Notes from a Quiet Hill (Geography Edition)

Posted on September 7, 2026 by bpriddy

Saw this pop up on the internet the other day. We always like to remind folks the founders weren’t Europeans but were the people who met them when they arrived (as Will Rogers once remarked about his ancestors). The t-shirt is being sold on the Honoringthetribe.com, which we couldn’t reach when we looked for it.

But we appreciate the image. Our President might not be caught wearing this t-shirt even if they had one large enough to fit him. Even if he wore it, it’s doubtful that he would give a hoot about the message.

-0-

I used to think, “This man cannot be more absurd that this” but he quickly dissuaded me of that opinion on a daily if not hourly basis, much of it driven by childish pettiness. In recent days he has “punished” Canada by signing an executive order renaming Lake Superior “Lake America.” Now, most recently, he has shown a new map of New Mexico with “Mexico” crossed out and the word “America” written in.

Why don’t he end this ridiculous business and sign an all-encompassing executive order and make it “Planet Trump” and be done with it?

Would it be enough or would he want more? You don’t need to answer that.

-0-

From a January, 1922 Jefferson City newspaper: “It is said to be an open question whether Congress at present represents public opinion. If not, next fall will be open season on congressmen.”

-0-

Question for folks in Jefferson City: When was the last time our member of Congress showed up in our town? I don’t mean slipping in to say hello to the office staff, but to meet with the voters. He cannot recall any visits in recent years. Your intrepid correspondent stopped by Congressman Luetkemeyer’s office one day. The door was locked. When somebody let me in the basic attitude was, “What are you doing here?” I had a note for the Congressman I wanted to drop off. I doubt he ever saw it because I didn’t even get one of those “Thank your four your interest” form letters.

I think I have run into Northwest Missouri’s Sam Graves more times at the Capitol than I have heard of our own members of Congress being around except to file for election.

Our current Congressman (we think) Bob Onder is one of two GOP politicians asking the U. S. Supreme Court to overturn our Missouri Supreme Court order reinstating non-gerrymandered district lines.

We could not do any worse by having a Congressman from Kansas City. In fact, it’s hard not to think a longtime Methodist minister would be anything but better.

-0-

Went to Colorado to visit the granddaughters and their parents last month. We rather like driving across Kansas because of ancestral ties that help us appreciate the Flint Hills and the Tallgrass Prairie and the rolling limestone hills that used to be the floor of the Great Inland Sea. We even like when we get West of Hays and the upland prairie begins under a wide-open sky not obscured by billboards (there are few of them). But once again we were reminded when we cross the state line that there still is too much Kansas in Colorado.

Your observer has often felt that a new state should be carved from the area between Hays and Burlington, Colorado, extending south to include the Oklahoma Panhandle and north to include the Nebraska Panhandle

Stopped in Bennett to fuel up. We were a little, uh, stunned.

The cheapest stuff was 15% ethanol. The Subaru is accustomed to a diet of 10% but we were sure it wouldn’t cough and sputter on the strong stuff. 12.2 gallons. 55 dollars.

-0-

This is St. James’ Church in the English village of Ormside, near Appleby (hope that helps you understand its location). The BBC reports this church is getting something for the first time in its long history. A £10,000 gift from a private trust will pay for an indoor loo, which the church never has had.

A loo over there is a bathroom.

For centuries, people in Ormside carried buckets of water from the village well to operate the primitive indoor plumbing. The BBC reports that the church hopes the improvements “will make the site more welcoming and hospitable, after attendees at weddings and funerals had previously had to rely on nearby residents homes for bathroom access.

The new toilet won’t be in the church itself. A disused hearse house will be modified for people who have to go while sending someone on their way

When we traveled across the pond a couple of years ago we visited the community of Looe, which is the case with many towns and cities, has public bathrooms. Admission, we think, was 25 pence.

The town of Looe is pronounced without the “e.” I took a picture of the public bathrooms. I refer to it as Looe’s Loos.

The Home Time Capsule

Posted on September 2, 2026 by bpriddy

Two or three houses ago, we sold the big 1904 uninsulated house that was the first home we bought (and found the heating bills in the dead of winter were double our mortgage payment) sooner than we thought we would. We had put it on the market when the snow was so deep our realtor couldn’t get the “for sale” all the way into the ground. We found another house quickly—-too quickly because the people who were selling it hadn’t bought THEIR new house. They did let us store our stuff in their basement and we rented a dark apartment with a terrible green shag rug and a one-window living room that looked out onto a parking lot while the bedroom windows looked onto High Street.

When we finally were able to occupy the new place a couple of months later (it might have been more; it certainly felt like it), and started bringing stuff up from the basement, a peculiar thought came to mind. It was as if we were doing an archaeological excavation. Here was the lamp table for the living room. There was the frame of a bed for one of the children’s rooms. That box had 20^th century bathroom supplies and another held late 20^th century kitchen appliances.

It was different from usual moves where professionals with a big truck lug things out of one house and sets them up in the new one. These were things that had disappeared from our lives for a period of time and now were being rediscovered, if you will.

Kind of exciting.

Sometimes when we’ve been gone for a couple of weeks, I play a little mind game and try to imagine that we are entering Jefferson City for the first time. What are my impressions?

From the west we get a stunning view of the Capitol framed by the Dix Road overpass. From the east we drive past back yards and roadside businesses and offices as the traffic seems to funnel into an unimpressive area of concrete and traffic lights and ultimately an interchange if we want to take it. Sometimes don’t even notice the Capitol. From the south we crest the Ellis Boulevard hill and there’s the dome dramatically shining above the trees and against the dark bluffs and from the north, there’s the view of the Capitol overlooking the great river.

And when we come home to a place that has been empty and silent (except for Max and Minnie and once a day a visiting cat-sitter, Mary), I briefly imagine we have entered a well-preserved early 21^st century townhouse that appears to have been frozen in time by the people who once lived there.

The feeling dissipates quickly, of course, as life returns to normal within an hour or two.

But it’s kind of fun and it lets me see today’s world from a little different perspective. We’ve visited a lot of famous homes of notable figures or barracks rooms at 1870s frontier forts or other historic sites restored or recreated with period furnishings and in fifty years or so there really will be houses from our times that let our descendants see how we lived today. Today’s possessions are tomorrow’s artifacts. Today’s nick-nacks will be found in antique store sale cases.

The wonders of our age will have become museums or museum pieces. The things we think are advanced technology today will seem primitive then.

We will be what our great grandparents are to us.

The experience can have a leveling effect on our pride of having the things we have. Maybe it will trigger some thinking about our attitudes and how they will be regarded generations hence by those who wonder, “How could they think like that?” or “How did they get along with just those_______,” or “It took a lot of work to live in those days,” or maybe just, “Isn’t that interesting?”

It never hurts to try to look at our life and times through pretend new eyes. You never know what you might see.

The Phrase Becomes Real: A Political Football

Posted on September 1, 2026 by bpriddy

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

We usually offer a roundup of the week’s Missouri sports news on Tuesdays but before we do that, we want to observe how Donald Trump is not the only person in Washington who thinks history needs to be re-written.

(MIZTHEN)—I was there that day the Missouri Tigers lost to the Kansas Jayhawks 23-7 at Memorial Stadium (it was not then Faurot Field).

But that’s not the way Congress and the NCAA record it. Congress has done something the sportswriters and the coaches did not do in 1960 when Missouri lost a game it later won, later won a conference championship it had lost, and until recently a national championship it could not reclaim.

Kansas and Missouri fought for superiority in the Big Eight Conference that year. Kansas temporarily won its first outright conference championship in thirty years. The Jayhawks finished ranked 11^th in the AP Sportswriters poll, only the second time the Jayhawks were ranked (the first time was 1947).

However—-KU running back Bert Coan, who scored the only two Kansas touchdowns that day was found to have been ineligible in games against Colorado and Missouri and on December 8, the Big Eight declared that KU big-bucks recruiter Bud Adams had illegally recruited Coan while he was at TCU. The two Kansas victories had to be forfeited. The Big Eight and MU consider the Tigers record to be 10-0 in the regular season. But KU and the NCAA still consider the record is 9-1.

Coan later played seven years in the American Football League, six of those years with (it seems appropriate) the Kansas City Chiefs, the team right between the two states. He caught a 19-yard touchdown pass and ran for 37 yard TD in the Missouri game.

Coan and most of the other players from both sides in that 23-7 Kansas victory are gone now. The AP and the competing UPI (United Press International) did not do polls after the bowl season—which concluded on January 2 in those years before the national championship playoff system came along. The last polls put Minnesota first and Missouri 4^th and 5^th.

But the Golden Gophers lost to Washington in the Rose Bowl. Ole Miss, which went 10-0-1 and Iowa (also with one loss) also got some championship votes.

Missouri went to the Orange Bowl to face a Navy team that was ranked 4 and 6, and starred Heisman Trophy winner Joe Belino. The opening minutes were electrifying with Navy picking a fumble out of the air and returning it 98 yards for a touchdown. Navy threatened again until the Tigers’ Norm Beal ran a pick-6 back 90 yards for the tie.

CBS television had the game that year with one of the greatest pairs in the booth at the time making the calls—Ray Scott and Paul Christman. Christman was Missouri’s first great star as a pre-war quarterback who later played for the Chicago Cardinals which he led to the NFL championship in 1947, the franchise’s only championship (they now play in Arizona after stop in St. Louis for a while). You won’t hear Christman but you can catch the game highlights with Scott making the calls:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zKUfYF84h8

(QB Ron Taylor hands off to Donnie Smith–who led the conference with 13 touchdowns—with Ed Mehrer (35) and Norm Beal (21) with Gordon Smith (89) looking to take out the right side of Navy’s defensive line)

Missouri stuffed Navy’s run game in the 1961 Orange Bowl while Dan Devine’s “student body right,” and “student body left” running game that featuring pulling guards and blocking backs ground out more than 200 yards and ate up a lot of clock.

The Tiger rush was led by Norris Stevenson and Mel West, the first two African-American Tiger football players.

Coach Devine always thought Missouri would have finished the year with the national championship if there had been a post-season poll, but the University has never claimed the national title. Missouri finished 11-0* with the asterisk noting the game on the last day of the regular season, that they actually lost.

Well, if the University of Missouri and the now-Big 12 Conference won’t claim the national championship, it’s time for the politicians to get all huffy and fluffy about it these 66 years later and say, “Ignore the asterisk.”

One of our intrepid United States Senators, Eric Schmitt, has stepped boldly forth and introduced a Senate resolution declaring the Tigers were undefeated national champions. Such resolutions have no force of law and certainly have no authority over the Big 12, the NCAA, or the history of the game (which Missouri played poorly, by the way). But the Senate has had bigger things to do than take time with this resolution and there were no objections, not even from Kansas’ Senators, so it stands as passed.

The University of Missouri will take the resolution for whatever value it has and will celebrate the 1960 national championship during its September 19 game against the Troy Trojans. The halftime event also will celebrate the 100^th anniversary of Memorial Stadium.

It would be greater fun if the celebration could be done when MU plays KU this year, but that game will be in Lawrence and the Jayhawks are not just about to let Missouri do any whoopeeing that day.

Memorial Stadium’s original capacity was 25,000. We were one of the 41,000 who watched Kansas win that loss in 1960.

With the new quarter-billion addition intended for use by high-roller Tiger supporters, the stadium will hold almost 65,000, including those sitting in 2,280 new premium seats, 628 loge box seats, 270 mezzanine club seats and mingling in 71 suites.

And in a few weeks there will be a celebration of a game that truly has become a political football.

(MIZZNOW)—The season kicks off Thursday night shortly after Mizzou alumnae Sheryl Crow sings the national anthem. The game is a sellout. Arkansas-Pine Bluff will give the Tigers someone wearing a different uniform to hit.

Ahmad Hardy won’t play but ESPN’s Pete Thamel says the Tigers hope he can be ready my mid-September. After the Thursday game, Missouri plays Kansas in Lawrence on September 11 and then is at home against Troy on the 19^th. SEC play starts with Mississippi State on the 26^th.

(MIZCUTS)—Twenty-five former Tigers will start the season on NFL 53-man rosters. On3.com lists:

Kris Abrams-Draine – CB, Denver Broncos
Tyler Badie – RB, Denver Broncos
Nick Bolton – LB, Kansas City Chiefs
Larry Borom – OL, Detroit Lions
Luther Burden III – WR, Chicago Bears
Jaylon Carlies – LB, Indianapolis Colts
Kevin Coleman Jr. – WR, Miami Dolphins
Brady Cook – QB, Miami Dolphins
Jordan Elliott – DL, Tennessee Titans
Akayleb Evans – CB, Carolina Panthers
Javon Foster – OL, Cincinnati Bengals
Ty’Ron Hopper – LB, Green Bay Packers
Khalil Jacobs – LB, New England Patriots
Drew Lock – QB, Seattle Seahawks
Chris McClellan – DL, Green Bay Packers
Isaiah McGuire – DL, Cleveland Browns
Armand Membou – OL, New York Jets
Harrison Mevis – K, Los Angeles Rams
Toriano Pride Jr. – CB, Cleveland Browns
Ennis Rakestraw Jr. – CB, Detroit Lions
Darius Robinson – DL, Arizona Cardinals
Keagen Trost – OL, Los Angeles Rams
Josiah Trotter – LB, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Zion Young – EDGE, Baltimore Ravens

Players Waived or Released

Marcus Bryant – OL, New England Patriots (injured reserve)
Joshuah Bledsoe – S, Washington Commanders
Stephen Hall – CB, Houston Texans
Xavier Loyd – WR, Kansas City Chiefs
Albert Okwuegbunam – TE, Las Vegas Raiders
Cody Schrader – RB, Denver Broncos
Theo Wease Jr. – WR, Miami Dolphins

Injured Reserve

Jaylon Carlies – LB, Indianapolis Colts
Yasir Durant – CB, New England Patriots
Johnny Walker – WR, Denver Broncos

(TRAGEDY)—A William Jewell College football player who had; just scored the first touchdown of the year for his team collapsed on the sidelines Saturday and was pronounced dead at a Liberty hospital a short time later. MicahJo Barnett. He was 20, a business administration major. The game was suspended and later canceled.

Barnett was a home-town boy, the captain of the Liberty Eagles when they won their first state championship when he was a senior. He ran for 1,450 yards, scored 20 touchdowns and made the all-state team that year.

(MIZBB)—Former Tiger basketball star Mark Mitchell might be a Tiger basketball star again. He’s enrolled at the University of Missouri. The court system will decide if he can have a fifth year of eligibility.

Mitchell went undrafted by the NBA after his all-SEC year last year. He played for the Denver Nuggets Summer League team and appeared to be headed to the Nuggets training camp before he changed his mind.

He’s one of several players—more than 25—who were not grandfathered in by the NCAA’s “five for five” rule. His future is in the hands of a federal district judge in Colorado, Charlotte Sweeney, who has granted fifth years of eligibility in other cases before her. In all of those cases, the players had not signed a professional contract. The NCAA opposes such rulings and the SEC doesn’t like it either.

Financially, returning to Mizzou is a better deal. He made $45,000 playing in the G-league last season and would get as much as $85,000 if he goes to camp. Sources indicate he’ll make more at Mizzou under the NIL system.

(BASEBALL)—Baseball seems to be eternal during the summer months and it is something akin to a shock to realize there are only 25 games left for our two teams. One has a slight chance of making the playoffs but it’s going to have to get its act together in a significant way to do it.

Our two teams seem to be headed in different directions again. It’s the Royals that have been hot for the last couple of weeks. Although they were hammered by the Guardians on Sunday, they have won 11 of their last 13, 13 of their last 16, and remain in the playoff picture, as unlikely as that might seem. But they are playing in the weakest division in baseball.

Royals reliever John Schreiber, put on waivers during the weekend, was quickly snapped up by the New York Yankees. He had been in 55 games this year and had put up a 3.65 ERA. He held right-handed batters to a .143 average but lefties were hitting .326. Schreiber likely on his way out anyway. He was going to be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season.

The Cardinals have dropped to two games under .500 again and now they’ve put J. J. Wetherholt on the IL. He’s been dealing with tendinitis in his right wrist. The Cardinals started the week 68-70.

One notable achievement, however—Alex Burleson, who was a much-discussed trade possibility in the offseason, has become the first left-handed Cardinals batter to drive in 100 runs since Jim Edmunds did it in 2004, with 111—a number Burlison has 23 games to beat.

He came into this week ranked number two among first basemen in all of baseball in batting , base hits, and doubles.

The Cardinals have decided during the weekend that Caleb Ferguson wasn’t such a good deal after all and cut him loose. He was designated for assignment three weeks after the Redbirds picked him up from Cincinnati. He pitched 8.1 innings in relief, gave up eight walks, 11 hits and eight earned runs in his short stint after doing pretty well for the Reds where he had 22Ks in 24.2 innings and a 4.01 ERA.

His roster spot will be taken by pitcher Hancel Rincon when rosters expand. Also coming up will be Leo Bernal. Rincon has spent eight years in the minors although he’s only 24. He’d been a starter but was moved to long relief this year. In 41 games this year in Memphis he has thrown 71.1 innings with a 4.04 ERA.

Bernal is a catcher prospect, a minor league gold glove winner last year and has been voted the best defensive catcher in the International League this year. He has hit .278 with 16 home runs and 77 runs batted in through 101 games. His callup leaves the Cardinals with some choices to make. Their roster already carries three catchers—Ivan Herrera, Padro Pages, and Jimmy Crooks.

—-Moving along, quickly:

TWO FOR PATO; FIVE FOR PALOU; AND A BIG ONE FOR PREECE

(NASCAR)—Somehow the NCAA Tournament phrase “Sweet Sixteen” isn’t appropriate for the field that will run for the NASCAR Cup Championship in the next ten races. But sixteen it is, the field established with a dramatic win Saturday night on the high banks of Daytona Saturday night with the sixteenth driver making it by winning while a big part of the field crashed behind him.

Ryan Preece had never won a Cup race until then. The win boosted him past Shane Van Gisbergen into the sixteenth and final playoff slot. It’s his first win in 249 races covering eight seasons.

The race, run with a new aero package for the cars, was fairly sedate for a Daytona race until four laps from the finish when a crash and subsequent cleanup sent the race into overtime. Zane Smith led at the start but when he tried to block an oncoming Tyler Reddick, he was turned with the rest of the field bearing down upon him. Preece got through the melee first and was leading when the caution flag was thrown, locking him into the position.

The sixteen drivers who will try to accumulate the most points in the next ten races to claim the cup are regular season champion Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Tyler Reddick, Ty Gibbs, Chase Briscoe, Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, Chris Buescher, Daniel Suarez, Carson Hocevar, William Byron, Bubba Wallace, Austin Cindric, and Preece.

The field includes the winners of the last seven championships: Logano in 2018, 2022, and 2024; Larson in 2021 and 2025, Blaney in 2023 and Elliott in 2020.

The Chase begins at Darlington next weekend.

(INDYCAR)— Two for O’Ward; Four of Five for Palou

Pato O’Ward has won both weekend IndyCar races on the Milwaukee Mile but he had to do it on the same day. Saturday’s race was stopped by rain before the halfway mark, with O’Ward in the lead, forcing the race to be completed Sunday, after the regularly-scheduled Sunday race also went his way.

The day was a historic one for O’Ward, who became the first IndyCar driver to win two races on the same day since Rick Mears did it 45 years ago. Only six other drivers in the series have achieved that distinction—and they’re pretty big names. Mears, Mario Andretti, Al and Bobby Unser, Dan Gurney, and Johnny Rutherford.

“Those are heavy names. Then you hear mine, you’re like, ‘What?'” he said in a post-race interview. “I’m just writing my own story. I really don’t know what’s in store for my IndyCar career. So far I’ve dedicated my whole life to this. I always really dedicate myself to everything that I do to the best of my ability. I’m one hungry competitor. I love to go out there and compete and to challenge.”

His double victory was overshadowed by Alex Palou, who did not win but accumulated enough points to guarantee his fourth championship in a row, his fifth in six years. Only Scott Dixon, with six, and A. J. Foyt with seven, have more series championships than Palou, who is by far the youngest driver to win five.

“I never thought I would be, first of all, an IndyCar driver. Never thought I could make it. Never thought that I would have the chance to be a professional race car driver. That was my dream,” Palou said after the race. “When I had the opportunity to be an IndyCar driver, that was already a huge achievement for me. I was living the dream. I remember also then Chip (Ganassi) giving me that chance to drive for a championship-winning team at that moment. They just won in 2020 with Scott. That was mind-blowing. Since then I feel like I’ve been on this incredible cloud where everything has been so good for me… It’s just super fun.”

The last driver to win four straight titles was Sebastien Bourdais, who took his fourth one in 2007.

One race is left on the IndyCar schedule. It’s next week at Laguna Seca.

(Photo credits: Student Body Left—1961 Savitar; Stadium—MLR Group; Preece—Bob Priddy at Brickyard ’26; Palou—Rick Gevers, WWTR; O’Ward—Bob Priddy, Indy, 2026; NASCAR playoff field—Facebook)

The Carrier

Posted on August 31, 2026 by bpriddy

There are no golf courses on aircraft carriers, no places where our military people can fly off to for a leisure weekend no matter that the world is falling apart.

There are no gold-plated ballrooms where admiring throngs can gather to pat the Commander in Chief on the back while thousands of Americans are stuck on Navy ships, at Air Force bases, and in Army compounds where weekend is mostly just a word and the world is dangerous.

Some of those young people have died and might die and others have been wounded and more will be wounded while their commander in chief plays golf and suggests that nine months of isolation on a boat isn’t long enough.

He putters while miliary families pray; they are Charlie Browns and he is a petty, vindictive, uncaring Lucy with a football.

There is something he can’t feel, has never written, and shows no capacity for: empathy.

I am not, a veteran and I have no family members who are in the active military so my feelings of outrage at the cavalier attitude the President and his Secretary of Defense toady have shown toward our service people in this needless war on Iran must be small compared to the feeling of friends and families of those who prosecute Trump’s game of playing soldiers with the real thing.

Several years ago I was privileged to be a guest for 24 hours on the Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier and of spending a day on the USS Jefferson City submarine, so I have had a taste of the small and a taste of the huge in our arsenal. A miniscule taste which is far more than their biggest commander has had.

A man whose greatest personal link to the military is his obligatory presence when the coffins come home is incapable of respecting those unfortunate enough to be carrying out his irrational orders.

My experiences left me incredibly impressed with the deep commitment and the high-level of professionalism of the young people who crew these vessels. When we visited the bridge of the Roosevelt about 120 miles out in the Atlantic, we saw a 24-year-old woman driving the ship. Down on the deck, a large number of her generation was efficiently and safely launching and landing F-16 fighter/bombers.

On the submarine we watched young sailors running a boat that was more than 400 feet underwater. We peered through a periscope and lined up possible shot, knowing that someone in their 20s might someday be responsible for programming the torpedoes and determining if the target is an enemy or a friend before a commander far younger than we were makes the firing decision, .

These are people who not only are on duty for weeks at a time; some are underwater for weeks while their commander in chief plays golf, spends his overnights writing insults, and who cannot wait for each weekend so he can get aboard a luxurious jet to take him away from whatever cares he has, has no appreciation for the people who live on highest alert 24 hours a day while he thinks up new ways to honor himself and denigrate others.. Stories that an aircraft carrier is short of everything from food to feminine hygiene products cause him no sleep loss.

And now might be the greatest insult to those on the front lines:

The Navy, cleansed by the administration of Navy loyalists and largely run by Trump amateur appointee-loyalists, reportedly wants to name a new aircraft carrier for Donald Trump. Of course, he who recently posted an AI generated image of himself as a highly decorated Army General despite his personal record of avoiding the draft, and who suggested the Abraham Lincoln had not been on alert in a war zone long enough, has no objections at all to removing the name of a Pearl Harbor hero and replacing it with his own—despite the custom of naming the current class of carriers after dead Presidents.

The racial overtone of this case cannot be overlooked, given President Trump’s track record. The planned name had honored Cook Petty Officer First Class Doris “Dorie” Miller. It was going to be the first carrier named after a black person—who also was the first African-American to be awarded the Navy Cross and to be nominated for a Medal of Honor.

WKTR-TV in Newport News, Virginia talked to Miller’s great-nephew, Thomas Bledsoe, who said he was shocked by the reports. He told the station, “One of the things about Doris Miller’s story is not only about him being the hero that he was on that day at Pearl Harbor but it was also about an individual stepping beyond the means of what they were assigned to do and going above and beyond. That ‘why not me’ moment was very significant, not only for the African American community but for Americans overall.”

The Navy says the suggested change has not been made official.

Miller helped wounded crew members to safety during the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor and even operated a machine gun—although he had no training—and shot down two of the attacking airplanes. In 1943, Miller was assigned to the escort carrier Liscombe Bay that was torpedoed in November and sank within 23 minutes, taking Miller with it.

Some have suggested his name would be better applied to a destroyer or to a cruiser. A frigate was christened with his name in 1973.

The keel of the new carrier is to be laide later this year. At the 2023 ceremony announcing the naming of the carrier, President Trump lamented that he hasn’t had a ship named for him.

As for the Abraham Lincoln,

It finally is headed to port. Ship spotters on Saturday saw it passing through the Singapore Strait apparently headed to a port in Thailand where at last the crew can step onto dry land and have some time to unwind—-

—while their well-fed commander in chief lines up his next putt on the soft green grass of a Florida golf course, having taken time away from his stressful thinking about invading Greenland, Cuba and maybe the Falkland Islands, making Canada the 51^st state among other adventures both foreign and domestic, and what the next memorial to himself should be.

(Photo Credit: Miller—WTKR; Lincoln—U. S. Navy)

It Must Be Hard

Posted on August 26, 2026 by bpriddy

It must be hard as you contemplate

Your political and uour personal fate

To realize you are a duck increasingly lame

And the power is diminishing of your name.

That you have less and less control

Of those whose loyalty to you has taken a toll.

It must be hard.

It must be hard to see

That your supporters have begun to flee;

When those counted as your tools

Begin to realize they have been your fools;

When those to whom your voice filled their ear

Let it be known they no longer hear

Or fear

You.

It must be hard.

It must be hard

To see those you called your friends

Have used you for their own ends;

Your friends Xi and Putin and Un

Think you’ve been just a little bit of fun.

When bluster and bullying and lying fall flat—

It must be hard to admit that

No one believes in the significance

Of You.

It must be hard.

It must be hard

To know the people you throw

Out of the country know

Better than most

The narrowness beyond your oft-heard boast

That you’re really just helping Americans most;

They know, because they watch and they wait

For your next explosion of vengeance and hate

Of people you don’t know or about whom you don’t care.

But you know no matter what,

They’ll always be there.

Despite you.

It must be hard

To see those you cooose

lose.

To know you have less power

That you no longer tower

Over those loyalist

who have flown

And no longer are your own.

It must be hard for you to seek

The power you once had,

But know that now you now are weak.

It must be terribly hard.

It must be hard

While playing pasture pool in your big back yard

That few people care about the score

That you might approve on your personal card

A few strokes less, maybe one more

It’s not golf that will determine your most final score.

Others are scoring you, you see

As you stumble from hole to tee

While the world around you falls to ruin and rack

You only care about the nine holes coming back.

Soon you will be gone, that is a fact

And nobody will care anymore for your act.

It must be hard.

It’s got to be hard to know how few will mourn

When you go. Few hearts will be torn

While so many will be eternally glad

And not at all sad

That you are gone.

And the places you named

To prove you were great

Will soon be returned

To their original state

It must be hard to know

What will happen when you go—

For go you will,

Your overnight rage

Will at last be gone from the stage

And we will never forget

The damage you did

But at last we will be rid

Of you.

And that won’t be hard.

Posted on August 25, 2026 by bpriddy

A Start, A Streak, A Stumble, and a Race

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(MIZ)—Fall camp is over at the University of Missouri. Arkansas-Pine Bluff will be the cannon fodder for the Thursday night opener. APB is a school of 2100 students that has gone 9-27 in the last four years.

Coach Drinkwitz says Ahmad Hardy will not play. He says Hardy is “working is rear end off” but is still rehabilitating his wounded leg. Hardy has not practiced and will not be activated untoil he has completed two full weeks of practive at full speed before he will be activated. Drinkwitz has no timetable for his return.

His replacement will be Jamal Roberts, who is hardly chopped liver. He ran for 753 yards and six touchdowns last year, averaging 5.5 yards per carry in his three-year collegiate career, eighteen inches less than Hardy’s career average. Teammates have voted him team captain.

The Tigers also have transfers Xai’Shaun Edwards and Malae Fonoti as backups.

Hardy’s status has not kept SEC coaches from making him one if four Tigers on the pre-season all conference team. Joining him on the first team is LT Cayden Green. Long Snapper Brett LeBlanc is on the second team. LB Robert Woodyard Jr., is on the third team.

Missouri starts the season ranked 25 by the AP and the Coaches polls. (ZOU)

(CHIEFS)—The Chiefs are 0-2 with little sign of offense in their first two preseason games. The biggest highlight of the 16-15 loss to the Bucs was Harrison Butker’s 69-yard field goal with room to spare. The kick sent the Chiefs to the halftime locker room up 9-0.

But he missed a PAT and a potential game-winning kick near the end.

(ROYALS)—The hottest team in baseball has been the lowly Kansas City Royals, who won their 8^th straight game Sunday, 11-7 against the Tigers, a game highlighted (with tongue in cheek) by a stolen base by Salvador Perez, who broke a five-year steal-less streak. He now has seven in his career. The Royals have outscored opponents 47-27 in those games.

The streak is the Royals’ longest since May, 2024. Although they are now 16 games under .500, they are only 7.5 games out of the last AL playoff spot.

Stay tuned.

(CARDINALS)—The Cardinals have cooled off after last week’s surge and dropped back to .500 with their Sunday sweep loss to the Phillies—a disastrous loss that resulted from the Phillies scoring six times in the ninth to snatch a 6-4 win. Kyle Schwarber his a 459 foot walk-off homer the first walk-off homer for the Phillies since he did it in July of ’23. Schwarber leads the major leagues with 39 homers.

Now, to the nation’s capital—-

(INDYCAR)—The first automobile race through the streets of the U.S. Capital was a huge hit with fans and drivers, Kyle Kirkwood dominated the race, tightening his points chase with Alex Palou, who encountered problems throughout the race.

Event organizers counted 215,000 spectators in the two days and noted souvenir sales of almost one million dollars. Event chairman Bud Denker says the door is open for another run next year, that series owner Roger Penske and his friend Donald Trump will talk about a race in 2027. Washingtoh Mayor Muriel Bowser is upbeat.

Kirkwood’s win cuts Palou’s points lead to 31 with three races left. Christian Lundgard chased him trough the closing laps but could not get close enough to try pass. Kirkwood teammates Will Power and Marcus Ericsson gave the Andretti Global team three of the four positions.

The cost of the event—reportedly $35 million—might be discouraging for those hoping for another run next year, but the race was $25 million dollars cheaper than the UFC event at the White House last summer.

About 100,000 complimentary tickets were given away but some individual tickets cost $5,000 and rental of luxury suites cost a cool quarter-mil. Organizers think they suffered a net loss of about $30 million because of all of the free tickets. The city thinks the race generated $100 to 200 million in revenues for it.

Regardless, the event was a major success for IndyCar, a major visibility boost for the series. And all it takes for a second one is another executive order from Roger Penske’s longtime friend.

(NASCAR)—The cream is rising to the top aa NASCAR’s regular season nears its end. Ryan Blaney won his second straight race at New Hampshire Sunday, his third victory of the year.

Blaney is second in the point standings to Denny Hamlin, who locked up the regular season championship with his 7^th place finish. The win is his 20^th career vicory,

The race started on rain tires after a heavy rain and cars were switched to the usual racing slicks during the first round of pit stops. A two-tire change on the last stops gave him a lead he never relinquished.

Bubba Wallace chased him across the line, followed by Josh Berry, Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson, Ty Gibbs and Hamlin. Tyler Reddick, the pole winner, finished ninth, ahead of Ryan Preece.

Berry’s finish was his third straight on he podium and his fourth straight top ten, a run that his Wood Brothers team has not seen sine 1994 when Morgan Shepherd scored five straight top tens. Unfortunately for him, Wood Brothers had announced before the string began that he would be replaced in the 21-car next year.

Thirteen of the 16 drivers who will chase the championship during the next ten races are locked in. Five drivers will fight for the last three slots next Saturday night at Daytona: Bubba Wallace, Austin Cindric, Shane Van Gisbergen, Preece and Brad Keselowski.

A blown engine wiped out even the remote chance that Ross Chastain had to make the chase. He finished last, 36^th.

(GORDON RETURNS, WINS)—Jeff Gordon is 55 years old now but the competitive fire still burns.

Before the IndyCar race in Washington, the old IROC (International Race of Champions) was resurrected, using the Pontiac Firebirds used in the last years of the original IROC series that last ran twenty years ago.

Retired NASCAR champions Bill Ellott, Bobby Labonte and Rusty Wallace were joined by Indianapolis 500 winners Tony Kanaan and Helio Castroneves and road racer Tommy Kendall. for a two-heat race. Gordon smoked ‘em all. Both heats. Gordon started last as the field was inverted for the second race, but he took the lead early in the second race and led the way home again.

A Little Politics We’d Like to Forget

Posted on August 24, 2026 by bpriddy

Saturday nights when Liz and Rob were not taller than we are, Saturday nights had kind of a ritual to them.

At 5 p.m., I’d turn on KBIA, the National Public Radio Station at the University of Missouri, and wait for A Prairie Home Companion to come on. I had my reel-to-reel SONY recorder wired into the radio and set at the slowest recording speed to record the two-hour program based around a mythical Minnesota town called Lake Wobegone (“a little town that time forgot and the decades cannot improve, where all of the women are strong, the men are good looking, and all the children are above average”) and the stories told by one of its former residents, Garrison Keillor.

I left the speakers off because we were still doing stuff at 5. Dinner was usually about 6. At 7 we’d gather in the living room where I rewound the tape and we’d listen back to the recording. Popcorn was part of the evening. While the playback was underway, I’d turn on my cassette recorder and dub the program onto the smaller format. There also in our house were some LP recordings of old radio programs—Jack Benny, Fibber and Molly, Suspense, Mr. Kean—Tracer of Lost Persons, Gangbusters, the Shadow, the Lone Ranger, the Green Hornet, Straight Arrow, Escape, etc.—some of which I dubbed onto cassettes before we went on long trips.

SiriusXm now has a channel for those old programs (the PHC is on Keillor’s webpage) but in those days, cars had cassette players and those programs came in handy when World War III broke out in the back seat. I’d just slide a cassette of Garrison or Jack or Fibber or Molly or one of the creepy shows into the player and peace would immediately break out behind us.

The kids’ imaginations were immediately seized by those radio shows. The “theatre of the mind” took over and for an hour or two the miles slipped by easily and quietly.

We are not alone in thinking children today are missing that important element in their development—-imagination. Oh, they can imagine they are great dragon fighters or world-saving soldiers on their computers. But it’s not the same, by far.

Radio could then, and still can today if we ignore the local stations that aren’t local anymore and aren’t imaginative anymore, and are mostly forums for people whose egos are their greatest asset, expand the mind far beyond anything we can see, even on a 100=inch flat screen screwed to the wall.

(In 1965, the great radio humorist Stan Freberg did a series of public service announcements for the Radio Advertising Bureau promoting radio. They’re all priceless but the fourth one, “Stretching the Imagination” is considered the classic:

(bing.com/search?q=Stan+freberg+who+listens+to+radio&form=ANNTH1&refig=6a8601c200594754ba45e2583e91c5c7&pc=HCTS)

The Singer is Sarah Vaughan.

Garrison Keillor is no longer doing his radio program but he does do stage shows recreating the program. He’s 84 now, writes books, lives in New York instead of Minnesota, and writes with his familiar droll humor a daily column.

A few days ago on the 17th, he offered this observation that we decided to pass along:

(7) Another modest proposal, but a good one

Yes, It is obvious that he’s a Democrat. In fact one of his books is called Home Grown Democrat. But he seems to capture the contradictory, confusing, infuriating political mess we are living through.

Saturday nights at our house aren’t so interesting anymore. The kids are all grown up and have their own families. Sometimes, though, we do have some popcorn. And in our cars, we can listen to Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, Gunsmoke (with William Conrad as Matt Dillon, Boston Blackie, Tales of the Texas Rangers, the creaking door of the Inner Sanctum and many more.

And the miles just slip away.

We The People

Posted on August 19, 2026 by bpriddy

Many years ago during a meeting in Washington D.C., a friend of mine from Maine insisted I go along with him to the Birchmere Music Hall across the Potomac in Arlington, Virginia to listen to a folk music trio from his state, Maine. Schooner Faire’s harmonies on music focusing on northeastern culture has stayed with me to this day. One is especially appropriate for our times.

One of the three men I watched that night has died but the other two, brothers Steve and Chuck Romanoff continue to perform. The third member, Tom Rowe, died in 2004. .

One of the songs they sang is one of their most popular. It’s called “We the People,” and although they’ve been singing it for decades it seems appropriate today.

If you want to follow along, or join in the signing, here are the lyrics by Steve Romanoff

We the people, hand in hand
We, the people, understand
That there’s an answer, there’s a way
We, the people, have to say
So, send the orders to prepare
We, the people, do declare
Send the good news, send the word
We, the people, will be heard
We, the people, everywhere

There’s a message in the air
And it’s a’movin’ across the land
If you listen you can hear it well, my friend
We know the time has come
To take our heads out of the sand
‘Cause if we don’t the chance might never come again
The future is in reason
Not in building ways of war
And the time has come for reason to be heard
The purpose of the people
Is what this declaration’s for
And it’s why our fathers told us word for word…

We won’t accept excuses
And we won’t accept the lies
Of those who’d lead our nations into hell
It’s time to call their bluff
To say to them, enough’s enough
It’s time we all could hear the tolling of the bell

It’s time to feed the hungry
And it’s time to heal the pain
And it’s time to beat our weapons into plows

It’s time to hear the voices that have risen once again
It’s the wisdom of the people clear and loud
Singing proud…

We the people, hand in hand
We, the people, understand
That there’s an answer, there’s a way
We, the people, have to say

So, send the orders to prepare
(That) We, the people, do declare
Send the good news, send the word
We, the people, will be heard
We, the people (Oooh)
We, the people (Oooh)
We, the people (Oh, Yes Oooh)
We, the people (Oooh)
We the people everywhere

Schooner Fare still performs after more than fifty years of concerts although you have to go to Maine at this time of year to hear them.

(The song can be heard on an album with the song’s title. Find it on Amazon at: https://music.amazon.com/albums/B00IIVZUGM?do=play&trackAsin=B00IIVZUOO&ts=1787150255&ref=dm_sh_zsaULICOxXOjIqQEaRmXCxqAz

There also are several Schooner Faire songs on YouTube and a complete 1992 concert from the Chocolate Church Arts Center in Bath, Maine. The song starts about 98 minutes in the concert if you would like to sing along with them: youtube.com/watch?v=oJXtbDLHMl0&t=6234s.youtube.com/watch?v=oJXtbDLHMl0&t=6234s)

When you go to the polling place in November, perhaps this song will be in your mind along with Edmund Burke’s comment, “Governments who ignore the natural wisdom of the eople willd o so at their own peril.”

(photo credit: YouTube)

Sports: A Big Start Before Reality Calls; Hardy Update; Guys Who Want to Play More (8/17/26)

Posted on August 18, 2026 by bpriddy

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(CARDINALS)—Joshua Baez is a major leaguer and a record-setter at that, but it took only two games to show he has work to do.

Baez, who has a rep as a power hitter, showed it Saturday when he became the first major leaguer to hit three home runs in his first game.

He ripped the first pitch he saw from a major league pitcher 449 feet into the center field bleachers at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Next time up, he went 389 feet into the left field stands and the third time, the shot measured 368 feet to right.

In one game it appeared he had lived up to his promises in that Saturday game. He had hit 34 home runs this year in Triple=A, driven in 90 runs and had a .256 average.

But on Sunday, the real world came calling. He was hitless in five at bats and fanned three times—displaying a feature that has been worrisome throughout his minor league career. He has struck out 547 times, better than 25% of the times he’s recorded an at-bat.

He helped the Cardinals win the weekend series against the Cubs and win their eighth game in their last dozen, to pull two games above .500 again and move back into the wildcard playoff hunt with about six weeks (39 games) left in the regular season.

Blaze Jordan’s baseball shoes are headed to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown—-because Baez had worn them for his historic day Saturday.

The Redbirds started the week yesterday with a doubleheader against the Reds in Cincinnati. They recalled lefty Quinn Matthews from Memphis to start the first game with their leading pitcher, Andre Pallante looking for win number 13 in the second game.

Alec Burlison drove in both Cardinals runs in a 2-1 win in the opener, a makeup game for a rainout in May. Matthews made a solid start before leaving after four innings. He struck out seven. Burlison took over the National League RBI lead in that game. The win went to Luis Gastelum who struck out two of the three batters he faced in the fifth. Riley O’Brien cleaned up by striking out the side in the ninth to get save number 31 in 36 chances.

The Redbirds let the second game slip away from them. The Reds tied the game in the 9^th. The Cardinals had two on in the top of the tenth and couldn’t get one across and the Reds sent the hometown fans home happy in the tenth. 6-5 Reds.

(MILES TO GO)—Former Cardinals pitcher Miles Mikolas might have reached the end of the road with the Washington Nationals designating him for assignment.

His work this year seems the lean against anybody picking him up for a stretch run. He made eleven starts and appeared in thirteen other games this year for Washington, has gone only 3-9 with an ERA of 5.89 through 113 innings. He’s given up 26 home runs while striking out only 56 batters. The last month and a half have been brutal as his ERA for July jumped to 6.62 and before his release, it was 8.18 for August. He’s 37.

(ROYALS)—The Royals remain one of the worst teams in the majors this year but there have been flashes of promise, one being Noah Cameron’s performance Sunday against the Angels when he gave up only a bloop single in the seventh inning. Cameron went on to pitch his first career complete game. He struck out eight, threw 115 pitches and struck out eight.

The win allowed the Royals to take their first series since they took two out of three against June 4-7 against the Twins.

It’s the time of year for the Royals to make some personnel changes—as is the case with major league team in general at this point in the season. Vinnie Pasquantino and Maikel Garcie have come home after their rehab assignments. Pasquantino has been inactive since July 29 because of a sore right wrist. Garcia has been missing since June 23^rd because of a strained muscle in his left hand. It’s been almost two months since the Royals had their regular starting lineup intact.

The Royals also have called up LHP Connor Thomas from Omaha. They claimed him from the Athletics roster earlier this month.

The addition of those three to the roster means three other guys had to do. Infielder Josh Rojas and RHP Jose Cuas have been sent down to Omaha and veteran outfielder Sterling Marte has been designated for assignment.

Marte hasn’t been used much—only 59 at-bats this year. He was hitting .242.

(CHIEFS)—The Kansas City Chiefs got their first shot against somebody not wearing red and yellow during the weekend and although Coach Andy Reid saw some things he liked, he also saw somethings that “we got to clean up.” The Chiefs lost to the Rams 20-12, with the winning margin provided by former Missouri Tiger place kicker Harrison Mevis, who was good on two field goals and both LA extra points.

One of the biggest areas for cleaning up is the ongoing tendency to draw flags. The Chiefs had the seventh-most penalties in the league last year with 119, almost evenly divided between the offense and the defense. They had a dozen against the Rams. Eleven of them were offensive, five before the snap.

(MIZZOU)—Ahmad Hardy has been on the field—but only as a spectator—as his Missouri Tiger teammates continue their work toward the opening game in a couple of weeks. Reporters covering the drills say he was spotted on the sidelines last week with a black sleeve on his left leg.

Coach Eli Drinkwitz says there’s nothing new to report about his return to the field in pads. But he says there will be an update next weekend. Hardy has been in the work room and continued with speed training and walk-throughs but Drinkwitz says he’s still some time away from being ready for full contact.

(MOOKIE HOPES)—Former Tiger wide receiver Mookie Cooper hopes the United Football League has a place for him in 2027. He was one of more than 250 players taking part in the UFL Showcase in St. Louis a few days ago.

He finished his Mizzou career early when he was sidelined with a season-ending injury in 2024. “I’m just chasing an opportunity,” he told a reporter. He hopes he performed well enough to impress UFL coaches although he is not fully recovered from surgery for a double sports hernia.

Last year, he helped coach players at University High School. This year, he’s been coaching running backs at William Jewell College. “I just know at heart I’m a ballplayer,” he told are reporter at the UFL combine. “My heart is still in playing. I know I still can go.”

Cooper was a 5-foot-eight receiver who caught 92 passes in 44 games (11 of them starts) for 1,179 yards. His biggest game was against Auburn shortly before he was sidelined two years ago when he was on the scoring end of a 78-yard pass play.

(NOT READY TO GO)—Former (for now) Tiger basketball star Mark Mitchell isn’t ready to leave college basketball. He has filed a lawsuit against the NCAA seeking a fifth year of eligibility, one of ten players who have filed suit in Louisville, Kentucky seeking a court order keeping the NCAA from blocking their fifth year. His lawsuit asks a judge to order the NCAA to reopen the transfer portal which means he could play for somebody else if he wins—although a ruling from another court would let him return to Mizzou. Media reports, however, say Kentucky is prepared to offer one of the biggest financial packages in all of college basketball to get Mitchell.

Present NCAA rules bar him from talking to any coaches other than Missouri’s Dennis Gates. However, Gates already has a full roster of 15 players, the maximum number allowed. Another question is whether Missouri could compete financially with Kentucky.

From the diamond to the oval—or the road course

(INDYCAR)—Marcus Ericsson charged to a win in the closing laps of the IndyCar race in Markham, Ontario, Canada with a bold late move to get past Will Power, Alex Palou, and leader Romain Grosjean and get his first IndyCar race since 2023.

The result slightly tightens the point standings with four races left on the schedule but Alex Palou remains on top with what is likely a big enough margin to withstand any competitor.

Ericsson was fifth after his last pit stop, his 13 second lead disappearing while he got fuel and fresh tires. He had to pass teammate Will Power, points-leader Alex Palou, and leader Romain Grosjean to win the first race held at Markham. Grosjean gave Dale Coyne Racing its first podium finish of the year. Power, who started 25^th, got his fourth third-place of the year.

(NASCAR)—The door is closing on some big-name drivers outside the top 16 in season points standings with only two more races before the 16-driver playoff run begins. The week in NASCAR showed a familiar face making a familiar late-season charge toward the field of 16 and the move of a disappointing rookie to one of the sport’s superteams.

Joey Logano, who has languished around 20^th most of the year, picked up his second win in the last four races Saturday night at Richmond. He has gained nine positions in the standings in the last six races and is now ninth in the standings, within one point of eighth and only 36 points out of sixth place.

This isn’t the first time Logano has spent the first part of the season with mediocre results only to catch fire down the stretch to the playoffs. He has three Cup championships on his record.

The win is his 37^th victory for Roger Penske, tying Missouri’s Rusty Wallce for most NASCAR wins for The Captain. Logano has two other wins before joining Penske. Wallace had eighteen wins for other teams, totaling 55 in his career.

Chase Brisco led 171 laps and had a two-second lead going into the last round of pit stops. But Logano’s team got him out ahead of Briscoe and Logano got past Christopher Bell and into the lead with 24 laps left.

(Photo Credits—Baez—Instagram; Ericsson—Rick Gevers at WWTR; Logano—Bob Priddy at the Brickyard)

Honors and Accolades

Posted on August 17, 2026 by bpriddy

I have noticed the universal self-praise President Trump has been receiving as the number of his golf tournament championships increases annually.

I have been too humble to mention the comparable national attention this blog has received. But I have been encouraged by the presidents pride in his golf course prowess to fill you in on the honors and accolades this blog has achieved in the decade-plus in which it has been published.

This is the tenth consecutive year that this blog has won the international prize for the best blog published on bobpriddy.net. Unlike the winner of the president’s club championship, this blog first must win the local, regional, and national prizes.

The humility that has prevented me from making these announcements has been eased by President Trump’s self-generated humble displays of his great linksmanship, exemplified by his announcement three years ago.

It is an added tribute to his strength & stamina that he was able to win the tournament that year although he missed the first day of play. He had played a round of golf somewhere else a couple of days earlier and he counted that score for his Mar-a=Lago tournament. I have not read his tournament rules although I am sure there is a past-champion’s exemption for times such as those.

It was an innovative approach that the PGA should consider.

An added distinction came earlier this year in recognition that this series of insightful writings has neither caused nor ended a war when I was awarded the bobpriddy.net Peace Prize. I was not invited to the White House to celebrate that victory. But that’s fair because I haven’t invited him to the Priddy house to celebrate his gold victories.

It takes considerable strength and stamina to compile these entries each day—-and I don’t have a big airplane to take me someplace to compose them.

Strength and stamina are qualities we share in achieving these honors and accolades. He uses a golf cart. I have a chair from which each of my fingers makes letters appear on a screen. In fact, I probably had far more key strokes than he had golf strokes, so my strength and stamina actually might be superior to his.

I differ, however, that golfing and blogging are “in a real way” like a physical examination because neither involves a prostate check.

Although I cannot match his claim that the same strength and stamina that it takes to win a golf tournament is the same kind of strength and stamina that it takes to govern because cats govern my house more than I do and often sit on my lap to supervise. He has no supervision.

He and I share the same ability to preserve our strength and stamina for the important times by maintaining an attitude that any time is a good time for a nap.

On rare occasions I have been forced to miss some days of posting, much as Mr. Trump missed the entire first day of his 2023 tournament that he won, although I think his number of missed days governing exceeds my missed days of posting.

For many years, bobpriddy.net also had a golf championship and, as is the case with Mr. Trump’s club tournament, I won every year whether it was on the glamorous Pirate’s Cove Course at the beautiful Lake of the Ozarks, or at courses in Michigan and Colorado or near Jefferson City. Sometimes there were other competitors but club rules categorized all of them as amateurs and scoring records were not kept.

I would show you my wall of medals and my shelves of trophies but all of you know that I differ somewhat from the president by not being as prone to gratuitous displays as he seems to be. I can’t afford a ballroom. The best we can do is a walk-in shower and two walk-in closets.

I wonder if his club trophy is a new one each year or if it is a large trophy such as the Stanley Cup that is engraved with the winner’s name annually. I also wonder if it’s 24-carat gold. Mine are more modest although several are artistic creations in Lucite.

The burden of the passing years is a concern and it is hard to anticipate what will happen when this blog’s greatest inspiration exits the stage. There will be no bobpriddy.net museum and library. I don’t think there will be room in my urn.

Nonetheless, congratulations to me for winning this important international award again. In all honesty, I could not have done it without him.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: