Good Morning All & Happy St. Patrick’s Day (the wearing o’ the green)!
With the implementation of observance of social distancing guidelines related to the coronavirus outbreak, it will be hard to display my St. Patrick’s Day attire, but rest assured, I’ll have some green included in my clothing selections for this day. May the sun shine upon you today and give you peace! No leprechaun sightings at our house yet today, but we’re still hopeful of finding that pot o’ gold at the end of the rainbow! I hope your St. Patrick’s Day is full of good cheer!
One of the things that I always look forward to in March is “March Madness and watching our beloved Gonzaga Bulldogs (ranked #2 in the nation!) participate in the NCAA tournament. Well, the coronavirus has turned “March Madness” into “March Sadness.” No basketball to enjoy. Who knows, the Zags could have won it all! Of course fans of the Dayton Flyers must be feeling the same way right now. My money was on a Gonzaga-Dayton final this year, but we’ll never know! There are some silver linings to all of this coronavirus adventure…getting acquainted with new books to enjoy; spending quality time together with loved ones; looking out more purposefully for other’s well-being; NetFlix binge watching; checking out other T.V. programs other than sports…like American History T.V. on CSpan3 and other programs that expand my mind and perspective on things. Who would have thought???
Speaking of enjoyable things to do, I’m happy to wish my following friends a very Happy Birthday today…Greg, gifted former director of The ARC of Spokane, who turns 67 today; Paul, gifted Lewiston Civic Theatre actor and beloved friend & helper to the McIntosh family; Thomas, beloved member of the Eldridge family and gifted homebuilder on Australia’s Gold Coast, who turns 32 today; and friend Brad and gifted media/production specialist, who is 54 today. Happy Birthday wishes also go musician John Sebastian of “The Lovin’ Spoonful” fame, who is 76 today; to actor Patrick Duffy of “Dallas” T.V. fame, who turns 71 today; to actor Kurt Russell of Disney’s “Son Of Flubber” movie fame (and many, many other films), who is 69 today; and to one of my very favorite actors and human beings on this planet, Gary Sinise, who turns 65 today. Here’s to all of you!
My mom, who is 93, came to our house for a visit the other day and got to spend some quality time with our youngest grandchild, little Izaak Jacob Newbold, who is 16 months old…first generation holding fourth generation (Mom’s great grandson). How about that? They had a sweet time together, for sue. Izaak uses his left index finger as a pointer, something he loves to do…whether it’s pointing at the sky, a bird, a toy, a person, a car, a tree, a flower…you name it and he points to it. Don’t you just love little ones? Do bad they have to grow up and become “adults.”
Even though I won’t be able to watch “March Madness” this year, I was able to attend the Washington State “B” Basketball Tournament a couple of weeks ago at the Spokane Arena. My favorite State “B” tournament basketball player was Will Lanius of Oakesdale High School (the “Nighthawks”). Oakesdale is a wheat farming community south of Spokane. Will is in the 8th grade, but made the varsity basketball team for Oakesdale. He didn’t get to play in the tournament games, but he was an enthusiastic supporter of his team’s efforts from the sidelines. I enjoyed watching him during warm ups. Will is a pretty small kid…his black basketball shoes looked bigger than him! He had some great facial expressions from the bench. If they gave an award out for most enthusiastic basketball player during the tournament, Will would have to be in the running. I think players like Will really epitomize what the State “B” Basketball Tournament is all about—celebrating the smaller communities that make our state (and nation) great and all of the terrific athletes (in this case, basketball players) who come out of small communities like Oakesdale. And Oakesdale finished in fourth place in their tournament!
And how about those Willapa Valley Vikings, my Dad’s (Pumpa’s) alma mater! They came into the “B” Tournament as a 10th seed, just barely making it into the tournament…not to mention they were one of the smaller schools in the tournament (85 total students). They came out like gangbusters adn won their first two games, led by their terrific shooting guard, Logan Walker, their great point guard/shooting forward, Chad Flemetis (my third cousin Cindy Flemetis’ grand nephew) and their center Beau Buchanan. They even knocked off the Number 1 seed Liberty Lancers in a well played game. They finished the tournament in fifth place and took home a trophy…way to go Willapa Valley! My Dad would be happy to see that! Here’s to all of the Willapa Valley Vikings’ team! Thanks for some great basketball!
Speaking of sports, I came across the 1969 Topps Football Card for Homer Jones, New Giants wide receiver who was born in 1941 in Pittsburg, Texas. His biggest claim to fame was being known as being possibly the fastest man in the NFL, along with Dallas Cowboy great Bob Hayes. He was six-foot-two and weighed 220 pounds during his NFL playing days. He is a cousin of Hall of Fame receiver Charley Taylor of the Washington Redskins and Cleveland Browns’ defensive end Joe “Turkey” Jones. The cousins spent many days in their childhoods running around and playing various sports together. Homer’s mother was a close friend of the family of Hall of Fame running back Earl Campbell. Homer attended Texas Southern University, a historically black college, and starred in track & field as well as football, running the 100-yard and 220-yard dashes. he could run the 100 yard dash in 9.3 seconds (phenomenal for 1963…or any time, for that matter!). He ran for the 1962 U.S. Track Team along with Bob “Bullet” Hayes and Paul Warfield (two NFL greats). He was drafted in 1963 by his hometown team, the Houston Oilers of the AFL, but suffered a knee injury in training camp and was cut from the team. The New York Giants offered Homer a bus ticket to New York and payment for knee surgery. He was known as “Rhino” to his teammates. Having seen players such as Giants teammate Frank Gifford and Green Bay Packers star Paul Hornung celebrate touchdowns by throwing the ball to fans in the stands, Homer decided to come up with his own post-touchdown maneuver. In a 1965 game, after scoring a touchdown, he threw the football down hard in the end zone. He called the move a “spike”; modern post-touchdown celebrations, including “touchdown dances,” are said to have come from Homer’s invention. Contributing to Homer’s choice of touchdown celebration was a new rule for 1965 which would fine a player $500 (a lot of money in 1965!) if he threw a ball into the stands, so Homer decided to through the ball on the ground (“spike it”) instead. He led the NFL in receiving touchdowns in 1967 and led the NFL for four straight seasons in average yards per catch. He was often double-teamed by the opposition because of his ability to out-run anybody. On September 21, 1970, Homer returned the second-half kickoff against the New York Jets for a touchdown, a key play in the Browns’ 31-21 win over the Jets in front of 85,703 fans. It was the first game ever played on ABC’s “Monday Night Football.” Knee injuries forced him to retire at the young age of 29. His yards per catch ranks number one in NFL history for all NFL players in a career with at least 200 receptions. Homer is 79 years old and lives in his hometown of Pittsburg, Texas. He has had both hips replaced, due to past football injuries. Here’s to Homer Jones…the pride of Pittsburg, Texas!
Here’s the word for the day:
Edacious: “Having an unsatiable appetite…given to eating.” (This is what happens when my wife Judy, a five star chef in her own right, prepares dinner!). I’m rather “edacious” when eating Judy’s cooking.
Here are some thoughts for the day:
“Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true.”
—Demosthenes, Greek orator (384 B.C. – 322 B.C.)
“In this world second thoughts, it seems, are best.”
—Euripedes, Greek playwright (480 B.C. – 406 B.C.)
“Looking for God—or Heaven—by exploring space is like reading or seeing all Shakespeare’s plays in the hope that you will find Shakespeare as one of he characters or Stratford as one of the places. Shakespeare is in one sense present at every moment in every play.”
—C.S. Lewis, “The Seeing Eye” in “Christian Reflections”, as quoted in C.S. Lewis’ Little Book Of Wisdom” (2018)
Here’s to a great St. Patrick’s Day and lots of love & good wishes always!
Press on,
Papa ‘a (Dad, Uncle Mark, etc.)