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Monday, October 6th, 2003
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2:14 pm
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| Friday, October 3rd, 2003
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2:22 pm
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The Friday Five
1. What vehicle do you drive?
A white 1993 Jeep Cherokee (Country).
2. How long have you had it?
I bought it in 1994 from my former insurance agent in Alabama. He buys a new vehicle more frequently than I buy new cross trainers.
3. What is the coolest feature on your vehicle?
I could be alone in my thinking, but I consider the body style timeless. The box shape was around for so long that it looks like it could be a 1977 model or a 1995 model.
4. What is the most annoying thing about your vehicle?
At 10 years old, it's prone to having problems. I put a new engine in it last December, which has made a huge difference, but it still has ailments on occasion. I'll be taking it to my trusty mechanic in Alabama on Sunday, to see whether it needs a new air conditioner.
5. If money were no object, what vehicle would you be driving right now?
It's tough to say, since I'm not much of a car guy. I guess I'd buy a Silverado, Tacoma or Frontier.
The new site
If I can find enough time to scan a few photos tonight and Sunday, I'll have the new Web log ready for Monday.
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| Thursday, October 2nd, 2003
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4:39 pm
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Packing up boxes, disconnecting services
I haven't written much lately -- well, much of any substance -- because I'm in the process of changing venues. I hope, by Monday, to redirect everyone to what will essentially be The Sporting Live Version 2.0.
A lot of it will depend on how quickly I can get images loaded -- yes, images! -- from this weekend's camping trip to Dismals Canyon in Alabama. A senior co-worker of mine is loaning me one of the department's digital cameras, for me to get an idea of what type I want to buy, so plan on seeing much more of this journey than you could ever possible have interest in.
I spent the final 15 minutes of last night's episode of Ed envying the writing. It's such a well-written show. I'm a sucker for series about smalltowns, whether it's Northern Exposure, Gilmore Girls, The Brotherhood of Poland, New Hampshire or the aforementioned one on NBC.
Tonight I'm going with my friends Don and Bruce to bowl and shoot pool at U.S. Play in Kennesaw. Bruce and I made a deal a couple of weeks ago to try to set aside such a night ever week, and this will be our first test of the experiment.
Before leaving on the trip early Saturday morning, I'll be meeting my friend Stan for dinner on Friday night. He and I have been talking online and by phone for more than nine months, but this will be the first time for us to meet, since it's his first trip home to South Carolina since he moved to Alaska in 2002. He'll have a straight buddy of his with him who doesn't know about his orientation, so I take it as a compliment that he feels he knows me well enough to know I'm not going to be an idiot when we meet.
My friend Steve will be driving on Saturday because Jake (my 10-year-old Jeep Cherokee) isn't feeling too well. I'm hoping it's "only" the air conditioner. He has 240,000 miles on him, but he got a new engine in December 2002. I thought about buying a Nissan Frontier to share the driveway with him, but I think I'll save my money a little longer.
Sorry for all the random thoughts. I'm so distracted by the new site and the next couple of weekends that I'm finding it difficult to focus on a full-length piece.
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| Tuesday, September 30th, 2003
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1:10 pm
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**Thrashers' Dan Snyder in critical condition**
At the time of this posting, Atlanta Thrashers center Dan Snyder is still in surgery for brain injuries suffered in last night's car wreck with superstar wing Dany Heatley. For details on the terrible accident, which came after the meet-and-greet with season ticket holders, go here. You're such a fighter, Dan -- don't give up now.
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| Monday, September 29th, 2003
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3:20 pm
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The great outdoors
My friend Steve and I are going to Dismals Canyon next Saturday to camp out for the night. Back in the summer, I vowed I wouldn't spend every single weekend engrossed in nothing but football. I'm definitely making good on that promise, as I'm sacrificing the Auburn-Tennessee game to take this trip. I don't think I really even need to mention that I'll be taking a battery-powered radio.
The trip to New England is a week from this Thursday. Can't wait!
Hurricane Juan hits Canada (yep, Canada)
It's one thing to get a call at 11:30 at night. It's another for it to be from your ex, explaining he's in the middle of a hurricane. I figured he was exaggerating but then, this morning, saw the report on The Today Show and also heard it on NPR. Check out this photo of a place my friend Bruce and I bought poutine from on the boardwalk three months ago. Wow.
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9:52 am
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Looking ahead
Here's a pretty good column about the Astros' owner and how he makes decisions for the club. I dread seeing who we'll ship off.
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| Sunday, September 28th, 2003
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2:30 pm
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Six of the last eight
When you lose six of your last eight games, you don't deserve to be in the postseason. That's why the Cubs will be enjoying the spot the Astros thought they had perhaps secured about 10 days ago. The legacy of failing in the clutch continues.
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| Friday, September 26th, 2003
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10:23 am
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An unusual best-of-three
They're not playing each other, but the Astros and Cubs are suddenly in a situation where the one who wins the most games in the final three will continue play in the postseason. Last night, the Cincinnati Reds gave their old rivals a boost with a 9-7 victory over Chicago as Houston took care of the Brewers, 6-1.
To give you an idea of how preoccupied I am by this race, I had a dream last night that I turned on the TV this afternoon to find the Cubs and Pirates still playing today's game -- in the 17th inning. I was excited because I knew the Cubs would be exhausted -- but even more pumped when the Pirates hit a solo home run in the bottom of the 17th to win the game.
Do I relish the prospect of playing the Braves? No. They've always had our number. But facing them means we've won the division, and I'll take that scenario in a heartbeat.
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| Wednesday, September 24th, 2003
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4:18 pm
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Glutton for punishment
The Astros came from behind in the 7th inning to beat the Giants 2-1 this afternoon, and I've let hope rise in my heart again. I must be insane.
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9:43 am
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Fat Lady waiting in the wings
That sound you hear is either me dry-heaving or my Astros collectively choking. As I told my parents after the game last night: Just when you think Houston can't come up with another method for torturing its fans, they get creative and present you with something new. Maybe we're lying down against the Giants as payback to the Braves for all our postseason troubles with them. Uh-huh, sure.
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| Tuesday, September 23rd, 2003
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3:27 pm
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Astros drop third in a row
My brother insists on remaining optimistic -- he's convinced we're somehow going to find a way to make the postseason -- but I'll admit that I don't feel good about it. The Astros are now in a tie with the Cubs, which means whoever wins the greater number of times in the next five games gets the division title.
The bad news for Houston fans: We face the Giants and the Brewers, whereas the Cubs face the Reds and Pirates.
Thrashers' fifth year draws near
I'm not surprised that our head coach, Bob Hartley, is a hard ass when it comes to discipline. This should be an exciting year.
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| Monday, September 22nd, 2003
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9:29 am
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Losing hope
The schedule works against the Astros and for the Cubs this week, and, after the two blown games this weekend, I don't know whether I believe we can hang on to the lead in the NL Central. As expected, I'm not alone.
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| Friday, September 19th, 2003
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4:04 pm
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Happy Birthday, Granny and GD
"You'd better call your parents," the middle-aged American woman instructed me, obviously herself a mom, evident by, if nothing else, tone of voice.
She was right, of course. I was across the street from the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, halfway through a three-week trip to Ireland, France and Italy and trying to determine why the police had ordered me to depart the Metro one stop before the historic site and why a crowd and photographers had gathered. Cool, maybe some American studio is shooting a few scenes there, I thought. So when I overheard this lady speaking English, I asked what had happened.
A bomb had detonated, she said, only 30 minutes earlier in a garbage can.
Immediately resounding in my head were my reassurances to my grandmother, who my family and I didn't tell about the trip until the day before I departed. I promise you we would all live in her house and never venture off her property, if she had her way. She gets nervous when any of us travels to the grocery store, let alone overseas to countries where the locals speak a different language -- and where a bomb had killed several people in the Notre Dame cathedral only a month or so earlier.
"Granny," I had sighed -- the authority on the psychology of terrorism that all 25-year-olds are -- "They don't set these things off one right after the other. It will probably be at least another year before the Algerians decide they should attack again."
So I scrambled to find a pay phone.
No one was at my parents' house. No one was at Uncle Billy and Aunt Rhonda's house. No one was at Uncle Charles and Aunt Debi's house. And I didn't know my dad's number or my brother's number at work.
Please, Granddaddy, I thought, for once in your life, be the one to answer the phone.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Granny, it's Steve. First off, I'm OK," I said.
"Ohhh, God, Steve, what's happened?" she pleaded in what verged on a wail.
As I blurted out, "A-bomb-went-off-but-I'm-OK," some sort of mournful sound escaped from her again, accompanied by another exclamation to our Maker and, to my grandfather, "Russell, a bomb has gone off!"
That's when I heard my grandfather, apparently sitting nearby, murmur demandingly, "Gimme the phone!"
"Hey, Steve, how you doin'?" he said, as if he didn't know there was possibly reason for alarm.
"I'm good, GD. A bomb just went off in Paris about 45 minutes ago, and I wasn't certain if y'all had gotten wind of it yet on CNN. I couldn't find Mom or Dad, and I wanted to call as quickly as I could to let you know I'm totally fine," I explained.
"No, we haven't seen it yet, but I'll keep an eye on Headline News and see when they report it," he said without the slightest hint of fear, as if I were calling him from an Auburn ballgame at halftime.
"The bomb went off at the Arc," I said, "and I only knew about it so quickly because, believe it or not, I happened to be on my way to see the Arc and was rerouted to another subway stop by the police."
"Well! Hard to believe!" he said, sounding amazed at the close call but not frightened by it.
"I'd better quit running up my calling card bill, Granddaddy," I said.
"I'll let your mom and dad know what happened," he said.
That was eight years ago last month.
This Sunday, I'm driving home to visit with Granny and Granddaddy, as the family celebrates their 82nd and 85th birthdays, respectively.
Sometime last month when I was in Publix, pushing a shopping cart to the fresh fruits and vegetables section, I did a double-take when I saw that a Brach's Pick-a-Mix station had been installed.
In one of those strange moments of vivid memory I seem to encounter more frequently the older I become, I was suddenly alongside Granny's shopping cart, my brother on the other, in the regional grocery chain just up the road from their old house. I saw the two of us stretching to each of the bins, loading one of those pink-and-purple-striped bags with as much candy as Granny would allow. The soft, white candies with gelatin-like fruit-flavored pieces were her favorites. My brother's were the orange slices. Mine were the butter-rum-flavored, Tootsie-Roll-shaped logs of caramel.
That would've been the mid to late 1970s.
Back in the Atlanta Publix, between the fresh flowers Southerners don't buy and the stacks of bananas, I thought I was going to break down like a 4-year-old, and I have a pretty good idea why. The time has come when the gradual transition from old age to elderly has begun for my grandparents, and I hate it. They're not supposed to finally start looking their age and finally start being slightly less mobile.
I want to forever eat my grandmother's green beans, yeast rolls, cornmeal-breaded fried okra, pecan pies and bread-and-butter pickles, the last of which friends of mine and former co-workers have begged me to mass-market, convinced we could all gain our fortune from them.
I want to always be able to sit outside under the pecan trees with my grandfather and talk about Auburn athletics, conservative politics and stories from his days as a foreman for construction sites, as the tenor in a Southern Gospel group that performed from Texas to Colorado and as a young man growing up in rural Alabama.
Suddenly, living under their roof and never leaving the property doesn't sound like such a bad idea.
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| Tuesday, September 16th, 2003
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10:44 am
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Let's pretend it never happened
We shouldn't discuss 9/11. After all, it might make some kids think poorly of their country's enemies rather than of the country itself. More self-hatred, please!
Iraq first
Here's an interesting editorial about the unwanted presence of Arabs from other nations in Iraq.
Auburn basketball investigation
Here's a good column about the situation with the NCAA's investigation of AU basketball. I agree with the university's approach: If all our reps are saying we're not guilty, then I say we fight it. If we lose, we lose. But I'd rather know we had fought it when we truly feel we're not in violation.
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| Monday, September 15th, 2003
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10:20 am
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Gut-check time
The Astros stunned me by sweeping the Cards this weekend -- which enabled them to take advantage of the Cubs' 1-0 loss to the Reds yesterday. Houston is now two games ahead of Chicago and five-and-a-half games ahead of St. Louis. With only 13 games left, including a visit to Busch Stadium and a visit from Barry and SF, it's only a matter of time before I'll be reaching for the pink Peptol. It doesn't help that the Cubs have only the Mets, Reds and Pirates remaining for the season. Lucky bastards.
A win is a win is a win
Sure, it was Vandy -- but the blowout victory over the Commodores could go a long way toward boosting the confidence of the Auburn Tigers. The first quarter looked like more of the same, but once we finally found the endzone, we seem to play more like the team we were predicted to be. What a relief to finally get a win and not see another set of goalposts come down.
Day by Day
For my buddy Dave on the Left Coast: Chris Muir's strip from Friday.
Mark Steyn
I miss his regular column in the Post. Thanks to LGF for pointing me to this one in the Chicago Sun-Times.
And I found this one on my own.
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| Friday, September 12th, 2003
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5:21 pm
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I'm getting ready to leave for the Rufus Wainwright concert in Athens, but here's another good article I saw this evening about Sept. 11.
"There are too many people who imagine that there is something sophisticated about always believing the best of those who hate your country, and the worst of those who defend it." (Margaret Thatcher, May 2003)
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| Thursday, September 11th, 2003
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10:51 am
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9/11
This day will be dissected and remembered in so many ways in the coming hours, so rather than add to the noise I want to point you toward stories and commentaries by other people. Remember especially those who continue to feel the loss of family members and friends in the terrorist attacks.
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| Tuesday, September 9th, 2003
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1:20 pm
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Image hosting
Does anybody know a spot on the 'Net that provides free image hosting? Live Journal has a function for putting images in posts, but I'm not sure where I can host them.
Bias at the Beeb
Wow, what a great decision by the Telegraph, to keep an eye on the BBC. Long overdue. (If the page displays without text when you click the link, then click on the print icon at the top right.)
Thanks to Little Green Footballs for the heads-up.
The infamous Finebaum
It's pretty much impossible to disagree with Paul Finebaum's column today about the state of the Auburn football coaching situation.
AU basketball investigation clouds
This news from USA Today is certainly interesting: Perhaps all allegations of impropriety leveled at the basketball program are untrue.
Astros tied for first
Why do I think it's going to be decided who will battle the Cubs for the division this weekend, when the Astros host the Cards?
"Hey, bird dog, you're on the wrong trail ..."
My blog buddy Max, in his ongoing discussion of TV shows, got me thinking this afternoon about Gilmore Girls' Lauren Graham. And that led me to ponder again the Short List.
In Steve vernacular, the Short List represents the top five to top 10 women I would definitely be bird-dogging if I were straight.
Leggy and tall with beautiful skin and long hair, Graham is incredible in her own right. But if her real-life persona in any way matches that of her character on the show -- the spontaneous, spirited and not to mention definitive girl-next-door Lorelai Gilmore -- she might very well be the head of the class.
The rest of the top five, in no particular order, would probably include Meg Ryan (think When Harry Met Sally ... rather than The Doors), Sandra Bullock (think Hope Floats rather than Miss Congeniality), my friend Denise (how in the world is she still single?) and a former co-worker who shall remain nameless (and also happens to now be married, anyway).
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| Monday, September 8th, 2003
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10:37 pm
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Time to circle the wagons
Late Saturday afternoon, my parents, my friend Steve and I were among the estimated 25,000 orange-and-blue-clad fans filing out of Grant Field in Atlanta in stunned disbelief at what they had just witnessed: the apparent death of the 2003 Auburn football season, only two weeks into play.
Auburn had played another four quarters of football without scoring a touchdown, losing 17-3 to old rival Georgia Tech, a team with a freshman quarterback and a lot less talent on the field than their opposition. It was the first time for Auburn to start the season 0-2 since 1984. It was the first time to go the first two games without reaching the endzone since 1928.
As I watched fellow Auburn people venture back to their cars, I was reminded of alien abduction scenes from made-for-TV movies, where some poor guy looks so traumatized yet so uncertain of what exactly had just taken place. Expressionless and speechless, they appear to almost stumble along in their dazed state.
And no one seemed particularly enraged. They were matter-of-fact: "He's gone," several said quietly. A reference to head coach Tommy Tuberville.
After this dismal start, the fans are nothing short of flummoxed and, if a loss to Vanderbilt results in Nashville this weekend, most certainly will be calling openly for a change in leadership.
From the outside, it must appear that Auburn fans are, like their cross-state rivals, satisfied with nothing but winning. After all, it would mark the second time in just more than five years that a coach had worn out his welcome before the season was even finished.
Only a few short years ago, Terry Bowden quit mid-season when he requested a vote of confidence that he would still be employed as the Tigers' head coach at the season's end but was told to wait and see how things would unfold.
Some sportswriters couldn't believe it. He had been forced out, they said. A coach who only a few years earlier led the school to its only 11-0 football season had been kicked to the curb because expectations had grown too high.
But it wasn't actually the case, and some sportswriters, particularly the ones in Alabama, knew the truth. Bowden was more interested in promoting himself than in the welfare of his team. At post-game press conferences, he would stumble over players' names. At one fall practice, he skipped out for a Jimmy Buffett concert.
And recruiting meant nothing to him. Auburn paid the price. Bowden left the cupboard so bare that the program would struggled for two or three years to get back on its feet. It turned out that his only talent involved smoke and mirrors.
So once again, as cries will likely arise to oust the head coach, many again will say we expect too much. We read too many of the press clippings of how great we would be -- including a No. 1 ranking by "The Sporting News." But with the amount of talent on this team, it's tough to say a lot shouldn't have been expected this year.
Still others will say it was ridiculous to get excited because, "After all, it's Auburn." But those critics wouldn't be accurate, either. Granted, we have only one official national championship in football, but we rank in the Top 20 in the all-time Associate Press Poll ranking. Football success isn't a foreign concept for us.
To find the real reason, you need to look no further than the first lines of the Auburn Creed.
"I believe that this is a practical world and that I can count only on what I earn. Therefore, I believe in work, hard work," it reads.
Last season, when Auburn lost to Florida in overtime, it was almost as if the Tigers had still somehow scored a victory. The team had struggled through the early part of the season, including a brutal loss at home to Arkansas in which players and coaches alike appeared their heads weren't in the game. Auburn had, as the saying goes, mailed it in, it seemed.
To this day, fans point to the second half of that Florida game as the season's turning point. The apathy so pervasive against Arkansas was absent. In its place was grit, determination and will, even if it didn't result in a victory.
And that's what Auburn people want. They want a strong work ethic. They don't expect their team to win every game. But they do expect to see players play their hardest and coaches display a good mentoring relationship with those young men. If the program exhibits such character, the day is another good set of memories of an autumn Saturday in the South, no matter the final scoreboard.
But when players look confused and when coaches seem disconnected from not only the game but also these players - that's when Auburn people aren't happy. That's when their day, for all intents and purposes, is ruined.
The previous two Saturdays were just such spoiled afternoons.
This week, Auburn travels to Nashville to face the Commodores in their first SEC match of the young season. Vanderbilt hasn't won an SEC game in a couple of years, and the Tigers have a track record of struggling in the meeting between the two teams when it's on the road. The potential for an 0-3 start is in place.
However, when news spread Monday afternoon that the veteran players asked to meet with the coaches and then meet privately with the rest of their teammates, feelings among the faithful began to rise: It was a glimmer of hope that the strong work ethic didn't die with last season after all. Maybe, just maybe, this season can be brought back to life.
Tuberville and his staff should dig deep and find it within themselves to do so. They have the talent at their disposal to beat an outmanned Vandy team.
If they don't, the faces they see filing from the stadium on Saturday won't be expressionless and stunned. They will be full of hostility.
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| Friday, September 5th, 2003
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12:51 pm
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The ongoing debate over the marriage and the Constitution
Thanks to Andrew Sullivan for the link to this article by former Sen. Alan Simpson.
Comical writing
Not since Esquire hammered Tucker Carlson when it was announced he'd be a new co-host on CNN's Crossfire have a laughed at a scathing piece like the one appearing in this month's Details. "It seems to my bleary eye a cross between a predawn Mardi Gras straggler, a late-seventies heavy-metal singer and a duck on speed. Yes, it's my first glimpse of ... Steven Cojocaru." Writer Tony Hendra takes aim at the fashion critic for his over-the-top flamboyance in the article "Is there such a thing as too gay?"
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