Author Archives: bpriddy

It’s Going to Happen Here

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Wherever you are when you read this you should resign yourself to the fact that somebody is going to kill a bunch of people in your town. Just pray you are not in the church, school, hospital, shopping mall, business, office—nowhere is safe from the loon with a gun and a grudge.

So just get ready to mourn.  Maybe you should get ready to die.

You just never know.

This is being written on Thursday, June 2, 2022.  Education Week calculates the Uvalde, Texas school shooting was the 27th school shooting this year, the 119th school shooting since 2018.

That’s just schools.

The Gun Violence Archive has counted 212 mass shootings in this country this year—incidents in which four or more people were killed or wounded, not counting the shooter.

Thoughts and prayers offered, or maybe somebody just thinks about thoughts and prayers because it’s easy to say.

But nothing seems likely to change.

We hear the same demands for SOMEBODY to do SOMETHING after every incident.  We hear the same claims that doing SOMETHING won’t solve ANYTHING—every time.

Truth is, our policy making system is paralyzed by fear that doing something will antagonize the most rabid supporters of gun rights, that elections might be lost, campaign funding might be switched to others, will violate the sacredness of the Second Amendment (and, by the way, spare me the BS about the First Amendment existing only because there is a Second Amendment, not after 19 children and two adults will no longer experience First Amendment rights because somebody decided to exercise his Second Amendment right.).

No part of the United States Constitution is immune from interpretation and no law is absolute. The Second Amendment is not above limits.

It is easy to be pessimistic about any kind of political effort to reduce these tragedies because there is a sickness within a political system that seems to think it proper for candidates to campaign by showing us their prowess with the kinds of weapons used to kill students and shoppers and hospital personnel, among others.

The irony of those who think they can show their defense of American values with commercials showing them shooting weapons of mass murder is that their commercials tacitly endorse phrase first uttered in 1927 by Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong: “Political Power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”

This kind of appeal for political support is abhorrent.

Unfortunately, it seems to work.

And that’s sick.

Is there a legitimate use for a weapon, or its replica, designed specifically to fire large quantities of bullets except in the military services the weapons were designed for in the first place?

Self-defense you say. Let’s see.  A character in Buffalo, NY was defending himself against dangerous shoppers at a mall.  Another character was defending himself against threatening fourth graders in Uvalde, Texas.  And a third was defending himself against his doctor.

And those are only the latest examples as we write this.

Do you feel safer knowing that dangerous shoppers, threatening fourth graders, and a doctor widely respected for his volunteer service are no longer threatening the peace and dignity of society?

THE ONION, a satirical newspaper that often looks at the absurdities of life, has published the same story 21 times after 21 mass shootings.  It re-published all 21 of them on its web page last week. The headline is always the same:

‘NO WAY TO PREVENT THIS,’

SAYS ONLY NATION WHERE

THIS REGUARLY HAPPENS

The text is always the same except for the dateline:

TULSA—In the days following a violent rampage in Oklahoma in which a lone attacker killed four individuals in addition to himself, and seriously injured several others, citizens living in the only country where this kind of mass killing routinely occurs reportedly concluded Tuesday that there was no way to prevent the massacre from taking place. “This was a terrible tragedy, but sometimes these things just happen and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop them,” said New Mexico resident Ellen Robinson, echoing sentiments expressed by tens of millions of individuals who reside in a nation where over half of the world’s deadliest mass shootings have occurred in the past 50 years and whose citizens are 20 times more likely to die of gun violence than those of other developed nations. “It’s a shame, but what can we do? There really wasn’t anything that was going to keep this guy from snapping and killing a lot of people if that’s what he really wanted.” At press time, residents of the only economically advanced nation in the world where roughly two mass shootings have occurred every month for the past five years were referring to themselves and their situation as “helpless.”

The shame of it is that the article is true.

And that’s why all of us need to be rehearsing our statements of shock and sorrow, or our survivors should be rehearsing statements of shock and sorrow, because these incidents will not stop on their own.

And as long as they go on, we might as well consider it inevitable that it’s going to happen here, wherever “here” is to you.

—-because there’s no way to prevent it.

And your town and my town are as likely candidates for this “distinction” as any place.

It is going to happen here.

Give up.  Expect it.

Nobody’s going to stop it.

Are they?

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The Streets of America

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I’m on the Missouri River Regional Library Board and we have a special social problem we’re trying to work out.

The public library is a place where homeless people (the current politically correct phrase for them seems to be “the unhoused”) can go to stay cool on hot days, warm on cold days, dry on wet days. There are public bathrooms, chairs to sit in, benches to sit on, newspapers and books to read.

Some folks drink. Some folks sleep.  Some folks have or cause problems.

They can’t fill their days hanging around in downtown businesses, including restaurants, shoe stores, clothing stores, offices, and the like.  So they gravitate to a public place (the courthouse and city hall don’t work) such as a library.

So the library staff is put in an awkward position.  These folks are the “public” and our building is a public place. But some of our “homed” (if you will) patrons aren’t comfortable when they come into the library and have to walk past these folks outside the front door or sitting with their bag of belongings inside. We have to respect their discomfort.

It’s a humanitarian issue and it’s a community issue and we’re working with some local groups to explore better options for these homeless citizens and for us and our patrons.

Some of our readers might recall the 70s duo of Brewer and Shipley—Michael Brewer and Tom Shipley.  They’re still around and they still perform together.  We had them a few years ago for our Community Concert series.

Some folks have never gotten over their big hit, “One Toke Over the Line,” about smoking marijuana.  But what once was radical music is becoming mainstream living.

One of the songs they did at our concert was “The Streets of America.”  It came to mind the other day when we were thinking about this special issue at the library.

In this era when political advantage is being sought by those who stoke fears that immigrants are inherently evil and a threat to American Values (a vague phrase that has had whatever blood is in it sucked out by whose own criteria for Americanism are not above question), or some people should just not be seen where other folks live and work, we were reminded of that song. We found a video of a Brewer and Shipley concert on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrzGpwvmoQ4

The song is about 50 minutes in.

They wrote the song in 1993. It’s copyrighted by Eye Forty Four Music (as in I-44, which goes through Tom Shipley’s town of Rolla—Michael lives in Branson). It’s on their “Shanghai” CD.

Leaving home, losing pride
Some suffer, some simply die
For a glance at the streets of America

I’m not sure why they call it the land of the free
But I know why they call it the home of the brave

I see sisters and brothers
Trading one heartache for another
And a shot at the streets of America

Those who have they ain’t givin’
Those who don’t are workin’ for a livin’
They’re forgotten on the streets of America

I’m not sure why they call it the land of the free
But I know why they call it the home of the brave

I hear so many voices
Telling me there ain’t many choices
When you sleep on the streets of America

I’m not sure why they call it the land of the free
But I know why they call it the home of the brave
I’m not sure why they call it the land of the free
But I know why they call it the home of the brave

“I hear so many voices telling me there ain’t many choices when you sleep on the streets of America,” they sing.

Reciting the Biblical adage that “the poor will always be with us” doesn’t solve the problem of those who sleep on our streets because it misinterprets the issue.

In a place defined by some as a “Christian nation,” the statement should not be used as a dismissive.  It should be seen as the obligation such a nation should assume if it truly believes in the words of the one who said, “Inasmuch as you do for the least of these…..”

It’s not often that we think of a library as a place where this obligation is played out.

But it is.

 

Sports:  Racing—Memorial Day Mayhem at Indianapolis, Charlotte, Monte Carlo

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(RACING)—From the glamorous streets of Monte Carlo to the historic oval at Indianapolis, to NASCAR’s longest race in Charlotte, Memorial Day in traditionally auto racing’s biggest day (although the longest days are reserved for LeMans and Daytona 24hour races).  Let’s recap:

(INDYCAR)—Take the entire population of St. Louis (about 304,000 people) and put them into an area less than one square mile and then have 33 cars running 220 mph within that space—-and you have the 2022 Indianapolis 500.

Marcus Ericsson, a native of Sweden running his fourth 500, had the field covered with less than ten of the 200 laps left. And then NASCAR star Jimmie Johnson, a rookie in open-wheel racing’s biggest event, crashed with seven laps to go. Two laps later, the red flag brought the race to a halt so it could finish at speed.

The race resumed at full speed with only two laps left, locking Ericsson into an intense battle with Pato O’Ward, with five former winners—with 9 victories in the 500 among them—in the final scramble behind them.  Ericsson was holding off O’Ward when Sage Karam crashed on the last lap, freezing the field as it came around for the checkered flag.

The two crashes ended late race surges by former winners Tony Kanaan, who finished third in what might be his last 500; Alexander Rossi, who had charged from 20th to fifth at the end; four-time winner Helio Castroneves who had methodically worked his way from 27th to seventh; Simon Pagenaud, who was closely behind Castroneves, and two-time winner Juan Pablo Montoya, who started 30th and crossed the line 11th, less than eleven seconds behind Ericsson.

Twenty-two cars finished on the lead lap within 25.2 seconds of the winner including another former winner, Scott Dixon, who started from the pole, led 95 laps, and seemed able to withstand challenges from everybody else.  Dixon, however, was caught going to fast into the pits for his last stop on lap 177 and had to make a drive-through penalty that put him at the back of the leading-lap cars. He finished 21st.

It was no consolation to Dixon that he broke Al Unser Sr.’s record for most laps led in the 500. He has led 665 laps in his career, breaking Unser’s record of 644. Ralph DePalma, one of the pioneers of the sport, is third on the list now with 612 laps led.  Unser won the race four times. Dixon and DePalma each have only one victory.

Dixon also holds the record for leading the most laps in a 500 (6 times), led 12 times to up his record number of times leading the race to 70, and stayed even with Tony Kanaan for leading the most 500s (15).

Ericsson ran in the top five most of the day but led only 13 laps, the fewest since Juan Pablo Montoya led only nine in 2015.He is the second Swedish driver to win the race.  Kenny Brack won the race in 1999.

Ericsson has a unique history in INDYCAR competition.  He has won three races in the series.  In all three, the race was red-flagged late so it could be finished at speed.

His win brought him $3.1 million, the largest winner’s reward in Indianapolis 500 history, part of a total purse of more than $16-million, the largest payout ever in the event.

The average payout at last night’s victory banquet was $485,000.

One reason for the record purse was the attendance, estimated at 325,000, the first time the Indianapolis Motor Speedway has opened its gates with no Covid restrictions in three years.

Jimmie Johnson, who won four stock car races at the Speedway in his NASCAR days, was named rookie of the year for the 500, adding $50,000 to the $207,900 he earned for his 28th-place finish.

(NASCAR)—NASCAR’s traditionally longest race of the year became the longest race in its history, with Denny Hamlin outdueling Kyle Busch in two overtimes.  The race, a 600-mile Memorial Day tradition, covered 619.5 miles before Hamlin crossed the finish line a mere 0.119 seconds ahead of Busch.

His victory tended to overshadow an epic comeback by Kyle Larson, who had to start from the rear because of unapproved adjustments to his already-damaged car, then had three pit-road penalties that put him at the back again, sun off the track once, had a pit fire and still was leading the race with two laps to go when Chase Briscoe brought out the caution flag and forced the race into its first overtime.

Larson’s luck ran out on the first overtime effort when he became one of seven cars collected in the last wreck of the night. He still managed to bring his wrinkled car home ninth.

The same wreck also knocked Ross Chastain out of the running. He led 153 of the 413 eventual laps and was the next-to-last car on the lead lap, running 15th, when the race came to a merciful end after five hours, 13 minutes and eight seconds. The average speed was only 118.7 mph.

The race included 18 cautions that covered 90 yellow-flag laps.  It was stopped with 54 laps left in regulation when Daniel Suarez got sideways after contact with Chase Briscoe. Chris Buescher’s car was caught up in the wreck and did five carrel rolls through the infield, coming to rest upside down.  It took several minutes to get the car turned over and for him to climb out unhurt.

At the end of the night, seventeen of the 37 cars that started were in the garage area, unable to continue.

(FORMULA 1)—Heavy rain delayed the start of the Monaco Grand Prix just before the green flag fell and tire decisions by the teams trying to deal with wet/dry track conditions contributed to a race described by some as “chaotic.”

At the end of the day, Red Bull’s number two driver, Sergio Perez, became the first North American to win at Monaco since Canada’s Gilles Villeneuve in 1981. The win is his third career F1 victory, making him the winningest Mexican driver in Formula 1 history, breaking a tie with Pedro Rodriguez, who raced in the 60s and early 70s.

The race was a huge disappointment for Charles Leclerc, the lead driver for Ferrari, who started on pole and finished fourth, a setback on his home track. He now trails Max Verstappen of Red Bull by nine points in the championship standings after leading Verstappen by a wide margin in the early part of the season.

Several drivers admitted they were stunned by the crash that took Haas driver Mick Schumacher out of the race. His car crashed into two barriers with a force so hard that the rear wheels, including the transaxle, were torn from the chassis.  Schumacher climbed from the cockpit unhurt, however.

(Photo Credits: Rick Gevers and Bob Priddy)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hymn to the Fallen

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Originally, this was Decoration Day, a day set aside in 1868 at the suggestion of Union General John A. Logan to remember the dead of the Civil War. By 1890 all of the northern states had adopted May 30 as “Decoration Day, a day to decorate the graves of those Civil War soldiers who had died “to make men free,” as the song says.

Two world wars turned the day into a day to remember our nation’s dead from all wars.  It became “Memorial Day” in 1971 when a three-day holiday was created with the last Monday in May, regardless of the date, as the observance.

The Jefferson City Community Band is holding its annual Memorial Day Concert today at the First Christian Church, the usual venue for this concert.

The program is always patriotic music or music with a military orientation.

One of the selections this year is John Williams’ Hymn to the Fallen from the 1998 Stephen Spielberg movie “Saving Private Ryan.”

The movie is the story of a World War II Army Ranger unit’s search for a Private James Ryan, an Iowa farm boy whose three brothers have been killed in action.  The Army wants him sent home, alive, but first he must be found.

The unit is led behind enemy lines by Captain John H. Miller to find Ryan before the War Department has to send a fourth letter of profound regret to his mother.  The unit finds Ryan but pays a tragic price by losing several men to save this one.  Miller is the last, telling Ryan, “Earn this” as he dies—to live a life worthy of the cost of saving him.

The musical motif is repeated at the end of the film as we see the face of Private Ryan (played by Matt Damon) morph into the face of James Ryan (played by Harrison Young) fifty years later, visiting the cemetery at Normandy with his wife, children, and grandchildren.  He finds the simple cross that marks Miller’s grave and kneels.

Old James Ryan: “My family is with me today.  They wanted to come with me.  To be honest with you, I wasn’t sure how I’d feel coming back here.  Every day I think about what you said to me that day on the bridge. I tried to live my life the best that I could. I hope that was enough.  I hope that, at least in your eyes, I’ve earned what all of you have done for me.”

His wife approaches. “James?..”

She looks at the headstone. “Captain John H. Miller.”

Ryan stands and looks at his wife.  “Tell me I have led a good life.”

“What?”

“Tell me I’m a good man.”

“You are,” and she walks back to the family members who have been watching, quietly, as Old James Ryan straightens, and salutes the cross with Miller’s name on it.

Writer John Biguenet, in a 2014 Atlantic Magazine article about the movie concludes that “the living are called not merely to bear witness to the achievement of the fallen heroes; the living are in fact the achievement itself.  Like Private Ryan we cannot help but ask what we’ve done to deserve such sacrifice by others and beg their forgiveness for what we have cost them.  And like James Ryan, all we can do to justify that sacrifice is to live our lives as well as we are able.”

On this Memorial Day, when self-centeredness, too often further corrupted by meanness, burdens our daily discussions, perhaps we can find a moment to justify the sacrifices of those intended to be honored today by living our lives better than we are living them.

When a Missourian won the Indianapolis 500

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“Put in front or burn it up,” August Duesenberg told Joe Boyer midway through the 1924 Indianapolis 500.

And he did.

Joe Boyer is the only Missouri native to win the Indianapolis 500 although Missouri’s connection to The Greatest Spectacle in Racing is long and varied, stretching from its earliest days to today.  The story of his victory has been equaled only one other time in the 105 runnings of the race.  The 106th edition will be run Sunday.

The race had changed engine rules in 1923, cutting engine size by one-third to only 122 cubic inches.  The average speed of Tommy Milton’s winning car was about 3.5 mph slower than the winner’s speed in 1922.

But new technology powered Boyer’s car in 1924. It was the first 500 that allowed superchargers and the impact of them was immediate.  Motor Age magazine told readers, “The perfected and groomed 122 cu. in. racing cars not only thrilled the ardent admirers of motor car racing with a new and unexpected record for average mileage but brought them to the ecstasy of sheer joy by setting a pace that rolled the first five over the finish line at greater speeds than the old record.”

The eight fastest qualifiers for the race all ran more than 100 mph with Jimmy Murphy’s Miller Special leading the way at 108.037.  Boyer started fourth, the inside position of the second row, in the field 22 cars, at 104.84.

Joseph Boyer Jr., was 34 years old the day of the race. He was born in St. Louis, the son of the inventor of the first successful rivet gun.  Boyer senior helped one of his employees, William Seward Burroughs develop a “calculating machine” in the company machine shop. Burroughs put Boyer in charge of the American Arithmometer Company that then absorbed a competitor.  The Boyer family moved with Burroughs to Detroit when Joseph junior was 15. The company became the Burroughs Adding Machine Company and Boyer senior served as its president until his death in 1930.

The Boyer family was quite wealthy and Joe Junior soon got into boat and car racing. One day before his 29th birthday, Joe Boyer Jr., started 14th in his first Indianapolis 500.  He lasted only 30 laps before his rear axle failed. The next year, he was the second fastest qualifier but crashed out of the race eight laps from the end and finished 12th.  In 1921, he started fourth again but was sidelined by a failed rear axle again after only 74 of the 200 laps. He missed the 1922 race and Differential failure in 1923 left him 18th.

It appeared his fortunes were changing in 1924, at least for one lap. Reporter Clarence Phillips, in the press box, records, “As they pass the starter Murphy, in his gilded chariot, sprigs ito the lead. ‘Look at Murphy,’ I hear someone say excitedly. But Boyer shoots past Murphy like a streak and finishes the lap in first place…” But by the fifth lap he was “out of the immediate picture suddenly.”

A key was sheared in his supercharger. He could still run but not at competitive speeds.  His teammate, L. L. (Lora Lawrence) Corum (on the left), who started 21st because he was a late qualifier despite having the 16th quickest speed, had worked his way up to ninth at the 150-mile mark.  He was fourth at 200 miles.  Just past the halfway mark, the 109th lap, Corum made a pit stop. Boyer had turned his crippled car over to another driver shortly before and Duesenberg ordered Corum out, put Boyer in and issued his famous order.

He was third behind Murphy and Earl Cooper after 120 of the 200 laps. Twenty laps later he was a minute-25 seconds behind Murphy and Cooper. When Murphy popped a tire on the 146th lap and had to pit, Boyer moved to second and started to close the gap on Cooper and was only 52 seconds back at 375 miles.

The lead shrank to only 37 seconds with 100 miles to go, down to 30 seconds with 30 laps left.

And then on lap 178, “Cooper goes into the pit…, Boyer springing into (the) lead and crowding his supercharger for full benefit…Each time the leaders pass the stands now there is yelling…Cooper gains four seconds…”

Twenty laps left and Boyer has expanded his lead to a minute-to seconds.

“Only ten more laps for Boyer. If he has good luck and drives the rest of the way as consistently as now he’ll win handily.”

Lap 195: “’Boyer is increasing his lead. He wants to finish strong. The starter is getting the flags redy. In one hand he has the green flag and in the other the checker.  Boyer is given a big ovation on the next to the last lap. They know he is the winner unless he falls dead or some other calamity occurs.

“The checkered flag is waved in front of Boyer as he comes down the stretch. He wins.”

He finished the race in five minute more than five hours, an average speed of 98.24 mph, four miles an hour faster than the record set two years earlier.  Cooper finished second and Murphy was third.

Boyer and Corum were recognized as the first co-winners in Indianapolis 500 history. In three other races (1911, 1912, and 1923) the starting drivers had relief drivers for part of the race but they got back behind the wheels and finished the race. This was the first time a winning car started with one driver but finished with a second one in control.

The only other time it has happened in race history was 1941 when Mauri Rose relieved Floyd David on the 72nd lap and went on to win the race. Davis is the only driver in the race’s history to win without leading a single lap. Rose also won the race by himself in 1947 and 1948.

Bowyer remains the only driver to lead the first lap and the last lap of the Indianapolis 500 in different cars.

Boyer drove during an era when some tracks were made of wooden boards and had high banks and featured motorcycle as well as automobile races.  One of those tracks was the Altoona Speedway in Pennsylvania.

The annual Altoona Fall Classic, held about Labor Day, attracted the big names in auto racing.  Boyer again was trying to run down Jimmy Murphy when his car blew a tire and crashed into the guard rail at 125 mph.  Boyer was pinned in the car, his legs crushed.  Rescuers got him to a hospital where both of his legs were amputated and he received blood transfusions. But he died on September 2, 1924, four months after he became the only Missouri driver to win the Indianapolis 500.

Motor Age concluded its article about Boyer’s 500 win, “As a result of this race the talk that has been heard heretofore about the maximum speed of the rack having been reached has been dissipated and some of the experts now confidenty believe that more than 100 miles an hour can be maintained for the 500-mile circuit of the famous speedway.”

On the 97th anniversary of Joe Boyer becoming the first (and so far, only) Indianapolis 500 winner from Missouri Helio Castroneves, using an engine about the same size as the one in Boyer’s car, averaged 190.690 mph in winning his fourth Indianapolis 500.

(Photo credits: Corum and Boyer—Bob Priddy, taken at the IMS Museum; all other illustrations are from Motor Age magazine, June 5,1924)

 

Maybe He Has It Backwards

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We saw a news account last weekend that our past president was suffering a severe case of the grumps.  Not sure why that’s news anymore. We’ve never known a grumpier politician, a person who’s just plain sour about almost everything.

It must have rained a lot at Mar-a-Lago this weekend, so much that he couldn’t occupy his mind chasing his golf ball around and was thus left to ruminate on why the world is so unfair to him.

He loves to use a phrase to discount the legitimacy of anybody who suggests he’s not his self-proclaimed genius.

Because the Wall Street Journal had the temerity to differ with him about the voting process in the Pennsylvania race for the U. S. Senate seat, he announced that the WSJ is a…

RINO.

Oh, dear.

We are sure the Journal is worried about mass subscription cancellations now that its secret has been revealed.

Here’s a novel thought.

Maybe it’s Donald Trump who is the RINO.

Maybe there are a lot of Republicans out there who would like to see their party reclaim itself with that simple revelation.

The very election results in Pennsylvania might point to that.

Trump’s man, Mehmet Oz, has 31.2% of the vote, as we write this.

That means 68.8% of the Republican ballots were cast for someone else.

So who’s the outlier here?  The two thirds of the voters who might consider themselves the real Republicans or the Oz supporter who is quick to call those he can’t convince by a name.

Donald Trump, the real RINO?

Just askin’.

 

Sports: Racing’s Biggest Weekend Ahead 

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

The American Memorial Day Weekend is the biggest weekend of the year for motorsports not only in this country but in Europe.

The Indianapolis 500, NASCAR’s 600-mile race at Charlotte, and the Grand Prix of Monaco put automobile racing in the spotlight—-although there are some questions whether one of these races will remain part of the big weekend in the future.

(INDYCAR)—A year after arguably the most spectacular Indianapolis 500 in history, a record-setting field is prepared for the 106th running of The Greatest Spectacle in Racing. The fastest field in history will take the green flag Sunday.  The thirty-three cars have an average qualifying speed of 231.023 mph, with Scott Dixon’s record pole average of 234.046 mph leading the way.

It’s Dixon’s fifth pole, one behind the record held by Rick Mears. He is the first driver to win back-to-back poles for the 500 since Ed Carpenter did it in 2013 and 2014.

Dixon’s speed is the second-fastest qualification in track history.  Arie Luyendyk set the overall record of 236.896 in 1996 but as a second-day qualifier started behind cars that had qualified on the first day.

Dixon had to outrun two youngsters to win the pole.  Alex Palou qualified at 233.499 mph and Rinus VeeKay stopped the watches at 233.385.  It’s the fastest front row in 500 history.  They are separated by less than one-half second after their four-lap, 10-mile run.

Twenty-six of the thirty-three cars that will start the race next Sunday qualified at 230 mph or more.

Last year’s winner, Helio Castroneves, will try to become the first five-time winner of the Indianapolis 500. But he has a hard road ahead, starting 27th, on the outside of the ninth row.

Castroneves became the fourth four-time winning in a stunning race last year in which the race speed record was broken by three miles an hour. The top sixteen cars all averaged more than 190 mph and the slowest car to complete all 200 laps—Ryan Hunter Reay—was still faster than the old speed record. The last car still running—Will Power, three laps down—was running faster than the record  set in 2013 by Tony Kanaan.

(NASCAR)—NASCAR’s annual all-star race sets the stage each year for its longest race and this year the all-star race went longer than usual.  Ryan Blaney thought he had won this year’s race, at Texas Motor Speedway, but learned his celebration was a little premature.

Blaney crossed the start-finish line first but learned the yellow flag had come out while his car was a few yards short of the line because of a crash behind him by Ross Chastain.  The incident meant the race would be concluded with a green-white-checkered flag two-lap overtime.  He got a push from Austin Cindric that allowed him to get the break on the final green flag and stay ahead of Denny Hamlin by a quarter second at the final end.  Cindric, the rookie who won the Daytona 500 to begin the racing season in February, finished third.

(FORMULA 1)—Max Verstappen heads to the uncertain streets of Monte Carlo on a roll after a disappointing season start.  But his good fortune is built on the misfortune of his chief competitor for the early-season points lead.

Verstappen and Mercedes’ George Russell fought a spirited fight for second place in the early going of the Spanish Grand Prix while Charles Leclerc and his Ferrari maintained a lead. But Leclerc lost his engine after his first pit stop and Verstappen teammate Sergio Perez got past Russell to give the Red Bull team its first 1-2 finish of the year.  Russell came home third.  Leclerc’s teammate Carlos Sainz, was fourth and Lewis Hamilton persevered for fifth.

The win is Verstappen’s third in row, fourth in the last five races. His win and Leclerc’s misfortune has moved Verstappen into the points lead, six ahead of Leclerc.  Leclerc has won the other two races.

Mercedes, which has struggled this year, showed progress at Spain, with Russell finishing third and Hamilton coming from the back of the pack after an early-race incident to finish fifth, has indicated it might have some improvements to its cars for Monaco.

There are reports that this historic race is facing an uncertain future.  The Sun, a United Kingdom newspaper, reports Formula 1 is considering dropping Monaco as a race site or running there in alternating years.  F1 receives no sanctioning payments from Monaco and there are those who consider the circuit outdated and facilities inadequate.

 

A reporter’s life

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Sometimes reporters need some cheering up.  Sometimes the public needs a view from inside the profession.   The person who wrote an editorial called, “The Life of a Newspaper Man” published in the Jefferson City Daily Democrat-Tribune more than a century ago might have been thinking along those lines when this appeared in the May 5, 1912 edition:

+++++

With the job of the newspaper man travels a silent companion. Trouble is his name and Worry is his sister.  Seven days out of six old man Trouble is on the job and the rest of the time his sister looks after his interest.  The newspaper man is between the devil and the deep blue sea during his waking hours and the chances are that his dreams are disturbed by gaunt specters of the day’s events.

If he asks questions he is impertinent, and if not he does not know his business. If he is observant, he is nosey and if not, he cannot deliver the goods.  If he hangs around he is in the way and if not something is sure to happen while he is away.  He must depend on others for information and if he does they forget to tell him.  If he honors official requests to suppress that story about Bill Jones because Bill’s first wife was a second cousin of a dear friend of Soandso, he is a good fellow, but he is not doing his duty to his paper or to the public.  He depends on the official for his information, but he depends also on the paper for his salary. If he suppresses the story he is looking for another job and if he does not he does not get the news.

A preacher in Los Angeles once delivered a violent sermon in which he denounced the newspapers and all of those connected with them as liars and crooks.  The next day they offered him the city editor’s desk of one of the great dailies in order that he might see the conditions under which a newspaper was made.  He held down the desk two hours and then made a public apology, saying that men who would work day in and day out under such a strain as did the staff of a newspaper were almost inhuman and due allowance should be made if they made mistakes.

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That was in the days before radio and television news and certainly before the days of cable television and internet punditry.  In 1981, your correspondent was part of a group that heard Walter Cronkite, the Missouri boy who became “the most trusted man in America” tell his colleagues in the electronic journalism business:

“What a THING it is to be a journalist.  God almighty; that’s the greatest thing in the world–to be a journalist. And there’s something wrong in this damn business of ours when there are too many people coming into it not to be journalists but to be a success, whatever the devil that means.

“I think there’s only one success in life for anybody who’s got the heart, compassion and courage to be a journalist, and that’s to be a journalist.

“…It worries me that in our communications schools we’re teaching how to communicate rather than how to be newspeople.

“It takes courage to be a journalist. It takes a courage that the public doesn’t know a damn thing about.  Not the courage to go out and face bullets and rocks and stones and shards of glass and the explosions of a terrorist bomb in a civil insurrection or a war.  That’s simple courage.  That’s macho courage.  That’s foolhardy courage at times.  It’s needed, and we’re certainly not going to deny the heroes their awards for that.

“But there are a lot of other kinds of courage it takes in this business.  It takes a kind of courage to face the ostracism of one’s neighbors, one’s friends, one’s golf companions on the 19th hole; when one is willing to get out there and say what’s right, what they know is right, and what they know must be reported to that community, to that state, if the nation is to live, and they’ll tell it, no matter what the fallout in their own social arrangement may be.”

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It’s not easy to be a journalist, whether print or electronic, in a time of division and an era where mistrust in our democratic institutions—including the press—is cultivated.

It is not easy for the journalist who is painted with the same broad public brush whether he or she works for a supermarket tabloid, gossip magazine, or for the New York Times and the Washington Post.

It is not easy to be a reporter in an era that encompasses Access Hollywood, The Daily Show, radio talk, 60 Minutes and the PBS Newshour and know that the public image of “the media” often lumps them together. But I’ve been in places where the journalist is not free to face the kind of public criticism or to face the limited public acclaim that American journalists face.

One of the many important penalties we have to pay as a free society is an aggressive, courageous press that is free to ask serious accountability questions to and about those to whom we have given power and to report the answers—with which we are free to disagree.  Say what you will about the press, but be grateful we live in a country that has a free one.

You could be someone hearing the Russian media version of what is happening in Ukraine.

 

 

Protest Ground Rules, Chapter Two

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Last Wednesday, we shared some observations about protestors gathering at the homes of Supreme Court Justices after the leak of a purported preliminary ruling throwing out Roe v. Wade.

Last weekend, the host of FOX News Sunday Night in America, Trey Gowdy, pointedly identified these targeted protests as more than illegal.  He argued they strike at the foundation of our nation and its liberties.

In an era where liberty and license are too easily confused—and where that confusion is often deliberately stoked by those who seek to grow their power from it to the detriment of the nation—one word seems expendable.

But Gowdy maintains that that single word is essential to our existence.

America has a rich history when it comes to protests. You can argue that our nation was formed as a protest. And the First Amendment certainly contemplated people would want to express their beliefs and assemble and petition the government. But there’s a very important word in the First Amendment that doesn’t get a lot of attention: the word “peaceably.” 

—as in the right of the people “peaceably” to assemble.

You may recall Chris Cuomo once asked, “show me where it says protestors are supposed to be police and peaceful.” Okay, Chris, it’s right there in the First Amendment, the same amendment which allows you and others to make a living on television. It requires peace, and if you’re not peaceful it’s a crime.

You are welcome to protest and you don’t have to be polite or fair or even accurate but you do have to be peaceful. 

Our next guest, Esther Salas, is a federal judge who was also the very proud parent of an outstanding young man. A little less than two years ago, they were at home enjoying each other as loving families do; the doorbell rang and her son Daniel bounded up the stairs to answer it. It was not a neighbor. It was not a deliveryman. It was a disgruntled lawyer armed with a gun and her home address and he shot her only son to death and seriously injured her husband.

This judge and her family were targeted because she was a judge. Becoming a federal judge is the pinnacle of a legal career. But it provides no insulation to the pain of losing a child to an act of violence.

And now there are people showing up at the homes of Supreme Court Justices. And to what end? For what purpose?

How does showing up at someone’s home advance your argument?

How is it persuasive to intimidate family members and neighbors? Do you really think you will change minds or change the way that judges look at cases and issues, by posing a threat? 

It’s against the law to show up at a judge’s house trying to intimidate or influence a decision. You are welcome to disagree with judges. You can take issues with their rulings, if you think a judge is wrong, you can appeal, you can defeat that judge at the ballot box or through impeachment. But you are not welcome to show up at a judge’s house to intimidate or influence that judge. 

And to that end, why are the home addresses of federal judges publicly available in the first place, especially as threats and security incidents against judges are on the rise?

Something is going on in this country and it is not good. Heckling people at restaurants, accosting them as they leave a rally or a political event, storming the Capitol, trespassing on other people’s property—to what end?

Your protest doesn’t have to be fair or accurate, although it would be much more persuasive if it was. Your protest doesn’t have to be polite although it’s ironic you are using bad behavior to complain about somebody else’s perceived bad behavior. But protests so have to be peaceful. And when they’re not, you give license on both sides of the ideological spectrum to do the same.

Protesters should be peaceful and law-abiding. Whether it is in pursuit of criminal justice reform, the counting of the electoral college, or decisions about what rights lie in the penumbra of other rights.

The law is about the only thing holding this country together right now. You are free to disagree with the law, argue against it, seek to change it.

You are not free to disregard it, because when you disregard the law, even in your pursuit of some perceived higher ideal, you weaken the law. And once it’s weakened, it is weakened forever. And you’re most assuredly not welcome to show up at a judge’s house to complain about a decision, no matter how strongly you feel. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NASKAR, Chaos in Indy, Mortification in Monte Carlo

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(NASKAR)—Kansas, Kurt, Kyle, Kyle.

Kurt Busch has won his first race at the Kansas Speedway after 33 career starts.  He now has at least one Cup victory in four different brands of cars—Ford, Dodge, Chevrolet, Toyota.

It’s his 34th career victory but the first one in a car designed to look like an Air Jordan tennis shoe.   And it’s the first time a car carrying the number 45 has won a Cup race since Lee Roy Yarbrough did it 58 years ago.

The number is significant because it’s one worn by team co-owner Michael Jordan, whose logo was on the hood of a car for the first time.

Bush had a two second-and-holding lead with 30 laps to go and did not need the caution flag with about thirty laps left.  He came out of the pits third.  He got past younger brother, Kyle, then set off to run down Kyle Larson—and got him with eight laps left, with an inside line.  Larson, running the rim, tagged the wall for the third time in the race, letting Busch get clear and pull away to a 1.3 second win.

It’s only the second victory for the 23XI team (23-11, two numbers associated with Jordan’s basketball career and the number campaigned by the other co-owner, driver Denny Hamlin) but the final result is the best-ever for the team.  Hamlin finished fourth and the third team driver, Bubba Wallace, rallied from a major pit road problem to finish tenth.  Wallace picked up the team’s first win at Talladega last year.

The race marked the halfway point in the 26-race regular season. Busch became the eleventh winner, leaving only five playoff spots to be determined by points—assuming there are no new winners in the next thirteen races.

NASCAR’s next points race is its longest, the 600 mile Memorial Day race at Charlotte.  Next week, Cup drivers race at the Texas Speedway in the annual non-points All-Star Race that pays the winner a million dollars.

(INDYCAR)—Wet.  No.  Dry.  Wait.  Wet.  Aww, Dry.  Raining in this corner.  Dry in this one.  Can’t see anything through the rooster tails of spray.  Oops.

The weekend road course race that kicks off the lead-in for the Indianapolis 500 in a couple of weeks has been pronounced “one of the wildest races” in recent history.  The win went to the driver who was able to best control the chaotic conditions for two hours.  Colton Herta was seriously sideways at least once but never went all the way around, as several competitors did, and in the end beat Simon Pagenaud to the checkered flag by about four seconds.

“This is the hardest race I think I’ve ever done,” said Herta afterward

Pagenaud, who climbed from 20th starting position despite the chaos, called the track “treacherous” at the end, when officials decided to stop the race after two hours instead of going the full 85-lap distance. Sixteen of the 27 starters were still on the same lap when the checkered flag game down on lap 75.

Will Power, who started from the pole, got the final podium position with Marcus Ericsson finding his way from 18th to fourth. “The craziest thing I’ve ever experienced,” said Connor Daley, who had his best finish of the year—fifth.

Almost half of the starters struggled with the fluctuating weather. Eight caution periods for 31 of the 75 laps involved 13 of the 27 cars in the field.

Today (Tuesday) the Speedway becomes the historic oval again and Helio Castroneves  begins his quest to be the first driver to win back-to-back 500s a second time, and the first driver to have five places on the Borg-Warner trophy.

(MONACO)—Suppose you were given a chance, at only 24 years of age, to drive one of the iconic Formula 1 race cars in a historic car event.  Suppose you were one of the top stars in today’s Formula 1 competition.  And suppose you wrecked the car that likely would bring several million dollars the next time it is auctioned.

Charles Leclerc was driving Niki Lauda’s Ferrari 312b3-74 in the Monaco Historic Grand Prix last weekend, when he backed it into the wall, damaging the rear wing which damaged the right rear wheel. Leclerc, who has two wins and two runner-up finishes in the first five races of the year. He was able to drive the car away from the crash site, but slowly.

The car is now privately owned.  Lauda was second in the F1 championship points that year but won the first of his three world championships in an updated 312 the next year.

(photo credits:   (Busch, Herta) Bob Priddy; (Ferrari): Andrew and Alan Frost, Wikimedia Commons, https://flickr.com/photos/95472204@N03/28578702257)