11.8.2026 – Whittingham and Beck …

Whittingham and Beck …
The question is … Name two ways …
to define clueless

Most folks are calling this the single worst college football game ever played.

The critics are calling it worse.

The Associated Press said, “In a matchup of two of the worst offenses in college football, points were precious.”

Prior to the game, USATODAY said about both teams, “The state of Michigan has had the worst collection of offensive play in college football this season.”

The State of Michigan’s 2 top premiere teams play each and neither one can score a touchdown.

But it was more than that.

I was at the Michigan-Ohio State game where Michigan managed 3 field goals and Art Schlichter scored two touchdowns for Earle Bruce to win the game.

Michigan only scored three Ali Haji-Sheikh field goals BUT NOT once did I question whether there was a game plan, a coaching plan and buy in by the team.

The guys now running one of the top college football programs in the nation are inept and TOTALLY CLUELESS of how to manage the expectations of their job which to come up with a game plan, a coaching plan and create buy in by the team.

I can’t speak for MSU nor would I try, I mean a team that has tried both John Smith and Jonathon Smith and come up empty.

Why can’t Michigan get a coach?

I myself cannot understand it.

Let’s be fair, this current Whittingham feller was called in late and expected to do great things and maybe the expectations were too high.

I mean really, when did someone take about bunch of random players and create a Championship team?

Beside last March when Dusty May won the NCAA basketball tournament … FOR MICHIGAN?

When asked after the game if it was time to panic about his offense, Whittingham said it “seems to be.“

This guy coached at a college for 34 years and had to know about Michigan even though he coached in the state of Utah and losing to MSU 15 to 6 on all field goals SEEMS TO BE the time to panic??

How can Michigan be so famous to such a smart school and be so dumb when it comes to hiring a football coach?

Seems like any number of coaches would be lined to take the job.

And maybe that’s the problem.

Maybe we don’t want anyone who wants the job.

If someone is dumb enough to want this job, they aren’t the feller Michigan wants.

A few observations going forward.

The first is to pay no attention to anything that Urban Myer says.

Myer said the this latest coach from Utah would be a great fit.

Myer does not like Michigan.

Hmmmmmmm.

The second observation is a reflection of Coach Bo Schembechler and a renewed appreciation for him and other coaches who have lasted a long time in the major leagues of college sports.

Somehow, they made it look easy and it isn’t.

Yes, the media attention is different but I know that Bo lived in a fairly simple house in the city of Ann Arbor and his phone number was listed in the phone book.

I myself had access to his office and dropped off books to be autographed tho I never got to meet the man.

Bo didn’t make millions of dollars but Michigan did.

And the man lasted for 20 years and average 9 to 10 wins a year.

And the level of back biting and such was the same.

It ain’t easy.

On the other hand, it ain’t rocket science and that feller Whittingham has been doing this for 30 years and is clueless.

I don’t get it.

I am still a Michigan alum.

Still a Michigan football fan.

But I still don’t get it.

11.6.2026 – streaming on peacock

streaming on peacock?
streaming … are you kidding me?
streaming on peacock!

Back in the day when I managed the live streaming of around 60 TV stations, I had to make sure that no station inadvertently streamed any show that the local station did not have rights to stream.

That included College Football.

Every station’s schedule of on air local news was coded into our streaming servers.

For most of the year, at 6:00 p.m. on Saturdays, the servers kicked on at 5:55 p.m. and live streamed the stations local news for the next 35 minutes.

Then came football season.

My Friday was spent checking the network schedule for Live Football coverage and then going into the system, station by station, and turning off the local news for that time period.

My company would get fined by the Network if we streamed content the local station did not have rights to stream.

The same thing would happen for NFL games on Sunday.

I became very familiar with all the Networks, and when I say all, I mean all.

I had to review the plans for all 4 networks (ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX) for 60 TV stations across 4 time zones.

Checking all the football schedules, I kept my eye open for when the college I went to was playing.

I still do.

Especially for the big games.

The one against Ohio and mentioning Ohio allows me the opportunity to remind you that Ohio is a four letter word.

And, of course, the game against Michigan State.

That game was always on.

I mean, who could imagine a fall season without watching Michigan vs. Michigan State.

At least in this era.

I grew up in another time when there were 2, count them, TWO games on every Saturday.

There was a rule that any team could play on TV only twice a season with a ‘wild card appearance’ thrown in that mandated no more than 5 games every two seasons.

With just two games a year to broadcast, the game with that team in East Lansing and that one with the team down south were always on, every year.

All the other games, were still on at our home growing up, but on the radio.

As much as Ernie Harwell and the Detroit Tigers was the sound of summer, the deep voice of Tom Hemingway and Michigan Football was the sound of fall.

But a game on TV was a date you saved and planned around.

Then came cable TV and ESPN and Big Ten TV and every game was on TV.

For sure, any Michigan game with its fan base, would be on TV.

Sure its a down year for both teams but, as Brady Hoke said, “This is Michigan for crying out loud.”

Michigan games, with it’s reported world’s largest living alumni (And there he is, one of my old roommates would yell, pointing at some large person at a football game), were always on TV.

I’ll be busy today with some of the grand kidz coming but I wanted to be aware of when the game was today in case I was near a TV.

It wasn’t listed on the major networks.

It wasn’t listed on the cable networks.

It wasn’t even listed on anything.

Then in sunk in.

All the searches stated, “Streaming on Peacock“, NBC’s online only access.

Streaming on Peacock?

Streaming only?

I know Michigan is bad this year … but Streaming on Peacock bad?

O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven; O wretched state! O bosom black as death *

Checking my old resources, the American viewing audience WILL have these games to watch tonight on TV.

20 Boise State @ Colorado State 6:00 PM ET USA Nate Gatter, Ryan Leaf
8 Kentucky @ 16 Tennessee 6:15 PM ET ESPN Tom Hart, Roddy Jones
Sam Houston @ Jacksonville State 7:00 PM ET CBSSN Alex Del Barrio, Emory Hunt
2 Georgia @ 12 Ole Miss 7:30 PM ET ABC Sean McDonough, Greg McElroy
1 Miami (FL) @ 4 Notre Dame 7:30 PM ET NBC Noah Eagle, Todd Blackledge
21 Iowa @ Northwestern 7:30 PM ET FOX Connor Onion, Robert Griffin III
Air Force @ Army 7:30 PM ET CBS Rich Waltz, Adam Breneman, Brian Kelly
Colorado @ Arizona State 7:30 PM ET ESPN2 Chuckie Kempf, Dustin Fox
Louisville @ Georgia Tech 7:30 PM ET ACCN Wes Durham, Max Browne
Oklahoma @ 25 Florida 7:45 PM ET SECN Matt Schumacker, Aaron Murray

With:

Michigan State @ Michigan 7:30 PM ET Peacock / NBCSN Paul Burmeister, Yogi Roth

Sam Houston @ Jacksonville State is on TV.

Air Force @ Army is on TV.

But Michigan vs. Michigan State … is streaming … on Peacock.

To get Biblical, … Oh how the mighty heros have fallen.

Well, the radio announcer, Bob Ufer used to say that listeners to the Michigan-Michigan State game tuned in “from coast to coast.”

… from the coast of Lake Michigan to the coast of Lake Huron.

I have this feeling that I really don’t want to watch either.

*Hamlet, Act III, Scene III

11.6.2026 – was about kindness

was about kindness
American citizens showed
nation’s true colors

Let me start by admitting that YES I KNOW that the The Niagara Parks Commission, a self-funded Crown agency of the Government of Ontario DID NOT turn blue lights on Niagara Falls on Tuesday Night.

Instead of saluting the Niagara-Falls-like cascade of blue votes cast in the United States, The Niagara Parks Commission scheduled the falls to glow teal from 10:00 p.m. to 10:15 p.m. on November 3 in recognition of Alzheimer’s Awareness Month.

But the picture was too good to ignore and too representative of what happened Tuesday night to not use.

And what happened Tuesday night?

“American citizens rose up and showed the world their nation’s truer colors” in the words of Margaret Sullivan in her article, There’s a new feeling in America as kindness drives out cruelty.

Ms. Sullivan writes:

They showed it to be a place that values decency. A place capable of choosing diversity, not mocking it. A place strong enough to say “enough, already”.

The global caricature of the ugly American as an ignoramus in thrall to an immoral cult leader got pushed aside in this election that turned both houses of Congress, and many a governor’s office, away from Maga and toward potential reform.

“I think it was about kindness,” reflected my neighbor, a registered nurse and French immigrant, as I encountered her on her dog walk on Wednesday morning.

Ms. Sullivan closes with … it’s a move in a most welcome direction. And a retreat from the distressing years where “this is not America” had to sustain us.

It’s a promise, too – of better days ahead, of reform and accountability, and of an era when we may once again think of America and feel proud.

Anyone who reads this blog knows that I have walked the edge of despair over the direction the current government was taking this country.

So many norms and expectations were outright ignored that I could not square where this country was when you looked at where this country had been.

In the words of Mr. Lincoln, The fiery trial through which we pass could not arrive at the point where we were and somehow still mean anything.

Again from Mr. Lincoln, It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion.

That cause that those honored dead gave their last full measure of devotion could not end up being all about a ballroom.

Just thinking it through that way made me sick to stomach.

Then …

Then Tuesday happened.

American citizens rose up and showed the world their nation’s truer colors.

It’s a promise, too – of better days ahead, of reform and accountability, and of an era when we may once again think of America and feel proud.

It was about kindness!

11.5.2026 – battle is sometimes

battle is sometimes
to the small, bigger they are
the harder they fall

The Elephant Who Challenged the World

An elephant who lived in Africa woke up one morning with the conviction that he could defeat all the other animals in the world in single combat, one at a time. He wondered that he hadn’t thought of it before. After breakfast he called first on the lion. “You are only the King of Beasts,” bellowed the elephant, “whereas I am the Ace!” and he demonstrated his prowess by knocking the lion out in fifteen minutes, no holds barred. Then in quick succession he took on the wild boar, the water buffalo, the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, the giraffe, the zebra, the eagle, and the vulture, and he conquered them all. After that the elephant spent most of his time in bed eating peanuts, while the other animals, who were now his slaves, built for him the largest house any animal in the world had ever had. It was five stories high, solidly made of the hardest woods to be found in Africa. When it was finished, the Ace of Beasts moved in and announced that he could pin back the ears of any animal in the world. He challenged all comers to meet him in the basement of the big house, where he had set up a prize ring ten times the regulation size.

Several days went by and then the elephant got an anonymous letter accepting his challenge. “Be in your basement tomorrow afternoon at three o’clock,” the message read. So at three o’clock the next day the elephant went down to the basement to meet his mysterious opponent, but there was no one there, or at least no one he could see. “Come out from behind whatever you’re behind!” roared the elephant. “I’m not behind anything,” said a tiny voice. The elephant tore around the basement, upsetting barrels and boxes, banging his head against the furnace pipes, rocking the house on its foundations, but he could not find his opponent. At the end of an hour the elephant roared that the whole business was a trick and a deceit—probably ventriloquism—and that he would never come down to the basement again.

“Oh, yes you will,” said the tiny voice. “You will be down here at three o’clock tomorrow and you’ll end up on your back.”

The elephant’s laughter shook the house. “We’ll see about that,” he said.

The next afternoon the elephant, who slept on the fifth floor of the house, woke up at two-thirty o’clock and looked at his wristwatch. “Nobody I can’t see will ever get me down to the basement again,” he growled, and went back to sleep. At exactly three o’clock the house began to tremble and quiver as if an earthquake had it in its paws. Pillars and beams bent and broke like reeds, for they were all drilled full of tiny holes. The fifth floor gave way completely and crashed down upon the fourth, which fell upon the third, which fell upon the second, which carried away the first as if it had been the floor of a berry basket. The elephant was precipitated into the basement, where he fell heavily upon the concrete floor and lay there on his back, completely unconscious. A tiny voice began to count him out. At the count of ten the elephant came to, but he could not get up. “What animal are you?” he demanded of the mysterious voice in a quavering tone which had lost its menace.

“I am the termite,” answered the voice.

The other animals, straining and struggling for a week, finally got the elephant lifted out of the basement and put him in jail. He spent the rest of his life there, broken in spirit and back.

Moral: The battle is sometimes to the small, for the bigger they are the harder they fall.

Draw your own conclusions as to my point in posting this story today.

But I will ask you a historical question.

How are FDR and that current man in office a like?

They both turned the Democratic Party around in one election.

Truthfully, I have so much I want to say and so much I need to wait to say.

But so much I want to say has been said by others and what has happened pretty much speaks for itself.

But I am happy to say I am happy.

The battle is sometimes to the small, for the bigger they are the harder they fall.

Sometimes, the good guys DO win.

Those fellers who we call founding fathers who had faith in the people WERE right.

So here we are.

As Mr. Lincoln said, we, even we here, hold the power … and bear the responsibility.

11.4.2026 – preeminently

preeminently
time to speak truth, the whole truth …
frankly and boldly

Adapted from President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1st inaugeral address, March 4, 1933 in Washington, DC, where President Roosevelt said:

This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself–nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

Action in this image and to this end is feasible under the form of government which we have inherited from our ancestors. Our Constitution is so simple and practical that it is possible always to meet extraordinary needs by changes in emphasis and arrangement without loss of essential form. That is why our constitutional system has proved itself the most superbly enduring political mechanism the modern world has produced. It has met every stress of vast expansion of territory, of foreign wars, of bitter internal strife, of world relations.

We face the arduous days that lie before us in the warm courage of the national unity; with the clear consciousness of seeking old and precious moral values; with the clean satisfaction that comes from the stem performance of duty by old and young alike. We aim at the assurance of a rounded and permanent national life.

We do not distrust the future of essential democracy. The people of the United States have not failed. In their need they have registered a mandate that they want direct, vigorous action.

This speech is best known for the line, “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself”.

When quoted, the quoters stop here.

But look at the rest of the line …

–nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

Let’s look at this again.

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself–

Nameless,

Unreasoning,

Unjustified terror

Which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

Mr. Shakespeare put it:

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.

I enjoyed watching the election returns last night.

Oh, decidedly that, enjoyed, I was overjoyed almost to the point of tears that this country seems to asserted itself and said, here the people rule.

Let’s go forward.

Let’s go forward without fear.

I do think that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself–nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and bold!

The time to speak the truth.

The whole truth.

Frankly and bold!

(WHAT A NOVELTY!)

Let’s go forward.

Let’s go forward with Truth.

Let’s go forward with Truth, frankly and bold!

SO much to do!

For right now, forgive me, my heart is in clouds and I do feel like its morning again for this Country.