Category Archives: events

Let’s See How This Plays Out 

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Your faithful observer is a Protestant who believes that a faith that is so much based on love, whether it is toward one’s enemies, or in following as much as I can Jesus’ comment record in John 13: “A new command I give youL Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” can in so many ways pas judgment on who can love who.

My congregation lost some members a few years ago when our minister announced that he was a pastor for the congregation but a minister to all of God’s people and that he would, therefore, perform same-sex marriages (he had been approached by a same-sex couple wanting a marriage ceremony several weeks earlier).

A few days ago, Pope Francis allowed priests to bless same-sex couples.  The declaration has been described by The New York Times as “his most definitive step yet to make the Roman Catholic Church more welcoming to L.G.B.T.Q Catholics and more reflective of his vision of a more pastoral, and less rigid, church.”

It seems to be a major step away from the church’s long-held doctrine that marriage is only between a man and a woman. It is not, however, a complete break from that doctrine because the new policy refers only to “blessing,” not sanctioning marriage, a sacrament, a ceremonial rite of the church. The new rule makes that clear.

The Vatican says the blessing should not be part of any formal service but instead should be done during a private meeting with a priest, during a pilgrimage, or during a visit to a shrine or during a prayer recited in a group.

Kansas city Bishop James Johnston says the declaration “recognizes that God desires the good for all persons, including those in objectively irregular same-sex or heterosexual relationships, and if one reaches out for God’s assistance, that should not be denied.”  But he emphasizes that it would be a mistake to say the Church is “now approving or validating same-sex unions or unions which are outside of marriage.” A blessing does not signify the approval of the union but “allows for ministers to bless people in these difficult situations that they may be assisted by God’s grace along the path of conversion and salvation.”

The St. Louis Archdiocese describes those who seek the blessings as sinners.   “When we seek out a blessing, we come as sinners to receive God’s grace and mercy inour lives,” says statement from the archdiocese. “Blessings serve to open one’s life to God, to ask for his help to live better and to invoke the Holy Spirit so that the values of the Gospel may be lived with greater faithfulness.”

The statement refers to the blessings as “an expression of the Church’s maternal heart…a reminder that we nurture and promote the Church’s closeness to people in every circumstance n which they might seek God’s help and grace.”

The statement is aimed at more than LGBTQ couples.  It also applies to people who have divorced and remarried without getting an annulment of the first marriage.

About the same time the Pope’s declaration was making news headlines, NBC was reporting, “Moe than 500 bills targeting LGBTQ people were introduced in state legisltures around the country in 2023.  Of those bills, 75 became law, including two in Missouri banning gender-affirming care and restricting participation in school athletics.”

One of the most potent moral forces in the Missouri Capitol for decades has been the Missouri Catholic Conference, the lobbying arm of the Catholic Church. I recall its opposition to legislation allowing the cessation of brain function to be a definition of death. And its opposition to abortion has never weakened.

Now the Vatican has softened its stance on LGBTQ issues. Will that action trigger any softening of conservative faith-based lobbyists on anti-LGBTQ legislation?

In matters of faith dictating law, will there be an emphasis more on pastoring than on rigid judging?

But then, how does rigid judging agree with loving one another?

And which should prevail in our lives and in our laws?

Let’s see how the Pope’s declaration carries out in our government halls and in the quiet rooms of our homes whether we be Catholic or Protestant.

Or even nothing at all.

Suppose—-(A Brief Christmas Thought)

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Suppose the only thing we know about Abraham Lincoln was written by a few of the members of his cabinet many years after his assassination.

Suppose nobody had thought him important enough to preserve the cabin in which he was born (the one on display in Kentucky has a lot of questions about its validity) and mark it as a historic site.

Suppose none of his writings survived and only a few of his speeches and only a few anecdotes of what he said were preserved.

Suppose the address of the place where he died was lost to history.

Suppose nobody got around to taking his picture.

What would we think of Abraham Lincoln today?

Would there be a Lincoln’s birthday holiday?

—-such as the person’s birth billions of people are celebrating now?

Must have been a pretty remarkable guy.

The one we’re whose birth we’re celebrating  today.

Gaining Face 

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Well, I’ve finally gone and done it.

For many years, Nancy has been on  Facebook.  When people have asked me if I am, too, my answer has been, “No, I have a life.”

But as of December 12, 2023, I have joined the 21st Century. Or at least stuck my toe in 21st Century waters. Nancy helped me put together a Facebook page.  I wudn’ta done it except she had just discovered a thing called Diabetes 101, which has a lot of information about, well, you can see the name.

We were in Kansas City to record some podcasts for the Missouri Bar (called Is it Legal to…?  They’re programs that explain the law in language you and I can understand, people who didn’t to go law school to learn all of the clever Latin words that are used to refer to something that can just as easily be explained in English but using Latin emphasizes that the speaker or writer is learn-ed.  You might check them out. I think they’re interesting.).  We had had some really mediocre barbecue at the place in Crown Center that is not Arthur Bryants’ or Gates’ for dinner on September 14 and I woke up the next morning very thirsty.  Breakfast included two glasses of orange juice and a glass of water and I consumed water all day like a camel and got rid of it like a race horse. Blood draws on two days the next week showed very high blood sugar rates and a loss of thirteen pounds in three weeks and I was told to get a finger-punching kit and a prescription for insulin filled.  Right now. I don’t know the exact hour but I do know the exact date that I became a Diabetic.

Since then I’ve met scads of people who have been dealing with this thing for decades.  I’ve learned from them and from personal experience it’s not bad.  But it does change one’s lifestyle.

For instance—-the Girl Scouts have just lost a significant customer.  I used to buy Thin Mints by the case and keep them under my desk at the Missourinet, breaking out a box to celebrate a good day or a great story or just to pep up the staff.  Goodbye Thin Mints.  And Oreos. And big cups  of Black Walnut ice cream at Central Dairy.

BUT one day last week I had two (2) Sausage-Egg McMuffins at McDonald’s—just without the muffin.  Early on, my spirits were lifted when I learned I could have chili and popcorn. I’ve been to Wendy’s a few times since and I’ve developed a tremendous desire to go see a movie but the offerings at our local theatre at this time of year have been ghastly. The closing of our favorite drug store cut off my main supply of daytime popcorn. We’ve been binge-watching a TV show about a public hospital in New York, New Amsterdam (until the next season of Grey’s Anatomy is released) and streaming programs on ACORN such as Martin Clunes’ (of Doc Martin fame) called “Man and Beast” instead of going to the movies.  But the experience is popcornless. Roku is a wonderful invention.

I’m doing fine.  Nancy has bought me several pairs of pants that will stay up (I’ve kept losing weight, 30 or 35 pounds or so).  And I’m about to become acquainted with some additional doctors of new specialties previously unencountered.  I’ve learned a lot of other people are in the same sugar-free boat I’m in and they’ve been rowing it for many, many years.  So that’s comforting.  And I don’t feel badly.  But creating a whole new diet that involves things I like to taste is an ongoing adventure.  I haven’t had real milk since September; that’s what I miss the most.  We got through Thanksgiving just fine and I wasn’t bothered too much watching other people eat dressing and mashed potatoes with gravy, and cranberry stuff out of a can.  Nancy made a pumpkin pie I could eat, as long as I didn’t eat the crust.

Peanut Butter, crunchy, has become a major part of my life.

So where was I?   Oh.  Facebook.

Well anyway, I’m there.  I’ll probably use it to tell people what’s on the blog next week and I’ll probably be a regular viewer of Diabetes 101.  Friend me if you’d like but we are not going to spend our days exchanging selfies or passing along cute cartoons or the latest editions of Wal-Martians.

I’m just showing folks a new Face. I’ll be friendly. But I have my own life and I’m going to keep living it for a good long time.

The Governor and the Book

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I see that Governor Parson has written a book.  It will be released next March but some excerpts have been made available to the press.  He calls it No Turnin’ Back.

I look forward to buying one.  Maybe he’ll have a signing at Downtown Book & Toy. I’ll be near the front of the line, I hope.  Ernie and Hazel, the bookstore cats, probably will have to be locked away because the line is likely to stretch a good distance down High Street.

It’s going to be a historic book because Mike Parson has been a central figure during some major points of history.  He came into statewide office as Lt. Governor, set to fill the role as Senate President and preside over the chamber in which he had just served eight years, while Eric Greitens careened throughout the capitol as a governor who antagonized most of the people he needed to make into allies.

Then came the historic day when Greitens announced his resignation as governor, getting out of town before he could be run out of town.  Suddenly Mike Parson—who was tending to his cattle on his southwest Missouri farm that day—became THE top guy in state government.

Then Covid hit. And for stress-laden month after month, Parson had to steer the state through shortages, uncertainties, and deaths.

We haven’t asked him but we have asked several former governors about the toughest decisions they had to make.  The most frequent answer has been that it was the decision to allow an execution to go ahead.

No governor serves without making mistakes. Some are mistakes they know pretty quickly they made. Others will emerge with the passage of time that places conduct within context. We don’t have much doubt that Governor Paron will recognize what he could have done differently or done better.  But at the time, somebody had to do something, and once done there is no turning back, which is why the title is appropriate.

I wish more governors had done what he is doing. History will paint its own picture. But self-portraits have value, too.

Jim Spainhower, who was a former State Representative and later a two-term State Treasurer and a 1980 primary election challenger to Joe Teasdale, was also a minister of my denomination, the Christian Church/Disciples of Christ.  He wrote a book called Pulpit, Pew, and Politics.

He told me when my first book was published, “Now you can start your prayers by saying ‘Oh though who also hast written a book.’”

Mike Parson is a man of faith, as you will hear if you click on the two-parts of an interview Ashley Byrd of the Missourinet did with him.  He, too, will soon be able to begin his prayers with those words.

Maybe we’ll greet each other at the book-signing with those words.

He talks with the Missourinet’s Ashley Byrd about the book and about his life and his governorship on these links:

Gov. Parson writes autobiography, but not to prepare a run for another office (LISTEN TO INTERVIEW PT. 1) – Missourinet

Gov. Parson: This office is not about yourself, it’s a much higher calling than your last name (LISTEN – PT 2 INTERVIEW) – Missourinet

(We thank our friends at The Missourinet for the photo.)

We Weren’t Good Enough for Trump. Or Was It The Other Way Around? 

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Next year will mark the thirtieth anniversary of the opening of the first legal casinos in Missouri.

The industry has done well in those thirty years.  It has posted revenues of almost $42-Billion.

For a time, Donald Trump wanted to be part of that, making some deals that would add to his casino empire back east. Before he started sniffing around in Missouri he had bought a casino from Hilton Hotels in 1985 and opened the property as Trump’s Castle Hotel Casino (later Trump Marina) in Atlantic City.  In 1986, he bought out a Holiday Inn and opened it as the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino.

Two years later he got involved in the Taj Mahal project in Atlantic City and, using junk bonds,   turned it into a billion-dollar construction project.

In 1993, a year after voters approved riverboat gambling, he showed up in Missouri, ready to deal.  St. Louis Mayor Freeman Bosley didn’t want to cut a deal unless riverfront gambling interests got behind downtown redevelopment, a condition that Trump didn’t seem to mind, telling reporters, “Depending  on what he wants, I would be interested in discussing possible linkage. I think St. Louis needs a convention center hotel very badly. St. Louis is certainly a good gaming market.”

Already displaying the modesty to which we are accustomed, he proclaimed in May of ’93, “I think I know as much about convention halls as anyone in the public of private sector.”

While he was casting eyes at Missouri, he was feuding with Native Americans who were opening their own casinos.  The same year he looked at St. Louis he was ripping the operators of the Foxwoods Casino operated by he Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation in New York, telling New York City radio host Don Imus, “I think I might have more Indian blood than a lot of the so-called Indians that are trying to open up reservations…I think if you’ve ever been up there,  you would truly say these are not Indians.”

(Just for the record, Donald Trump has zero Indian blood. His grandfather, came here as a 16-year old barber to escape three years of German military service. The legality of his entrance to the United States is questionable.)

American Indian Republic later reflected, “His discourteous rhetoric involving American Indians has often been used to both demean and frustrate those to which such speech was directed, with his early 1990’s tirades reflecting his discontent with the rapid and expansive rise of Indian gaming in particular. Much of the racially influenced remarks that had occurred during that period would later be conveyed once again during his 2016 presidential bid against his Republican opponents and Hillary Clinton, amongst other politicians.”

The year he was considering a Missouri casino, he filed a lawsuit against the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 that allowed Indian nations to open casinos. His whine was a familiar one to us today. The suit claimed those casinos were providing unfair competition, that the act was discriminatory as well as being unconstitutional.

Interior Secretary Bruce Babbit, a defendant, reacted, “My initial reaction was, ‘Hey, wait a minute, I’ve never even met Marla Maples. How can he be suing me?’ It is really absurd to think that a self-proclaimed tycoon s threatened by a few bands of impoverished Indians. It’s the theatre of the absurd.”

(Marla Maples was Trump’s new hobby at the time.  They had met in 1984 and started carrying on while he was still married to Ivana, who finally split with him in 1990.  It was about the time he was fighting Indians that Marla was trying to convince him to marry her.  She said they’d set the date “about a dozen times” but he always had “a little freak out” the day before the grand event. She said she helped him get over “that fear monster,” but had started taking her wedding gown along on their travels because “you’ve got to be prepared.”  They married late in 1993, two months after the birth of their daughter, Tiffany. Three years later, Trump fired his bodyguard after police reported finding him under a lifeguard stand with Ivana on a deserted beach at 4 a.m. They divorced in June of 1999.  By then he was fooling around with a Yugoslavian-born model, Melanija Knavs, who was building a career in New York. They were married in 2005.)

Getting back to our story:

As usually seems to happen with Trump lawsuits, the one involving Bruce Babbit went nowhere.

Later that year, representatives of the Wyandotte Tribe of Oklahoma proposed building an 80,000 square foot casino/hotel/theatre/restaurant complex in the St. Louis suburb of Arnold.  One Arnold resident dismissed the idea, commenting, “Trump is in town talking about a deal on the riverfront. Who in the world is going to choose Arnold when downtown St. Louis is 20 minutes away?”  Governor Carnahan’s deputy chief of staff, Roy Temple, indicated Carnahan was cool to the idea of a casino in Arnold, generally opposed to casinos beyond those allowed by the riverboat gambling amendment added to the State Constitution in ’92.

Trump also was crosswise with Connecticut Governor Lowell Weicker, claiming he couldn’t build a casino in that state until Weiker left office because Weiker opposed casinos. Weiker responded, “My opposition to casinos isn’t just casinos. It’s opposition to Donald Trump,” who he referred to as a “dirt bag” and a “bigot.”  Trump displayed his now-familiar brand of logic when he fired back that Weiker “is a fat slob who couldn’t get elected dog catcher in Connecticut,” ignoring the fact that Weiker had gotten elected to an office of somewhat greater importance.

In November of ’93, Trump unveiled his plan for a $300 million floating casino and 20-acre development just north of Laclede’s Landing on the St. Louis riverfront.  Five other developers also were eyeing the area.

In February of 1994, he floated the idea of a $98 million casino project in St. Charles that included a golf course, aquarium, and a park. Six other companies were competing.

Trump wasn’t good enough for either project.

In August of ’95, he left some people shaking their heads when he filed a lawsuit in New York to stop the introduction of  new lottery game, Quick Draw. He described it as “video crack,” and argued, “When you add it all up, the social costs far outweigh the potential tax revenues” and would be harmful to gambling addicts and casual gamblers “who can lose far more than they can afford.”

The same concerns did not apply to his own casinos because, “The overwhelming number of people who go to casinos do so for limited periods of time and with set budgets.”

By now, by the way, the Palm Beach, Florida, town council had capitulated in the face of a lawsuit filed by Trump and approved his proposal to turn his historic Mar-a-Lago mansion into a private club. The council had refused to allow the change two years earlier and Trump had, well, you know.

Trump’s grandiose plans for St. Louis and St. Charles were stillborn but he wasn’t done with Missouri.

In 1995 he established Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts as a publicly-traded company.  Four years later THCR agreed to buy the troubled Flamingo Hilton Casino in Kansas City, reportedly for $15 million.  The city port authority approved the deal on Trump’s 53rd birthday. But the deal fell through when the Missouri Gaming Commission refused to approve the company’s gaming license, expressing concerns about the THCR’s $1.8 Billion in debts.

The summer before the deal, the Hilton had agreed to pay $665,000 in fines and penalties to the federal government instead of going to trial in federal court  for “providing financial incentives” to friends of the then-chairman of the Kansas City Port Authority in return for his political support to build the casino on city-owned land. The company always denied doing anything improper.  The gaming commission threatened to yank the Hilton’s gambling license unless it sold its property.  Hilton had spent more than $100 million to develop the site.

In September of ’99, Station Casinos bought the Flamingo Hilton at the fire-sale price of $22.5 million. A Trump spokesman said the deal was cancelled so the company could focus on operating its three casinos in Atlantic City and reduce its debt.

Anyone wanting to learn more about all of this little drama seems to be out of luck.  The Associated Press reported in 2016 that about 1,000 pages of documents are locked away in the gaming commission’s files and are secret under Missouri law because Trump’s company withdrew its application on November 17, 1999. The commission lawyer says they’re sealed because the state never took action on the license application.

So ends the story of Donald Trump’s efforts to expand his casino empire to Missouri.

Had he done so, his track record indicates those projects would have been just another part of the story of the great deal-maker’s business failures.

THCR filed for bankruptcy in 2004 and was renamed Trump Entertainment Resorts and declared bankruptcy in 2009.

The Harrah’s at Trump Plaza in Atlantic City filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1992, closed in 2014 and was demolished in 2021.

Trump 29 Casino in Coachella, California is still open but Trump left the partnership in 2006.

Trump Casino in Gary, Indiana was sold in 2005.

Trump World’s Fair in Atlantic City closed in 1999 and was demolished a year later.

Trump Castle in Atlantic City filed for Chapter bankruptcy in 1992, was sold in 2011 and is now the Golden Nugget Atlantic City.

Trump Taj Mahal on the Atlantic City boardwalk filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1991,  closed in 2016 and is now the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino.

And those are just part of a list of failures that also include an airline, a university, a vodka and a meat business, a travel agency and a mortgage finance company. And Truth Social is weakening.

His last casino development effort was on the Caribbean Island of Canouan, described as “a place where billionaires go to escape millionaires,” when Swiss-Italian banker Antonio Saladino tried to turn his languishing resort into a successful enterprise. He hired Trump to build villas around his hotel and golf course. Trump agreed to run the golf course and put up his own casino. Saladino sold out in 2010 to an Irish billionaire who fired Trump and sold the resort in 2015.

So Missouri missed out on having Donald Trump running a casino here.  It’s probably for the best.

Missouri has thirteen casinos, none that have ever born the name “Trump.”  There are those who think we need a fourteenth one, or maybe move a license from one location to the next—-which presents another problem of what is a small town that loses its casino going to do for jobs and what’s it going to do with the boarded-up casino.  And we have another Indian Nation that is trying to open a casino .

We saw during those years the Donald Trump character that is no different today. The casino industry has moved beyond Donald Trump.  Some might think it’s because the industry is run by better people, which is a case of damning by faint praise.

Is there a lesson in this for our political system?

 

Sports: Bowls Take a Cotton to the Tigers; Chiefs Sent Packing; Battlehawks Survive

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributig Editor

(MIZ)—Both teams headed to the Cotton Bowl in Dallas December 29 have something to prove.  The Missouri Tigers have to prove they can beat a top-ten rated team.  The Ohio State Buckeyes want to show they should have been in the national championship playoffs.

Ohio State has won twn of the 12 games the two teams have played against each other. One game ended in a tie.  Missouri’s only win was in 1976 at Columbus.

Missouri went 6-5, a year of incredible highs and deeply disappointing lows.  The story of the only Missouri victory over Ohio State was part of a season that has been described as “weird.”  Rock M Nation calls it the “craziest season in Mizzou history” and lists the top three wins in Missouri history as having occurred that year. Missouri played the toughest schedule in the nation that year. Let’s go through it.

Missouri started the season with a nationally-televised night game against Southern Cal, in Los Angeles.  USC was ranked 8th in the AP poll when unranked Missouri pounded the Trojans 46-25. Missouri was ranked sixth the next week when it lost to unranked Illinois 31-6. The third game was against Ohio State, then ranked second by the AP, and Missouri beat the Buckeyes 22-21. Missouri was 12th when he beat North Carolina 24-3 and 9th when they beat Kansas State 28-21, seventh when they lost to Iowa State 21-17.  They had dropped to 17th when they upset #3 Nebraska 34-24 in a game that saw quarterback Pete Woods complete the longest toughdown pass in Missouri and Big Eight Conference history—98 yards to Joe Stewart.  The Tigers rose to 10th but lost to 16th ranked Oklahoma State 20-19.  They were 16th when they beat #14 Colorado 16-7.  They finished out the season losing to #14 Oklahoma 27-20 while ranked 11th, and then, ranked 19th, losing to Kansas 41-14.

Al Onofrio was the coach of this team that lost three games by 1,4, and 7 points, but also lost two games by 25 and 27.  It was a team that won by 1,7,10,and 9 points as well as two wins by 21. Missouri was the best 6-5 team in college football that year, and maybe one of the best 6-5 teams in NCAA football history.

Ohio State was emblematic of that cardiac season.  The Tigers had dropped out of the top 20 when they went to Columbus that weekend and Woody Hayes’ Buckeyes had taken a 21-7 lead at the half.  But Missouri held Ohio State scoreless in the second half.  Quarterback Pete Woods found Leo Lewis III at the back of the end zone on a third-and-goal from the eight yard line with 12 seconds left to pull Missouri to 21-20.  There were no overtimes in those days and the Tigers weren’t interested in a tie.

Woods missed on a pass to the win to Curtis Brown.  But Ohio State was flagged for holding, giving Missouri a second chance from the 1½ yard line.  Woods called his own number, off tackle, was hit but dived into the end zone.  Missouri 22 Ohio State 21.

Want to see it?  (3) MU v. Ohio State 1976-3 – YouTube

Onofrio was fired the next year and is remembered for his teams sometimes stunning victories during a coaching career that finished 38-41.

Woods, who engineered the big upsets that year, is the only quarterback in Mizzou history with two wins over top-three opponents.  He and Phil Bradley are the only two Tiger signal-callers with two wins over top-five opponents. He played parts of four seasons in the NFL with the Chiefs, Broncos, Bengals, and Dolphins. He became a lawyer and now is a commercial litigator for Harr & Woods law firm in St. Louis. He was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2018.

Curtis Brown, who led the team in rushing that year and was a key figure in the win over Southern Cal, played for six years with the Buffalo Bills and finished his career with the Houston Oilers. He is one of almost 350 NFL players to be diagnosed with dementia caused by repeated hits to the head. He died in 2015.

Leo Lewis III, who caught that last touchdown pass remains the only player in Tiger history to lead the team in punt returns for four straight years. He still holds the team record for punt returns in one game (7) and added two more kick returns for a total of nine, also a team record. He played for the Minnesota Vikings for eleven years and was the team’s director of player development for 14 more years. He went on to get a master’s degree from Tennessee and a doctorate from the University of Minnesota. He now runs a sports foundation.  His father, Leo Sr., was known in his time as the “Lincoln Locomotive” while playing at Lincoln University, where he rushed for 4,457 yards and twice was an All-American. He is in the College Football Hall of Fame. Although drafted by the Baltimore Colts in 1955, he opted to play for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the Canadian Football League, an eleven year career that included four Grey Cup Championships (under Bud Grant, who later coached the Minnesota Vikings) and 32 years of coaching and teaching. He died in 2013.  He and his son are the only father-son combination in the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, both admitted in 2019.

(MIZZHONORS)—The Associated Press has named eight Tigers to its All-SEC team. Only Georgia and Alabama have more.

And Coach Drinkwitz is the Coach of the year, the first Missouri coach named by the AP as SEC Coach of the Year.  Gary Pinkel was voted the honor by his fellow coaches in 2013 but the AP bypassed him.

Cody Schrader is one of only four players named unanimously to the first team. Other Tigers on the firt team offense is Luther Burden Iii, the first 1,000 yard Tiger receiver since J’Mon Moore six years ago. Burden’s 1,197 yards is ten in thenation.  Left tackle Javon Foster also is on the first team with him. Defensive end Darius Robinson, who led the team with 7.5 sacks and 12 tackles for a loss and a forced fumble, is first team on defense as is Kris Abrams-Draine, who had four interceptions and 12 passes defended.

On the second team is Cam’Ron Johnson, the team’s right guard, joined by receiver Theo Wease Jr.

The last all-conference player is place-kicker Harrison Mevis, who is on the second team, beaten out by Alabama’s Will Reichard despite going 24-30 on field goals including the epic 61-yard walkoff kick against Kansas State and his game winner against Florida. He was 43-44 on PATs.

(SCHRADER)—Cody Schrader is the winner of the Burlsworth Trophy, awarded last night to the outstanding player who started his career as a walk-on. The trophy presentation was made at the Crystal Bridges Museum of Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. The trophy honors the memory of Brandon Burlsworth, a walk-on with the Arkansas Razorbacks who became an All=American. He was drafted in the third round of the 1999 NFL Draft by the Indianapolis Colts but was killed in a car crash eleven days later.

The other two finalists were James Madison defensive tackle James Carpenter and Oklahoma wide receiver Drake Stoops.  In concluding his acceptance remarks, Schrader said:

My journey from high school to Truman State Division II to the University of Missouri wasn’t easy. It definitely had a lot of lonely nights. A lot of just the unknown of what was going to happen with my career. But the only thing I stayed true to was the work. The only thing that follows work is results and I truly believe that anything you want in this life you can achieve, it just takes dedication, discipline and you just have to love this game. I just know from meeting James and Drake that you guys truly love this game and embody what Brandon and this foundation mean. No matter the outcome tonight, we’ve already won just because nobody believed we’d be here. So I appreciate getting to know you guys.

My biggest thing that I hope to inspire in youth and kids who look at our stories, is the relentless consistency that it takes to be successful: never let nobody tell you no. I think Brandon was the epitome of that. He would never take no for an answer no matter the case was. Just watching the movie (Greater) and then getting to experience his family, you really got to know who he was as a person and what weight this trophy holds. This is something I’m eternally grateful for and I’m just really thankful for this event and all the support. M-I-Z.

The four finalists for the Heisman Trophy were announced last night. Schrader is not one of them.

(MIZZOU BASKETBALL)—-Missouri’s basketball team showed composure and control in handing Wichita State its first road loss of the year, 82-72.  The Tigers started the game on a 10-0 run and every time the Shockers pulled close, Missouri pulled away. Missouri’s physical game led to 25 trips to the free throw line and 23 points. They also scored 20 points off of 18 Wichita State turnovers.

A major test awaits next Saturday when the Tigers play Kansas, with Seton Hall, Illinois and Central Arkansas ahead before the end of the year and the start of conference play.  (ZOU)

(CHIEFS)—The Chiefs offense returned to form Sunday night against the Green Bay Packers after a convincing win against the Raiders.  They were held to two field goals in the first half again, and their rally attempts fizzled in the second half.  The defense, the strong point for the Chiefs all year, couldn’t stop the resurgent Packers in a 27-19 loss.

Chiefs fans might think their team was robbed by two terrible calls by the zebras.  But the Chiefs from Andy Reid on down admit the team lost the game on plenty of other well-called plays.  In the locker room afterward, Travis Kelce was asked, “What went wrong?”  He diplomatically, and correctly, answered, “That’s a good football team and they executed better than us and that’s the bottom line…I ain’t gonna blame anybody but ourselves.”

The Chiefs are now fourth in the AFC playoff standings and many fans are doubting they will play football in February.

(BATTLEHAWKS)—The XFL and the United States Football league have merged and the St. Louis Battlehawks are one of the surviving eight teams in the new league. They’ll start play in March.

Each league had eight teams and will keep four from each league. The Battlehawks will be joined by the Arlington Renegades, DC Defenders, and the San Antonio Brahmas.  The Seattle Sea Dragons, Vegas Vipers, Houston Roughnecks and Orlando Guardians will go away.  The USFL teams surviving are the Birmingham Stallions, Houston Gamblers, Memphis Showboats, and Michgan Panthers. Not making the cut are the Pittsburgh Maulers, New Orleans Breakers, Philadelphia Stars and the New Jersey Generals.

St. Louis is the XFL’s best market.

The Battlehawks bring several strengths to the league. They play home games in the domed stadium originally built for the Rams.  The XFL had rented the stadium for $800,000 a year. In exchange the league gets all ticket sales income while the city convention and visitors bureau gets all concession and parkig revenue. Earlier this year the XFL signed a here year lease with similar terms. Some stadium space was not opened but city officials decided to open other areas because of two sellouts.  The home opener last March 11 drew 38,310 fans, the largest crowd for and XFL game, including games in the earlier iteration of the league dating to 2001. The Battlehawks have played seven games at home and all of them rank in the top eight attendance in XFL history, with the Battlehawks holding the top six crowds.

(CARDINALS/ROYALS)—Baseball’s winter meetings are underway in Nashville at press time. Neither the Cardinals nor the Royals has made any waves.

The Shrinking Book of Numbers

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Two things of note happened in our household during Thanksgiving week.  On the day itself, Nancy and I celebrated our wedding anniversary.

Only 56 of them.

The national record for longest marriage is that of Herbert Fisher Sr. and Zelmyra George Fisher, who made it to 86 years, 290 days before Herbert died on February 27, 2011.  Here’s the happy couple on their wedding day:

We are within 30 years and change of setting a new United States record.

The all-time record is held by Karam and Kartari Chand, who were married in India but lived in England when Karam ended 90 years, 291 days of married life by dying on September 30, 2016.  He was 110.

So we’re 34 years and change from setting a new world’s record.

We haven’t discussed it but I’m in if she is.

Incidentally, the longest current marriage is between Evert Stolpe and Annni Lepisto Stolpe, who are still hitched in Narpes, Ostrobothnia, Finland after (as of Thanksgiving Day in the USA) 82 years, 244 days.

Studies show (What The Average Marriage Length In US Says About Your Divorce Risk (fatherly.com) that the highest risk of divorce happens within the first two years of marriage, before there are children to complicate things. The possibilities flare up between years 5-8, the infamous “Seven Year Itch” period. But years 15-20 are average but growing because in this time of late marriages, people reach their 50s, the kids are gone, and who wants to stick around with this person through their declining years when there’s fun to be had?  “Gray Divorce” is increasing.

Apparently, we missed our chances.  Now, we’re stuck with each other, which is fortunately very good for both of us.

When I sent my parents a letter informing them of the upcoming nuptials in 1967, my father wrote back to note of congratulations and hope that we would be as happy as my parents had been.  “We never thought about divorce,” he wrote.  “Murder, sometimes, but never divorce.”

Or something like that.

Bowling Green University’s National Center for Family and Marriage Research published a study that only seven percent of American marriages make it to 50 years or more.

Hooray for Us!!!

The second thing that happened during Thanksgiving week was the arrival of the telephone book.

The 1967 phone book was the first one in Jefferson City to have my name in it.  Right there, Priddy, Bob  1519 E. Miller Street.  It was a third floor attic turned into an apartment reached by a laong narrow flight of stairs. The kitchen was the biggest room in the place.  I lived there for about three months before we moved in together after returning from our Thanksgiving Holiday honeymoon in St. Louis (how old-fashioned that must seem in today’s relationships).

The house number later was changed when the city decided to renumber houses so that there was some logic to addresses (so first responders had a better idea where the fire was or the heart attack or the overexuberant family disagreement).

We later moved to an apartment closer to my work, which was a radio station in a building that no longer exists on Capitol Avenue (the radio station doesn’t exist in Jefferson City, either—it’s one of several radio formats crammed into a single building in Columbia).  Then to a rented house where our Ericofon sat on the floor between the bedroom and the living room.

(Have you seen the video of two 17-year olds trying to figure out how a dial phone works?  Check it out at (107) Hilarious video show 17 year old teenagers baffled by rotary phone – YouTube or another example at (107) Rotary Phone Challenge for Students in 2022 – YouTube).   I’d hate to see them figure out an Ericofon, which was the first phone Nancy and I had as a married couple.

For any younger readers: the dial was on the bottom and there was a button that was pressed when the phone was put down that disconnected the call.

Look back at that 1967 phone book’s cover showing Capital City Telephone Company serving Jefferson City. But there also was Midstate New Bloomfield, Midstate Centertown, Mistate Taos, Midstate Brazito, Midstate Eugene and dial St. Thommas. It had 77 pages of residential numbers with “favored businesses”—meaning they paid more—set in bolfface and 128 Yellow Pages advertising businesses by category.

(United Telephone moved in in the early 70s.  One day I spied a company pickup truck with the first name of the company misspelled, “Untied,” on one of its doors.  I quickly called the newspaper, which ran an embarrassing picture on the front page the next day.)

The phone book for 2020-2021 was 234 Yellow Pages and 70 White Pages. It was small and obviously a lot thinner than that historic 1967 book.  But it was about half the size, top to bottom and side to side—about the dimensions of what is known in the book biz as a “trade paperback” edition—about the size of my Across Our Wide Missouri books. But way thinner.

The new pre-Thanksgiving book had 16 pages of “featured businesses.”  It has 118 Yellow Pages.  And it has only twelve white pages—people who still have land lines.

Nancy found the names of a couple of friends on those pages. I have learned of a couple of other wons.  I felt a strong urge to call them, land line to land line, to celebrate our distinctions.  But I was interrupted by dinner.

Here’s the cover of the new one.

Look at the list of towns. It takes 21 of them to generate just twelve white pages.  I’m not sure how important it is for somebody from Tipoton, 36 miles to the west on Highway 50, to have my home number in Jefferson City but what few people there have phones that don’t fit in their pockets have it now.  Same goes for people in Syracuse, 41 miles away from our house, or Otterville (where the James gang pulled one of its last train robberies), 49 miles away, or Smithton, named for railroad promoter George R. Smith who was so disappointed the town didn’t want a railroad that he moved a few miles farther west and founded another town that would be more welcoming—naming it for his daughter Sarah whose nickname was “Sed” and therefore the town became Sedalia.

Well, we got a little carried away there. But the phone book lets a person with a landline 54 miles west of my landline to call me.  The number is small enough we might invite everyone to a picnic at the Memorial Park Pavilion. We will provide a small Waldorf Salad, without marshmallows because I can’t eat them anymore.

Phone books are one of many commonplace things that remind us of the changes in our world over time.

Fifty-six years of marriage and phone books.  And phones.  We now have three numbers, two of which reside in our pockets unless we’ve forgotten where we put them.

Has anybody ever kept track of how many hours in a year we spend looking for our cell phones?

Anyway—

56 years of family and phones.  And we’re in no mood to hang up.

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BINGEING

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We’ll be assessing the impact of the pandemic on our lifestyles for many years.  Two of the most obvious changes involve working from home and how we were, and are, entertained.

This household involves retired people so we are always “working” from home. Nancy’s “work” was carefully scheduling well-planned trips to the grocery store, usually as I recall early on Tuesday mornings because the shelves were re-stocked overnight and it was important to get first shot at the necessities—-which sometimes were not on the strictly grocery shelves.

Can’t do without toilet paper, you know.  We long ago threw away our old catalogs from Sears, Penney’s and Montgomery Ward (did you know that the company name was actually the middle and last names of the founder, Aaron Montgomery Ward?) and we didn’t save the cobs from the sweet corn we enjoyed in the summer months.  There hadn’t been a Montgomery Ward catalog since 1985 so that supply would have been used up or discarded years before the pandemic.

Excuse the wandering.  One does that in old age.

Anyway, we—as many of you—became binge-watchers.  Our Roku device allowed us to watch all of the episodes of a series in a string of evenings.  No more waiting for next week’s episode of Downton Abbey or Doc Martin or Gray’s Anatomy or Foyle’s War.

Everybody we know thinks Yellowstone is great. We’ve tried about three times and can’t get into it.  Longmire, however, now that’s a good show!

The Crown has been good.  Outlander is especially good for one member of the house who has read books.  Finding Your Roots is interesting. And we enjoyed all of the episodes of Boston Legal.

Earlier this year we finally got up to date with Grey’s Anatomy.  Then the writers and actors went on strike and we haven’t been able to learn if Meredith Grey will find love in Boston and whether Owen Hunt finds happiness with anybody.

The pandemic wasn’t good for the cable television industry because it increased awareness by consumers that we don’t need to keep making increasingly higher monthly rates for dozens of shopping and God channels we have no interest in watching.

Thirty years ago, or so, the Missourinet gave me the summer off to develop a Missouri cable TV channel that would have been a cross between C-SPAN, CNN, and ESPN.  The idea was to let Missourians watch the legislature work, develop Missouri-interest programs (we had ideas for telecasting from various summer festivals, featuring concerts here and there, even do documentaries on various topics), pick up evening newscasts from the TV markets and broadcast them throughout the night, and cover state high school sports playoffs and re-play Missouri football games the next day—stuff like that.

When we pitched the idea to the Missouri Cable Television Association—whose executive director supported our idea—and said we could do it for the cost of one big bag of M&Ms with peanuts per customer per month, the operators of the cable systems looked at us as if we were telephone poles.

I went to the National Cable Television Association’s summer convention to learn more about the industry and my most vivid recollection is the association president talking about the coming of ala carte viewing and how the industry needed to be prepared for the day.

Well, it’s here.

“Cutting the cord,” gained momentum during the pandemic as more and more people discovered the joys of binge-watching. And while it’s great for you and me, it’s increasingly problematic for the people who provide us with that entertainment.

It used to be that we knew what shows were on what networks on which nights.  Today we don’t have the foggiest notion what’s on the regular networks other than Monday Night Football is still on Mondays and the late-night shows start at about 10:30 if we’re awake for them.  Oh, and Sixty Minutes is still on Sunday nights at a regular time unless football pushes it back.

And we still went to movie theatres.  And sat next to people, or in front of them or behnd them.

Nancy got irritated with me because I wouldn’t explain what was going on in some movies—The English Patient was especially puzzling.  I had seen it earlier when on a business trip to the nation’s capital so I knew the answer to all her questions was at the end.  But I didn’t want to explain anything because it would irritate people around us.

Been to a movie theatre lately.  Who’s there to irritate?

We, and probably most of you, don’t wait for weekly episodes of a lot of series TV.  We just wait for the producers to drop the entire season on one of our ROKU channels and we binge watch the whole season in a few nights.

And we really enjoy some of the short series programs that seem mostly to be on channels from the United Kingdom.  But more and more of the streaming channels are producing their own products.  “The Queen’s Gambit,” for example—a seven-episode series on Netflix in 2020 that became the channel’s top program in 63 countries, netted eleven Primetime Emmy Awards, one of which was the award for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series and marked the first time a show on a streaming service won that award.  It also racked up Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards.

Netflix became a change agent in all of our lives.  A recent New York Times article explained what happened.

But we’re tired of writing this entry so you’ll have to wait for the next one to see where we’re going.

Sorry, binge-blogging isn’t offered here.  At least, not today.

 

A Slightly Warped Sense of Humor

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If reporters didn’t have a warped sense of humor, we probably couldn’t do what we do.  Humor, even dark humor, helps us deal with the often tragic, often weird, often absurd things and people we have to cover.

Perhaps that’s why I used to have a series of offbeat posters that I changed monthly at my desk in the Missourinet newsroom.

These posters, from a company called Despair, Inc., are the opposite of the supposedly inspirational posters found in many workplaces.  Beautiful pictures with some saccharine sentiment beneath them.

The folks at Despair turn that concept on its head.

I suppose this could be seen as a blatant plug for this company’s products.  Actually, it’s more of a paen to the creative folks who tell us that we shouldn’t take ourselves too seriously.

We badly need those who try to tell us that.  We wonder if a sense of humor can be found in our today’s politics. Everybody is so blasted serious—-and for those of us who abhor all of the divisiveness in our system today—-Good Lord, we have reached the point of physical confrontations in the hallways of the House of Representatives in Washington to an instigated near-brawl in the Senate committee hearing—there is no shortage of seriousness. One of my reporters once told me, “They have it all backwards. They take themselves seriously, not their jobs.”

We need a Will Rogers IN the government, the guy who remarked:

“The trouble with practical jokes is that very often they get elected.”

“This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when a baby gets hold of a hammer.”

“The more you read and observe about this politics thing, you got to admit that each party is worse than the other.”

“I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.”

“On account of us being a democracy and run by the people, we are the only nation in the world that has to keep a government four years, no matter what it does.”

“If all politicians fished instead of speaking publicly, we would have peace in the world.”

Or Mark Russell, who used to entertain us at the piano, on PBS from 1975 into 2004, whose death last March 30th escaped our notice.  He was 90.   He was introduced once by someone who noted, “Before there ws a John Stewart or a Stephen Colbert, there was Mark Russell.”

That was 2018, when Russell told the audience, “I’m not going to do any new political humor. Why?  Because there’s no material.”

He once asked about the Adopt A Highway program, “If a gay couple adopts a highway, will the highway grow up straight?”

The difference between Republicans and Democrats: “A Republican says,’We’re in a recovery.’  A Democrat says, ‘You shouldn’t enjoy it.’”

“A fool and his money is a lobbyist.”

Here’s a compilation of some of his performances:

Bing Videos

The story is told of the day in 1862 when Abraham Lincoln called a special meeting of his War Cabinet.  When the members filed into the room, they found Lincoln reading a humor book. He laughed as he shared a story from the book. When nobody else laughed, Lincoln read another story. Again, no response. Lincoln looked at his cabinet and asked, “Gentlemen, why don’t you laugh?  With the fearful strain that is upon me night and day, if I did not laugh, I should die, and you need this medicine as much as I do.”

And after that, he showed the cabinet the first draft of the Emancipation Proclamation.

And so we need people like those at Despair who turn our contemporary cares on their heads with their demotivational posters.

There’s one I wish was available in my working days.  It shows a stack of papers and the poster is entitled “Media.”  The text reads, “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies right to our faces.”

I think I’ll buy that one for the good folks in today’s Missourinet newsroom

Take the 25th 

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Something to ponder.

If Donald Trump becomes an imprisoned felon after winning election, can he become President?

Yes, even if he is inaugurated in his cell. Then we have to wonder if he will pardon himself before beginning his inaugural address to the smallest audience in inauguration history.

Ah, but there could be mischief afoot.

Let’s see if we can start a conspiracy theory.  We are not attributing it to anyone famous.  We’ll leave that to others because a conspiracy theory won’t work unless somebody famous is leading an organization behind it.

We are going to try to stage this so that anyone trying to pin it on the Left will have to acknowledge that there are quislings* also involved on the Right.

The only qualifications to become President of the United States are in the U. S. Constitution—that the person be at least 35, a natural-born citizen and a resident hee for at least fourteen years .  There is no morals clause in the document.

Congress could pass a Constitutional Amendment banning a convicted felon but that will take a two-thirds vote of both chambers of the Congress  and ratification by three-fourths of the states, a tall order to get done before inauguration day, 2025.

The Fourteenth Amendment prohibits anyone who has engaged in rebellion or insurrection against the United States from holding any office. But none of the 91 charges against our former president specifically accuse him of “engaging in rebellion or insurrection.’ Whether a case for insurrection-by-association can be built is being tested in some courts now.

We’ve never had a president who has a felony conviction. They’ve done all kinds of other things (fought in wars, impregnated mistresses, hanged someone, etc.,) and suspected of others, but they’ve never been convicted of a felony.

Convicted felons can serve in Congress. State laws might keep them from voting for themselves back home or from having guns, but the Constitution has no ban on them serving, either.

And that brings to the 25th Amendment.

Suppose Trump is convicted. And suppose he is elected.

The New Congress will have convened a couple of weeks before inauguration day. Let’s assume the D’s have regained control.  Here is what the 25th Amendment says about a president’s inability to serve:

Section 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department [sic][note 2][7] or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.

Now we get to the conspiracy theory:

The Vice-President is sworn in before the President is.  Always.  This person is the key to the entire drama. This person is in cahoots with those who want the former president to keep putting a golf ball into a plastic cup on the other end of his cell.

Look at the first section of the amendment which says that the VP and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments (the cabinet) or of such other body as Congress by law may provide transmit to the leaders of the Senate and the House a written declaration that the President can’t do his job…..

Immediately upon the imprisoned President finishing his oath, a committee created by a Congress controlled by the other party submits a declaration against the President before he can sign his own pardon. The VP takes over and the inaugurated president remains in his cell.

Now, the next section comes to the fore.  The imprisoned President immediately files a letter that declares “no inability exists” and, therefore, he shall resume the duties of the office UNLESS the VP and a majority of the cabinet OR that special committee that wrote the original declaration maintains the President still cannot perform his duties from a prison cell. The Congress by a two-thirds vote can declare the president, indeed, still can’t perform his duties and the Veep will remain in charge and the replaced president remains in his cell.

This is, of course, only a layman’s reading of the amendment and it is likely there are first-year law students who could demolish this idea.

But look, this IS the age of conspiracy theories.  I smell a television mini-series opportunity here.

The weakness in this idea is that Trump will pick a running mate who would throw him under the bus as he threw Mike Pence under the bus, and that voters will turn both houses of the Congress decidedly blue and the D’s will successfully connive with the R Veep to pull this off.

So it might not be practical in the real world.

But I still maintain it might make a riveting TV miniseries.  There would have to be a role for Kevin Kline and another for Kiefer Sutherland and one for Martin Sheen  and others for Tea Leone. Michael Douglas, and Anette Benning.

And what would we call it?

Go back to the top of this column.

*From time to time we try to throw in a word or phrase that we can use to teach a little lesson in language and in history.  Vidkun Quisling, a World War II leader of Norway who was a Nazi collaborator and who tried unsuccessfully to take over the government and end resistance to the invading Nazi Army. He formed a second, puppet government supported by the Nazis, and was involved in the shipment of Norwegian Jews to concentration camps in occupied Poland.  He later was convicted of high treason, among other crimes, and was executed by firing squad in October, 1945.

His name is considered a synonym for “traitor.”

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