4 bar steep rise 29.72 4mph SW windchill 0 Samhain
Full Moon of the Long Nights
Vikings came up big time against Arizona. Yes, I watched it. I guess you could say I’m conflicted about football. I like it, but I don’t think I should. Just like TV. I like it, but something tells me I shouldn’t. Still, I do. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds, said Emerson. A rationalization for every situation.
A day I was glad to be home with domestic tasks.
46 bar steady 30.11 0mph WNW dew-point sunrise 6:45 set 7:36
First Quarter of the Harvest Moon rise 4:06 set none
The Vikings. Well. Near the end they had a chance to win. A good chance. They stayed in it and did not give up. Tavaris still looks a bit stunned, but his passing improved in the second half. Do not why they did not give Peterson the ball more. Anyhow. Could have been worse. The defense did not look as good as the hype. Roy Wolf at sheepshead last Thursday called a score somewhere in this ballpark. I took the rosy picture. Oh, well.
Tomorrow is a physical labor day. Later in the week, more horticulture.
Started Arthur Machen’s novella, The Great God Pan. I’m feeling some kind of work with Pan on the horizon. In addition to gardening, that is.
Out of the INFERNO
Daunte just never got it together. Dennis Green might have been part of the problem. Most of it, though, lay between Daunte’s ears. Something never clicked.
“MIAMI (AP) – Daunte Culpepper summed up his thoughts Thursday in two words, which ushered in the start of a new era for the former Pro Bowl quarterback. “Farewell NFL,” he wrote”
IRONY
Here is an example of irony. I mean, gosh. Gee whiz. Give me a break. After working steadfastly and with clear intent to keep women down, now the evangelicals will redress a wrong they have a direct hand in reinforcing. Wow.
“One more reason why the evangelicals are likely to get behind McCain-Palin: The ticket gives Americans the chance to redress another historical social wrong by finally putting a woman in the White House.” from Politics in Minnesota.
GREEN? Who should get your vote?
Local boy, Tom Friedman, the mensch of St. Louis Park, nails it. This is the same point I tried to make with the Political Butchery post.
“As we emerge from Labor Day, college students are gathering back on campuses not only to start the fall semester, but also, in some cases, to vote for the first time in a presidential election. There is no bigger issue on campuses these days than environment/energy. Going into this election, I thought that — for the first time — we would have a choice between two “green” candidates. That view is no longer operative — and college students (and everyone else) need to understand that.
With his choice of Sarah Palin — the Alaska governor who has advocated drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and does not believe mankind is playing any role in climate change — for vice president, John McCain has completed his makeover from the greenest Republican to run for president to just another representative of big oil.” Thomas Friedman, NYT
63 bar rises 30.17 3mph NW dew-point 49 sunrise 6:26 sunset 8:04 Lughnasa
Last Quarter of the Corn Moon
The USA basketball team made this Indiana boy proud. Not so much because they won gold, but because they showed that the ego driven individualism of the NBA can flow into team play. The ego driven individualism of the NBA showcases an American individualism on steroids, true; but, aberrant it is not. The NBA demonstrates both the blessing and the curse of this signal American trait. The blessing: peak individual performance. Think Michael Jordan. Bill Russell. Magic Johnson. The curse: destruction of group cohesion. Think Kobe Bryant. Stephon Marberry.
Basketball and America go together like cricket and India, soccer and Brazil, rugby and England, hurling and Ireland. We should find satisfaction in the skilled play of countries all around the world, since it shows the global penetration of a defining American game. It is not yet time, though, for us to look at the rest of the world and see how far they have traveled in outstripping us on our own court. That time may come, probably will come when China matures as a basketball culture, but it is not now and for now we showed the world again how the game can be played. We have not become Milan, Indiana and Bobby Plump, not by a three-point shot we’re not.
The gardening part of life here in Andover picks up its pace as the temperature cools. I look forward to it.