neil Reid, and the rest of us. On both sides of the veil.