Tributes!

Chase Squires opined that I was pretty safe in offering four commenter tributes, as that is pretty much the number of commenters I can count on. Well, pffft! I got five commenters. Okay, I grant you there was a surprise lurker to bring the total to five, but, of course, any number of others might've logged in, but, you know, didn't on account of the game already being "locked" and all. So, here we go:

Chase was actually harder to shop for than I figured. "Chase" yielded a couple of decent possibilities, and I briefly (very briefly) considered a chase from the Benny Hill Show. Nah. "Squires" gave a fair number of hits, and I seriously considered a Spiderman 3 clip set to the tune of Billy Squiers' The Stroke. It was actually pretty neat, but didn't feel right. I know Chase likes Paperbird, and flirted with a couple of their videos. No, not the right theme. Well, while Chase is far from a one-trick pony, it is fair to say he runs a little. A hunnerd K here, a hunnerd miler there. That sort of thing. Probably he has tons of running songs already. The Distance? Oh, THAT'S original. Not. Anyway, I found a video with a running theme and a heart-beat rhythmn and an interesting series of clips, so I went with it (though I really liked No Doubt's "Running", too).



Good to hear from John. John's witty, seems fun, and I check his blog regularly. I'd wondered where he went off to. Johnny Cash? Nah. Jimmy Dean's "Big John"? No, the sausage king doesn't deserve the affiliation. David Bowie's always been one of my favorites, and the following is Bowie at his glam-rocking peak. Hope you like it.



Sunny48? I think I know who you be. You picked the moniker, so there is really only one song, isn't there? Bobby Hebb's Sunny is a nice song, but his version doesn't look as good on video as James Brown's. And he was from South Carolina, too.



Amy did beat Andy, but she graciously allowed the Amazing AndyMan to share her tribute. They actually have quite a bit in common. They're both competitive. Both run. Both coach cross-country. Hmmm? I've never seen them in a room together either, now that I think about it. Oh, and they both teach. Well, that settles it (and it allows me to post one of my all-time favorite songs).

The People's Choice

The people have spoken: Adolph has put the wood to Vanilla Ice (and Justin Timberlake and Jim Carrey). By a resounding 2 to 1 margin, the Hitler version of Ice, Ice, Baby went through the competition like, well, Hitler through France. Woulda posted another Hitler parody (there are tons of 'em. Thought about the "Born to Be Alive" one, but the irony was too much even for me), but thought the evil dude has already gotten two many extra sets of 15 minutes of infamy. Alright, for my next trick, I'll post video tributes to the first four people to comment.

i-Pod, u-Pod, we All-Pod

The Lads get an allowance. By alternate weeks, one takes out the trash, the other feeds the dogs and cat. They don't always do their chores, but with allowances you make allowances. The Lads announced that they wanted me to raid the savings accounts into which their swag has been deposited to purchase i-Pods. Seems they want to take a more active role in ignoring their teachers. So, Saturday we pay respects at the real temple of the rural South, Walmart, and drop a few of the twins' barely earned ducats for a couple i-Pod Shuffles. The Nanos will undoubtedly follow, whenever they know more than fourteen songs to download. New sets of parent moments will ensue: "If I can hear it, it's too loud!" Response: "What?"; "No, you may not listen to Metallica in Church!" Resolution: Tyler removed the earbuds when the Procession started; "No, you may not take your i-Pod to school" Resolution: "You may take your i-Pod to school". Sigh. Keep on Rockin' in the Free World.

Separated at Birth (Three)

Crumpled-looking, apparently harmless guy has just one more point- it's probably nothing- he has to make before leaving. The people to whom he is talking just wish he'd go away. As if. Hmmm. Haven't seen them in a room together, either.

Do You Walk to School, or Carry Your Lunch?

Got a little help on today's post. The title is a perennial favorite absurd question from my brother, the Amazing AndyMan. The You-Tube offering is a variation on the infamous Zombie Turtle Boy (as opposed to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) sent to me by my friend Amy. It amused me. I hope it also amuses you.

Iraq = Kosovo?

Starting out, I'll tell you that I'm not generally a "big picture" guy. I figure that if I'm going to make any difference on this celestial ball, it's going to be one person at a time- people, not policies. Oh, sure, I pay attention to what's going on; I vote; and I used to be quasi-political, but only on a local and State level. I have been blessed to not have to go to any war (though I did have a brief stint in Marine OCS. I'm a lot of things, but a Marine is not one of them. Took them a few weeks to figure it out, but they ultimately did figure that out). With our volunteer military, I guess I don't have to worry about any of my four offspring being dragged into combat against their will, but all of us ought to care about whether any given conflict is good policy. Oh, and I definitely support our troops. No life lived heroically and with valor is a waste, but the policies that put our brave men and women in harm's way always ought to be carefully scrutinized.

I always felt that the U.S. invasion and occupation of Afghanistan was justified and necessary, but I'm not a fan of the war in Iraq. Not so much anymore, but there was a stretch of time when I heard folks analogize the Iraq war with the Viet Nam conflict. Apparently, the "surge" has done some good, and we are undoing some of the damage we'd done by invading Iraq in the first place. So, unlike Viet Nam, we may actually be able to stay in Iraq for as long as we want. But to what end? Hearts and minds? That hasn't worked very well in the past. So, really, what are we trying to get done? When will we know our job there is finished? I kinda thought that our intervention in Kosovo was a good thing. Maybe it was. But, as I trolled the internet, I found the following blog posting from a dude in Russia:

http://ishmaelite.blogspot.com/2008/02/jatras-on-kosovo.html

Apparently, all Hell is breaking loose there, several years after our mission there was essentially accomplished. Churches are being destroyed (no, not the chicken joints). Islamic terrorists might have a new entry point into Europe.



Is Iraq going to look like Kosovo in nine years? What's Kosovo going to look like? Or Rwanda? Or Darfur? We don't have enough people or money to take care of all the world's problems. So, what do we do? I'm not running for any national office right now, so I don't have to pretend to have an answer. But any of the folks that are running for president better.

SpongeBobMobile

Funny things happen to normally sane men when they fall head-long out of their fourth decade of living and into... the decades that follow. In 2000, the fortieth anniversary of the birth of Bill and Lydia's oldest son (er, that would be me), I quit a secure (if somewhat dull) job as County Attorney advising a small county on ordinances and doing a little bit of trial and appellate work, to go into solo private practice, ran for the Statehouse (I lost by about 150 votes out of about 15,000 cast), and got separated after about 14 years of marriage, and later divorced. 2001 I mostly pouted. In 2002, within the span of six or seven months following the 42nd anniversary of my birth, I, in order: ripped the tendon in my right biceps off of the bone while playing flag-football, bought a yellow mustang convertible, ran the Jacksonville marathon with my friend Cathy, and had surgery to re-attach my biceps.

My amazing Ultra-Runner brother, AndyMan met me in Jax. I asked him what he thought of my ride. He looked at me the way you are supposed to look at a 42 year old dude who has just bought a car marketed for 18 year old Marine recruits, and told me it was the ugliest car he'd ever seen. I told him its name was SpongeBob, owing to its color, and the SpongeBob airfreshener I had hanging from my mirror (We finished the marathon, by the way, though they timed me with a calendar). I went back home and got the surgery that I might should've gotten before the marathon. After my surgery, I asked the surgeon if I could play football again. He looked at me like you are supposed to look at a 42 year old dude who asks if he can still play football, and recommended golf. I don't think he liked the SpongeBobMobile either. But they love it at the Waffle House.