Super Bowl Observations

Along with tens of millions of my fellow Americans, I watched the Super Bowl last night. It was a terrible game in the sense that it wasn’t much of one, with Seattle winning 43-8. Although I was happy for Russell Wilson, it was hard watching Peyton Manning suffer through another big game disappointment. As great as he is, last night he looked old, slow, and confused.

I’ll tell you someone who didn’t look old, slow and confused…Bruno Mars! Watching him in his black pants and gold sparkled jacket and skinny black tie was like going back in time. This guy’s act looked like a cross between the Temptations and Earth Wind and Fire. What a talent! But, I digress.

Watching the game last night was like watching a live refutation of modern sports theory. In practically every sport except soccer, the powers that be want one thing, offense, offense and more offense. In baseball it led to the steroid scandal. Chicks dig the long ball so load up! In football, the people that make the rules have been on a 20 year campaign to handcuff defensive players. The result has been gaudy passing statistics, unheard of offensive production from mediocre players and higher TV ratings. If you take the time to think about it, it makes sense. The casual fan wants sizzle, and offense is sizzle. Offense is action, defense is reaction. Offense is flashy, defense is stubborn. Offense is fleet, graceful athletes running like gazelles in the open field. Defense is the hungry lion waiting for his chance to kill. Offense is “yes we can!” Defense is, “no you can’t.” Offense wants everything now. Defense is ruthlessly patient.

In baseball, offense is a 10-9 slugfest. Defense is a 1-0 pitcher’s duel. Offense is a box score full of numbers. Defense is capitalizing on one little mistake to win a game you might have and probably should have lost. Home run hitters get paid insane money, sure handed infielders don’t. That amazing wide receiver making that athletic catch over the middle stars in commercials. The guy taking his head off doesn’t.

But last night for all of the world to see was the awful truth that no matter how heavily the deck gets stacked against it, defense still wins championships. It’s the brute force of the immovable object that still humiliates the flashy irresistible force. It’s why the Oregon Ducks might be fun to watch, but it’s the Crimson Tide that racks up National Titles. It’s why run and gun basketball teams don’t make it past shut down defenders like Michael Jordan and Lebron James. It’s why the team with the best pitching almost always wins the World Series.

There’s probably some broader lesson about society and culture to be learned here, some metaphor for life lurking in these truths. But, I’m not smart enough to make it. You’ll have to figure it out for yourself.

One more thing, I thought that the commercials were excellent this year. Other years have featured more laugh out loud moments maybe, but these were clever and interesting for the most part. All in all, a fun night.

My Turn as a Music Critic

Writing a blog about music is a dicey thing, since everyone's tastes are different. Had I written such a blog back in my twenties it would have come to a different conclusion. Back then I was crazy over the Beatles, Rock & Roll, the classical guitar work of Christopher Parkening, and anything by Merle Haggard or Johnny Cash, not to mention an odd fondness for Beethoven. In other words, I was all over the place.

Now, with the innovation of Pandora, I get to listen to a ton of music for free, even create “stations” of my own. As a result, I believe I have finally stumbled across my favorite type of music. About two years ago I created a “Frank Sinatra” station. Through it, I have gotten to hear not only all of his great recordings, but a virtual treasure trove of other artists from his era, an era that spanned 60 years. What follows is a partial list of the more memorable:

Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Artie Shaw, Bennie Goodman, Glenn Miller, Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong, Tony Bennett, Lionel Hampton, Chick Webb, Billie Holiday, and Woody Herman.

Many of the songs made popular by these artists comprise what is known as the American Songbook, songs recorded over and over by hundreds of singers and players over the years. Some of the great song writers were people like George and Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Hoagy Carmichael, and Sammy and Gus Kahn.

The swing jazz bands of Basie and Ellington are nothing short of phenomenal, with amazing rhythms and jaw-dropping improvisational solos flying out of everything from pianos to flutes. The beauty of Ella Fitzgerald’s voice, the emotional power of Sinatra, the silky, effortless delivery of Nat King Cole, are marvelous beyond description. But there’s something else.

Much like Haggard and Cash, these singers deliver every lyric in understandable clarity. The diction is always impeccable. And it’s a good thing since one would hate to miss a single word of lyrics such as these:

Stars shining bright above you

Night breezes seem to whisper, I love you

Birds singing in the sycamore tree

Dream a little dream of me

Say nighty night and kiss me

Just hold me tight and tell me you’ll miss me

While I’m alone and as blue as can be

Dream a little dream of me.

There’s a sweetness to these standards that attracts me. Today it might be called campy, I suppose, but compared to the garish exhibitionism of your average Grammy performance, these type of lyrics wash over me like cool, clean water. Of course not all the songs from the Frank Sinatra station are this sentimental, some feature darker themes. But all of them seem intelligently written, filled with emotion and tender thought.

So whether listening to a soulful Fitzgerald ballad or the uproarious chaos of Goodman’s “Sing, Sing, Sing,” this station brings it! Give it a try.

Weird Stuff My Mom Used to Say...Part II

During dinner with Dad last night, the subject of my Mother’s peculiar phrases came up once again. I wrote a blog some time ago about some of her favorite formulations like “John Brown”, “draw back a nub”, and “I swannee.” But I have a few more today, and one of them I would like the readers help in determining its origin.

My Mom often used the phrase, “getting up in the pictures.” It referred to one of us usually, since according to Mom, Dunnevants were always doing it. The best I can tell, to “get up in the pictures” meant to become hysterically overdramatic. Perhaps “pictures” was her term for movies, and to get up in the pictures referred to becoming like actors in a movie, being all dramatic.

“Yes Paula, we ARE having liver and onions for dinner, and if you don’t like it, don’t eat it, but don’t even think about getting up in the pictures with me!”

The thing is, none of us have ever heard anyone else use the term. We asked Dad if before he met Mom had he ever heard the expression. He said, “no.” A google search reveals nothing. Could this be an original expression made up by my mother? If any of you out there have used this phrase or heard it used elsewhere, please let me know.

Another favorite phrase of Mom’s was, “duck dying fit.” Again, keeping with the theme of hysterical drama, it referred to someone losing their composure, or throwing a temper tantrum.

“I swannee! They will spend any amount of money on a barbeque in the fellowship hall, but you ask those worthless deacons to approve a thousand more dollars for Lottie Moon and they have a duck dying fit!”

Its odd how many of Mom’s formulations had to do with people in various stages of dramatic meltdowns. Perhaps this gives you some idea of what life was like growing up in the Dunnevant home.

Mom also constantly used the term, “fixin-to.”( please…drop that annoying G) It meant “preparing to”, or “getting ready to.” Whenever she referred to her home in Buckingham, she would say, “Momanemms”

“I’m fixin-to start packing so we can head over to Momanemms for supper.”

For years I thought that the Dixon farm was named “Momanemms.”

Although Mom only had a high school education, and despite her colorful country vocabulary, I don’t want to leave the impression that she lacked intelligence. Nothing could be further from the truth. Mom was extremely well-read and had an insatiable appetite for knowledge about the world. She was an amazing story teller and entirely self taught know-it-all. I would give any amount of money to hear just one more.

Faith in Humanity...Restored

When I woke up this morning I glanced at my phone and saw that it was 1 degree outside. Frankly, I could go for a little global warming about now. Also, I would like to thank the good people of Atlanta, Georgia for making the winter driving skills of Short Pumpians look positively Olympian by comparison. Of course in their defense, Atlanta gets a snow storm once every ten years or so, we get snow 4 or 5 times a year, EVERY year and still manage to wrap our cars around telephone polls as if we are shocked, SHOCKED that the roads are slippery.

A little further south in Birmingham, Alabama comes a story that helps restore my confidence in the human race. A Chick-fil-A restaurant near highway 280 found itself snowed in and the nearby interstate filled with iced in travelers stuck in a parking lot for hours. The owner, Mark Meadows, sent his employees home early, but soon they all returned because the roads were impassable. It was then that Meadows realized that he had stumbled upon a potential gold mine, hundreds of stranded, hungry potential customers trapped on the interstate, the quintessential captive audience. He could walk out to that highway with hundreds of chicken sandwiches and waffle fries, charge triple the normal price and sell them all in less than thirty minutes. Some of those people had been trapped in their cars for seven hours! This would be like taking candy from a baby, it would make his month!

Only, that’s not how this story turned out. We’ve become accustomed to profiteers, opportunists who line their pockets by jacking up the price from everything from plywood to diapers during a hurricane, it happens so often we expect it. People who behave in this manner talk about supply and demand, covering their greed with talk of economic theory, as if academic discussions of the laws of scarcity can possibly salve their consciences. Not so with Mr. Mark Meadows of Birmingham, Alabama.

He instructed his employees to help him carry as many warm sandwiches as they could make through the snow and ice a mile walk to highway 280…and give them all away. Then he opened up his store for the entire night for anyone stranded who might need a warm place to sleep. The next morning everyone who took him up on his offer got a hot breakfast biscuit before they were sent on their way, all on the house.

Chick-fil-A is a money making machine of a franchise. Many of its most successful operators are among the evil 1%, no doubt. But, there is something else going on at many of their restaurants. Many of them have figured out the central truth that being in business isn’t always about money. Listen, we all want to make money. I take a back seat to no one when it comes to celebrating the notion of profit. But if the profit motive is the only thing a business has, an empty life will be the result.

I have friends who own a Chick-fil-A franchise. Mark and Becky Baldwin are the kind of people who would do the same thing as Mark Meadows did. In fact, they have done so before. They give away an awful lot of food, the cost of which comes off their bottom line. But it doesn’t take a government program to force their generosity, just the noble hearts of good men and women. If more of us out of simple gratefulness for our good fortune would develop a generous spirit, the world would be a far better place.  

Returning To Golf

2014 is the year I plan on returning to the game of golf. There was a time in my life when I played the game quite often, as many as 30 rounds a year at my peak. But then I got busier, had open heart surgery and other inconveniences, and before you know it, I had lost interest in the game. I think last year I played four times, the year before that maybe twice that. This year will be different.

My skills as a golfer are sporadic and come and go more often than cell phone reception in West Virginia. I excel in only one area…the escape/trick shot, which should tell you everything you need to know about my game. It goes something like this, the guy I’m playing with hits his drive beautifully down the middle of the fairway, while mine gets overcooked into the trees, usually on the left side of the fairway. My opponent strides down the fairway confident that the hole is his. I find my ball on a patch of hardpan soil with a stand of trees directly in front of me. I take out a four iron and proceed to perfectly execute a low, sweeping hook around the trees and onto the green. It’s the only shot I can hit with anything approaching consistency.

What’s my handicap? I have no idea since I’ve never really had one officially calculated. My best score ever was a 75 shot three different times at three different courses. If I had to guess my average score I would say 88 or so. When I played a lot, maybe closer to 85. If I played a round today I would have a hard time breaking 90. I’m a terrible putter, prone to three and even four putt greens. I hit the ball fairly long for my age, I suppose. Unsurprisingly, I am an excellent trash-talker.

But here’s the thing with golf, and what I have missed the most. It’s a beautiful, relaxing walk. What other sport do you get to walk outside in the most beautiful part of any city while smoking a fine cigar and hanging out with friends? I’ve missed that aspect of the game more than anything.

Another thing, I will never, ever practice. Nope, hitting a bucket of balls at the driving range is golf without the beautiful walk thing, and just doesn’t work for me. Oh, and my clubs are all very, very old. My putter and irons,(the original Titleist DTs) are older than my Son. The newest club in my bag is a Mizuno driver which I bought maybe 15 years ago? This is the source of a barrage of disparaging remarks from my buddies every time I play. I am constantly told that if I would buy some clubs manufactured in this century my game would improve overnight. Perhaps, but this would require me spending upwards of a thousand dollars. I would rather keep the old clubs with which I once shot 75 three times. That way if I suck, I have an excellent excuse…inferior equipment!

So, if there are any golfers in the audience, don’t hesitate to ask me to play. In 2014 I plan to say, “yes!”

The Death of a Slur

I’m old enough to remember a very popular political slur that was once vigorously flung at mostly Democratic candidates. It was one of the most effective put downs in the business as it perfectly captured an alleged contrast between two vastly divergent philosophies of government. You heard it from the lips of every conservative candidate, and most Republican ones…career politician.

The implication was clear. Something had corrupted our democratic system to the point where there was no such thing as a citizen-legislator. The romantic image the founders put forth of men of great accomplishment who in their retiring years gave in to public pressure to serve as Senators and Congressmen, had been corrupted and replaced with political science majors with Master’s degrees in Public Policy who get their first job as a Congressional aid then hop on the treadmill to fame and fortune that is Washington, DC. So to lob the career politican bomb at someone was to brand him or her as an opportunist and moocher on the public teat. No more.

Two ostensibly Republican politicians have been in the news lately for all the wrong reasons, Chris Christie and Bob McDonnell. Both men have ardent defenders. Both are career politicians, having received practically every adult paycheck courtesy of the taxpayer. For many Republicans and conservatives this is apparently no longer a bad thing. But in my opinion it is at the very heart of our dysfunctional government. Men and women may go to Washington as neutral outsiders bent on fixing the broken system, but once there, they become the system and are suddenly blind to its faults. They suddenly lose their moral opposition to term limits, and discover the virtues of featherbedding and the need to hone their fund raising skills. Thirty years later, they are still there voting for bills they’ve never read in exchange for a commitment from some Congresswoman from Delaware to support a bridge to nowhere back in the district, the district being a place where they seldom visit anymore anyway. The place is hopelessly provincial!

There are exceptions. In our own State, Mark Warner actually ran a profitable business before getting into politics. He actually knows what it’s like to make a profit, meet a payroll, and compete successfully in the marketplace. Maybe because of that, I never read about him in the newspaper. He’s our silent Senator. I take this as a good sign, although I didn’t vote for him…or maybe I did. I can’t remember, which should tell you something about my degree of interest in the process.

I guess I am pining for an era which never really has existed, but should have; a time when men and women of great reputation, talent and a life of actual accomplishment in the real world, devote the golden years of their lives to public service, where they can tell that smart-ass 27 year old aid what it’s actually like to build a business, or write a great novel, or teach inner city kids classical music successfully. Then maybe Washington would possess something it lacks…wisdom.

Little Compromises

So, the blizzard of ’14 which blanketed Short Pump with 2 whole inches of snow and shut down schools for 4 days has had an unintended consequence. It has unleashed Pam the Painter. Yes, my wife has taken this unplanned and unPAID vacation and turned it into an opportunity for home renewal. She is turning life’s lemons into lemonade, making chicken salad out of chicken ...er, eh, you get the picture.

To say that my wife pays attention to detail would be damning her with faint praise. To say merely that she is a perfectionist would be an insult. When Pam brings her laser-like focus to painting the perfect straight line, it causes disruptions in global satellite communication so intense is the energy. Oh, and there will be no taping of walls when Pam wields her mighty brushes, these flawless lines must be fashioned totally free hand. “I just can’t get over how much longer this takes than I think it’s going to take,” she mumbles to no one in particular.

When this is all going on, I am relegated to walking through the rooms every thirty minutes complimenting how awesome it looks and asking if there is anything I can do. But I already know what she is thinking even if she doesn’t say it, “Are you kidding?? You’re only good for rolling ceilings and even then I’ll end up coming behind you to fix all the mistakes.”

So, imagine my surprise when she made this stunning announcement:

“Honey, you know how you’ve been asking me for 3 days if you can help? Well, I think I’ve got something for you to do.”

First I think it’s a trap. She is secretly resentful of my horrible painting skills and is getting ready to ask me to clean brushes as punishment. But then she says she actually wants me to paint something. I’m getting psyched. My wife actually has enough confidence in me to offer me a painting assignment? I’m ready, willing and able.

“Sometime tomorrow, I think I’m going to have you paint the inside of the pantry.”

The inside of what is basically a closet, 3’x4’ with no light, in which one human being can barely fit and once filled with food, no one will ever be able to see my handiwork. Perfect.

This is what passes for division of labor when it comes to home decorating in my house. I am only assigned tasks that do not offend the perfectionist obsessions of my wife. But, I suppose it’s a fair trade. In thirty years of marriage she has never once mowed the grass. Anything that has the potential to result in a hernia or ruptured disk is my domain. Pam is boss of all things aesthetic. It actually works out pretty well, although I’m still bummed that she said “no” to my suggestion of hanging the “dogs playing poker” painting over the sofa.

It’s the little compromises that make marriage work!