Dads are Dads, Mine and Yours

    Some of us do not have them, most of us do. Dads. Fathers. Papis and papahs.

    If we did not have one that we know on earth, who perhaps did not raise us, then we also have our Father in Heaven. We could talk and discuss much about the heavens, the divine, our immortal hopes past this mortal...

    But I am mostly thinking about earthly fathers. Us earthy guys. Some of us are dirtier than others. Some are much cleaner. I suppose that most of us are in between.

    Well, I wanted to write more. We can think of them, love them, resent them, (but not too much), and we can extrapolate all the memories and meanings of who they are.

    We are not perfect, nor do we expect that from them.

 Indiana. My Indiana. Dreams and Hopes

    Wow, what a season. My Hoosiers are on top. Number one in the nation. Not Alabama, not Georgia, not Texas, not Ohio State nor Michigan.

    The Hoosiers of Bloomington!

    What????

    No typo. Curt Cignetti has taken the college football world by storm. Fernando Mendoza has done a remarkable job, and finished what Anthony Thompson of my high school years could not do.

    The Heisman rests in my hometown. 

    And now, the real test of the college football playoff. We get the winner of the Crimson Tide or Sooners. Perhaps a rematch with the Buckeyes... We cannot say. Texas Tech is a contender.

    Most of my life the IU football team has been down. Not always, but mostly. I have chronicled much of it. But not now!

    We got some playoffs to play.

    We shall see.

    More later. College football fans.

    Get ready!

 Blog On-- We Are Fortunate to Be Here. No Promises of Mortal Permanence

    I have been a bit inside of own head lately. Less on the blogosphere. Perhaps that is better?

    Who decides. Who decides?

    We all do.

    I just heard my daughter play the song "We are Charlie Kirk". If felt heart felt.

    He died a few short months ago. Seems that it was a while at this point, almost into the winter season. The days can go fast and slow, as do the weeks. And now months.

    Where are we? Where are you?

    Is your family okay? Is your soul at peace?

    Are you in Ukraine, a war-torn country, or Sudan, or another place where there is violence? I hope not. But some are there. Some are the ones who bear the brunt of it now. But not always, we hope.

    I have a friend that I knew as a child, and we were friends for a while, who will go un-named, who must be hurting for a few extra reasons right now. She raved about Brown University, perhaps her brother was there. She had one older brother. Her parents were Jewish studies professors. She was part of a legacy of the holocaust, as so many Jewish sons and daughters are.

    The attack on the Jewish of Sydney, Australia, was a heinous, awful, blow to many.

    Victims of a radical view and hatred that is felt across the world.

    The father and son extremists to the Islamic State, as it is. They were from India, or at least the father, who was killed during the attack.

    Too much hatred, too much violence.

    And others are sick, and are dying. We must hold on to the hope that remains. Some are closer family, others are celebrities and well known artists. We all succumb to the human strain. It is what we are.

    And be grateful.

    And love and serve while we can.

    I will.

    

Japan and Its Empire Tempted Fate... 84 years ago, Sunday morning, today.

    Times have changed in one short life span. Long life span. My father is 88, and blessed, and remembers a ton of the past. Seeing Harry Truman elected on the local TV in his hometown of Massachusetts. 1948. Three years after the same man who succeeded Roosevelt dropped the H-Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

    In my shorter lifetime, as a formative teen in the 1980s, Japan seemed like a nation and economy that threatened U.S. supremacy in the world. We did not fear or feel intimidated so much by China in those years as we did by the productive and formidable Japan. The place that we forced to submit with the atomic weapons when they struck us so forcefully four plus years before, that fateful Sabbath morning. Then came Korea, and Vietnam.

    Later the Middle East became part of the mix of our opponents in world competitiveness and violence.

    Always somewhere must pose a threat. If not the grand Soviet Union, nor Communist China of the People, then a nation or a group must rise up against the United States and its allies. Sometimes it is within. We ourselves become our mortal enemies.

    We compete one with another in matters of finance, money, estate, property, trust. We legislate laws and attempt to enforce them to keep us safe and avoid being preyed upon. Internally, domestically, we take care of ourselves. We try.

    There are public and private threats, and we always look for the foreign angles of infringement upon us. Latin American drug runners, the Chinese pushing precursors that funnel through Mexico or possibly Ecuador, other countries.

    Japan is a big friend now, an ally, a buffer to China and other notorious threats from around the globe.

    We lost 200,000 men and some women against Japan in the early 1940s. We still recover their bodies this past year. 231 from the fiscal year of 2025, many from World War II.

    Because of the threats from abroad, the Japanses first, then the Germans, with their European cohorts.

    May we always stay vigilant and strong, may we continue to be friends of Japan, and help them help us.

    We need all the help we can get.

    Till next year.

 Indiana Beats Ohio State 13-10. I Must Comment, Right?

    I, of all people, should comment and celebrate, right?

    Am I rite?

    Of course.

    From 2006 to 2009 I blogged about sports, with Indiana basketball and football being a huge part of it. It is who I am.

    Now, Indiana and Cignetti sit in the top sport, the hot bird seat? Hot bird. No, no. Whatever the expression. Cat bird? Yes, that sounds more like it.

    OSU did not impress me too much all year, although unbeaten, showed some weaknesses at times. But all the teams show those frailties, including the bigger powers Alabama and Georgia, and recently Texas Tech, who crunched my Cougars a second time this season, earlier in the day in Arlington, Texas.

    IU has a probable Heisman candidate in quirky, innocent, ebullient, Fernando Mendoza. 

    Wow.

    We are near the pinnacle, but the College Football Playoff awaits.

    In my normal world, I would be floating and ecstatic. But, 2025 has not been the normal world for me. Health, family, economics, jobs, has made it more sobering and I derive some ironic or somewhat less pleasure from the sporting news.

    I am older, and more tried, and I get it more when people say that they could care less.

    But, there is still the care-free boy and fan in me, too.

    May I always be.

    Go, Hoosiers! A possible national championship in football?

    While IU is thumped by Louisville. In the round ball sport.

    We cannot have everything, Hoosiers.

    Happiness, sadness, victory and defeat.

    Well, okay, yes.

We Think about Money Too Much

 We Think about Money Too Much

    I know I do. Or, maybe not enough.

 Another IU B-ball Coach makes me Question His Savvy-- Little Stuff Matters

    His name is DeVries. Rhymes with peeves, or Reeves. I have liked his coaching and decisions so far this season, his first in Bloomington, but tonight there were some lapses in judgment. I hope he improves, for the Hoosiers' sake. Us fans. The legacy of futility since Bobby Knight left decades ago. A huge portion of my life ago. It has been too long since we had superior players, coaches, teams.

    

    IU stayed ahead of Minnesota on the road in the first half, but we lost it in the last 7 seconds. Which deflated the team the rest of the way. Walk off the court with better, smarter shots. When the Gophers hit a game tying three to tie up the game at 33, there was over six seconds left on the clock, and three IU players collided with each other and knocked each other  down to the floor. 

    

    Coach! Call a time out? No. Players are banged up, literally lying on the floor in pain, maybe concussed. There are six seconds left, you have 3 or 4 time outs to use, (UTILIZE), and you do not call one, your players scramble to get off a terrible possession and shot.

    I am not perfect as a person, I make terrible decisions, probably on a daily basis, but I am not getting paid millions to coach a big time college program. To win.

    What should have happened?

    Obvious. Call the time out! 

    I hate this trend of not taking advantage of the end of first half last possession. Opportunities squandered.

    Mike Davis. Kelvin Sampson. Tome Crean. Arhcie Miller. Mike Woodson.

    Et tu, Bruto?

    Please Darian DeVries. 

    Make better decisions to help your team win. What would Bobby do?

    And the lost challenge with 18:32 left in the second half? By the way, the ball was lost of off Coner Enright, who bugs me by not directing the ball in the direction of the basket. The goal is the goal, POINT GUARD.

    Oy ve.

    The players made some poor plays and bad choices, not their night that much on the road.

    But coach, you need to give your players a better fighting chance to succeed.

    Please. Be that guy, that winner.

    Each possession matters a lot.

    Go IU. Fight, fight, fight!

    And be smarter.