Author Archives: bpriddy

Faith, Hope, and Justice

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(A friend of mine observed many years ago:

“I once read about a man

Who went about doing good.

It disturbs me that I am satisfied

Just going about.”

Dr. Frank Crane suggested years ago that faith, hope, and charity—or faith, hope, and love—have an additional component.)

JUSTICE

THERE are many earnest souls occupied in trying to do people good.

There are nine million societies, more or less, organized to improve and to ameliorate.

There are preachers, missionaries, evangelists, reformers, exhorters, viewers-with-pride, and pointers-with-alarm without number wrestling with sinners.

All forms of industry are booming these days in the U. S. A., but the uplift business is still several laps ahead.

It seems ungracious to say a word to any enthusiastic person who is engaged in so laudable an enterprise as that of rescuing the perishing, feeding the hungry, and healing the sick.

And yet, when you take time to think right through to the bottom of things, you must come to the conclusion that there is but one real, radical and effective way to help your fellow-men, and that is the way called justice.

If I want to redeem the world I can come nearer my object, and do less harm, by being just toward myself and just toward everybody else, than by “doing good” to people.

The only untainted charity is justice.

Often our ostensible charities serve but to obscure and palliate great evils.

Conventional charity drops pennies in the beggar’s cup, carries bread to the starving, distributes clothing to the naked. Real charity, which is justice, sets about removing the conditions that make beggary, starvation, and nakedness.

Conventional charity plays Lady Bountiful; justice tries to establish such laws as shall give employment to all, so that they need no bounty.

Charity makes the Old Man of the Sea feed sugar-plums to the poor devil he is riding and choking; justice would make him get off his victim’s back.

Conventional charity piously accepts things as they are, and helps the unfortunate; justice goes to the legislature and changes things.

Charity swats the fly; justice takes away the dung-heaps that breed flies.

Charity gives quinine in the malarial tropics; justice drains the swamps.

Charity sends surgeons and ambulances and trained nurses to the war; justice struggles to secure that internationalism that will prevent war.

Charity works among slum wrecks; justice dreams and plans that there be no more slums.

Charity scrapes the soil’s surface; justice subsoils.

Charity is affected by symptoms; justice by causes.

Charity assumes evil institutions and customs to be a part of “Divine Providence,” and tearfully works away at taking care of the wreckage; justice regards injustice everywhere, custom-buttressed and respectable or not, as the work of the devil, and vigorously attacks it.

Charity is timid and is always passing the collection-box; justice is unafraid and asks no alms, no patrons, no benevolent support.

“It is presumed,” says Henry Seton Merriman, “that the majority of people are willing enough to seek the happiness of others; which desire leads the individual to interfere with his neighbor’s affairs, while it burdens society with a thousand associations for the welfare of mankind or the raising of the masses.”

The best part of the human race does not want help, nor favor, nor charity; it wants a fair chance and a square deal.

Charity is man’s kindness.

Justice is God’s

Fly Missouri

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Our son flies for Southwest Airlines.  Living the Dream.

Always wanted to be a pilot.  Went through the program at Warrensburg before it was the University of Central Missouri.  Went through the Ramen Noodle days as a flight instructor to pile up the hours that let him fly cargo planes (I told him he should always fly cargo because a box never hijacked a plane) until he racked up the hours to fly people.  Flew regionally then became a First Officer for Southwest five years ago or so.

Great company to work for.  Loves it.

Pretty handsome forehead, don’t you think? A few months ago Rob got to fly a special plane.   Missouri One.

Back in 2015, Southwest decided to honor thirty years of service in Missouri with a special 737-700.

It’s been six years since Southwest unveiled Missouri One.  Don’t know why we haven’t heard about it until recently but it sure is a beauty.  It was decorated at Aviation Technology Services in Kansas City, the first city in Missouri that Southwest started serving.

Southwest went into business in June of 1971. Flights involving Kansas City began on February 18, 1982 and St. Louis about three years later. Southwest has done so well at St. Louis that everything comes out of the East Terminal and Lambert Airport has become the line’s international gateway.

At the time Missouri One took to the air, Southwest had nine other state-themed planes. And now Rob, who lives about a half-hour from Denver International Airport, has gotten to fly his home state’s plane. It wasn’t intentional.  Crews go to the airport and get aboard whatever plane is headed to the city to which the crew is scheduled to fly.  Missouri One just happened to be THE plane that day.

We can’t write perceptive and always-correct political observations, you know.  Every now and then we have to bust a button about something.

How did Southwest get the state seal and all that other stuff on that plane?

Take a look at this:

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

Missouri hasn’t declared an official Missouri Bicentennial Airplane but if it did, this one would have to merit serious consideration.

Someday, Southwest will have to retire Missouri One.  Maybe the company would donate it to be with TWA Constellation, DC-3, Lockheed 1011, and other planes at the Airline History Museum at the Charles B. Wheeler Airport in Kansas City.  Might not be too soon to suggest it.

(photo credits: Rob Priddy, Southwest Airlines, worldairlinenews.com, Airline History Museum, Kansas City)

 

A NASCAR Cinderella Story at New Hampshire

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(LOUDON, NH)—The rain started early at New Hampshire Motor Speedway but the lightning did not strike until the end.

Aric Almirola, mired in 27 place in the points standings with no hope of making the playoff unless he won a race—

Won the race.

LOUDON, NEW HAMPSHIRE – JULY 18: Aric Almirola, driver of the #10 Smithfield Ford, celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on July 18, 2021 in Loudon, New Hampshire. (Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images)

Almirola, with only two top-ten finishes in the first 21 races and an average finish this year of 21.8, took the lead with 28 laps to go and held it until NASCAR ended the race because of darkness eight laps from scheduled 301.  Almirola finished about two-thirds of a second ahead of oncoming Christopher Bell, who noted afterwards, “I was able to get to him, and it was going to be a heck of a race.

The win not only is the first of the year for Almirola, it’s the first of the year for his team, Steart-Haas Racing.

The race got off to an unhappy start with. One of NASCAR’s officials reported a wet track in turns 1 and 2. Leader Kyle Busch immediately reported it was raining but before NASCAR acted, he and several other cars spun in that area. Busch’s car backed into the wall and could not continue, leaving him 37th and last. NASCAR finally red-flagged the race on lap 7 and didn’t restart it until an hour and 41 minutes later.  That delay led NASCAR to stop the race eight laps from the planned finish because of darkness.

Almirola is the thirteenth winner this year, leaving only three playoff slots available based on points. One of those slots will go to Denny Hamlin, who leads all drivers in points although he is still winless this year. Kevin Harvick seems solid for the fifteenth position.  But Childress teammates Tyler Reddick and Austin Dillon are headed for a four-round fight for the last playoff berth.  They are separated by only five points.

NASCAR won’t race again until it runs the road course at Watkins Glen on August 8th. Its season second-half broadcast partner, NBC, will be busy covering the Olympics instead.

(INDYCAR)—INDYCAR is on its summer break until August 8 at Nashville. And when it comes back, Helio Castroneves will come back, too.  It will be his first INDYCAR race since winning his fourth Indianapolis 500 in May.  He’s driving a limited schedule of six races for Meyer-Shank Racing.

He’s filled the racing gap by running in the SRX series—six races on dirt as well as on paved tracks.  The series wrapped up its season Saturday night with defending NASCAR champion Chase Elliott winning at Nashville, edging series co-founder Tony Stewart. Stewart won the season championship.  Castroneves finished fifth among the ten regular drivers in the series.

(FORMULA 1)—Lewis Hamilton has chalked up his 99th career Grand Prix victory but not without controversy and some hard feelings by his top competitor for the championship, Max Verstappen.  Hamilton’s aggressive move to the inside on the second lap of the British Grand Prix at Silverstone sent Verstappen’s car careening into the barrier.  Verstappen was unhurt but made it clear he was unhappy with Hamilton’s move. Verstappen called Hamilton’s move “dangerous” and his Red Bull team’s principal, said it was an “amateur” move by a “desperate driver.”

Hamilton countered that he had conceded a position to Verstappen in the past to avoid collisions, but, “Unfortunately, the aggression stayed from his side and we collided.”

Hamilton’s victory and Verstappen’s early exit chopped twenty points off Verstappen’s point lead.

(Photo credit: NASCAR/James Gilbert-Getty images)

Another trip around the sun

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(We celebrated at our house a few days ago the completion of another trip around the sun, another anniversary of the birth of the compiler of these columns. Although ascending as gracefully as possible in the number of our years we shall not try to impress you with the number of these trips we have made. But it is enough that contemplating the total journey each year leads to increasing time spent reflecting on the places in life we have been and offering advice to those still early in their journeys—-as Dr. Frank Crane might have been doing when he told readers of Woman’s World in 1913:)

REMEMBER OLD AGE

In youth, one finds himself full of many forces, physical, intellectual, and emotional. He is a bundle of desires. He ought to be. It man’s life’s forces run rich in him. So he desires to make love, to get popularity, to play, to do great work, to see the marvels of the world, to amass knowledge and altogether give vent to the steam and electricity which nature has concealed in his makeup.

Hence, he gives himself to varied activities. By gratifying all these wants he becomes somewhat in the world.

But whether he is a real success or not depends not on how he give way to these desires but upon how he controls them. It is not the things he does and the things he gets that make him a great man; it is the residuary deposit that is left in his soul.

All of these pleasures of getting and doing have their place, but the real object of them is that they shall pass over into the higher values of character.

So it is pitiful to see the old man was once a sensualist, a vigorous merchant, a political leader, and how now has nothing left but regret—for his lost vitality. Had he understood the art of living he would have gained from his more active days a wealth of inner qualities of spiritual strength and beauty; and instead of old age leaving him poverty stricken of happiness, it would have left him with the harvest treasures of wisdom and joy in life.

Adopt the philosophy of Omar Khayyam, take for your gospel, “Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die,”  seek only “to get all the fun you can get out of life,” and you exhaust all your inner resources, and your old age will be that of a dyspeptic and a banquet.*

But begin in youth to resolutely choose the higher pleasures, to train yourself in independence from the domination of “things” and reliance upon the pleasures of beauty, thought, and love, and old age will come as the golden privilege of life.

It is a question of nobility versus meanness; it must be an ennobling and not a gloomy and narrow religion. Neither poverty nor riches matter; it all depends upon whether you are nobly poor or nobly rich. Sickness or health do not determine the temper of your old age; that is fixed by your being nobly feeble or nobly robust.

It is in old age that all of the higher truths of life shine undimmed by any deceiving circumstances. Then, if you are petty, selfish, egotistic, proud and small souled, there is nothing to conceal it. If you are patient, loyal, and full of love, it is apparent.

—-

*Although the quotation is often attributed to Khayyam, it actually is a combination of two verses from the Bible and also is found in the Book of Mormon:

Ecclesiastes 8:15—“Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry.”

Isaiah 22:13—“Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we shall die.”

2 Nephi 28:7– “Yea, and there shall be many which shall say: Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die; and it shall be well with us.”

We have found a couple of quotes from Khayyam that might apply to Dr. Crane’s theme today:

“Come, fill the Cup, and in the Fire of Spring The Winter Garment of Repentance fling: The Bird of Time has but a little way To fly-and Lo! the Bird is on the Wing,” and–

“Why ponder thus the future to foresee, and jade thy brain to vain perplexity? Cast off thy care, leave Allah’s plans to him – He formed them all without consulting thee.”

(Omar Khayyam 1048-1131) was a Persian astronomer, philosopher, poet, and mathematician.)

 

Simile When You Say That, Pardner

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One of my favorite satellite radio channels Radio Classics, maybe because I’m so old that I remember when radio was filled with diverse entertainments instead of the steady diet of super-inflated egos who pour division and distrust into democracy’s gears.

One thing television has taken away from radio is the detective show in which the main character is the narrator who explains in often-colorful phrases the world in which he or she lives.  Many of these shows were created in era of hard-boiled detective novels and magazines, thus leading to a lot of similes that left vivid images in the listeners’ minds.

Let’s face it, television and movies cannot come close to showing what we see in our minds and they did it with similies.

The king of the detective simile was Pat Novak, played by pre-Dragnet Jack Webb on “Pat Novak for Hire.”  The other day Radio Classics played an episode called “Agnes Bolton.”

To refresh your memory of high school freshman English, a simile is a figure of speech in which something is compared to something different.

Pat Novak was a tough private eye living on the financial edge with a boat rental business in San Francisco. Webb’s narration throughout the program described his situations and those he met, including a friend who tells him during the show, “You’re never on the right side of things. You’ll always be in trouble because you’re a bad citizen. You’re a shabby half-step in the march of human progress. You don’t know the difference between good and evil. For you, all of human endeavor is a vague blur in high heels…You might as well try to recapture melancholy or ventilate a swamp. Ya haven’t a chance. You’ll never be any good.”

The writers for the show were Richard Breen and Gil Doud.  It must have been fun writing Webb’s narration as Pat Novak.  Even those who were raised after the dawn of television can probably hear in their own minds Jack Webb’s clipped, blunt, reading:

Around here a set of morals won’t cause any more stir than Mothers Day at an orphanage.

It doesn’t do any good to sing the blues because down here you’re just another guy in the chorus.

About as likely he would show up as a second pat of butter on a 50-cent lunch.

A smile as smooth as a pound of liver in a bucket of glycerin.

His eyes swept the room like a $10 broom.

She was at least 50 because you can’t get that ugly without years of practice.

(Her complexion) was red and scratchy as if she used a bag of sand for cold cream.

Her hair hung down like dead branches of a tree.

The way she fit (into a telephone booth), a sardine ought to be happy.

He was making noises in his throat as if he was eating a pound of cellophane.

(I couldn’t get anybody to talk to me.) I might as well have been selling tip sheets in a monastery.

If you keep your foot on a bar rail, you’ll find it’ll do more good for your arches than for your brain.

I better have a drink first; there’s an ugly taste in my mouth. I think it’s saliva.

It wasn’t raining hard anymore…It sounded quiet, almost private, like the sound a woman makes when she runs her fingernail up and down her stocking. It got on your nerves at first and then you learn to enjoy it.

Her main talent is more dimensional than dramatic.

(She was) stretched out as dead as a deer on a fender.

Her skin reminded you of a piece of felt that was almost worn out. But the rest was all right.

Riding with (him) is just about as safe as eating an arsenic sandwich.

The rain was hitting the windshield and it was like trying to see through a mint julep.

—All of those are from that single show.  If a person loves descriptive writing or wants to learn something about it, I suggest they listen to some of these great old detective shows.

Various people have proclaimed, “Theatre is life; film is art; television is furniture; but radio is imagination.”  Have you ever seen on television anything that has shown you someone “as dead as a deer on a fender?”  Or seen anything on television as sensuous as “the sound a woman makes when she runs her fingernail up and down her stocking?”  What we see with our eyes is often so inadequate when compared to what we see in our minds.

This is a good opportunity to pay tribute to those two writers. Their names are unfamiliar. In fact, we don’t pay much attention as the credits roll at the end of our movies or TV shows and name of the writer(s) show up.

Richard Breen started as a freelance radio writer who moved to movies. He won an Oscar as the screenwriter for 1953’s Titanic.  He was nominated for writing A Foreign Affair in 1948 and for Captain Newman, M.D., in 1963.

Gil Doud also wrote for the Sam Spade radio series.  He wrote one episode of the radio Gunsmoke and adapted five of John Meston’s Gunsmoke radio scripts for the early television versions of the show. He didn’t match Green’s screenwriting credentials but he did write Thunder Bay starring James Stewart in 1953, Saskatchewan with Alan Ladd the next year, and Audie Murphy’s To Hell and Back in 1955.  He also wrote episodes for the radio shows Suspense and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar.

These guys were writing for radio in the era when people such as Mickey Spillane were beginning their tough murder mysteries with (from Spillane’s The Big Kill):

“It was one of those nights when the sky came down and wrapped itself around the world.  The rain clawed at the windows of the bar like an angry cat and tried to sneak in every time some drunk lurched in the door. The place reeked of stale beer and soggy men and enough cheap perfume thrown in to make you sick.”

Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer novels and the radio shows written by people such as Breen and Doud create images no television program or movie could ever show.  It’s the power of the written word.  And the spoken word.

Let’s conclude this colorful reminiscence with part of the script from the opening of the tenth Pat Novak show, “Go Away Dixie Gilliam.”  It’s from https://www.genericradio.com/show/07d5af03664522b5:

Ladies and Gentlemen, the American Broadcasting Company brings transcribed to its entire network, one of radio’s most unusual programs:

MUSIC: BRIEF, DRAMATIC INTRO, THEN SOFTEN FOR NEXT LINE

ANNOUNCER: Pat Novak, For Hire.

MUSIC: UP AGAIN BRIEFLY AND FADE OUT

SOUND: HARBOR AMBIANCE DURING NOVAK’S INTRO LINES

SOUND:FOOTSTEPS OUT OF THE FOG

 

NOVAK: Sure, I’m Pat Novak, For Hire.

SOUND:HARBOR OUT

MUSIC: CUP AS HARBOR FADES. PLAY BRIEFLY AND THEN SOFTEN AS NOVAK CONTINUES.

NOVAK:

That’s what the sign out in front of my office says: Pat Novak, For Hire. Down on the waterfront in San Francisco you always bite off more than you can chew. It’s tough on your wind pipe, but you don’t go hungry. And down here a lot of people figure its better to be a fat guy in a graveyard than a thin guy in a stew. That way he can be sure of a tight fit. (Pause) Oh, I rent boats and do anything else which makes a sound like money–

MUSIC: OUT

NOVAK:

–It works out alright, if your mother doesn’t mind you coming home for Easter in a box. I found that out on Wednesday night at about 9 o’clock. I closed the shop early and I came home to read. It wasn’t a bad book, if you ever wanted to start a forest fire. It was one of those historical things and the girl in it wandered around like a meat grinder in ribbons. Ah, I was moving along alright. She was just getting her second wind before going for the world’s record when the door to my apartment opened and the place began to get kinda crowded. From where I sat, the crowd looked good.

SOUND: SOFT FOOTSTEPS APPROACH UNTIL LEIGH’S FIRST LINE

NOVAK:

She sauntered in, moving slowly from side to side like a hundred and eighteen pounds of warm smoke. Her voice was alright, too. It reminded you of a furnace full of marshmallows.

 

My God!  “Like a hundred and eighteen pounds of warm smoke….”  Let NCSI or Law & Order try to match that.

Some of our women readers might consider this language blatantly sexist.  It’s hard not to agree.  Perhaps in our comment box below, some might want to suggest some similar similes describing men. Just remember, this is a family blog, rated no higher than PG.

This concludes our refresher course on SIMILIES.

And how much better our minds were when radio brought them to us

Racing: Brothers going 1-2 in NASCAR? Rare, but done

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(NASCAR)—Kurt Busch beat brother Kyle in the Atlanta race Sunday, raising questions about how often that has happened in NASCAR history. It’s rare but not unprecedented. The Busch brothers have done it four times, each finished ahead of the other twice.

There have been several sets of brothers who have run against each other since June 19, 1949 when NASCAR ran its first race at the old Charlotte track.

After Sonoma six years ago, NASCAR combed through its records and found the first time brothers finished 1-2 was in the second year of the series. Tim and Bob Flock finished 1-2 at Charlotte on April 2, 1950, the first of thirteen times they went 1-2.  There was a third brother, Fonty, but he never made it a 1-2-3 finish for the family and was never part of a 1-2 finish with either Tim or Bob.

Bobby and Donnie Allison did it four times. Herb and Donald Thomas went 1-2 in a 1965 race in Hillsboro, NC.

Terry and Bobby Labonte went 1-2 three times. Bobby was on top two of those times.

Jeff Burton won three races with brother Ward in second.

So the answer to the question of how many times is 28.

Other brother combinations failed to do it.

Darrell and Michael Waltrip never did it. Nor did the three Bodine brothers—Geoff, Brett, and Todd.  The Wallace boys of Missouri, Rusty, Kenny, and Steve didn’t pull it off. Benny and Phil Parsons didn’t either. Neither did Richard and Maurice Petty.

Back to the weekend’s  NASCAR:  Kurt became the twelfth driver to lock in a playoff position with his first win of the year.  Until the run at Atlanta he had been fighting to stay in the playoff picture on points after a slow start in 2021. He led more than half of the laps; Kyle led a little more than a third of them.  Kyle blamed his brother’s teammate, Ross Chastain, for slowing his charge for the lead, allowing Kurt to stretch the margin between the two brothers. Observers say Chastain did not exactly block the younger brother but he did take away Kyle’s preferred line around the track in the late running. The margin of victory was a little more than 1.2 seconds. Chastain finished a lap down in 21st.

Martin Truex, Jr., Alex Bowman, and Ryan Blaney rounded out the top five. The all have victories to clinch their places in the playoffs.

Only five races remain to determine the sixteen drivers who will run for the title in late November.  Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick, who won sixteen races between them last year but who are winless in 2021, Austin Dillon and Tyler Reddick fill out the remaining playoff slots based on their points. Chris Buescher, Matt DiBenedetto, Chastain and Bubba Wallace have the five races to win their way onto the list or gain large quantities of points to force their way into the final four slots.

NASCAR races at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway at Loudon next Sunday.

(INDYCAR)—INDYCAR is taking a summer break and will race next on August 8 at Nashville.

This weekend was one of the great party events of big-time auto racing, the Goodwood Festival of Speed which this year paid special honors to Roger Penske. One of the events at the festival each year is a hill climb and Penske, who is 84, took the wheel a 2008 Porsche RS Spyder that won the Sebring 12 Hours to run the annual Goodwood Hillclimb. Several of his cars that raced at Indianapolis or in NASCAR and Formula 1 also were featured.

https://www.goodwood.com/grr/event-coverage/festival-of-speed/2021/7/gallery-roger-penske-celebrated-at-fos/

(SRX)—INDYCAR veteran Marco Andretti has won his first race in a stock car.  He won the SRX race at the Slinger, Wisconsin quarter-mile oval Saturday night, beating back a challenge from 17-year old Luke Fenhaus, who earned a chance to race against the bigger names in the race by winning the Slinger Nationals earlier in the week.

The series wraps up its six-race first season next weekend at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway. Series founder Tony Stewart has a 38-point lead in the standings.

(FORMULA 1)—F1 was off this weekend before running the British Grand Prix at Silverstone next Sunday.

It takes a town to make a town

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(We want our city to be greater than it is, more than it has been to its own citizens and to those who visit or will visit it.  But the town has to WANT to be greater than it is and that means its citizens must want it to be more than it is, not for their own benefit, but for the benefit of generations to come.  It’s not a job to be left to the city council or the chamber of commerce. This observation, written by Dr. Frank Crane shortly after the end of the First World War and published in The Delineator magazine, remains valid today as he suggests we put—)

YOUR HOMETOWN FIRST

Work for your own town.

Beautify it. Improve it. Make it attractive.

The World War and the Treaty of Peace and the Protective Tariff and all such things are important subjects but what’s the good of cleaning up the world unless you sweep your own doorstep?

The city whose main street is dirty, sordid-looking, cluttered, uninviting, suffers much. Such a city wants to be cleaned, recreated, made a thing of beauty so that people will come from miles to see it.

The best advertisement of your business if the town you live in.

Towns get reputations as well as men. Make your town talked of all through the state. It will thus draw people. And where the people come, there is prosperity. It does not take money. It takes cooperation.

Get together. Organize for civic improvement. Develop the civic nerve.

Rid your town of one eyesore after another. Clean up the vacant lots and plant them in gardens. Make a cluttered yard a disgrace. Make public opinion too hot for those who will help.

It pays.  It will promote law and order. It will help in the education of your children. It will draw factories and other business enterprises to your locality.

Shiftlessness, untidiness, dirt and selfishness as shown in your streets and buildings react upon your people.

Such things make your boys and girls grow up hating their home town.

Make your home town a children’s paradise, something their memory will lovingly turn back to.

Look after your amusements, your parks, your playgrounds, your theatres and all other forms of communal enjoyment.

Make your home town happy.

It pays.

The Future of Water (update)

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We seldom update one of these posts, and even less often do we do it immediately.  Had we posted on this topic today instead of yesterday we would have changed some information. But here’s an important update that underlines the point we made.

The Corps of Engineers announced yesterday that it was implementing drought conservation measures on the Missouri River.  June runoff from rain (very little) and snowmelt (much reduced) was just 52% of the average amount. The Corps has updated its forecast for upper basin runoff to finally be 60% of average.

It says this will be the tenth driest year in the upper basin since 1898.  Water storage in upstream reservoirs is expected to decline further.  That means less water coming downstream for all of the purposes defined by federal river law.

This doesn’t mean we who live in cities that rely on the river for our water will have to stop watering lawns, wash dishes once a week and clothes once a month and ourselves only on Saturday nights using the same water for everybody in the family (as many of our pioneer ancestors did).  But it adds further weight to yesterday’s discussion.

There isn’t “water, water everywhere” in more and more places.

The Future of Water

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A good part of Missouri has gotten an excessive drenching in the past few days.  But we—and perhaps you—have friends to the west who are being baked well-done by record heat and who are watching forests burn and water reservoir levels drop and disappear.

We might think we are glad we don’t have their problems—although our monsoon week is hardly without problems of its own.

For several years, Nancy and I enjoyed going to the Four Corners area for a week each fall to do archaeological work on or near the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation, adjacent to Mesa Verde National Park. We first recorded rock art from the days of the Anasazi (a Pueblo word meaning “ancient enemies”—we don’t know what those people who lived in the area until the 1200s called themselves because they left no written language). Although popular telling of their story has it that they just suddenly disappeared 750 years ago or so, archaeologists and anthropologists think they know where their descendants are, and they have developed some theories on why they fled the Four Corners area.

It’s thought they are the ancestors of the present Hopi people. One of the factors—the final straw—leading to their departure from the Four Corners area is believed to have been a 45-year drought that left them without the food and other resources needed to survive.

All of this has been brought to mind by recent reports that Lake Mead, which is behind Hoover Dam, has declined to its lowest level ever because of a drought that is now in its 22nd year. The condition is critical for 25-million people including the cities of Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Diego, Phoenix, and Tucson.  The lake has hit a record low, down 140 feet since 2000, creating the bathtub ring you can see in recent pictures. One-hundred-forty feet is about the height of the Statue of Liberty from base to torch tip.

Some states already have imposed water rationing and they expect to tighten restrictions as conditions worsen. Agriculture is in dire straits. Adding to the awful conditions is the rise in major fires in forests that haven’t seen protective rain for years.

It’s hard to understand that green and verdant Missouri faces some water shortages of our own. Today.  Right now.  And stewardship of our water will become more critical as our population increases, as agriculture is under increased pressure to produce more and more food in an increasingly populous world, and as our economy grows.

The Department of Natural Resources 2020 update to its Missouri Water Resources Plan warns, “Although Missouri is fortunate to have rich water resources, localized shortages do exist because of the distance from adequate supplies, insufficient infrastructure or storage, water quality constraints, and other limiting factors. In many areas, surface water supplies are subject to seasonal fluctuations; supplies are frequently at their lowest when demand is the highest.”

Farther into the study we are told, “On average, the 6.1 million people and numerous businesses in Missouri consume 3.2 billion gallons of water each day. Of that demand, 78 percent is supplied by groundwater, while the remaining 22 percent is supplied by surface water.”  Three fourths of our water comes from under our feet.

We often heard testimony in legislative committee hearings on the dangers of agricultural runoff or industrial pollution going into our streams and rivers, our surface waters. A major concern, yes.  But that’s only one-fifth of the water we use or think we need to use.

Studies indicate our population will rise to about seven-and-a-half million people by 2060, well within the lifetimes of some who read these entries—them or their children—putting more pressure on water, a finite resource.  The report suggests a number of policies and practices that need to be started now in anticipation of that growth.

We need to do more than read about them. Our generation has to start something that later generations can continue to meet Missouri’s water needs.

The greatest pressure on our water supply is agricultural irrigation—65% of our water withdrawals go to farming. Major water systems (that provide us with water to drink, to bathe in, to do our dishes, and flush our toilets) are another 25%.

The study says the agricultural counties of Butler, Dunklin, New Madrid, Pemiscot, and Stoddard Counties—all in the southeast corner of the state—are projected to have the greatest growth in demand in the next four decades. High demand also is expected as our metropolitan areas become more metropolitan.

DNR says the state “generally has plentiful water sources.”  Now, it does. But the report also says, “many supply-related challenges exist.”

Much of the groundwater originating from bedrock aquifers in northern and west-central Missouri is highly mineralized and unsuitable for most uses. In northwestern Missouri, precipitation is generally the lowest in the state, and the lack of surface water availability during prolonged droughts can result in water shortages. Timing is also important in determining the availability of water, since peak demands often coincide with the driest times of the year and multiyear droughts can lower aquifers and drain reservoirs that typically provide ample supply. Even when available, the quality of the water may not be suitable for all intended uses without treatment.

We already are facing a critical problem in dealing with our water supplies. The DNR report says, “More than half of the state’s community public water systems became active prior to 1960, meaning that without repair or replacement original water pipes, mains, and equipment are nearing or exceeding their average expected lifespan…Many small drinking water utilities have indicated that they lack the funding not only to proactively manage infrastructure needs, but also to meet current water quality standards and adequately address water losses.”

At the other end of the process (to coin a phrase): “Similar to drinking water infrastructure in Missouri, a significant portion of wastewater infrastructure may be approaching the end of its expected life.”

Need an immediate reminder of how precious Missouri’s water supply is and how carefully we must use it and prepare for its future use is no farther away than the greatest of our rivers?

This past April 7, the Missouri River Basin Water Management Division for the Corps of Engineers noted the snowfall in the upper basin had been poor.  “We expect upper basin runoff to be below average,” said Division Chief John Remus. The Corps thinks the snowmelt runoff into upstream reservoirs to be 83% of the annual average this year.

Water is going to become more precious.  You and I might not notice it.  But our grandchildren could.  We aren’t going to turn into the Southwest by the end of the week.  But we have to understand that the way we use water today can’t be the way our next generations will use it.  And we need to prepare for those times.

Unlike the ancient pueblo peoples of the Colorado plateau in the 12th and 13th Centuries, we won’t have anyplace to go when the great drought hits us.

If you want to read the entire 2020 Missouri Water Resources Plan you can find it at:

https://dnr.mo.gov/mowaterplan/docs/2020-mo-water-resources-plan-highlights.pdf

Racing: King of the Road, End of the Road, The Road Ahead

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Chase Elliott confirmed he’s this generation’s king of the road courses.  A long-time NASCAR owner’s exit raises issues of other exits ahead, a big team gets a big win, and a big name gets a new deal.

(NASCAR)—Chase Elliott led 24 of the last 25 laps at Road America last weekend to wrap up his seventh career road-racing victory.  Only Jeff Gordon with nine and Tony Stewart with eight have more victories when turning the steering wheel right as well as left.

The win on the four-mile long road course at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin was even more impressive because Elliott started 34th in the field of forty. He climbed to tenth in the first sixteen-lap stage, and was a front-row starter for the third stage.

It’s the seventh win in the last eight Cup races for Hendrick Motorsports (eight of the last nine if you throw in the All-Star race) and the tenth in this year’s twenty points-paying races.  Kyle Busch, who interrupted the recent Hendrick domination last week, came home third behind Christopher Bell. Both drive for Hendrick’s top competitor, Joe Gibbs Racing.

Atlanta is the next designation for NASCAR, next weekend.

(THE END OF THE NASCAR ROAD)—Last week’s sale of Chip Ganassi Racing to Justin Marks’ Trackhouse Racing surprised just about everybody, including Ganassi, and raises questions about how much longer the major owner-names that have dominated the sport for decades will hang around.

Ganassi says he had no plans to sell his operations until Marks talked him into it.  Marks gets the whole Ganassi kit and caboodle for 2022. But more investment will be necessary before Daytona next year.  The cars that Ganassi is running this year won’t be used next year as NASCAR switches to its Next Gen car that is designed to be cheaper to build and run and to look more like the cars we see on the streets.  It appears that at least one of the two drivers now with Ganassi will not be retained—either Kurt Busch or Ross Chastain.  Trackhouse already fields a car for Daniel Suarez and will keep him next year.  Busch said at Elkhart Lake last weekend that he already is talking with Trackhouse about staying with the team.  His contract with Ganassi ends at the end of this year.  There have been reports that Busch also is being considered for a possible second car by 23XI racing, the Denny Hamlin/Michael Jordan team that runs Bubba Wallace now. The team, however, has only one charter this year.  Marks has said both Busch and Chastain are “under consideration” for the second Trackhouse car next year.

The Ganassi sale is a dramatic reminder that “Next Gen” might not only apply to cars.  Last year’s creation of 23XI Racing by Jordan and Hamlin was a first step in reshaping NASCAR ownerships with younger faces.  Hamlin, who will be 41 in November, is winless this year, and is running out of time to win a Cup championship, has followed Tony Stewart, 50, into transitioning from driver to owner (although not to owner-driver).  Stewart took half ownership in Haas Racing in 2008 and Stewart-Haas has four drivers in CUP this year: Kevin Harvick, Aric Almirola, Chase Briscoe and Cole Custer. None has won a race this year and Harvick is the only one in position to make the playoff field—which will be set after only six more races.

Other top drivers are, or might be, moving into top positions in major teams.  Jeff Gordon’s move to Vice-Chairman of Hendrick Motorsports positions him to be in an ownership position when Rich Hendrick, who will turn 72 this month, decides to step away.

Brad Keselowski is rumored to be ready to leave Penske Racing as a driver and move to Roush-Fenway Racing with an ownership stake.  Jack Roush, who is 79, sold half of his team to Fenway Sports Group in 2007. He handles the competition operations while Geoff Smith is President of the company and handles business activities.  Roush once had five teams in Cup (including Missourians Carl Edwards and Jamie McMurray at the same time), but was ordered by NASCAR to cut his group to four. RFR went down to three teams for 2012 and has only two drivers this year—Ryan Newman and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.  Newman is out of playoff contention and Stenhouse ranks 19th in points. The playoffs only include 16 drivers.

Penske Racing is still headed by Roger Penske, who is 84 and has become the owner of the INDYCAR series and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  Tim Cindric is the President of the racing segment of the giant Penske Corporation. It appears the Penske NASCAR Cup operation will lose Keselowski at the end of the year and championship crew chief Todd Gordon, who is retiring after more than a decade on the pit box. Team Penske has 128 Cup wins but only two this year, one each by Keselowski and by Joey Logano.

A couple of other owners are no longer spring chickens: Joe Gibbs, who will be 81 before the end of the year, and Richard Childress, who already is 76.  Richard Childress Racing has 109 Cup wins in 48 years but only four since Kevin Havick won four times in 2013.

Unmentioned so far as a possible future big-name owner in the top series is Dale Earnhardt, Jr., whose JR Motorsports has met success in the second-tier series.  Earnhardt, who will be 47 this fall, has indicated he would like to move up but the economics behind purchasing a Cup franchise are problematic.

(INDYCAR)—Team Penske finally has won an INDYCAR race in 2021. Josef Newgarden dominated the race at Mid-Ohio but had to fend off a furious challenge in the last few laps from Ganassi’s Marcus Ericcson.  The victory was one day after the fiftieth anniversary of Penske’s first win in Indy cars—Mark Donohue won the Pocono 500 on July 3, 1971.

Newgarden won by about nine-tenths of a second. He started from the pole and led all but seven of the 80 laps.  He had started P1 in the previous two races but had lost the leads in the last three laps of both previous races. Points leader Alex Palou, an Ericcson teammate was third and another Ganassi teammate, Scott Dixon was fourth, giving Ganassi three of the top four finishing positions for the race.

It’s the first INDYCAR win for Penske since the last race of the 2020 season.

Palou’s podium finish expanded his points lead over Pato O’Ward to 39 points. Dixon, the defending and six-time series champion is running third in points, 56 back.

Newgarden, credits the “real magic” of the inter-team working relationships for his success at Mid-Ohio, and as a two-time series champion. In a Forbes magazine interview, he says, “We cultivate a culture where we feel we have the best of the best with the ability to focus—good or bad in the past races—we are constantly focusing forward on the next task.”

The Forbes article (https://www.forbes.com/sites/maurybrown/2021/07/02/on-50th-anniversary-of-first-indycar-win-roger-penske-reflects-on-success-at-the-track-and-in-business/?sh=521e57d329d0) is with Penske and focuses on his successes on the track and in his private business.

In the article, Penske says his father’s advice has been his guiding philosophy: “Effort equal results.”  He also says in the article, “Teamwork, technology, communication, precision, and performance under pressure are all keys to winning on the track and they are critically important to building a successful business and delivering for our customers.”

And retirement does not seem to be in his vocabulary.

(FORMULA 1)—-Max Verstappen extends Red Bull Racing’s winning streak to five, its longest winning streak since 2013.  Verstappen won the Grand Prix of Austria, starting on pole, and coming home 18 seconds ahead of Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas. Lando Norris took his McLaren to third ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who drops farther behind Verstappen as he chases his record eighth F1 title.

It was  landmark victory for Verstappen, who has dominated F1 lately. Formula One’s Lawrence Barretto observes that the race is the first time in his career that Verstappen has startaed first, led every lap, and posted the fastest lap of the race. He has led 142 consecutive laps in picking up his third straight win, his fifth of the year. He now leads Hamilton by 32 points. Hamilton has three wins. Carlos Sainz is the only other winner on the circuit this year. It’s the fifth straight win for his engine manufacturer, Honda, which has not seen a winning streak this long since Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost took the first eleven races in 1988 for McLaren.

Just before the race, Mercedes announced it had signed a contract extension with Hamilton that will keep him with the team through the 2023 season.  He has won six of his seven championships with Mercedes.

F1 moves on to Silverstone and the GP of Britain on July 18.