Honor and Gratitude

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month...



“On that day let us solemnly remember the sacrifices of all those who fought so valiantly, on the seas, in the air, and on foreign shores, to preserve our heritage of freedom, and let us re-consecrate ourselves to the task of promoting an enduring peace so that their efforts shall not have been in vain.”
- President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Presidential Proclamation



Honoring all who served

Honoring all who were wounded 

Honoring all who gave their lives



You stood in our stead
You stood for our country, for our constitution

You stood for our freedom, for our liberty



You have our gratitude, our respect, our memory

We pledge our service, our advocacy, our work for peace…

Dad ~ 1942

Five Items

Egypt:
I’m an enormous fan of and believer in Democracy. I want the people of Egypt to participate in their government and to thrive economically. I want that for them now.

Maria Schneider:
Actress Maria Schneider passed away this week at the age of 58. Upon hearing the news, director Bernardo Bertolucci said he regrets that "he never got the chance" to apologize to Ms. Schneider who, at the age of 19, starred in his “Last Tango In Paris”. Yeah, when you only have 39 years it's hard to find the time. May Ms. Schneider rest in peace.

Super Bowl:
My Dad was a football fan. One of the teams he liked was the Green Bay Packers. I rooted for them tonight during what turned out to be a surprisingly good and exciting Super Bowl XLV. Oh, the Packers won!

Super Bowl Halftime Show:
Wow. But not in a good way. I like the Black Eyed Peas just fine. But the sound engineers or technicians at Fox dropped the ball - pun intended. The light show aspects were pretty cool, especially the red heart. But I kept waiting for the wowee-zowee big moment. Perhaps I am jaded. I will say I am delighted that there were no wardrobe malfunctions. Heaven knows I couldn’t suffer through another kerfuffle like the Jackson-Timberlake incident of 2004.

Mouse:
We live with three cats. Yet it was Chuck who spotted the mouse strolling along the edge of the room and pausing to watch the Super Bowl on TV. Chuck had to capture the mouse in a jar and externalize it. The cats seemed wildly disinterested. Not that I like what happens when the cats are interested in or are successful in catching a mouse. But they could have at least twitched an ear or lolled their heads in the general direction of the dang mouse!


P.S. I didn’t mention snow! Not even once! Well, except for just now... ;o)

The (Sentimental) Geek That Is Me

Friday evening, the “Celebration of a Life” in honor of Ted Kennedy was broadcast on television. It was in the spirit of an Irish wake, but on a much larger scale. Held at the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library in Boston, with Teddy’s flag draped casket right in front of the podium, there was singing, stories, laughter and tears. It truly was a celebration. And it was exactly the sort of thing that Teddy would have loved. All of the speakers did a good job of revealing additional facets of Senator Kennedy. It’s hard to say, but I think the funniest moments came from Senator John C. Culver. He and Teddy were on the Harvard football team together. Let’s just say the story of the salmon salad sandwiches coupled with a storm tossed sea was priceless. The singing was great, including the finale of “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling” which no one wanted to stop singing. But the most touching was when Nick Littlefield, an attorney and former senate chief of staff for Teddy, sang “Love Changes Everything” from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Aspects of Love”. Mr. Littlefield explained that it was a favorite of Teddy’s and that Teddy sang it the last time they were together. We all could understand the relevance of the lyrics because of the way Ted’s life had been transformed by his wife Vicki.

Today, we went to iTunes to see if we could find a recording of “Love Changes Everything” that we liked. There were versions by Sarah Brightman, Michael Crawford and myriad other artists. But none of them had the heart, the passion, nor the personal connection to Ted and Vicki which had captured our hearts. Then I remembered what I had done in a similar situation last January. So I began hunting for a video clip of Mr. Littlefield’s performance. Sure enough, it was already available on YouTube. I went back into the archives here on Pink Granite and found the post where I explained how I stripped a video down to just the audio for a song. (It’s a good thing I turned it into a post because I didn’t remember all the steps!) In just a few minutes I had Nick Littlefield singing “Love Changes Everything” playing from our iPod.

Here’s the video:



Thank you Mr. Littlefield.

That’s Super Not Stupor!

Despite not caring whether the Pittsburgh Steelers or the Arizona Cardinals won the Super Bowl, I really enjoyed the game! It was very exciting with some terrific and unusual plays including a stunner of 100 yard touchdown run after an interception by Steelers’ James Harrison. Wow!

The halftime show was Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band performing for a way, way, way too short 12 minutes. The Boss was rocking and struck a great balance between arena rock and not being too frilly in the stagecraft department.

The vaunted and always over-hyped Super Bowl advertisements were O.K. The Budweiser Clydesdale and Dalmation advertisements still have what it takes to tell a story and draw you in. I’ve recently become aware of Hulu.com and think it’s pretty cool. (You can see all the Super Bowl ads on Hulu.) That is very good because tonight’s Alec Baldwin Hulu ad was a turn off and did nothing to make me want to go check it out! The Coca Cola Happiness/Avatar ad was sweet. But I think the real winner of the Super Bowl Ad Wars was Miller Time’s one second advertisement. I Tweeted that if I hadn’t heard the buzz about a one second ad, I might have thought it was an error. Yet even though I only heard it and didn’t see it, I knew it was Miller Beer just like that. Money well spent.

When the New England Patriots aren’t in the Super Bowl, Chuck often refers to the event as the Stupor Bowl. Tonight? Not by a long shot!

19 - 0 Oops. 18 - 1

Jeezum Crow! Even I give a rat’s ass that the New England Patriots lost The Super Bowl to the New York Giants, 17 - 14!
It seems crazy that the first game the Patriots lost all season was this last one - crazy and disappointing.

O.K. C’mon. Shake it off.

What we need to focus on now, is the fact that pitchers and catchers report in 12 days!!!

Go Sox!!!
So good, so good so good!!!


Update: February 5, 2008
To better understand the impact of this loss on one die hard Patriots fan, please read Kate’s response in the comments section...
;o)

Five Random Things...

As memes go, this one is ubiquitous. But I haven’t done it, so here goes.

Five random things you might not know about me.

1. The poorest I ever got was when I had twelve dollars to my name. I was working full time, paying rent, buying groceries - the whole nine yards. But it got down to those twelve bucks and pay day was way too many days off.

2. I once went to a Mary Kay Cosmetics pep rally/recruitment meeting thinking that I might want to sell their products. It struck me as oddly cult-like, yet very seductive.

3. I rarely, if ever anymore, wear make up. A long time ago I would feel a little naked without it. Now, I feel strange with any on.

4. My proudest teaching moment was when I covered Darwin’s Theory of Evolution and the Book of Genesis in the same C.C.D. class. As far as I know, all the kids turned out just fine, thank you!

5. After I learned how to throw a football with a mean spiral, my folks gave me one for Christmas. I had learned how to throw a football at a religious retreat.

: : Care to share any of your own random things?

Where Did Today Go?

It went into cleaning, changing sheets, cooking, eating, walking, talking, listening, washing, drying and half watching the Patriots Football Game. (They are so not the Red Sox. Football is so not baseball.) Then suddenly or so it seemed (even with the “extra” hour), the day was winding down. Poof. Just like that: “snap” - Monday was looming, with all the things Monday will insist be part of its very own day.

When we were on vacation up in Maine, just two short weeks ago, our days were filled with almost all “want to dos” and only the most basic of “need to dos”. It was liberating, exhilarating and relaxing. Vacation was an indulgence of the senses. What structure there was came from our hearts, a delightfully unstructured place. Here at home, the structure is of the mind; order designed to tame chaos, to bring rhythm to our days.

Yet already something is chafing. It’s more than the time change which has left me cranky. I believe it has to do with balance or more pointedly, the lack thereof. I think our days at home need to be structured to include a daily dose of “want to dos”. And by structured I mean not to leave those wants and wishes ‘till after all the needs and musts are crossed off the list.

Balance. Right at the top of Monday’s every single day’s list...


“Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.”
- Robert Fulghum

Thanks Guys

There’s just one teensy, weensy problem with the Red Sox having won the World Series last night. Tonight, there is no baseball to watch, no beloved Red Sox to root for.

I’ll let the enormity of that sink in.

Yes, tomorrow there will be a Rolling Celebration, complete with Duck Boats. But the guys won’t be playing any baseball until Spring Training 2008.

I know the players and the entire organization have worked hard since last spring. I know they deserve some time off, a nice vacation, the opportunity to bask in the glow of the 2007 World Series. OK. So maybe in a week or two they could just get together at Fenway Park and play a little baseball. OK. Maybe three weeks. That’d be good too.

Sigh...

In the 122 days or so until Spring Training, I’ll try to gain some patience. I’ll try to embrace the whole Hot Stove thing. I’ll try not to freak out over every rumor, over every free agent. I’ll try to watch the Patriots win and not let my blood pressure spike every time they show Belichick on the sidelines. I’ll try to enjoy the Super Bowl. But even if some guy makes snow angels in the end zone, it won’t be nearly as good as any old game at Fenway. That’s just the truth.

Thanks guys. You all totally rocked. Enjoy your time off and we’ll see you ALL next spring.

Not Good Enough

New England Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick is getting off too easy. The half a million dollar personal fine, coupled with the franchise being fined a quarter million dollars and the loss of some combination of draft picks, is apparently a near maximum penalty, under the National Football League rules. Belichick has issued two tightly written statements. In the last one he wrote: “I accept full responsibility for the actions that led to tonight's ruling.” but then goes on to describe the sideline videotaping as his “mistake”. Publicly he said: “We’re moving on.”

I find it incredible that he thinks it’s sufficient to leave it at that and “move on”. What’s even more incredible is that it seems to be working.

He should have gotten out in front of it all. He should have stood up in front of the cameras and microphones and said: “We videotaped the opposing team’s signals. It was wrong . It was stupid. It was shameful. I got caught up in a win at any cost mentality and I crossed a line - big time. I apologize to the team, the owners and the fans who rejoiced in our victories. Those victories are now unnecessarily called into question and I apologize.” That would have been the right thing to do.

But Belichick has already moved on...

"Pitchers and Catchers Report in Three Weeks"

Living here, in the heart of Red Sox Nation, we had gotten used to losing. 1918 was a year more frequently spoken than anyone's year of their own birth! But then came the 2004 World Series Championship and our crazy mixed up combination of eternal optimism and permanent underdog status was shaken. But after two subsequent years without additional glittering wins, rings and Duck Boat Parades, we’re getting back to our old ways. Only now we say 1918 and 2004 in the same breath!

With all that in mind, it’s no surprise that after the nail-biting, frustrating, ever so close New England Patriots loss to the Colts Sunday night, we moaned in unison, threw our remaining snacks at the T.V.s and turned our thoughts to Red Sox spring training. Hence, the title of this post, contributed by, nay, insisted upon, by my niece Kate! She expressed her clear distress, dare we say anger and mourning, in a comment she left on my Sunday night “Two Books” post. Which, in light of the stunning success of the Patriots over the last half dozen years, may seem kinda nuts. But not here in Red Sox Nation, where our loyalties are fierce, our focus on sports unrelenting and collective depression just a single loss away at any given moment!

The last crumbs of the red, white and blue football shaped cakes have been eaten. The water cooler venting and monday morning quarterbacking is behind us. Now the Patriots fan paraphernalia can be taken down and our frenzied fan focus can be turned back towards the Red Sox. ‘Cuz truth be told, for some of us, even a Super Bowl winning Patriots season, just fills the time between one baseball season and the next!!!

:: Thanks Kate!