12.6.2021 – win one, one win won

win one, one win won
thousand mile journey begins
with a single step

The Detroit Lions have won one game.

According to multiple online sources, which perhaps is the greatest cite-able non-attribution attribution since “everyone is saying it down at the club” that it was the Chinese Philosopher, Lao Tzu, who said, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.“

Maybe this is that single step.

It was the other Tzu, Sun, no relation that I can find, who said, or at least who Gordon Gecko said he said, “Every battle is won before it’s ever fought.“

I have the feeling that before the game starts, EVERY team in the National Football League thinks that when they play the Detroit Lions, they will win.

I also have the feeling that before the game starts, the Detroit Lions think that when they play any other team in the National Football League, they will not win.

Did you see what a did there?

I did not use the L word.

The L word being lose.

As in loser.

The Detroit Lions are not losers.

Until yesterday, they were winless.

The Detroit Lions were the first team in NFL history to … go winless for an entire season.

They DID not lose every game.

They just DID NOT win any game.

The National Football League has long be recognized as one the world’s greatest examples of psychological marketing.

It was the first NFL Commissioner, Bert Bell, who gave fans reason to watch any game with his statement, “On any given Sunday, any team can beat any other team.“

Bert Bell was succeed as NFL Commissioner by Pete Rozelle.

What was Mr. Rozelle?

Mr. Rozelle was a PR specialist for the Los Angeles Rams.

Mr. Rozelle was so good at PR that he convinced the world his name was PETE and not his given name of Alvin Ray.

I put it to you that Alvin or Al or even A. Ray Rozelle would never have made a go of it.

Anyway, Pete embraced that phrase, On any given Sunday, and pounded it into the county’s collective consciousness as he turned football into ‘America’s Game.’

Any team can beat any other team!

But can any team really win any game?

Statistically speaking, on any given Sunday, half the teams win.

And half the teams do not win.

Really, you can look it up.

Okay, there are ties.

But for every team that wins, there has to be a team that does not win so that has to be 50-50.

Right?

Have to love statistics.

I loved go to a meeting and report that statistics showed that a heavy internet user was also a heavy TV watcher.

I would wait until everyone was nodding their heads that, yes, that made sense.

Then I would add, that’s because you don’t lose weight using the internet.

WHOOSH.

You could hear it go right over their heads.

I had so much fun in meetings.

I was so much fun to have in meetings!

ANYWAY ….

There are 32 teams.

14 of those teams, just less than half, will make the playoffs.

And the way it is supposed to work, the half of the teams that do not make the playoffs get first dibs on getting the better players coming into the NFL from the college game.

A team would almost have to TRY to not win to not win games in the NFL.

Again, notice that I am not using the L word.

Somehow, someway, in their corporate history as a Professional Football Club, the Detroit Lions have managed to not win more games than they have won or not lost.

The Lions are 1 of 4 teams to NEVER have played in the Super Bowl, let alone not won one.

(Just for the record of the other three, the Browns are right there with the Lions while the Jaguars and Texans are relatively new teams.)

Not even played in the BIG GAME.

Tell me all about the Chicago Cubs, but they HAVE BEEN IN 11 World Series even if took 100 years to not lose one.

I guess I have to throw the City of Atlanta into the discussion.

With Atlanta’s representation in the four major leagues for Baseball, Football, Hockey and Basketball, the city has 2 championships of any kind.

That is including the latest World Series win.

Atlanta also has the honor of the GREATEST SUPER BOWL choke in history when after leading 28-3, they managed to not win the game.

But they MADE it the game.

The city of Detroit (Counting four – YES 4 – NFL titles before the Super Bowl Era) has 22 Pro Championships and ranks #5 on the list of Cities by Chamipionships.

11 of those are Red Wings Stanley Cups.

Does it matter?

I consider myself a Detroit Lions fan, win or not win.

It took me a long time to realize that Pro Football was entertainment.

Each game can be taken as a movie that is watched for its entertainment value.

Maybe you don’t like how the movie ends, but it, well, held your interest.

As Michael MacCambridge writes in history of the NFL, America’s Game. “What those who were contemptuous of sports misunderstood was not merely that a middle-class sports fan might revere football to the same degree that an inveterate theatergoer revered Shakespeare, but that he might do so for many of the same reasons.“

On the other hand, Amanda Lane, in the article, So Your Baseball Team Has Never Been to the World Series:

Ask yourself, if the Mariners win the World Series [or if the Lions win a Super Bowl], what will my life have that it doesn’t have now? You’ll probably answer something like a championship t-shirt, the pride and satisfaction of knowing your team is a winner, and the feeling that staying loyal to the team for all these years was worth it in the end.

A championship t-shirt is something you purchase to wear on airplanes and when you travel to other cities. In doing so, you are seeking the acknowledgement from other that you support a winning team. By extension, you feel that this means you too are a winner.

You feel that this means you too are a winner.

If you are a Lions fan though, Ms. Lane has this advice (which I paraphrased).

Seek personal satisfaction in pursuits outside of Detroit Lions fandom

12.5.2021 – gross negligence , a

gross negligence , a
disregard, failure to act
no job, not your job

Another school.

Another school shooting.

Reading a legal analysts discussion of charges against the parents, I was struck by these sentences:

To convict the parents of involuntary manslaughter, the state will have to prove that the parents were “grossly negligent” in allowing their son access to a firearm, and that their gross negligence caused the deaths of the students.

Gross negligence means more than just carelessness. It means willfully disregarding the results to others from the failure to act.

Thursday night in the NFL, the Dallas Cowboys beat the New Orleans Saints without their head coach due to Covid 19 Protocols.

Defensive Coach and one time Atlanta Falcons Head Coach Dan Quinn took over for the game.

Asked about the win, Coach Quinn said this.

“I think it’s really an example of leadership from Mike and to say what happens when the leader is not here.”

“Everybody had to chip it in and say, ‘No job is not your job right now. By any means necessary, we’ve got to get this job done.'”

Thinking back to the legal analyst and the sentence, It means willfully disregarding the results to others from the failure to act.

Thinking hard about the failure to act.

Thinking hard about the failure to act, I want to say, “No job is not your job right now. By any means necessary, we’ve got to get this job done.”

No job is not your job right now.

By any means necessary.

We’ve got to get THIS job done.

12.4.2021 – if lives dominated

if lives dominated
by a search for happiness
travel reveals much

Adapted from the book, The Art of Travel (2002, Vintage Books) by Alain de Botton, and the passage:

If our lives are dominated by a search for happiness, then perhaps few activities reveal as much about the dynamics of this quest—in all its ardour and paradoxes—than our travels. They express, however inarticulately, an understanding of what life might be about, outside of the constraints of work and of the struggle for survival. Yet rarely are they considered to present philosophical problems—that is, issues requiring thought beyond the practical. We are inundated with advice on whereto travel to, but we hear little of why and how we should go, even though the art of travel seems naturally to sustain a number of questions neither so simple nor so trivial, and whose study might in modest ways contribute to an understanding of what the Greek philosophers beautifully termed eudaimonia, or ‘human flourishing’.

Adapted from the book, The Art of Travel (2002, Vintage Books) by Alain de Botton.

According to the website, GOOD READS, Any Baedeker will tell us where we ought to travel, but only Alain de Botton will tell us how and why.

As I said in the section on Architecture , what I find irresistible in reading Mr. de Botton is his use of language.

I get the feeling that if you made a spread sheet of all the words, adverbs and adjectives used by Mr. de Botton, you just might find that he used each word just once.

Neat trick in writing a book.

If I knew how to do that, hey, I would.

12.3.2021 – did not buy the boat

did not buy the boat
so where is the million bucks
that I did not spend?

The sign in the grocery store says BUY 2 and SAVE.

But if I don’t buy any, do I save even more?

Of is it if I buy more I save even more?

*shirt from a thrift store – I bought the shirt – someone else paid for label

I did not buy this boat.

Why doesn’t the money I didn’t have to buy the boat show up in my bank since I didn’t spend it?

I like to look at the boats in the marinas on the island.

The idea that they are holes in the water that you throw money into appeals greatly to my sense of wellbeing.

Big toys for big boys also makes me smile.

It was when he was asked about the cost of his yacht that famous rich-guy JP Morgan famously said, “If you have to ask how much it costs, you can’t afford it.“

When he died with only $55 Million in the bank, another famous rich-guy, Andrew Carnegie, famously said, “I thought he was rich.“

That was a 1913 $55 Million.

I like to look at the boats in the marinas on the island.

Henry Ford is reported to have asked William Randolph Hearst if he had any money.

Mr. Hearst is supposed to have said, “No, Mr. Ford, I never seem to have any.”

Ford replied, “That’s too bad. You should get 2 or 3 hundred million and put it away for a rainy day.”

As F. Scott Fitzgerald said. “Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.“

“Yep,” said buddy Ernest Hemingway, “they have more money.”

I like to look at the boats in the marinas on the island.

One day, I figure these folks will figure out a way to make me pay for the privilege of looking at their boat.

I think of the Japanese fable of the poor student who lived over a restaurant and claimed his meager rice wasn’t so bad as he could smell the food in the restaurant.

The restaurant owner heard this and had the student arrested for stealing the smell of his food.

In court, the Judge had the student drop his few coins from one hand to the other.

The cost of the smell of the food, said the judge, will be the sound of the money.

I like to look at the boats in the marinas on the island.

I like to look and think to myself, those things sink.

What might be the charge for looking?

12.2.2021 – tireless pointillist

tireless pointillist
people often say show me
picture with the dots

I opened up my computer this morning and my mind went back in time.

This was weird because I went back to a time before everyone had a computer.

I had opened the Google and the google logo was all in dots.

Small points of color.

I knew it had to have something to do with Georges Seurat and when I hovered over the logo the embedded alt information for the graphic displayed the text, “Georges Seurat’s 162nd Birthday.”

If you grew up in the midwest at some time in your life you visited Chicago.

If you visited Chicago at some time in your life you had a good chance of going to the Art Institue.

If you went to the Art Institute of Chicago, you most likely saw La Grande Jatte or A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat.

Sometimes known as Sunday Afternoon in the Park and maybe the inspiration for the song, “Saturday in the Park” by the band, Chicago.

Sometime known as the painting with the dots.

I hear two general reactions from folks who see this painting.

One is HOW BRIGHT IT IS.

Colors just cannot be captured in any form of reproduction.

I remember walking down the main hall of the National Gallery of Art in Washington and through an open entry way, I was faced, unexpectedly, with A Girl with a Watering Can by Renoir.

The color flared out from the painting so bright that I tripped.

No, I am not kidding, fell flat out on the marble floor.

Guard looked at me and shrugged like this happened a lot.

The second thing I hear from folks is HOW BIG IT IS.

Neither, here nor there, but look at this photgraph.

I feel it could have been painted by any one the great impressionists and entitled, ‘A visit to Chicago’.

This is what took me back in time when I thought of Seurat.

For me, I cannot think of this painting without thinking of a documentary on the City of Chicago by Studs Terkel.

Mr. Terkel was the American version of Alistair Cooke.

Where Mr. Cooke wrote and later, read, a weekly column, ‘Letter from America’ for the Manchester Guardian and later the BBC, tried to explain America to Brits, Studs Terkel tried to explain America to Americans.

In my mind was a quote of Mr. Terkel from that documentary on La Grande Jatte and I plugged Studs Terkel Suerat into the Google to try and find it.

To my surprise and pleasure not only did I find the quote, I found the entire documentary and you can watch it all right here.

It is in this documentary that Mr. Terkel talks about La Grande Jatte and says, “people often say, show me the picture with the dots.“

The bit about La Grande Jatte is at 30:00 into the but go to about 28:00 into the video to catch Mr. Terkel’s comments about Night Hawks as well.

Or, if you have the time, watch the whole show.

Overwhelming in nostalgia for a city and a place that no longer exists.

This is the Chicago I grew up with.

Still a city close to the city of Carl Sandburg.

Still the city of Daley.

You remember the old story.

Richard Daley and two guys are in boat that is sinking and there are only two life jackets.

Daley says they should vote on who got a life jacket and Daley won 9 to 2.

This is the Chicago I loved to visit.

One memorable visit, I had talked my Friend Doug into an overnight trip to the city.

The plan was to drive to Comiskey Park and see the Thursday night baseball game between the Chicago White Sox and the Detroit Tigers.

Then drive to my sister’s apartment on the northside and stay overnight.

Spend the next day in the Chicago museums, back to the ball park for another baseball game and drive home after the game finished out the plan.

I was going through a period of being a Chicago White Sox fan when I was really following their owner, Bill Veeck.

How many people today will say they were fans of an owner?

The deal got a little sweeter when it was announced that the first game was going to be a double header due to an earlier rained out game.

Doug and I knew something was up when we drove up to Comiskey Park on 34th St., and everyone in the crowd seemed to be carrying 45rpm records or singles as they called.

We didn’t know.

Maybe that’s what you did in Chicago.

What it was was a promotion by the White Sox.

You got into the game for 99 cents if you brought a record to the game.

A DISCO record.

All the records where then going to be put into a big box and blown up between games.

This was the famous DISCO DEMOLITON PROMOTION and we had box seats.

The first game was played okay more or less.

Records starting be thrown out of the upper deck late in the game.

Both the left and right fielders were wearing batting helmets IN THE FIELD.

Between games the big box was trucked in and as planned, blown up.

Then, as wasn’t planned, all the fans ran out and took over the field.

In fairness, what else was going to happen when you get 57,000 people in a stadium designed to hold 47,000.

I mean they had to go somewhere.

So Doug and I had box seats for a riot.

In a goofy way, it was kinda cool.

Disco Demolition has gone down in baseball history as the worst thought out promotional stunt in history since the dedication fireworks of the New York City Hall set the new city hall on fire and burned it down back in 1852.

But, as the organizers say, how can it be a promotional failure if we are still talking about it?

But I digress.

In the video, Studs Terkel quotes french filmaker, René Clair as saying, “Everytime I go to America I must stop off at your city to see La Grande Jatte. It refreshes me. I need it.”

Mr. Terkel ends the little bit on with the words, “Hurrah Seurat.”

And, Happy Birthday.

Will you help him change the world?
Can you dig it? (Yes, I can)
And I’ve been waiting such a long time
For today

*The first American Letter was broadcast on 24 March 1946 (Cooke said this was at the request of Lindsey Wellington, the BBC’s New York Controller); the series was initially commissioned for only 13 instalments. The series came to an end 58 years later in March 2004, after 2,869 instalments and less than a month before Cooke’s death. (wikipedia)

**His well-known radio program, titled The Studs Terkel Program, aired on 98.7 WFMT Chicago between 1952 and 1997. The one-hour program was broadcast each weekday during those forty-five years. (wikipedia)

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