Three Beautiful Things 11-29-2021: Dumping Leaves, New Wipers, Off Night in Zag Land

 1. Recently, Paul raked and bagged the leaves in Christy's yard and put the bags in the bed of the pickup. Since, right now, I have the key to the truck, I took it upon myself to haul the bags of leaves to the dump today. 

2. After dumping the leaves, I roared over to Silver Valley Tire and left off the pickup so its windshield wipers could be replaced. Later in the afternoon, I strolled down and retrieved the truck and it will be a much safer vehicle to drive now.

3. The Zags played tonight against a university I'd never heard of, Tarleton State University of Stephenville, TX. I didn't bother dropping into the Vizio room to watch it, figuring the Zags would easily cream the TSU Texans. Around 7:20, I checked the score and the game was close. I cranked up the Vizio and, indeed, the very pesky and determined Texans were giving the flat and dispirited Zags a very good game, hassling the Zags on defense, forcing turnovers, running a slow down offense and hitting some shots, and simply not playing the role of Gonzaga cannon fodder. 

I watched the rest of the first half and the entire second half, never really believing that Tarleton State would win this game, but they never let Gonzaga run away with it. The Zags won by a final score of 64-55. This game made me think of March Madness. Every year a few unheralded teams frustrate a highly favored opponent with some sharp shooting and energetic defense, catching a superior team on a flat night and every year unimaginable upsets occur. Tonight, the upset didn't happen, but I certainly learned that this very talented Zags team is not immune from having a flat night, not immune from possibly not taking a lesser opponent seriously enough, and, if this happened, is not immune from coming out flat on Monday after a tense and demanding game against Duke on Friday. 

One after thought: Tarleton State University's coach is Billy Gillespie. For several years in the early 2000s, Gillespie was doing very well. He had good runs at both UTEP and Texas A & M, but his career nosedived when Kentucky fired him after two seasons. He had a lousy single season a couple of years later at Texas Tech and because of personal problems, health problems, and accusations that he mistreated players, he was out of coaching until he took a junior college job on two separate occasions in Texas at Ranger College. Then, in 2020, Tarleton State hired him to coach their program as it transitioned from being a Division II school to playing in Division I.

This is all to say if you watched last night's game and thought to yourself that Tarleton State had a solid game plan and seemed well coached, that is because Billy Gillespie knows basketball, is very experienced, and it's always been other transgressions and personal difficulties that have made his professional career so checkered. 

Three Beautiful Things 11/28/2021: The Fullness of Shakespeare, Saving the PORTER at Radio, Glass Noodle Salad and *Henry V*

1. At 2:00 this afternoon, this November Sunday afternoon kicked into a fun high gear. I jumped on the ZOOM machine with Bill and Diane and we spent nearly ninety minutes discussing The Hollow Crown (Season 1, Ep 4). During and since our discussion, I've thought a lot about why watching these plays, digging into them, and talking about them is so good. Really, it all boils down to the plays always giving us multiple points of view and almost all his individual characters having multiple dimensions. Unlike so many voices we hear or read day to day whether in conversation, on the news, or elsewhere that treat matters in stark pro/con ways, Shakespeare doesn't see life in a polarized fashion. 

For example, the episode of The Hollow Crown we discussed today is an adaptation of Henry V. It is, in part, a war story. So many war stories either glorify the heroism of war or are harsh criticisms of war -- that is, anti-war stories. Henry V explores both the valor and the butchery of war. The play is ambiguous about King Henry's decision to go to war. On the one hand, mounting an invasion of France unites his fractured country; on the other hand, it creates many, many years of bad blood between the two countries and is the cause of thousands of deaths. Sometimes the play's rhetoric about war is inspiring; other times, the talk about war in the play is grim, disillusioned, even cynical.

Likewise, the character of Henry V is ambiguous. Is he, as king, a valiant leader of soldiers? Is he a Machiavellian king, one for whom any means justify the end of uniting his kingdom? Is he a king with deep feeling and loving regard for his subjects, especially on the eve of leading them to battle at Agincourt? Or is he cold-hearted, a politician who will do whatever it takes to secure and keep power and instill fear of him amongst his subjects? Is King Henry admirable? Is he a calculating, performative politician? 

He's all of this and more and the play bounces us around regarding how we see war and Henry V's character and heroism and power and on and on. In other words, it's a full play, resistant to our inclinations to see things in terms of either/or. Shakespeare, to me, is the epitome of a both/and artist, always showing us that opposites co-exist, that humans and human events are inherently contradictory, paradoxical, and all but impossible to pin down as stable or predictable. 

Mutability. That's the word that kept popping up in my studies and teaching of Shakespeare -- and in my involvement in the putting on of his plays in the theater. 

Mirroring human life itself, Shakespeare portrays, in multiple ways, the riddling, often frustrating, and certainly inevitable nature of mutability.

2. While Bill, Diane, and I were ZOOMing, Debbie texted me. She'd buzzed up to Radio Brewing where she was at a table by herself immersed in getting some writing done.

I hopped in the Camry and drove up, not to join Debbie, but to sit at the bar, talk some with niece Molly, drink some PORTER, eat some food, and wait for Debbie to decide she'd written enough and join me. 

That's just what happened. I was at the bar for about a half an hour. I ordered some boneless naked chicken wings. Debbie joined me and ordered us each a fish taco, and I ordered a batch of Parmesan garlic fries. We yakked at the bar. We were both in high spirits. I was fired up after discussing Shakespeare with Bill and Diane. Debbie was feeling good that she got some things that she's been remembering and thinking about down on paper.

3. Back home, after a bit, I retired to the bedroom to spend time with Luna and Copper and, after a several months absence, return to Season 3 of Midnight Diner. For about a half an hour or so, I couldn't access Midnight Diner because, for some reason, the Netflix platform was responding to me as if I were in another country, a country where Midnight Diner was unavailable. I restarted the computer and that did the trick. I guess it put me back in the USA! 

Episodes of Midnight Diner only last about 25 minutes. Each one puts me into such a contemplative and satisfied mood that I don't want to break the spell by watching another. I cannot, nor do I want to, binge watch this series. As they so often are, tonight's episode was simple. It focused on two longtime friends preparing for a twenty-five year school reunion and a man who returns to their lives after a long absence. Each episode also centers on one dish of food. Tonight's focused on glass noodle salad. It made me want to go uptown to the all-night Japanese diner in Kellogg -- oh! wait a minute -- I was dreaming.

After watching Midnight Diner, with Luna and Copper contentedly right there with me on the bed, I went online and found different scenes on video of the 1989 Kenneth Branagh movie, Henry V. I have countless joyful memories tied up in having watched this movie countless times in Eugene. I saw it at The Bijou, in the LCC film screening room, in the basement of the Center building, in one of our Fast Forward classrooms, and at home. I used to have the cd of the movie's soundtrack and would play it full blast when I had the house to myself.  The memories, not only of watching this movie, but of my strong affection for it and all those people I watched it with over the years came rushing back and tears streamed down my face as I watched the handful of scenes I found online. 

Three Beautiful Things 11/27/2021: King Henry V and Performative Politics, Imagination and Everyday Play Acting, Rum and *The Wire*

 1. In preparation for our next Zoom session on Sunday, Nov. 28th, I watched the last episode of the first season of The Hollow Crown, a solid made for television adaption of Shakespeare's Henry V. 

The creators of these episodes of The Hollow Crown streamline Shakespeare's original plays so that they run for just over two hours rather than three by cutting lines from speeches and cutting back and cutting out original scenes. Just for the record, I have no problem with this and enjoy watching these episodes as they are and I enjoy ruminating over some of the cuts.

In the episode I watched today, the producers cut out a very long, difficult, and pedantic speech given early in Act I by the Archbishop of Canterbury outlining, for King Henry, a justification for going to war with France. I won't get into that justification here in any detail, but the Archbishop's speech and King Henry's staging of it at court  comprise a perfect example of a phrase I see used a lot in contemporary political analysis: performative politics.

If I understand performative politics, it's a phrase used to describe times when politicians are not so much making a substantive argument or presentation during a legislative session or a committee meeting or in front of camera outside the chambers, but are putting on a performance, sometimes with props, as a way of  appealing to and pleasing their supporters. It's a common practice in American politics, but I'll give an international example: the so-called Nikita Khrushchev shoe banging incident at the United Nations in October of 1960. Khrushchev's shoe banging was for show. It was performative. 

Likewise, in the beginning of Henry V, King Henry, I think, has already decided to go to war with France as a way of uniting his fractured kingdom behind a war effort that will take their minds off of domestic problems. He stages, or performs, his concern that he wants to do so with a clear conscience and so, very publicly in court, pretends to listen to the Archbishop's convoluted justification for war. He then publicly asks the Archbishop if he can proceed in good conscience and, true to his role in this performance, the Archbishop says he can. Keep in mind that the Archbishop has already promised to help fund this war and that the Archbishop wants to please King Henry because Parliament is considering levying a tax that would financially cripple the Church. The Archbishop wants King Henry to scuttle this bill. 

In The Hollow Crown, the production cuts right to the chase. King Henry simply verifies with the Archbishop that he can, with a clear conscience, invade France. The Archbishop and the King's performance at court is cut out of this production. (It is, however, again for the record, included in Kenneth Branagh's 1989 movie, Henry V.)

2. After watching this episode of The Hollow Crown, I posted some questions and statements for our Westminster Basement Study Group to ponder, if they want to, about the play. Shakespeare's treatment of history, his creation of a heroic King Henry V, his simultaneous contesting of King Henry's heroism within the play,  his questions about the nature kingship itself, and his portrayal of the impact of war upon everyday soldiers invigorates me. Even more so, I love Shakespeare's continual exploration of the power of human imagination and his preoccupation with the ways characters stage plays within his plays. I mean, it's common knowledge that in As You Like It, Jacques declares that "all the world's a stage". But Shakespeare doesn't stop with merely declaring this maxim (cliche?), he returns to it time and time again, giving us scene after scene in play after play when characters enact occurrences for other characters to see as a way of shaping their perception, of persuading them that something is true -- even when it's not. Sometimes these very miniature plays within Shakespeare's plays are entertaining, just like you and I perform little "plays" for one another by reenacting things that have happened, do imitations of one another, and pull pranks. This exploration of imagination and play acting runs throughout The Hollow Crown and it's a crucial element of what makes Shakespeare's history plays more than just a chronicling of Shakespeare's version of England's past.

3. My head and heart full of Shakespeare, I fixed myself a kind of funny dinner mixing fried corn, a broken up salmon patty, and golden couscous topped with Bragg Liquid Amino. Later on, I tried out a couple of rum drinks I thought up -- but they might be real drinks, too. I don't know. For my first cocktail, I mixed rum, Coca Cola, half and half, and cinnamon and enjoyed this concoction. Then, in the bottom of a glass, I mixed rum, hot chocolate powder, half and half, and cinnamon, poured boiling water over it and added some butter to the glass. It was kind of a variation on a hot buttered rum. I enjoyed it too. I enjoyed these nightcaps while messing around on YouTube, playing videos of scenes from The Wire. At first, it was an Omar Little night, but I finished with scenes involving the enigmatic and fascinating Lester Freamon. I was ready to go back and watch the whole series again. 

Three Beautiful Things 11-26-2021: Cornbread Dressing Breakfast, Keeping Copper and Luna Happy (I Hope), Just Show Up

 1. I started the day with some writing and a small day after Thanksgiving breakfast. I like dressing and fried eggs, so I heated up some cornbread dressing and fried two eggs and enjoyed bits of dressing dipped in egg yolk. I added some bite to my meal with a small scoop of cranberry sauce.

2. Periodically, Luna and Copper's litter pans need to be emptied, scrubbed out with soapy water, and refreshed with brand new litter. When it's warmer outside, I rinse out the pans with water from a hose. Today, I figured out how to do this job indoors. We don't have a utility sink, so I filled one half of our two section bucket with soapy water, emptied each litter pan, scrubbed them out, and rinsed them with a little shower water, kept the rinse water in the pans, and poured it into the other half of the divided bucket. I dumped the bucket outside when I was finished. 

This method worked perfectly. It also made me feel good. I'm diligent about scooping Luna and Copper's clumps and other bits out of the litter boxes at least once a day -- sometimes I do it twice. I want them to have as clean as possible a place to do their business. Now, not only are the pans scooped out, they are fresh, scrubbed out, and clean. I wouldn't doubt if my attention to their litter pans makes me happier than it does Luna and Copper, but I let myself think they appreciate it. 

3. Around 12:30 or so, I vaulted into the Sube and blasted over to Coeur d' Alene. Stu and I met at the Mobil station on the far east end of Sherman and I drove the Sube to a side street, parked it, and got into Stu's truck. 

We then drove to Yates Funeral Home in Hayden (first we went to the wrong Yates home on 4th St.), arrived a little late, but experienced the bulk of Mike Windisch's funeral service.

I admit, I'm not 100% faithful to this maxim, but I try to live by the words, "Just show up". 

I began to live by this maxim over twenty years ago while working at LCC and took note of certain people who just showed up at plays, retirement celebrations, lectures, memorials for those who had died, and other events and how impressed I was that they were there, even if they weren't particularly close to the presenter, the cast, the retiree, or the deceased. Their presence was a demonstration of support that made a lasting impression on me.

So, when Stu told me earlier in the week that Mike Windisch had died, I began to think that I needed to show up at his funeral, even though I never knew Mike Windisch. You see, Mike Windisch's brother, Don, is a lifelong friend of mine and is married to Jeri Robinson, another lifelong friend, not only of mine, but of our family. In fact, I can't remember a single day in my nearly 68 years that I didn't know Don, thanks, in the beginning, to Sunday school, or Jeri, thanks to our mothers being friends from childhood in Orofino and our dads being friends from childhood in Kellogg.

In showing up to this funeral today, yes, I paid my respects to Mike, but Stu and I attended largely to support Don and Jeri with our physical and loving presence.

As so often happens when I don't make excuses and stay home, but just show up, great things occur.

Today, for example, I learned what a great man my lifelong friend Don's older brother was. Mike was a generous, adventurous soul, a devoted husband and father, and a person eager to extend himself to the aid of others. His son and son-in-law told moving stories about Mike's good nature, his positive attitude, and his habit of going well beyond what might be expected of him to help others, especially in his job running the resort at Sun Up Bay on Lake Coeur d'Alene.

All of this was beautifully reinforced in the slide show commemorating Mike Windisch's full and well-lived life. 

Because Stu and I showed up, we got to talk for a long time at the reception with Don and Jeri.

Stu had to get home after the reception for good reasons, but thanks to just showing up, I got to meet with Jeri and Don for a beer (a PORTER from Kona Brewing!) at Paddie's. After we got in some very solid yakking there, we sashayed over to Cosmic Cowboy and continued our awesome conversations over dinner (and, for me, a pint of 10 Barrel's very tasty Pub Lager). 

I spent the afternoon with three friends I've known for as long as I've been conscious: Stu, Jeri, and Don.

It was awesome. 

Having had such a heart warming time with lifelong friends today underscored to me that whether it's a reunion, Thanksgiving at The Lounge, a funeral, a family wedding far away, a couple of nights with friends at the casino, online gatherings like the Tree House Concerts or once every two weeks ZOOMiing, playing trivia in Spokane with friends I've known for decades, and so many other things, it matters, it matters a lot, to just show up. 

As a postscript, let me add that I had been so stimulated what happened this afternoon that when I arrived home, went next door and fed Grayson (Christy's cat), and sat down with Debbie in the living room, I so enjoyed the quiet of our house and conversation with Debbie that I decided not to watch tonight's game between Gonzaga and Duke. I wanted to wind down The game would have wound me back up. I checked the score of the game throughout its progress, but as much as I love watching college basketball, tonight I loved spending a quiet evening in meandering conversation with Debbie even more. 

Three Beautiful Things 11-25-2021: Dressing and a Bloody Mary, Awesome Thanksgiving Dinner, Thanksgiving at The Lounge

 1. After some morning coffee and a little writing, I leapt into action in the kitchen and prepared our Thanksgiving cornbread dressing. I baked the cornbread itself on Tuesday and on Wednesday I dried it out at 200 degrees in the oven, making it a little bit toasty and crunchy. Today, I chopped up an onion and four celery stalks, cooked them in olive oil and butter and a little salt until tender, and then added four minced garlic cloves and cooked it all another half a minute. I poured this mixture into a bowl, got out scissors and snipped parsley into it, added sage and thyme and ground pepper, and then added the cornbread. I stirred it all up and added a half a cup of half and half and then some more milk to soften it and transferred this creation into a baking pan and topped it with five tablespoons of chopped butter. 

You might be wondering why no turkey, why no chicken stock -- well, I made it vegetarian on purpose because our niece Molly doesn't eat meat -- and, I tend to enjoy vegetarian food a lot! 

This stuffing didn't need meat or meat stock. Even unbaked, when I sampled it, I could tell it was rich, savory, and flavorful with a most pleasing texture thanks to the cornbread.

To celebrate having the dressing ready a few hours ahead of putting it in the oven, I fixed myself a V-8 vodka Bloody Mary with celery and pickled asparagus and salt and pepper. For some reason, I really enjoy a Bloody Mary on Thanksgiving Day and it was fun to sit and sip on this one before I cleaned up dishes. 

2. Christy celebrated Thanksgiving today with Tracy at a handsome airbnb in Walla Walla. Cosette was tied up with work at the University Inn. But Debbie, Molly, Zoe, Carol, Paul, theater pal, Carl, and I all gathered at the Roberts' house at 3:00.

Debbie had employed techniques to roast the turkey on Wednesday and store slices in the turkey juices overnight and she headed to the kitchen to put the pan of turkey and the cornbread dressing in the oven and she got going on the gravy. Once the gravy was under control, I stepped away from social time in the living room and made us each a cocktail.

In keeping with the Thanksgiving tradition of eating cranberries, I mixed us each a Cranberry Moscow Mule, a simple combination of vodka, cranberry juice cocktail, ginger beer, and lime juice garnished with a wedge of lime. 

It was an easy, refreshing, and just festive enough Thanksgiving cocktail.

We sat down to dinner. Carl brought three bottles of old-ish homemade wine that was, I think, left behind in the basement of the Jameson/Sweets building, a property Carl has purchased. None of us knew if this wine would be any good, but I was eager to find out.

I liked the first bottle because it had a kind of musty quality. Oddly enough, it reminded me of the peaty quality in some single malt scotches. I'll admit, the way this wine had aged made it not taste exactly like wine any longer, but I enjoyed its uniqueness and the way it kind of reminded me of drinking scotch. 

I had an even more unusual response to the wine (or "wine") I drank from the second bottle. It tasted remarkably like one of my favorite wild ales, Russian River's Consecration, a dark ale aged in Cabernet Sauvignon barrels. I suppose that means that as a wine, it was not very good, but, to me, the way it had aged and, I suppose, deteriorated, tasted great. I didn't care that it wasn't much of a wine any longer. I loved the sensation that I was back at 16 Tons enjoying the rare pleasure of drinking a glass of Consecration or a similar sour/wild ale. 

Our dinner was awesome. The turkey was the most flavorful and moist I'd ever eaten. Carol used buttermilk in the mashed potatoes and they were perfect as was the gravy Debbie made. We had a superb side dish of roasted vegetables and the cornbread stuffing turned out tasty. 

We retired to the living room after dinner. Carol and Paul sang the song "At This Table" for us. Carl is a musician (and a piano tuner, by the way) and he played a bit on Paul's guitar and did a little singing, too. Our conversations were wide ranging. We talked about our kids and families, education, and music, musicians (especially Hiram!), and performing - and about the challenges of trying to make a living playing music -- and what one turns to having given up on that. Carl told us about how he came to purchase the Jameson/Sweet's building, the challenges of owning such an ancient property, and his hopes for what he might do with it. 

Our Thanksgiving get together was calm, relaxed, invigorating, nourishing, and peaceful. Everything worked: the food and drink, conversation, amiability, generosity, and laughter. 

I could tell we were all thankful for such a comfortable time together.

3. Cas and Tracy put on a Thanksgiving dinner at the Inland Lounge every year, carrying on a tradition, as I understand it, started by Chilly, the Lounge's owner before Cas took over. In the past, I've enjoyed going to the Lounge early in the day for a Bloody Mary and a little food. 

Debbie and I dropped into today's Thanksgiving party at The Lounge after we left Carol and Paul's. 

I wanted to have one of Cas's Thanksgiving Day Bloody Mary's and enjoyed it. Eddie Joe joined us at the bar and we had a fun time yakkin' with him. Bob told me things got pretty busy in the afternoon and that they had plenty of food for everyone. Several people left with take home boxes and bags and the vibe at The Lounge was happy and energetic. 

Debbie and I didn't stay long, but, for me, I loved wrapping up Thanksgiving Day as a part of the long standing Kellogg tradition of the Inland Lounge offering a buffet turkey and prime rib dinner to anyone who walked through the door. 

Three Beautiful Things 11-24-2021: Moving Stuff Along, More Thanksgiving Preparations, Sharing a Righteous Stout

 1. I muscled three containers of old old old yard waste that's been sitting on the east side of our house since Moses parted the Red Sea into the bed of Christy's pickup and loaded up some items she wanted dropped off at St. Vincent de Paul's. I dropped off the donations and then went to the dump where I added our ancient twigs, leaves, and weeds to the big compost bin there and took care of a piece of wood and a snow blower cover that I should have left off earlier in the week along with some cardboard. 

I love moving things along that don't belong any longer around our house or Christy's house. Today's trip satisfied this love.

2. Back home, I put the cornbread I made yesterday in the oven at a very low temperature for a couple of hours to dry out and I'll turn it into a pan of cornbread dressing Thanksgiving Day. Debbie had volunteered to roast a turkey and she uses a day ahead method and got that done and transformed a part of the carcass into turkey vegetable rice soup. I sampled a small amount of the soup. It is rapturous. 

3. When she went to Coeur d'Alene not long ago, Debbie bought about six 12 oz cans of a variety of beers. We like to pop open a can during the day and share it. Today, we split a can of 10 Barrel Brewing of Bend's delicious Pray for POW Winter Stout. I liked how this beer's ABV, at 7%, was not technically an Imperial Stout, but it behaved like one with big coffee and chocolate flavors, beautifully balanced, and with a subtle touch of berry underneath. 

It's a smooth stout, warming, but for the beer lover who likes a bitter bite at the finish, the Pray for POW delivers. When my cat Luna wants to be fed at 4:00 in the morning, she bites me lightly, careful not to break my skin. Likewise, the bitterness at the end of Pray for POW won't break your skin, but it reminds you to take notice that it's the slight bitterness that draws us to drink coffee, eat dark chocolate, and enjoy a well-brewed beer. 

*Every once in a while I forget to mention something in my daily blog posts. Earlier this week, I watched the Netflix documentary, Count Me In. The movie featured interviews with several rock music drummers. It explored these musicians' love for drumming and how they got into it more than it explored technical aspects of drumming. Each of the drummers is engaging and fun to listen to and I enjoyed that the movie made it a point to interview women drummers as well as men and addressed the ignorant preconception held by too many that drumming is a man's gig. 

Far from it. 

Three Beautiful Things 11-23-2021: Thanksgiving Preparations, Oregon Struggles and Gonzaga Prevails, Halftime Party -- and More!

 1. I'm in charge of cocktails and dressing for Thanksgiving dinner at Carol and Paul's and today I fixed the cornbread I'll use in the dressing so it can dry out and I bought what I need for our Thanksgiving premeal cocktail. The cocktail will be one I've never made before, but it's simple, and I'm keeping it a surprise just for the heck of it. The cocktail is not special, has no meaning or history, but I like it to be a mystery.

2. Roger P. texted me today and asked what I thought of the upcoming Oregon/St. Mary's game. I told him I thought the Ducks were out of sorts with all their new players, that this early in the season they hadn't come together yet as a team in contrast to St. Mary's, a team composed of all returning players. I told him I thought St. Mary's might very well chalk up a win for their team and for the West Coast Conference. 

It turns out I was correct. The Ducks struggled tonight to get into any kind of flow on offense and their early season lack of cohesion carried over to their defense, too. St. Mary's was the much sharper team and they defeated Oregon, 62-50. 

After the Oregon game, I joined the rest of the nation's college basketball fans to watch Gonzaga play UCLA. 

Toward the end of the first half, Byrdman asked Terry T. and me to share out thoughts about the game and I told him that I was having a halftime party with Debbie. Well, that halftime party turned into a party that was so fun that I never returned to the game, but checked the score on line a few times to make sure nothing major or miraculous happened in the second half.

So, my thoughts about the game are confined to the first half.

My thoughts as the first half unfolded began with Drew Timme. 

When Gonzaga played Texas on November 13th, their whole offense went through Timme. He was being covered by one Longhorn in the post and this approach to defending him was futile and, by game's end, Timme scored 37 points. Gonzaga then played a short string of lesser opponents after the Texas game and Timme played fewer minutes, didn't get as many touches inside, and more players got involved in the Zags' offense.

I figured that tonight, against such a high quality team as UCLA, the Zags would go back to what worked so well against Texas and would run their offense through Timme again.

That didn't happen. Instead, Gonzaga demonstrated that its squad is very versatile with plenty of firepower across their starting five and on into their bench.

Timme had relatively few touches in the first half, only took five shots from the floor, and scored only a handful of points.

His teammates, however, were scoring from all points of the compass.

The Zags played swarming defense. They turned UCLA over several times. Chet Holmgren either blocked or affected UCLA's shots inside. UCLA's experienced and usually sharp shooting veterans seemed rattled, nervous, and missed a high volume of shots and Gonzaga's shooters were hitting a high percentage of their shots, scoring in the paint, sometimes on layups, hitting three pointers, all with relatively minimal contributions from Drew Timme. 

Byrdman texted me that UCLA seemed nervous. I responded, "so did Texas". 

One of the reasons I find it difficult to imagine how a game like this will take shape is that I don't know how, on the mental or emotional level, one team will affect the other.

It's a small sample size, but if Gonzaga's presence rattled Texas and UCLA, making both experienced teams nervous, it would seem that the Zags are, to some degree, intimidating to their opponents. 

Last season, I saw this happen when the strong physical eventual national champions Baylor played. Baylor's quickness, physicality, and sharp shooting intimidated opponents.

I have to admit, though, that I have never thought of Gonzaga in this way, as intimidating. 

It's early in the season. As teams improve and gain confidence, they might be less nervous playing the Zags. I don't know. All I do know is that I would never have predicted that UCLA would have had to battle not only the Zags tonight, but their own nerves.

Ha! What do I know?

I didn't watch the second half thanks to mixing myself a very good martini and yakkin' with Debbie.

What impressed me most in the first half, though, was Gonzaga's versatility. Tonight, they proved themselves a multi-dimensional team: quick and persistent on defense, able to protect the rim inside, a sound rebounding team, fast, skilled, and unselfish in the open court, and able to score points on offense in the paint and from long range.  Gonzaga converted 39% of their three pointers, as close as they've been lately to the magic 40% mark and made nearly 80% of their free throws, another improvement. 

Am I ready on November 23rd with over three months left in this season to crown Gonzaga as national champions in April?

Hardly. 

And since I don't care about the weekly polls, don't care that tonight the Zags solidified their #1 ranking, with Duke looming ahead on Friday, I am hardly ready to claim that Gonzaga is the nation's best team.

That's decided on the court, not by rankings, and I want to watch and enjoy games, not spend time thinking about votes and who's #1 in a poll.

That said, Gonzaga's performance tonight in the first half was stellar. 

I enjoyed it a lot.

3.  I also enjoyed partying with Debbie! I mixed Debbie some Buffalo Trace Bourbon with Cointreau and orange bitters, made myself a dry gin martini, and we gabbed about family stuff, our kids back east and their Thanksgiving plans, and had fun talking about how much we enjoyed living in Maryland with all of its variety, beauty, and complexity. Talking about Maryland came up because I had made a few nostalgic comments about life and friends in Eugene and that led us to talk about what a transformative decision it was when we decided to leave Eugene. Living in Maryland opened up experiences for us that were fun and stimulating, others that were difficult and frustrating in ways different than we'd ever known. How could I leave this conversation to return to a basketball game? Ha! I couldn't and before long we were not only talking about the past and our love of Maryland, but about the near future and what might lie ahead for our future enjoyment. 

Three Beautiful Things 11/22/2021: House Clean Up, Marcella Hazan Returns, A Nailbiter and Two Blow Outs

1. Today was a house cleaning day. Zoe washed woodwork for us. Debbie did a lot of cleaning and reorganizing in the kitchen. Debbie and I took down curtains and Debbie laundered and ironed them and we put them back up. I vacuumed. I also made a trip to the recycling bin at Jacobs Gulch and made a trip to the dump for Christy and me in her pickup. 

Debbie spearheaded an effort that was much more than spiffing up -- we got some detail work done in the house.

2. Debbie asked me to make "that pasta sauce with an onion in it" and so I made today's version of Marcella Hazan's tomato sauce. I combined diced tomatoes, a generous slab of butter, an onion cut into large pieces, red pepper flakes, dry basil, and dry oregano in a pot and and cooked it all slowly for at least an hour, maybe 90 minutes. It turned out great and I made a batch of spaghetti to pour the sauce over.

3. I watched the thrilling completion of Ohio State's last second win over Seton Hall, 79-76 and most of Oregon's demolition of Chaminade, 73-49. Even as Oregon cruised to its win, it was against an inferior opponent and I thought the Ducks, at times, looked out of sorts, not quite in synch as a team just yet. Coach Altman, as is annually the case, is working to mold together a team with a handful of returning players and a slew of transfers and it will be a while, I think, before the Ducks are playing their best basketball.

Is Gonzaga playing their best basketball? They lost 55% of their scoring from last year's team and Coach Few is working to figure out his team of elite freshmen, a few transfers, and a handful of returning players. 

Tonight's game was not helpful in assessing Gonzaga's progress. They played a struggling and far inferior Central Michigan University team and routed them, 107-54. CMU had no answer for Gonzaga's inside dominance. The Zags' defensive pressure confused and intimidated Central Michigan. My guess is that Coach Few would like to see his team shoot a better percentage from beyond the three point line and at the free throw stripe. The Zags shot just 28% from beyond the arc and converted just 58% of their free throws.

Neither stat mattered tonight. The Zags dominated CMU in every other way, but in their Tuesday, Nov. 23rd tilt against UCLA, it's possible that a poor showing from distance and mediocre free throw shooting could be a detriment. 

We'll see.

I'm hoping both UCLA, a team of highly experienced and elite players, and Gonzaga play as well as possible and that it's a highly competitive contest. That matters more to me than who wins. 

Three Beautiful Things 11-21-2120: Watching Villanova and Arizona, "The Fall Follies", Party at Radio Brewing

 1. Here are my two quick observations after watching some college basketball today. First, I'd like to know what Villanova Coach Jay Wright is thinking about the stamina of his starting five and sixth man Caleb Daniels. These six players played all but five minutes of the Wildcats strenuous game against Purdue and, just like on November 12th against UCLA, Villanova lost a double digit lead in the latter stages of the second half and lost the game. Today Purdue defeated Villanova, 80-74. Villanova's players showed signs of fatigue in their errant late game shooting from the floor and by missing free throws.  The always reliable Collin Gillespie made a costly mental and physical error late in the game, making an ill-advised crosscourt pass that a Purdue player intercepted and dunked. 

Now, yes, Purdue has a superb team, make no mistake. It appeared to me that the difference in team depth marked a key difference between them and Villanova today. As the game entered its final minutes, Purdue was fresher and springier and bolted by Villanova for their great win. 

My second observation is that Arizona made a very good choice when the school hired longtime Zag assistant coach Tommy Lloyd to be their head coach. Lloyd inherited a talented Arizona team and had them playing together very well today. Arizona overpowered and crushed the highly touted Michigan Wolverines, 80-62.

2. Debbie and I got all gussied up and went to Wallace to watch Carol and Paul and the rest of the cast perform in a musical revue Paul composed called, "The Fall Follies". Paul dramatized himself as having been summoned by the ghost of one of the founders of the Sixth Street Melodrama, Sherrill Grounds, to put on a show paying tribute to the Ziegfeld Follies. Paul served as the Master of Ceremonies and was our teacher, in a way, providing information about the Ziegfeld Follies and also introducing a series of songs, three Will Rogers sketches, and an excerpt from the Fannie Bryce's radio program, The Baby Snooks Show.

I enjoyed listening to so many tried and true songs. Some of them made me think back to the "Follow the Bouncing Ball" cartoons we used to watch on television as kids. Watching Joy Persoon perform transported me back to our choir days together at North Idaho College and while I was enjoying watching and listening to her in the present, I also indulged in some warm memories of choir and Cardinal Chorale performances. I also enjoyed how the audience responded -- many laughs, enthusiastic applause, and great appreciation toward the end of the cast when the cast broke into "God Bless America" and audience members stood and joined in.

3. Originally, Debbie and I were going to the home of Pulaski Porter, the City Limits Pub and Grill, and have a beer and something to eat.

We changed our minds.

We drove back to Kellogg and dropped in at Radio Brewing. 

Radio has some lighter food to eat and that's what we were in the mood for and, as a bonus, Molly Roberts was working this evening.

We had a great party at Radio Brewing. I took a rare day off of the SAVE THE PORTER campaign and truly, madly, deeply enjoyed Radio's perfectly balanced IPA, the 43 is For Me, a satisfying ale brewed with all Idaho hops. I hadn't enjoyed a pint (or two and a half) of good old American/West Coast IPA for a while and this one really hit the spot this afternoon. 

So did our bite to eat: it was warmed pita bread with stuff to put on it I'd never heard of before and since Radio's current menu isn't posted on line, I can't tell you the name of it. All I can say is that it was perfect.

So was shooting the breeze with Molly, having a visit with Mike Pierce, and listening to the somewhat random songs that came over the Cake station on Pandora. 

Three Beautiful Things 11/20/2021: Happy Birthday to Paul!, Party #2 Back Home, I Haven't Been Everywhere

1. The high point of our Saturday occurred at Carol and Paul's house. Molly, Zoe, and Cosette combined their efforts to make a most delicious birthday dinner for Paul. The dinner featured a lemon-y shrimp and clam pasta dish, supported by a tasty fresh green salad and plenty of toasted and seasoned bread. After dinner, we moved to the living room where Paul fulfilled a birthday wish by joining together with his daughters to sing and perform a Ray Charles song, "I Got a Woman", addressed to Carol. We topped off the night with a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting made from scratch. We had a houseful! Cosette, Taylor, Saphire, Zoe, and Molly were at the table along with Laurie Roberts, Christy, Debbie, Paul, Carol, and me.  

2. Back home after dinner, Debbie and I did what I enjoy most: we split a couple 12 oz cans of craft beer. We started with Grand Teton of Victor, Idaho's Black Cauldron Imperial Stout, a smooth slightly coffee forward stout with subtle tastes of chocolate and dried fruit. The beer weighed in at 9.5% ABV. Its rich taste and plentiful alcohol content made me glad that I only drank 6 oz of it.

Next, Debbie popped open a can of Myopia, a Hazy IPA from Sawtooth Brewery in Hailey, ID. 

My approach to beer drinking was summarized by Stephen Stills in his song, "Love the One You're With". I do all in my power not to compare beers to one another, but to love the one I'm drinking at any given time. 

Now, as hard as I try to be faithful to this principle, the one style of beer that challenges me the most not to make comparisons is the Hazy (or New England) IPA and it's because of the dreamy, transformative magic carpet ride of awesome NEIPAs I have enjoyed in New York. Debbie and I got to talking about the various Hazy IPA bombs we loved at District 96 in New City, NY. We rhapsodized about the tall cans of juicy hazy splendor brewed by Industrial Arts of Garnerville, NY and that Debbie could buy in Valley Cottage at the nearby Foodtown Grocery. I had nearly hallucinatory dreams of the pleasure I've experienced drinking Softly Spoken Magic Spells from SingleCut in Queens, NY.  

I succeeded. 

After those memories of blissful New York Hazy IPAs washed over me, I drank from my six ounce glass of Myopia Hazy IPA from Sawtooth Brewery and I loved the one I was with. The Myopia was refreshing and pleasing. I didn't need it to be a knockout. It satisfied my enjoyment of citrus flavors, a hint of straw (or grass), and a pleasing bitterness at the finish. 

Debbie also enjoyed both of these beers and they both enhanced the fun and pleasure of our living room party and wide-ranging conversation tonight.

3. At Paul's birthday party, Laurie, Paul's sister, told us that she presents her students with a weekly trivia question about herself and she awards the winner with a gift card from a coffee shop. For example, recently, she asked her students, "What two concerts did Miss Roberts attend in the last month?" (The answer: James Taylor [with Jackson Browne] and Amy Grant.) 

She also asked her students to guess how many states in the USA she had been to. 

This got me thinking about how many states I've been to. I'm not sure whether to count Arizona. I think I flew into Phoenix once on my way to somewhere else.  I've been through Nevada and Utah on Amtrack, but I haven't actually set foot in either state. The states I know I haven't been to are easier to list: Alaska, Hawaii, Maine, Florida, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, and Oklahoma.  

I do not plan on visiting all fifty states in my lifetime, but I can imagine making my first ever visit to some of the other states on this list in the upcoming years. 

Three Beautiful Things 11/19/2021: Good Kidney News and a Roundup, Debbie and I Spilt a PORTER, Solid Bar Talk BONUS: A Limerick by Stu

 1. My visit with kidney doctor Dr. Scott Bieber today was, as I thought it would be, short and enjoyable. After he asked me a few questions (any problems? short of breath? urinating okay?) and after listening to my lungs and heart and checking my lower legs for swelling (all good), he said, "Let's look at your labs." 

I knew Dr. Bieber would be pleased with my blood work, but I wasn't expecting him to say what he did. Here is an approximate quotation: "When I first saw you a couple of years ago, I thought for sure that by now you'd be on dialysis or be transplanted. I couldn't be happier with these labs. Your kidney function has actually improved since I last saw you. Your kidneys are really doing their job."

From reading my lab results on Tuesday, I knew my filtration numbers were better and I knew that all my other numbers were in range. 

We talked a bit about my slightly high blood pressure, but decided to leave my medication where it's at. 

Dr. Bieber decided that he'd like me to do blood work again in three months, but that he didn't need to see me in person and that if he saw any problems we'd talk over the telephone.

He wants to see me in May and I'll have more blood work done for that visit. 

So, a quick roundup, just to put this all in some perspective. 

I had a complete physical exam back in December of 2004 and found out that I had a non-symptomatic kidney disease. At that time, my kidney function was around 24 or 25%. There are five stages of kidney disease and I found out I was squarely in the severe range, but the good news, nearly eighteen years ago, was that I was a fairly young person and that the type of disease I have progresses slowly.

The disease has, indeed, progressed slowly and it's not progressed in a linear fashion. My kidney function numbers have gone down and come back up again. I had thought for years that they could only go down. 

Two years ago, when my kidney function was at 12% -- the numbers say kidney failure begins at 15% --, I figured, and so did Dr. Bieber, that dialysis wasn't far down the road and that a transplant loomed ahead. At the same time, though, because I was feeling so good, Dr. Bieber agreed with me that I should turn down an organ offer (which I did) and this led to me asking to put on the transplant's inactive list. 

I hope you caught this detail. The one constant throughout this time of kidney disease is that I've felt great. I've continued to experience no symptoms. No metallic taste in my mouth. No shortness of breath. No fatigue. As I've written 1,000 times on this blog, if it weren't for what we see in my blood work, I'd never know I had kidney disease.

This week, I had bloodwork done on Monday, Nov. 15th and my kidney function improved to 16%. That places me out of the kidney failure range and back to the severe kidney range. 

So, for whatever reason, here I am, closing in on 18 years since my original diagnosis. My kidneys are diseased but stable. They are making superb use of the limited function they have remaining. I am still on the inactive list for a kidney transplant. 

I chalk this good fortune up to the fact that I haven't developed any accompanying diseases. I'm not diabetic. My heart is doing well. I have, so far, not contracted Covid-19. Back in 2009, when I was hospitalized with pneumonia and c-diff, my kidney function fell by about seven points. I know how other diseases can affect my kidney function. But, back then, I recovered that function --- largely via hydration. My hope is that for as long as possible the rest of my system stays as healthy as possible and that my kidneys keep hanging in there, keep functioning in a reduced but stable manner. 

2. Debbie went to CdA today and made a quick stop at Pilgrim's and purchased several beers for us to split and sample. This afternoon, in order to help SAVE THE PORTER, we popped open a can of Cascade Lakes' Salted Caramel Porter, a fine beer out of Redmond, OR.

If a porter is going to be salted, flavored with caramel (or vanilla or other such flavors), my preference is that its presence is subtle. Debbie and I were happy with how subtle the salted caramel flavor was in this porter. When cold, we both thought the beer was a bit bitter at the finish, but as it warmed up in my glass, the beer's maltiness emerged and the bitterness receded. We both enjoyed this beer and I would definitely purchase it again.

3. Debbie and I were unsure what we'd do late this afternoon and on into the evening, but, around 3:00 or so, Ed texted me and wondered if we'd like to go to the Elks Club for burgers. We did and had a fun time yakking with Ed and enjoying the perfectly sized and perfectly cooked burgers off of Keith Greene's grill. We joined Ed and crossed the street and went to The Lounge. I didn't think we would stay long. Cas greeted me as I entered and immediately apprised of some bad news. He had a breakdown and couldn't keep his kegs cool until the repair guy came later in the week. Therefore, I would not be able to help SAVE THE PORTER.

I took his news well and ordered a Miller High Life, the Champagne of Bottled Beers, and yakked with Cas, Tracy, Debbie, and Ed for a while. After a beer, Ed had to leave and I thought Debbie and I might leave then, too, but it turned out that having some time alone together at that moment was great for Debbie and me. It gave us a chance to talk more about my kidney situation and to look ahead and start sketching some very tentative plans for the future. 

Debbie and I have a long history of good conversations over adult beverages at the bar or in taprooms -- we worked out much of life over about four years time at Eugene's Billy Mac's, 16 Tons, and Cornucopia, Beltsvilles's Old Line Bistro, and DC Brau just over the Maryland/DC border. We didn't exactly work anything out once and for all at The Lounge this early evening, but it was just the right time to have a little time to ourselves and get started on some conversations that are certain to continue over the next several weeks. 

Here's a limerick by Stu: 

Wear checks and stripes on this day. 

Have white wine with your Mignon Filet. 

Argue merits of “lazy”, 

While on cartoons heap praisy! 

And when traveling pick roundabout way. 

Absurdity Day

Three Beautiful Things 11/18/2021: Labor History Over 100 Years Ago, Big Basketball Day for the Big East, Talking About Writing

1. I settled back into another chunk of The Cold Millions. I augmented the pleasure of reading this book not only by having Copper at my side, but by playing the SiriusXM channel, "Symphony Hall" while I read. I imagined that the various sounds of Mozart, John Williams, Back, and other composers helped easy Copper's anxiety, but I doubt I could prove that in any empirical way. So far, The Cold Millions is absorbing my interest. Its early chapters portray the cruel lengths the Spokane police went to in order to  suppress and punish labor unions, especially the IWW, for organizing in the Inland Empire. I'll leave it at that until I read more pages and chapters, but I can say that so far Jess Walter adroitly combines social history with a family story in a way that had me thinking I might enjoy reading another Charles Dickens novel sometime in the next several months.

2. I didn't watch a lot of DePaul's victory over Rutgers last night -- I want to read more about it -- but I watched the entirety of Xavier's thrilling victory over Ohio State. Yes, I admit, the Xavier/Ohio State game was, at times, a bit ragged with too many turnovers and other mistakes, but somehow for me that didn't take away from my enjoyment of the game's intensity and Xavier's steely determination to defend its lead, which it held from the beginning of the game to the end.

Xavier played this game without the injured Zachary Freemantle, a 6' 10" inside player who can stretch defenses with a sound outside shot. His replacement, Dionte Miles, played few minutes because right off the bat, he got into foul trouble. Enter Jack Nunge. Nunge transferred to Xavier from Iowa where he backed up last season's national player of the year, Luka Garza, but suffered injury to his knee(s) and missed the later stages of the season.

Tonight, despite his wobbly knee(s), Nunge came off the bench and played superbly, scoring 14 points, an   pulling down 14 rebounds, and blocking two shots. I was particularly impressed with how he managed his energy. His knee problems have kept him from getting into tip top playing condition and he played many more minutes than planned. He looked gassed a few times, especially at the free throw line, but, at the line, he slowed himself down, took deep breaths, collected himself, fought through the fatigue, and made a couple of especially crucial free throws late in the game.

So, Nunge made a might impact on this game. For much of the contest, though, Xavier team leader and scoring leader, Paul Scruggs was quiet. In the game's last 2:43 he burst to life, scoring ten points on two layups, four free throws, and, with 32 seconds left, a thunderous dunk over two Buckeyes. Scruggs is a very experienced player and knows what closing out a victory requires. Tonight, he was the ultimate finisher, taking charge of the game's final minutes, preserving Xavier's 71-65 victory.

The Gavitt Tipoff concluded with DePaul's win over Rutgers. The Big East Conference teams won six of the eight games played between their conference and the Big Ten. 

From what I saw, when Big East conference play gets underway in January, the action and the competition will be fierce and intense. I can hardly wait.

3. Debbie went with Christy to Diane's house for the monthly meeting of the Corner Book Club. After the book club dispersed, Christy and Debbie stayed around for a while and when it was time for Christy to head home, Debbie stayed behind to hang out longer with Diane.

Early in the evening, with Christy at home, Debbie texted me for a ride home and I dashed up to Diane's and they invited me into their conversation about writing and about Diane starting to write some stories about her experiences growing up.

Debbie and I talk about writing from time to time and it was fun joining forces to encourage Diane to keep at it, to get her stories down, and to tell her to tell the voices of perfectionism inside her head to shut up. 

Our conversation reawakened me to how much my writing instruction at LCC centered around trying to encourage positive attitudes in my students about writing, how much more my writing instruction was informed by books like The Tao de Jing, Thich Nhat Hanh's Being Peace, and Robert Grudin's On Dialogue than by the composition textbooks and books about how to write that, I think, were supposed to guide my instruction. 

Three Beautiful Things 11/17/2021: Copper Presses Against My Waist, College Basketball Roundup, Rum and Beans

 1. I'm having a good time time traveling back to days in Spokane over a century ago while reading Jess Walter's book, The Cold Millions. I'm not very far into it, but, so far, Walter creates a vivid picture of the cruelty of law enforcement in support of companies opposed to union organizing in the Spokane area. 

This afternoon, I took the book into the bedroom where Copper was resting and much to my surprise and delight, Copper pressed himself against me while I lay down to read. Usually, Copper maintains some degree of distance from me, but, for some reason, today he wanted contact beyond my regular sessions petting him. I hope it made him feel good. It sure made me happy.

2. I tuned into three basketball games late this afternoon and on into the evening. The injury depleted and ragged Butler Bulldogs were no match for Michigan State and Sparty thumped them, 73-52.

Byrdman sent me text message alert that my former home team (ha!), the Maryland Terrapins were on the Big 10 Network playing George Mason. Like many men's college basketball teams, Maryland is reforming its team from a year ago. The solid Eric Ayala and Donta Scott are back from last year's team, but the rest of the squad looked unsettled to me. Former Georgetown center, Qudus Wahab, transferred to Maryland and I have high hopes for how he might help the Terps, but tonight it was apparent that he's not settled in. I hope as the season progresses, he and the coaching staff will figure out his role and how they want him to contribute. I saw him make mighty plays at Georgetown and would love to see him do the same at Maryland. 

Maryland's opponent, George Mason, simply looked more ready to play together at this early point in the season and established leads they never surrendered. Maryland pushed back, but could never secure a lead and, in the end, George Mason defeated the Terps, 71-66. 

If you've been reading this blog over the last few basketball seasons, you know that during the 2018-19 season, I became a fan of the St. John's Red Storm -- the Johnnies. 

They had a high flying, unpredictable team that year and were coached by Johnnies legend Chris Mullin.

Mullin resigned at the end of that season, but I stuck with the Johnnies, just for the heck of it.

Tonight, the Johnnies played Indiana in the Gavitt Tipoff.

St. John's coach, Mike Anderson, a disciple of Nolan Richardson, insists that his teams play a belter skelter style of basketball. Defensively, they press their opponents non-stop from baseline to baseline, they look to turn their opponents over and score easy baskets in the open court, and, when they set up their offense, they rely a lot on letting shots fly from beyond the three point line and then crash the offensive boards.

St. John's style is entertaining for viewers and frustrating for opponents.

Well, tonight, St. John's shots weren't falling early on and Indiana jumped to an early lead, extending it to as many as 14 points.

St. John's battled back, though. Their defense began to frustrate Indiana and St. John's team leader and superb shooter, Julian Champagnie, heated up and St. John's relentlessly kept coming back, coming back, but could never secure a lead. Indiana made several clutch shots and their defense stymied St. John's final possession and the Hoosiers won this contest, 76-74. 

Last point: the Indiana Hoosier's men's basketball program won three national championships under Coach Bob Knight. They won their last title 34 years ago, in 1987. 

Indiana University dismissed Bob Knight from his job in 2000 because Knight couldn't or wouldn't control his volatile and bullying behavior.

Knight's success combined with the Indiana faithful's long boiling anger over Knight's dismissal has made the Indiana coaching job difficult, bordering on impossible, because supporters of the program are so hungry to return to the success Knight achieved, especially between 1975 and 1987. 

Former Knight player, Mike Woodson, was hired in the off season to replace Archie Miller. Woodson played for Bob Knight from 1976-80. He's Indiana's fifth men's basketball coach since Bob Knight's dismissal. He's a member of the Bob Knight basketball family tree and I think a certain number of Hoosier fans want to believe that hiring a former Bob Knight player might restore some of the success the Hoosiers enjoyed in their Bob Knight heyday back in the 1970s and 1980s.

Tonight, I thought the Hoosiers looked well-coached and I'm curious to see whether hiring Mike Woodson turns out to be a good decision or whether, in time, his tenure will end because he didn't bring the Bob Knight glory days back to Bloomington, IN.

3. After the basketball games ended, Debbie and I had a hot buttered rum party. 

We talked a lot about beans.

We talked about beans as a staple for the kind of dinners we enjoy.

We talked about beans as a healthy option for treating my kidneys well.

I talked -- possibly too much -- about how important beans were to me when I lived alone as a graduate student on a limited income and how good it made me feel to cook a lot of really good food without spending a lot of money because I cooked and ate a lot of beans: black beans, pinto beans, kidney beans, cranberry beans, garbanzo beans, navy beans, and more. 

Hot buttered rum and bean talk: PARTY ON!

Three Beautiful Things 11/16/2021: Kidney Week's Good News, Creighton and Seton Hall Win!, The Ducks and the Tao

1. LabCorp posted the results of my Monday lab work today. One year ago, my kidney function was at 12%. Today it was 16%, the best it's been for quite a while. My other numbers, aside from BUN and creatinine, which are always out of range, were also in range. Conclusion? When I see Dr. Bieber on Friday, we'll talk about how my kidneys are doing their job despite a low percentage of function. I'll remain inactive on the transplant list. The best news I can have is that things are stable -- and, for now, once again, things are stable.

2. I've written before that I enjoy college basketball in November because it's a chance to see how teams have restocked their teams, how returning players have matured (or not), and how different teams are performing at this early stage of the season.

I watched quite a bit of today's two Big 10/Big East matchups in the Gavitt Tipoff. 

Most of my focus was on the Big East teams. I watch a lot of their games once the conference season begins. I was very interested to see how Creighton would look. All five of their starters either graduated, went pro early, or transferred. Well, the new players and the returning players who came off the bench a year ago seemed very comfortable for much of the game tonight with Coach Greg McDermott's "let it fly" philosophy of basketball. Creighton screamed to a nearly 20 point lead over Nebraska by midway through the first half, but Nebraska roared back, never took the lead, but made the game competitive and exciting to the end.  Creighton won the game, 77-69. 

Two players from Creighton stood out to me: freshman point guard Ryan Nembhart (younger brother of the Zags' Anderew Nembhart) and a super senior transfer from Division II national champions, Northwest Missouri State, Ryan Hawkins. Nembhart is quick and a sharp shooter. Yes, he turned the ball over a bit too much, but Coach McDermott trusts Nembhart will clean that up. He looks like a solid leader at the point. Hawkins bring maturity, experience, and a knack for making big shots and making great plays on defense. He's already made the transition adeptly to Division I level basketball and will be a source of stability and production for Creighton going forward. 

After his Seton Hall squad staged and late game comeback and clipped the Michigan Wolverines, 67-65, Coach Kevin Willard told the studio analysts at FS1 that he thought his team's offense had work to do, but that he's very pleased, at this point in the season with his team's defensive effort. 

I kept thinking how Seton Hall, Creighton, Marquette, and Providence have all won their Gavitt tipoff games. The Big Ten hasn't one one of these cross conference tilts yet. I don't know what this says about the Big 10, but I am eager for the Big East season to get underway in January. It looks like it will be an exciting and competitive conference once again. 

3. It was a bad night for the Oregon Ducks. Brigham Young crushed the Ducks, 81-49. The Ducks had a terrible shooting night and their defense had no answer for Brigham Young's talented scorers. The only comfort I could take from the game is knowing that in past seasons Dana Altman's Duck teams have sometimes started slowly -- they have several new players to work into their system every year. My guess is that Altman will be steamed this week in practice and the team will be put through some rigorous paces. We'll see how this squad responds.

For most of the game, I had the television on mute because tonight was Bill Davie's 65th Tree House Concert. All of us in the virtual audience were totally supportive of Bill's announcement that he is taking some time off from giving these concerts so that he can focus his energy on writing new songs. 

Bill was on top of his music tonight and performed an energetic, splendid concert. I not only enjoyed the songs a lot, but also enjoyed that he read from Ursula K. LeGuin's translation of the Tao Te Ching. In fact, I was so transported by Le Guin's take on the Tao that I didn't listen very well to Bill's reading of Linda Gregg's poetry -- but, then, that's the impact the Tao often has on me.  

Three Beautiful Things 11/15/2021: Strong Winds, Kidney Week, Big 10/Big East

 1. High winds yowled and whistled this afternoon and evening. People throughout the North Idaho and Eastern Washington region lost their power, but in our home, our lights and heat stayed on. 

2. I kicked off another kidney week today by having blood drawn and producing a urine sample at the clinic. I'll get the results online before I meet my Friday appointment with Dr. Bieber. I hope my blood test results are as stable as how I've been feeling.

3. I see where Gonzaga flew past an inferior opponent, Alcorn State, 84-57 tonight. I didn't watch any of the game because I was engrossed by two games in this week's Gavitt Tipoff series. This week long affair matches eight teams from the Big Ten Conference with eight teams from the Big East. Over the last couple of seasons, I've watched a lot of games involving these two conferences and tonight I was eager to see how Marquette would match up against Illinois and Providence against Wisconsin.

The Marquette/Illinois game was often ragged, marred by a lot of turnovers, many of them unforced. But, as it turned out, this ragged play created its own kind of excitement. Thanks in large part to Illinois' sloppy ball-handling combined with Marquette's full court pressure defense, Marquette roared from twelve points down in the second half of play and upset Illinois 67-66. 

Although I couldn't avert my eyes as Illinois, especially guard Andre Curbelo, frittered their lead away with careless play, my main focus in this game was on Marquette. I wanted to see how the players were responding to their new coach, Shaka Smart. Last year, Marquette freshman, Justin Lewis caught my attention with some solid play and I wanted to see how he had developed from last year to this one. Lastly, I'd enjoyed Darryl Morsell play at Maryland the last few seasons and now he's playing for Marquette. I wondered how he would contribute to his new team. 

I thought the Marquette players enjoyed playing the Shaka Smart's high pressure style of basketball. Justin Lewis is more muscular and mature than he was a year ago and looked really good. Last year, Darryl Morsell was primarily a defensive stopper for Maryland and was named the Big Ten's Defensive Player of the Year. With Marquette, though, he's also a scorer and I enjoyed seeing him score 21 points and learning that he's scored twenty or more in all of Marquette's early season games.

In the second game, Providence relied for much of the contest on the inside prowess of Nate Watson and complimented his inside scoring with decent outside shooting and solid defense. I very much enjoyed watching the Friars defeat Wisconsin, 63-58. 

I hung around the Vizio as postgame coverage got underway and FS1 rewarded its viewers with the in studio guys interviewing Providence coach, Ed Cooley. Cooley was, as always, generous, affable, and open to sharing his insights about his team and how he's coaching them to play this season. He's one of my very favorite coaches in all of college basketball. 

Three Beautiful Things 11/14/2021: Babes with Axes Night, Power Outage Cuts ZOOM Short, Back to DI Jack Frost

 1. Meagan and Patrick arrived safely in Portland today after leaving Kellogg between 11 o'clock and noon. I'm not sure how the winds were in the Columbia Gorge, but Patrick reported, as they left Washington and entered Oregon, that it had been windy up to that point.  

Late Saturday night and on into early Sunday morning, our living room became a Babes with Axes performance hall, thanks to the two Babes with Axes live albums available at the bandcamp website. Over the years, Patrick has paid special attention to Babes with Axes' musicality, their harmonies, chord progressions, and arrangements of one another's songs. He also has significant emotional investment in this music.  Babes with Axes most prolific time making music and performing occurred when Patrick was a little kid and he loved that Debbie, his very own mother, was in such a superb band that not only played terrific music, but played to enthusiastic crowds that loved their music and the performance art aspects of their shows.

Our living room concert Saturday night/Sunday morning also got Debbie charged up as she reveled in how great those albums sound, how musically brilliant they are, talked about the way the band "Babe-i-fied" one another's songs, and explained the futility of trying to confine Babes with Axes to any genre of music, to describe them in any single way. 

I enjoyed some great memories, too. I went to the very first Babes with Axes show back December 2, 1993 and thought about memorable shows they performed after Debbie and I got together twenty-four years ago. I was transported to the WOW Hall, the Willamette Folk Festival, Sam Bond's Garage, and, most strongly, back to the two WOW Hall reunion shows -- the first in March of 2014, a few months before we moved to Portland, and the second in July of 2017, just a couple of months before we moved to Kellogg. 

2.  Bill, Diane, and I jumped on Zoom at 2:00 this afternoon to discuss Episode 3 of the first season of The Hollow Crown. We were having a great time talking about the chaos and confusion portrayed in the early part of the play, the way the tavern/brothel world was so much darker, shot through with infection and disease, and how in mirrored the corruption in King Henry IV's court. I think we all agreed that the play's dramatic power peaked during the Henry IV deathbed scene, as father and son, Henry IV and Hal, come to a final reckoning with one another. Hal ascends to the throne and then he must come to a second reckoning with his metaphorical father, the Lord of Misrule, Falstaff. We discussed the emotional complications of this reckoning and were in the midst of talking about the great acting in The Hollow Crown and discussing other Shakespeare productions on film and other superb actors when the power went out in Kellogg. I was able to text Bill and Diane the news of what happened. We were unable to resume our discussion when the power returned about an hour later. I look forward to our next Zoom meeting when we can review this discussion with those who couldn't make it today, move on to discussing the last episode of The Hollow Crown, and find out how everyone is doing. 

3. The power came back on. I decided I'd like to watch Episode 2 of the Season 12 of A Touch of Frost. The central plot focused on two murders associated with a ring of people trafficking in exotic and often endangered animals. The human dimension of this story was grisly, but watching a story about animals being exploited and put in further danger was almost more than I could bear. The parallel plot involving the death of a man in a bed and a house not his own was not nearly as gruesome and, as is often the case in A Touch of Frost, scenes from Frost's clumsy private life lightened the otherwise grim content of this episode. 

Three Beautiful Things 11/13/2021: Family Muffin Morning, Green Curry Dinner, Zags Defeat Texas -- and Some Thoughts

 1. Our family had a more active morning than usual today. It turned out that if Meagan and Patrick were going to see Christy, Paul, and Carol (and see Molly again), the best time to do it was around 10:30 this morning. In preparation for our late morning get together, I bought some muffins and blueberry bread slices at Yoke's and purchased a third coffee filter cone since we use the pour over method. 

Everyone arrived and before long we each had a cup of coffee and a sweet bite in hand and conversation swirled around the living room. Because I don't get out much in Kellogg, I don't always know much about what's going on around town -- what's going in at the Stein's building? When will the Broken Wheel reopen? What new businesses opened uptown? Etc. Christy and Carol, however, have sources of local information and this morning I learned quite a bit about different changes afoot in Kellogg Idaho. I hear a Grocery Outlet is coming to Smelterville. A gun and ammo shop opened on Main St. A shop focused on skiing and snowboarding opened on McKinley. A commercial bakery specializing in Russian goods will start operating a distribution center (I think) in the Stein's building. A soap making enterprise will operate on E. Cameron -- or is it already in business? I don't know. 

2. Later in the afternoon, Debbie asked me if I'd make some Thai curry. I leaped at the chance. Debbie requested green curry. I started by heating up curry paste in some sesame oil and then added two cans of coconut milk, and two tablespoons each of fish sauce, soy sauce, and brown sugar. I filled out the curry sauce with a chopped yellow onion, a handful of frozen green beans, some mushrooms chopped, about four or five dried Kaffir Lime leaves, chopped cilantro, and chopped basil. While this sauce cooked, I chopped up boneless chicken thighs and sautéed them in sesame oil and added them to the sauce. I added a handful of peanuts, too. Earlier, I'd made a pretty good sized batch of rice.

Dinner was a success. 

I was especially happy with the combination of flavors created by the undertones of brown sugar, the heat of the chilis in the paste, the saltiness of the soy and fish sauces, and the citrus flavor of the Kaffir Lime leaves,  The crunchiness of the peanuts enhanced our green curry's texture. 

3. Tonight, Gonzaga hosted the University of Texas. The latest polls ranked the Zags as the number 1 team in the country and Texas was ranked 5th. 

I was eager to see this game. I knew Gonzaga's offense would be anchored by two returning veteran players,  Drew Timme and Andrew Nembard. I was curious how, at this early stage of the season, the new players, both transfers and freshmen, would be integrated into the team. 

Likewise, Texas had a lot of turnover on their team from a year ago with several players transferring into their program and Texas has a new head coach, Chris Beard. 

Gonzaga jumped into the lead right away and built that lead to 20 at halftime, thanks to a half court heave that Rasir Bolton made at the buzzer.  Texas played better in the second half and whittled the lead down to 11 at one point, but Gonzaga prevailed, 86-74.

My handful of observations. I'm not afraid to state the obvious in what I write here.  I'd like a record of this game and I'm not that capable of subtle insight.

• Neither Texas nor Gonzaga has jelled as a well-defined team. This is to be expected. The season has barely started. Texas is stocked with new, experienced transfer players who are figuring each other out and being figured out by Coach Chris Beard. Likewise, Gonzaga has a host of new players -- they lost three starters from a year ago -- and it's clear to me that Coach Mark Few is in the process of working out what combinations of players work best, what players will come off the bench when, and what each player's role is.
• Well, one player's role, in particular, for Gonzaga doesn't need to be worked out much. As the team's most experienced player and most accomplished offensive player, Drew Timme is the player around whom the Zag offense is built. Defensively, Texas had no answer for Timme's touch shots inside, his moves to the basket, or his ability to draw fouls. Tonight Timme scored 37 points. He put up 19 shots, converted 15 of them and made 7 of 9 free throws. I wondered if, as this team jells, the team scoring will become more balanced. Bolton added 16 points and Anton Watson scored 10. No other Zags were in double figures. I think as the Zags' get more playing time with each other and as Mark Few establishes players' roles and substituting patterns more definitively, the scoring load will, in time, get spread around.
• A standard bench mark for excellent shooting from the three point line is a team making 40% of their treys. Historically, teams have collectively shot three pointers at about a 34 to 36% rate. Tonight, the Zags fell short of the 40% bench mark, converting 7 of their 19 three point attempts for 36.8%. I'd call that an average night from behind the three point line. I'm going to keep an eye on this statistic as the season progresses. The Zags look strong in the paint. Tonight, from long range, they were average. Will this long range shooting improve? Will it matter? We'll see. (By the way, Bolton had a good night from long range, converting 4 of his 6 treys. No other Zag attempted more than 3.)
• I might be dead wrong, but I say look out for Texas come the winter. They have stellar players. They will have a big inside player, Dylan Disu, back from injury soon. (He might have made life more difficult for Drew Timme tonight, had he played.) Texas has an accomplished coach. These games in November and December are, yes, about winning, but they are also about teams figuring themselves out. Texas has a ways to go in figuring out how their many transfers and experienced players are going to play together and I think they will sort it out and be a very good team in the Big 12 Conference and in the NCAA tournament come March.

In fact, I kept thinking throughout this game that I hope there will be a rematch, in the NCAA tournament, between Texas and Gonzaga. I'd like to see these two teams play with about 25-30 games under their belts and see what happens. 

On Tuesday, November 23rd the Zags play UCLA. Between now and then they'll play three games against lesser opponents that will give them a chance to continue to sort out substituting patterns, players' roles, and getting more players than Timme and Bolton involved in scoring. 

    

But the UCLA game will be a most stout challenge. UCLA's best players from a year ago have  returned to play this season. My sense is that they are not figuring things out. They have a strong team identity, a first-rate coach, and superb players who are tough-minded, experienced, physical, and can score.

I think at this point in the season, the UCLA game will not only be a much tougher test for Gonzaga than Texas was, I think it promises to be one that will reveal just how good Gonzaga is and where their weaknesses lie. It promises to be a revealing game -- for those of you who are passionate Gonzaga fans, your hope will be that the revelations are positive. We'll see. 

Then, on Friday, November 26th, Gonzaga plays Duke. I watched much of the second half of Duke playing Kentucky on Tuesday and, while they are young, Duke looked very good. They also picked up transfer Theo John from Marquette in May and, if nothing else, John, while historically foul prone, will give Drew Timme a muscular, physical, experienced defender in the low post to contend with, something Texas just didn't have tonight. 

I hope you see from what I wrote here that, to me, November and December college basketball is largely about questions, about teams learning who they are. I suppose great teams who schedule lesser opponents this time of year benefit from those games, but I'm really happy that so many great programs like Duke, UCLA, Villanova, Gonzaga, Texas, and others are scheduling challenging pre-conference games and not exclusively padding their schedules with cupcakes. These early season games between titans has me fired up. 

Three Beautiful Things 11/12/2021: Relaxing at Home, DI Jack Frost Faces Challenges, Great Evening at The Lounge

 1. We had a relaxing day with Patrick and Meagan. Patrick had a video chat with someone at his workplace. Meagan and Debbie and Patrick spilled the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle onto our card table and they worked off and on on it. Patrick and Meagan went to Humdinger and brought food home. Meagan and Patrick took a late afternoon nap. Just relaxing, not asking much of ourselves was an enjoyable way to host Patrick and Meagan.

2. Because Copper and Luna spend much of the day in either the bedroom or the Vizio room, I always make an effort to spend time with them. I spent time lying down with Copper and then switched to the Vizio room and watched a taut episode of A Touch of Frost. It had been a while since I watched DI Jack Frost in action and I watched the first episode of Season 12. DI Frost was up against a serial killer whose pace of murder was picking up. As often happens, DI Frost also had to work with an outsider, an ambitious forensic psychologist with whom he had a very off and on professional relationship with. I found this episode compelling. The story lines were complex, the tension mounted, and the screenwriting was terrific. I'm happy I have quite a few more episodes of this show that I've never seen.

3. Shortly after 6 o'clock, Patrick, Meagan, Debbie, and I buzzed into the Inland Lounge. Soon after we arrived, Molly Roberts came in. The back room was empty and the youngsters sat at a table back there. I went to the bar to join Ed and Debbie soon joined us. It was a mellow night at The Lounge so I got to yak with Cas more than usual. During our stay, Kelly Edwards introduced himself to me and told me how much he enjoyed golfing with my dad. Later on, I yakked a bit with Harley and Candy and had a fun baseball conversation with Nathan, a guy who moved to Kellogg in the last few years and loves the Dodgers. 

I also helped SAVE THE PORTER! The Pulaski Porter was delicious. Nathan, not even knowing about my pretend campaign, also helped the cause and ordered porters for himself and his wife.

Upon arriving back home, knowing that we were all a little hungry, Debbie fixed us each a very tasty burrito (or was it a taco?) and we enjoyed our food while listening to a Steely Dan playlist that Patrick put on. 

Three Beautiful Things 11/11/2021: Preparing for Patrick and Meagan, My Eyes are Good, Meagan and Patrick Arrive

 1. Today promised to be good day. Patrick and Meagan took off from Portland around 11 o'clock to head up to see Debbie and me and Debbie and I made some preparations for their arrival. Debbie spiffed up the kitchen, especially, and did some reorganizing and she got the upstairs ready so Patrick and Meagan have a comfortable place to sleep. I stocked our liquor supply and purchased some essential groceries at Yoke's. 

2. Unrelated to Patrick and Meagan's visit, I had an eye exam today. I'd had vision problems during the summer fires and the Doctor Miller explained that artificial tears might have helped or an allergy eyedrops. I hope I remember that next year. I also had about six or seven days of weird block letters appearing before me in the mornings while we were driving across the country. It only last for about five minutes or so. The first day back, I made the appointment I met today and then that problem disappeared and has never returned. Doctor Miller explained some possible reasons why I had that experience and we were both relieved that when he examined me he found no damage to retina. We were also relieved that my morning psychedelic visions only lasted such a short time. 

In short, I should be good for another year before seeing Doctor Miller again.

3. Upon their arrival, Patrick, Meagan, Debbie, and I soon piled into the youngsters' auto and headed straight to Radio Brewing. 

I was happy that Meagan joined me to SAVE THE PORTER. It was also fun having our niece Molly as our server. We enjoyed our dinner. We launched into conversations about all kinds of things, returned to the house, and the conversations continued -- we talked about books, reading, family news, family history, and possibilities that lie ahead in all our lives. 

I'll repeat for the 50000000th time. I sure enjoy young people. I like old ones, my peers, too, but young people energize me and fascinate me in a unique way, especially, I'd say, since long ago I stopped thinking of myself as a source of wisdom or advice, shut my trap, and listened. 

That was sure the case tonight. 

Three Beautiful Things 11/10/2021: *The Hollow Crown*, ZOOM Prep, Christopher Foyle is Under Pressure

1. This coming Sunday, the Westminster Basement Study Group will discuss the brilliantly performed Episode 3 of the first season of The Hollow Crown, a condensed version of Shakespeare's Henry IV, part 2. 

Shakespeare manages a number of plot lines and explores several different aspects of the kingdom now that Henry IV is several years into his reign. For one, he focuses on disease. The tavern and brothel world of the play is shot through with illness and venereal disease and, in the court, King Henry's health is failing. The illness and disease works metaphorically as a way of exploring the general political illness of King Henry's kingdom, the infection of rebellion, and the decline of chivalry and honor.

Possibly the most important plot line explores Prince Hal's ascendancy to the throne and the father/son (and king/prince) relationship between Hal and King Henry. Prince Hal has also developed a figurative father/son relationship with Falstaff and this episode unfolds what Hal must do about Falstaff once he's coronated as king.

Lastly, the play explores the many dimensions of the crown (the hollow crown) itself. The play features one of Shakespeare's most famous lines, "Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown" and King Henry and Hal both ponder the great weight of power. For King Henry, the crown is akin to a cancer and Prince Hal ruminates upon what he's seen happen to his father as he nears the time he will assume the kingship.

2. To help us in our discussion of the play on Sunday, I posted some questions on our group's website. Since Patrick and Meagan will be visiting for a few days, I wanted to get this material up so I won't be trying to squeeze in this posting during their visit. 

3.  As is often the case, watching Shakespeare performed whet my appetite for more superb drama.

Because I'm not a binge watcher of programs, any number of shows are out there that I've never finished watching all the seasons and episodes. 

One of those programs is Foyle's War. 

I just checked on this blog, and I watched the first episode of Season 1 of Foyle's War over six years ago in June of 2015. 

Tonight, I watched the Episode 4 of Season 4 -- ha! I guess you'd call that whatever the opposite of binge watching is -- it's taken me over six years to watch four seasons of Foyle's War.

I like this slow approach. I like knowing I haven't watched everything and that, for the time being, there are always more episodes to turn to.

This episode's storyline had several threads, all skillfully developed.

Christopher Foyle's goddaughter, whom he hadn't seen in ten years, shows up at his front door with a mute child of about eight years old. Foyle and Milner are trying to break a gambling ring in the area. Up and down the coast, different installations in support of the war have been sabotaged. A murder occurs in a top secret laboratory. 

Foyle has his hands full and, to make matters more complicated, a commissioner of the police force is breathing down his neck.

I enhanced my viewing pleasure by mixing myself two hot buttered rums, very simple ones. I mixed rum, butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon together and the drinks were perfectly warming, a little bit sweet, and paired perfectly with Christopher Foyle's efforts to maintain law and order in Hastings, Sussex, England as WWII complicates everything. 

Three Beautiful Things 11/09/2021: Progress at Christy's, Fun College Basketball Day, Zags Wallop Dixie State

1. This morning, I strolled over to Christy's. On Monday, Paul and I had loaded Christy's pickup with stuff to go to the transfer station and I took it out there. It was wet out, a light rain, a bit raw. It was a perfect time to go to the dump. I pretty much had the place to myself! I returned, loaded Christy's bins of garden debris in the truck, hauled it back to the transfer station, and dumped it in their huge compost bin. Back in town, I picked up Paul and we loaded up some lumber and other odds and ends at Christy's that were his and transported them to his and Carol's house where we unloaded them.

I enjoy reducing the amount of stuff that's no longer of use, whether it's in our house or someone else's. I was happy to help Christy move forward in her ongoing effort to do some fall cleaning and clearing, both in her garden beds and around her yard, in her garage, and in her house. 

We all chipped in and helped lighten Christy's load some more.

2. Back home, I settled in to watch some college basketball. I sure enjoyed seeing Villanova open their season, even if it was against a lesser opponent, Mt. St. Mary's (of Maryland). But, because of the pandemic, last year's seniors had the option to play an extra year, and so two longtime Villanova veterans are back, Collin Gillespie and Jermaine Samuels, as is their true junior, Justin Moore. Villanova crushed Mt. St. Mary's, 91-51.

I look forward to a very competitive, intriguing college basketball season. Since last season ended, players were free to transfer to new teams without having to sit out a year. All seniors were offered an extra year of eligibility. Teams are loaded with new transfer players with a lot of experience and other experienced players decided to stick around and play another year of college ball past their traditional senior year. 

I can't remember the last time a college basketball season promised such a mixture of older players and stunning freshman talent. It'll be fun to see how it all plays out between now and April.

3. I went over to Christy's and watched Gonzaga wallop the Dixie State Trailblazers of St. George, Utah (a Western Athletic Conference team), 97-63. 

I'd like to say that tonight's game gave me a clear picture of what we might expect from the Zags this season, but it didn't.

As happens in these early season mismatches, the Zags were using this game to try out combinations of players, to give several players on the team playing time, and to try out different things on offense and defense. 

I will probably be preoccupied on Saturday with Patrick and Meagan's Thurs-Sun visit and will miss the game when the Zags play the very talented and experienced Texas Longhorns. Texas hired a very good head coach, Chris Beard, in the off season and some superb older players transferred to Texas: Marcus Carr, Timmy Allen, Christian Bishop, and Tre Mitchell are some examples. My guess is that with all these new players and a new coach,  Texas will be trying to find its identity as a team, just like the Zags are with their new players and with the loss of last year's guys who are now in the NBA. But, it should be an awesome game and a great test for both teams. 

Three Beautiful Things 11/08/2021: Union Coffee and Scone, Getting Ready for Winter, MTV Family Dinner at Radio

 1.  I drove the Sube over to Coeur d'Alene today for basic six month servicing and arrived in town about 30 minutes early for my appointment. I decided to drive west on Hanley, past the auto repair garage, wondering if I might discover a coffee shop. I drove as far as Ramsey Road and, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a Union Coffee store in a tiny mall just north of Hanley. I'd never tried Union and decided to it was time to do so. 

I ordered a house drip coffee and a raspberry scone. The scone was hefty and multi-layered. It popped with fruity sweetness and flaky texture. I enjoyed it a lot and the coffee was most satisfying. 

I'm very happy I went on this short coffee safari and look forward to dropping in at a Union store again. 

2. Normally, after having the car serviced late in the morning,  I like to go to a brewery or a tap house, see if Byrdman can join me, and have a beer and possibly some lunch.

But, today, I hustled straight back to Kellogg and Christy, Paul, and I pushed forward in getting Christy's yard ready for the winter and made progress getting stuff ready to go to the transfer station, St. Vincent de Paul's, and over to Paul and Carol's house. 

On Tuesday, I'll continue to help out by making a couple of dump runs and a trip to St. Vinnie's and to the Roberts' house. 

I think we are getting closer all the time to getting the tasks completed that Christy wants done before hunkering down for the winter.

3. I'm not sure, but I think the story goes something like this: last Monday, we were planning the pizza party we had Sunday evening and Carol said something about how we could SAVE THE PORTER and drink porter with our pizza. 

I didn't think porter and pizza was a very good pairing (I might be wrong). 

We decided, instead, to go to Radio Brewing on Monday for a second consecutive night of family dinner. Molly doesn't work on Mondays. She could join us. For those who wanted to, we could further the cause to SAVE THE PORTER. We could also order food.

Our fun at Radio was enhanced by the Pandora playlist that was on. It could have been called The Best of MTV 80s Music! Among the many songs that played we heard "Video Killed the Radio Star", "Sweet Dreams", "Down Under", "Hold Me Now", "Hungry Like a Wolf", "Come on, Eileen", "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)", and a host of other tunes from around forty years ago. 

It was a blast. The songs triggered memories of things some of us were doing back then, helped movies pop into our minds, and stimulated other fun conversations. All this music came out before Molly was born, but she was totally familiar with all of it, as if she herself had been a devotee of Martha Quinn, Nina Blackwood, and the other original MTV VJs. 

We talked about a variety of things other than the playlist, but, as I drank Radio Brewing's delicious coffee forward porter and enjoyed my Korean Bowl, I relived those days when students came to my apartment in Spokane to watch MTV videos and reveled in days I enjoyed after moving back to Eugene.

Yes, as I wrote the other day, I was a confused and insecure mess in the early days of MTV, but the music we heard tonight and the fun I had listening to it and watching videos was a great escape and enhanced the mirth and merriment I experienced in the midst of all my floundering about. 

By the way, it was during this time of confusion and insecurity that I met Jeff Steve when he moved to Eugene in about 1985. 

Jeff had been a student on one of Whitworth's Central America study tours and he deeply admires Ron Frase.

Tonight Jeff called me to express his appreciation for what I wrote in memory of Ron Frase and to talk about other things.

As always, our conversation was superb and, like the music tonight at Radio, talking with Jeff brought back a lot of memories and feelings grounded in things that happened 35-40 years ago. 

Three Beautiful Things 11/07/2021: Grammar Out of Tune, Family Pizza Night, Family Poetry Night

 1. Debbie and I talk frequently about English grammar. We've both studied language (and languages) a lot over the years and both of us have taught grammar. Debbie taught a lot of French and I taught English.

A tiny bit of background. When a pronoun is in the subject slot in a sentence, it's called the subjective case. Examples of subjective pronouns are I, we, he, she, who, and they. Pronouns that are objects, often objects of prepositions, are in the objective case. Examples include me, us, her, him, whom, and them. 

Debbie and I keep this light, but we often hear (or read) people confuse the use of pronouns. It's common to hear object pronouns put in the subject slot.  For example "Me and Albert went to the lake today" instead of "Albert and I went to the lake" or "Lynn and her went to Coeur d'Alene shopping instead of "Lynn and she went to Coeur d'Alene shopping." 

The misuse of subject pronouns goes something like this: Jack and Jill invited Sharon, Dawn, and I to dinner. The names after "invited", though, are in the object slot, so the "I" should be "me". 

Again, it's no big deal, but I don't think Debbie and I are alone in feeling happy when we read or hear language used properly and we can't help but feel a something like a bee sting when it's not.

It's akin to hearing a piano or guitar played out of tune. 

Well, today, Debbie read my Sunday blog post and began to tease me. 

My grammar guitar was out of tune. 

I made an error. 

I had written the following: "Not too long ago, I posted a picture of Don, Cliff, Dick, and I taken several years ago at 16 Tons on a Thursday afternoon." 

Debbie spotted my error. I'd missed it. (I hope you see it.)

Let me confess it: I used "I", a subject pronoun, in the object slot. The names that follow "of" are objects of that preposition. I should have written, "I posted a picture of Don, Cliff, Dick, and me". 

I blushed with embarrassment.

I corrected my error on my blog, but I couldn't correct it in the email version of the post I had sent out. 

So, if you received my blog post via email and noted my error, please know that, thanks to Debbie, I corrected it where I could. 

I can hardly be judgmental about these errors, can I? To quote King Lear, "I am not ague-proof!" I'm not error-proof! 

In fact, I wonder if, over time, it might become acceptable to the gatekeepers of proper English to simply make subjective and objective pronouns interchangeable.

If changes in what's proper/correct in our language change according to how people, in general, use the language, I could sure see this change coming.

I also wonder if, at some point, the gatekeepers of proper English will just give up on people knowing the difference between "lie" and "lay" and on the difference between "every day" and "everyday".

In practice, it is very common for people to use "lay" instead of "lie" and to write "everyday" when it should be "every day" and my guess is that the distinctions between them are melting away. 

I can live with that, but every time I hear a person say, "I'm going to lay down" instead of "lie down", I feel that little sting. I hear a person singing out of tune. 

Here's why: "Lay" is a transitive verb. For example, we do lay bricks, but rarely do we take the stuffing, the down, out of a pillow and lay down! "Lie" is an intransitive verb. Lie never has a direct object following it. So when you take a nap or when your dog curls up beside you, you lie down and the dog lies down.

(This is all complicated by the past tense of "lie" which is "lay". The past tense of "lay" is "laid".)

"Every day", by the way, refers to things that happen frequently. I brush my teeth every day. "Everyday" is an adjective used to describe common things. Some stores have everyday low prices. In fact, some offer everyday low prices all the time, like every day.

Ha! That was fun trying to help tune our grammar pianos. 

2. Cousin Lura and her husband Lyle came up from Orofino to watch the matinee show at the Sixth Street Melodrama. At around 5 o'clock, Debbie and I picked up pizzas from Yoke's. Debbie had made a delicious cabbage salad. Before long, we all dug in and enjoyed a pizza party together at Carol and Paul's.

Conversation bounced all over the place with some special emphasis on family history going back into the 19th century, maybe earlier, and current family updates as well. 

3.  Carol, Christy, and I read "I'm From" poems we've written.  I wrote mine back in 2008. Carol and Christy also read their poems from back then -- it was a Sibling Assignment. Christy read the "I'm From" poem that she composed for Everett, bringing to life much of his life history, and Carol read her updated version that she recently wrote as part of a creative living group she belongs to.

I liked that we read our poems aloud. I can't remember another time in the many years we've done things with people from the West/Baugh branches of our family tree when family members read their poetry -- maybe I've forgotten something, but this evening it felt fresh, relevant, and fun to read my poem and listen to Christy and Carol read theirs.