Wednesday, September 09, 2009
Eli Cash Graveyard Games 2009
Ellen Kennedy won the trophy at the Games! With a sizzling score in Trivial Pursuit and scoring 8 out of a possible 10 in bb gun marksmanship, Ellie Oakley came out of nowhere to take home to her dorm room, (at least for a little while) the Surfing Elvis. Aided by a graciously-allowed do-over in walnut chipping because of a disintegrating walnut, Kennedy showed a steep learning curve, improving her walnut-chipping score from 0 to 4. She was presented the trophy by the previous champion, Tom, who would have been the current winner if not for his gentlemanly allowing of the do-over without protest. There were several ties for third place and a real crowd tied up at fourth. Lisa Milbrath stunned the spectators by knocking four cans off the shed roof with her shooting, which made Emma and Mary very proud, and Andy Reeder awed the crowd by shooting one-handed and behind his back, among other trick shots, none of which hit the targets or even the shed. Mary Straub made a courtesy appearance at the range, not competing, but aiming and hitting considerably better than Andy. The shootin' Kennedys as a whole garnered impressive scores in the new event. Non-contestant Eli demonstrated great potential for future marksmanship contests. Look behind you, Lisa! Bicycle polo was cancelled due to extreme apathy and fear of injury. The pork chop dinner was sensational as always, as were other meals heavy on the flavor (and meat) and aside from heavy early-morning fog, the weather was beautiful. Future events may include use of two gigaballs in a sumo-style event, as young attendees rigorously tested the indestructibility and safety of the oversized bubbles, but hot-pepper tasting is probably a no go. The swing is defunct for now but Betty is OK, and Peter has a new survival story to tell his friends. All in all, a good weekend.
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15 comments:
1 Florida (56)
2 Texas (2)
3 USC
4 Alabama (2)
5 Oklahoma State
6 Mississippi
7 Penn State
8 Ohio State
9 Brigham Young
10 California
11 LSU
12 Boise State
13 Oklahoma
14 Virginia Tech
15 Georgia Tech
16 TCU
17 Utah
18 Notre Dame
19 North Carolina
20 Miami (FL)
21 Georgia
22 Nebraska
23 Cincinnati
24 Kansas
25 Missouri
Congratulations, Ellen. You are a worthy champion.
Tom
Yay Ellen!
Yay Notre Dame!
Down with Michigan!
p
If the Irish move up five places every week then they will be #1 in no time.
BTW Tom,
Did you eat that fish?
p
Here's an interesting little snippet by Fr. Michael Sean Winters (a basically not-in-lockstep liberal but above all rational) in today's America magazine. He's saying that Obama has to find and articulate the moral voice that seized voters' imaginations to sell a health care reform:
If anything, the problem with Congress is that it is too malleable in the face of popular opinion and instead of shaping it, they allow themselves to be terrified by it. August was not, as some have said, an exercise in democracy. Town hall meetings were disrupted by organized conservative groups who had every right to disrupt those meetings. But, say every member of Congress had five town hall meetings and each meeting had 300 people. (I think those estimates are generous.) And, let us stipulate that every single person who attended those meetings was opposed to any further government involvement in health care. That would mean that 1,337,500 people showed up in August to tell their congressman to vote against health care reform. Last autumn, 69,498,952 citizens voted for Barack Obama.
The President tonight must connect the health care reform provisions he will be advocating in the days and weeks ahead with the call for change the voters endorsed last year. And, he must especially re-assure the centrist swing voters that while change is often scary, nothing is scarier than maintaining the status quo in health care. He must also re-assure Catholic swing voters that he is committed to keeping health care reform neutral on the issue of access to abortion. The President faces a tall order tonight, but the only way to hit a homerun in his address is to return to the great moral themes of his campaign. That is why he won last year and it is how he can win this year.
Inglourious Basterds - thumbs up.
When I saw Ellen proudly holding the trophy after the Games last Saturday, my mind went back to something that occurred at Notre Dame stadium about 1954.
You see, I was aware that many of the men at our Games were kidding about how the women were allegedly bending the rules. And I emphasize that all the comments I heard from the men were in a kidding vein.
At any rate, I was reminded of the Notre Dame-Iowa football game in 1954, or thereabouts. There were 7 seconds to go at the end of the first half, ND was behind Iowa 7-0 and ND was out of timeouts when an ND player, tackle Frank Varrichione, was seen writhing on the ground with an "injury." Time out was called to get him off the field and that gave ND an chance to get in one more play before the end of the half. On that play ND's quarterback, all-American Ralph Guglielmi threw a touchdown pass to end Dan Shannon and the score at halftime was 7-7.
At the end of the game the same thing happened. Iowa was ahead 14-7, there were just seconds to go and Varriochione was "injured" again. Time out, time for one more play and Guglielmi throws another touchdown pass and the game ends in a 14-14 tie.
The Iowa coach was a guy named Forrest Evashevski, a Michigan grad who had no love for ND even before the game. He was beside himself, telling anyone who would listen how unsportsmanship by ND cost him the game. To this day Iowa fans who are old enough remember that game.
Actually, fake injuries were a part of the game in those days. Every team had a guy designated to fake an injury and stop the clock at the end of the half or the end of the game if they were out of timeouts. Usually the guy who had the most reliable substitute was the designated injury guy. Frank Varrichione was ND's injury guy but I don't know who Iowa's was.
What Evashevski conveniently overlooked is that both at the end of the half and at the end of the game the pressure was on ND to score a touchdown (and extra points were not so automatic in those days). By the same token the pressure was on Iowa to stop ND from scoring. A nice 5 yard gain would not be enough; it had to be 2 touchdowns. ND took on the pressure and scored 2 touchdowns in high pressure situations while Iowa failed.
What does all this have to do with Ellen winning the Games? Well, she went to bed Sunday night knowing that victory was in her grasp. Then the next day her walnut cracked and she thought she was out or it, just like I felt standing in the stadium with the score 14-7 with only seconds to go. But then she got another chance but she knew she had to knock it in the fire to pull out the victory. The pressure was on her just like it was an Ralph Guglielmi. He threw the perfect pass and she hit hit the perfect shot.
That's what I was thinking of as Ellen accepted her trophy. Congratulations, Ellen, a true champion!!
The old man.
Nice story! We should call the trophy "The Ralphie".
Did the thespian players really have to "sell it" or was it pretty much routine? That's funny.
I just now watched Obama's address to schoolchildren. Thank heavens so many vigilant parents and school "leaders" saved their children from exposure to this invidious propaganda to their children to work hard and accept responsibility to themselves, their families and their country.
We should also thank heavens for the people who were upset about the political speech he intended to give and who caused him to re-write the speech.
Guess who
I'm so sick off all that I think I want to become a christian scientist.
p
I'm with you Pat. It was such a non issue it was crazy. Even if it had been political it would have given the schools and parents an open door to discuss what was controversial about it. Good Lord,
he wasn't going to go tell them to go home and torture their pets or siblings.
Monica
Hi everyone!
Thanks for letting me be part of the farm family extravaganza this weekend. You are all delightful. I was able to post a bunch of photos to facebook and I imagine Molly will be able to snag some of the good ones for birthday posts!
Now, a plea! This feels kind of tacky, but I promise it's for a good cause and costs you nothing. A local small business owner (she and her husband own a toy store — KangarooBoo.com) asked me to nominate her for an American Express contest. I wrote one up and would love if she could get 50 "endorsements" to be considered for the $100,000 prize. Her story is fascinating. "Illegal" second child in China, Cancer Survivor, etc.
Here's where you can go to "endorse" her: http://shinealight.ivillage.com/sbo-profile/?ProfileID=6589
Thanks again!
It took three tries but I did it! I hate those crazy boxes where you have to type the characters; is that a capital Z or a small one?
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