BBE football flashes offense en route to state!

Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa is making waves in prep sports yet again. Now it's football getting the attention. The Jaguars are in for the state level of play. They took their final step en route to that rarefied air on Friday. 

It was a big day for prep sports at the Fargo indoor facility. Certainly nice to have a roof overhead this time of year, even though weather has been decent. 

So with the Fargodome as the backdrop, those Jaguars went to work with an offense that was again very productive. Fans certainly enjoy offense. An exciting offense has been a trademark of the 2023 BBE gridders. So I'm sure my old newspaper compatriot/friend in Bonanza Valley, Randy Olson, is having lots of fun covering this team. 

I remember getting swept up in post-season excitement in my newspaper days here in Motown. I felt that the sense of excitement bordered on the excessive sometimes. We want the kids to maintain a good sense of perspective. Perhaps there's no issue with this, and maybe the potential issue is with the parents! But right now, let's assume that the whole outlook in Jaguar country is healthy!

What excitement the people have been able to cheer! Those Jaguars rolled forward Friday with a 36-12 win over Upsala/Swanville Area. How fortunate the BBE fans were with the totally accommodating 10 a.m. game time! Here in Morris, our fans had to cope with the quite late time of 8 p.m. (in Fargo) which got pushed even later. Yes, I editorialized some on that. But BBE had it made with kickoff set for mid-morning. 

Waves of cheers came from the BBE turnout as their team churned out points. In the end they could celebrate the 36-12 win by their squad. So the Section 4A title is theirs. Congratulations Randy! 

Football teams were blessed having the dome setting for Friday, so I sort of thought this would be standard henceforth. It is not! We hope the weather stays pleasant for the Jaguars' next game which will be at St. Cloud Apollo. Might the game actually be played at the SCSU facility? I don't know. "Minnesota Scores" just reports "St. Cloud Apollo." 

SCSU has an artificial turf field and it's basically like in Morris. But no roof. I know SCSU has an inflatable cover available to employ. But I don't know if this is practical for an actual football game with fans present. 

BBE is now preparing to face Mayer Lutheran - one of those private schools making state - at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 10. Kickoff-time is an acceptable 7 p.m. Good luck to the Jaguars. They were the No. 1 seed at the section level. BBE is in the state quarter-finals for the second time in three seasons. 

 

A QB with impact

My, the BBE quarterback was quite on top of his game. This is Luke Dingmann. Luke was dead-on slinging passes, underscored by numbers of 14 of 17, 216 yards, three touchdowns. His connections went deep. He found paydirt with a 52-yard completion that had Luke Illies on the catching end. The big second quarter play was good for a touchdown and gave the Jags a 20-6 lead. 

Dingmann tossed two TD passes in the opening quarter. First there was a 12-yard scoring strike to Hayden Sobiech. Then Luke tossed a 42-yarder that had Ryan Jensen gathering the ball in. A successful two-point conversion put the Jags up by 14. BBE built its lead to 28-12 when Owen Paulson ran the ball into the end zone from the three. 

The 28-12 score stood for halftime. There was one more touchdown to come: Jack Lundberg scored this with a two-yard burst in the third quarter. Lundberg rushed for 83 yards on the day in 16 carries. 

The BBE defense earned credit too. The Jags forced three turnovers by the Patriots of Upsala/Swanville. BBE coach Chris Moscho cited his team's defense as "huge." 

Hey, the Jags are undefeated on the season! What a plum if they can finish things up that way. Mayer Lutheran comes out of Section 2A. 

Coach Moscho described QB Dingmann with the superlative "phenomenal" (in comments to the West Central Tribune). Dingmann was the top ballcarrier, grinding out 92 yards in 14 carries. BBE had 436 total yards. Illies had three pass catches for 63 yards. The Patriots' final record is 8-2.

Congrats to the BBE Jaguars! (facebook image)

 

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

"Now and Then" emphasizes the "then"

It's time to remember the tongue-in-cheek quote "nostalgia isn't what it used to be." 

At the same time we'll be reminded that this quote is not from Yogi Berra. Berra according to legend said, "that restaurant is so crowded, nobody goes there any more." 

Berra was made into a caricature because of one or two malaprops he may have uttered - no big deal really. But certain people like Joe Garagiola seized on that, built upon it, used it to create this image of Berra spouting such stuff routinely. Berra seemed to have mixed thoughts about this. He didn't really fight it. At times he openly went along with it. He eventually said "I didn't say half the things I said," giving yet another example of Yogi-isms, I'm sure intentionally. Or is it possible this was another "invented" quote? It's all quite harmless. It's just entertainment, which is what baseball is. 

Ralph Kiner was a source of real malaprops. I find these most funny as they're real. 

So on nostalgia, how about the flood of attention once again for "The Fab Four," the Beatles? I am age 68, a perfect candidate for being taken in by this. So I admit: I am paying considerable attention. Music defies any kind of scientific analysis. This in an age when science purports to explain everything. 

Music begs us to feel nostalgia. The many "ear worm" hits from over time get lodged in our minds, associated with time periods in our lives. The Beatles had remarkable talent, especially John Lennon. If Lennon thought he had the veto power in his collaboration with McCartney, I think that was totally justified. I think if Paul's "Uncle Albert" song had been a Beatles song with Lennon in charge, it would have been better. It would have been more hard-edged. Lennon would not have allowed some of the stupid gimmicky things that McCartney applied. McCartney could be whimsical that way. 

McCartney has never been as consistent with his songwriting creations as Lennon was. Too many of the non-hit songs on McCartney's solo albums, like during his "Wings" phase, came across like "filler." Let me put in this way: if an unknown songwriter (like yours truly) had the stuff prepared as "demos," it would not only go nowhere, it might prompt some choice expletives of rejection from a publisher. And boy, people in the music business can be rude. Let's re-phrase that: they can be direct and honest. Maybe these are actually good qualities. 

Lennon was so good, he often wrote "idiosyncratic stuff" that on the surface seemed little more than impulsive - no real merit to it. The only way to suggest merit was to "look below the surface" on the lyrics. Yes, to find those "hidden meanings." Meanings that may not have been there at all! Once the critics start mining that, they'll start proclaiming a particular song is classic when really it was nothing special (maybe nothing at all). 

What songs might I be thinking of? My, someone my age ought not be putting down "Strawberry Fields Forever." Art is judged by the emotional response by the listener/viewer. Even after several listenings, I cannot stand "Strawberry Fields Forever," yet the song is on "best of" lists. I look at "Lucy in the Sky" the same way. 

If the subtle meaning of these songs had anything to do with drugs, as is so often postulated, I'm turned off even more, considerably more. Maybe Lennon thought drugs were mind-expanding. I would assert "that was his opinion." As a young adult I felt considerable peer pressure to never talk down drugs. You just have to understand the 1970s: the youth culture saw themselves as so much more "with it" than their parents. 

I really have to ask about the Beatles: were they truly "into" drugs as much as we were led to believe? Was this just an attempt to romanticize the group? To make them cultural symbols when in fact they were simply hard-working musicians, and deserving of much credit for that. 

Lennon went along with the drug image to act downright silly, iconoclastic in an abrasive way toward the end of his abbreviated life. He could be negative and caustic in so many of his comments, even about his own work. 

 

Effect of fame

A theory I have sometimes shared is that fame sort of flummoxed Lennon. Words can hardly describe the sheer fame that came to the "Fab 4" over a short period of time. Lennon seemed shocked and rather disbelieving about it. Didn't they start out just wanting to make good music? Of course they did, but their talent was not that far out ahead of many top practitioners in pop music. 

The British recording industry was more advanced than in America. George Martin was on the cutting edge of knowing what style of music was going to appeal to the new young generation. 

Rock 'n roll had established itself and wasn't going to be stopped despite real controversy. The older generation seemed taken aback. The pulsating rhythm of rock 'n roll and its more layered descendants - African feel for rhythm - was here to stay. 

I'm not the first to suggest that the Beatles simply rode the wave of good timing. They were talented guys who got the absolutely optimal amount of support to be catapulted into fame. It was fame to an extent that I think John found ridiculous. Paul absorbed the effect better, I feel. He understood fame and did not feel the need to make sense of all of it. He knew he was an entertainer, not a philosopher by trade. Most practical, he wanted to reap the benefits of music to enrich his own life by material standards and to bequeath eventually to family. Which is certainly the ultimate objective of a pro, you might assert with dead-on logic. 

Lennon never lost sight of the more intangible things. He was really more of a talent than McCartney. 

Lennon may have gone a little nuts because he appealed to the U.S. boomer population which went off the rails because they saw the absurdity and tragedy of the Vietnam war. The war gave the kids an excuse to detach from the values of their parents. And then years later, long after the Vietnam war had receded as a reality, the boomers had their come to Jesus moment. "We didn't really understand our parents." Well yes they did in some respects, as the U.S. parents never tried hard enough to see the war for what it was. They allowed themselves to be led by John Wayne. And for that they richly deserved acrimony. 

Remember the book "The Greatest Generation?" That was the come to Jesus affirmation. Blood is thicker than water. Let's love our parents. It was easier to do when the war had receded into the past. 

So Lennon wrote about love and he surely scorned war. But he would have used any philosophical underpinning for his music because he was simply a genius song creator. 

I'm sure many have wondered: had Lennon lived, would he have "straightened out" from his deconstructionist, unorthodox times? A conventional personality and personal appearance? We can never know. The silly persona of the 1970s would no longer have been cool. He might not even want to talk about drugs today. Or he'd dismiss the topic as having been overblown once. 

To do anything really well, you cannot be "under the influence." You're naive if you think any special genius or spark comes from drug use. It can only be an impediment. And hey, realize that certain celebrities who came to be notorious for alleged drug-influenced behavior probably did their defining work before they dabbled in drugs. A really good example of this was Hunter Thompson. Truman Capote was a dead-serious author with a stolid lifestyle when he wrote "In Cold Blood." Fame transformed him into an almost cartoonish figure. Could he have done the same work then? 

 

"Now and Then" song

And so now we have "Now and Then," the final Beatles single. The song has been so over-analyzed. We're so saturated in it. Which makes me think it will run its course of popularity pretty quickly. Pop music is like that: we get tired of popular melodies and want new stuff. 

Lennon has been dead and gone for so long. The nostalgia is waning. Pop music is the domain of the young. That is an indelible rule. Where did ABBA get with their "comeback" a couple years ago? 

You like the Beatles? I suggest you simply call up their original stuff. Enjoy.

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Volleyball: Tigers fall to Paynesville, end season

Let's be frank: MACA volleyball had a disappointing season. It happens sometimes. We'll see how the page gets turned for the winter basketball season. Of course I don't assume the same group of kids plays volleyball and basketball. 

The winter season awaits. Of course that means winter itself awaits! Such a long, dragged-out season. Spring softball seems like it can get compressed into a mere month - that's with all the weather-necessitated postponements. Postponements or cancellations. Wouldn't it be wonderful if our Big Cat Stadium had an inflatable cover like they have at St. Cloud State? What a transformation that would be. Softball could start as soon as basketball is over. But no, we lack that asset now. 

Winter sports are quite guaranteed to go on for the full scheduled term. 

Our volleyball Tigers had a limited post-season experience. There was one very satisfying win: a sweep over Litchfield. The Tigers were seeded fourth and Litchfield fifth.  The success put us up against the top seed in sub-section. That would be the Bulldogs of Paynesville. We managed to win one game against those Bulldogs but not the match. (The guys on radio use the term "set" instead of "game" and they may be right.) 

So it was a 1-3 loss for the orange and black Tuesday night at the Bulldogs' gym. So Paynesville advances to the 3AA-North championship match which will be against New London-Spicer. Don't ever bet against the Wildcats in girls athletics. 

Paynesville owns a 15-5 season record going into tonight's (Thursday) match vs. the Wildcats. Action will be at The Big Red gym at Willmar. Paynesville is on a roll at the sub-section level. They are striving for their third straight sub-section crown. NL-Spicer has the No. 2 seed. Let's look at the background with these two teams: Paynesville had a 3-1 win over NL-Spicer on September 25. 

The Tigers close out the 2023 fall with a 9-16 record. We took the first game versus the Bulldogs 25-22. Certainly heartening considering we were up against the top seed. Alas, Paynesville performed up to their status the rest of the night. After our 25-22 win to start things off, we bowed 18-25, 17-25 and 21-25. Season done. 

Rayna Spanier batted four serving aces at the Tigers. Emma Flanders had three while these teammates had one each: Kaydence Roeske, Ava Martinson and Grace Roberg. 

Spanier took charge in set assists with her 36. Roberg chipped in with four assists. Then we see Flanders with three followed by Roeske and Maddie Frieler with one each. 

Hitting! Here the premier Bulldog was Flanders with 22 kills. Emma Kolstad pounded out ten kills. Roeske came through with six. The list continues with Spanier 3, Finley Anfinson and Roberg each with two, and Frieler and Martinson each with one. These three Bulldogs each had one ace block: Flanders, Roeske and Frieler. 

Roberg was busy in digs with her 23. Flanders had 16, Spanier 14, Roeske and Kylie Pauls eight each, and Kolstad 7. Let us note that this match was played on Halloween night! 

I am very disappointed that the kmrs-kkok website could not report some individual stat highlights for the Tigers. We have lost a lot with Brett Miller walking away from the station. He was setting some pretty good standards for coverage. This void leaves yours truly in a more challenged position as I try to keep prioritizing online coverage of the Tigers. Looks like the radio station will now fall into a routine of just providing the basic score/schedule information. They ought to try to give us more than that. 

Our newspaper here only publishes one edition a week. When I was at the paper it was two. I got the Paynesville stats for this post from the West Central Tribune website. We used to count on the WC Trib for a fair amount of coverage of our Tiger teams. It's very rare now. 

Yes the West Central Tribune has coverage of the MACA/Paynesville match, but only with details for the green-clad Bulldogs. I'm happy to use this as a resource. Obviously I would like to report on various members of the Tiger team and their stats. With Brett Miller's help I could have done that. Not now. Life goes on, I guess.

 

Erratum

Speaking of our Morris newspaper, it has the kind of glitch on its front page that would have caused the local folks, at least the pompous usual suspects, to raise heck at me if I had been responsible. 

I took a look at the Morris paper yesterday at our public library. There's a big banner headline across the top of the front page. No, this was not really "news." It was just puffery for announcing the obvious: UMM has a new chancellor. Much of what the newspaper does is puffery. 

Janet Schrunk Ericksen

One big problem with the banner headline: it misspells the name of the new UMM chancellor. Oh, is that all. Hey, UMM is pretty important in this town. (Is it OK to still call it "UMM" instead of "UMN?") 

The middle portion of the chancellor's name is "Schrunk." The paper has it spelled "Shrunk." I shared a heads-up about this with a friend who responded as follows:

 

Yep, checked my paper when I got home and your observation was correct - they left out the “C” in Janet’s name, not only in the headline but also in the body of the article. If you had writ that, you woulda got fired. 

 

Spot-on observation, yes. This is why my position at the Morris paper became untenable toward the end. I met the end of the line with the goalpost incident at UMM (2005). Did I make an "error?" No, not at all. People with dark minds began speculating, that's all. One was a now-deceased Morris physician. Such glass-half-empty people. 

Is UMM in trouble now because of headwinds having to do with enrollment? Over the past several years I have had close association with UMM and First Lutheran Church, two institutions that now seem to be terribly stressed. Is this just bad luck for yours truly? 

As for the family fund I established on behalf of UMM, I had it painstakingly explained to me that there are "contingencies" that will guarantee that the money does something good. This is in the event that all hell breaks loose with UMM and it sinks right into oblivion. This is looking ever more possible. The campus will have to be maintained (just like the City of Morris has to spend $ to maintain the Killoran stage at East Side Park). 

If the family fund goes to benefit music at the Twin Cities U campus, that is all well and good - my late father got his undergraduate and Master's degrees there. He was really a "big city guy" through that young portion of his life. This was after growing up in Glenwood. His first visit to our campus in Morris was in 1928. 

My church of First Lutheran appears to be stressed just like UMM. Attendance is low for an average Sunday. There's just not a lot of spark there. We belong to the ELCA which has been losing ground fast due to the perception that it is "liberal." It may be killing us in this age of Donald Trump. However, the ELCA-affiliated Faith Lutheran appears to be doing fine. Well, congrats to them.

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Here we go again with Middle East news

(wikipedia image)

Isn't there total redundancy with the news reports coming out of the Middle East? As I heard someone say at DeToy's a few days ago: "These people have always been fighting and they will keep fighting." 

Does the U.S. just pour gasoline on the fire by sending more "aid" over there? Is it assumed that Israel is always "the good guys?" Is this a rational judgment or based more on superstition that comes from the Holy Bible? And is this fulfillment of Biblical prophecy? 

Up until Trump, there was an understood dictum that our top political leaders would not present their arguments in Biblical terms. Trump broke all sorts of norms. At first we're shocked by so much of this, then time passes and we realize we cannot change the situation. So, minus any options we just start commenting on the new norm. One of these is that an outgoing president can unleash a mob in a violent action against the U.S. capitol. The "small fish" might get in trouble but the top guy not only escapes, he's now the frontrunner, probably the prohibitive front-runner, for the GOP nomination. 

He'll have experience for when he gets back into the presidency, and this experience he can mine to make sure he has absolute toadies in many top positions around him. Just watch the justice department. 

And with the top guy motivated by raw, unyielding retribution, just watch what kind of acts get carried out. This abomination will follow the expected pattern, where at first there is shock and disbelief. "Oh this can't be real." It is real, the reason being that we the American people put this person named Trump into power. Of course he did not win the popular vote in 2016. But we rationalize that our system of the electoral college is practicable. There is more debate to be had on that. But it apparently is not going away. 

The assault on the capitol happened way back in January of 2021. Maybe by the standards of our white collar justice system, that's not so much time to have elapsed. According to my own seat-of-the-pants judgment, it is. My influence might be compared to a grain of sand on a vast beach. 

One might argue that in the old days of the big TV news networks, the "gatekeeper" media people would have pushed Americans to a quick reckoning about what we saw on TV at the capitol. I would like to argue as much. The "Big 3" of the days of Cronkite would seem to have been more dispassionate, sensible etc. 

On the surface, yes, but the argument completely falls apart when you realize how the major media let the years of the Vietnam war just roll on. Big media eventually had to conclude that it had been played by the U.S. government. I might clarify that to "the military industrial complex." But whatever, if you think the white collar legal process is so slow with Trump now, look back to when the Vietnam war persisted for years as a virtual morass. Television should have been an asset for clearing that up, making us realize the sheer folly. 

 

"Zippo Lighter"

Oh TV did try, as with Morley Safer's famous "Zippo Lighter" story. Safer reacted with mock amazement - "Isn't this something?" - at how the simple little Zippo Lighter could burn an entire Vietnamese village down. 

Just think how the poor U.S. servicemen could have been advancing their lives in the healthy normal fashion back here. Back home. Lives were extinguished, lives were ruined and lives were scarred. The suffering continues today, all while the U.S. has a favorable relationship with the same people we were fighting. "Ah Bartleby, ah humanity." Or something like that. "We are so human an animal." That one's mine really, because I don't think I'm even using it right. Has the right ring to it. 

"So human an animal" is handy as we consume another batch of absolutely predictable dispatches from the Middle East. Is the media helping us sort that out? Is the media helping us draw conclusions that would at least serve our interests domestically? Shouldn't our primary aim be to take care of our own country, our own welfare? So why do we always make Israel's concerns into our concerns? 

We should realize that Israel is not even homogeneous when it comes to political matters. There are Israelis who actually feel for the Palestinians. There are Israelis who would be content giving some ground in the conflict if the trade-off would mean less conflict, more peace. 

My own judgment is that the U.S. should have grave reservations about partnering so closely, to the extent of military aid, with a religious nation-state. Well of course that's Israel. 

The hardcore conservatives lead the way in waving the flag for Israel, even if many of them actually harbor anti-Semitism. The Jews reject Jesus Christ as the savior and reject the New Testament. Headlines remind us of anti-Semitism all the time. And I'm sure it is not the political liberals of America most guilty. Ironically the political liberals are most inclined to feel sympathy for the Palestinians. But liberals are gentle and inclusive people. We'd actually like a lot of the religious barriers to come down. 

 

Wisdom from music?

We see religion as an impediment in so many areas. Isn't this the crux of what boils over in the Middle East so often? So John Lennon wrote "imagine there is no religion." But is that such a genius comment? Couldn't this cross the lips of any sentient person? Aha, songwriters can be overrated, I say with irony because I try to be one of them. 

John Lennon with Tom Snyder

A pop song that supposedly "says a lot" can really have such elementary words and phrases. Composed on their own and without music, we'd think nothing of such phrases. Songwriters know they have the power to take such simple thoughts and weave them into a product that might be timeless! Pretty clever. Look at Lennon's song "Imagine." 

IMHO the surviving Beatles are committing sacrilege by taking an old rough tape of Lennon's and "mining" it into something new. Anything with the Beatles' name attached, accompanied by the marketing machine, will be a boffo success. The guys have done this before with "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love." They continue to pick away at Lennon's carcass. 

One of the best books about the Beatles, called "Shout," was by a guy who thought Lennon was 3/4 of the talent of the Beatles. And when I talk about "the surviving Beatles," shall I assume it's just two? McCartney and Starr? Well I'm inclined to think of Pete Best too, seriously. He was the Beatles' drummer for two years, a long time by the standards of that business. I have felt very sorry for him through the years. 

The standards for drummers are very high in commercial recorded music. There is a strong theory out there that even Ringo did not perform on all the Beatles' recordings. Remember the "Wrecking Crew?" Glen Campbell? Ever hear the term "session drummer?" 

I think Pete Best fit in fine when the group was doing straight-ahead rock 'n roll in Hamburg. But a group's style can change. Best could not have cut it on "Rubber Soul." But he seems like a fine gentleman and he speaks with the same Liverpool accent as the other three did. Their voices rise at the end of a sentence. Charming. 

(fox news image)

Will the "new" Beatles song make a big splash? It's called "Now and Then." 

I remember how ABBA's "comeback" was supposed to be a really big deal. It ended in a whimper. 

Big as the Beatles once were, I really think they are relegated to yesterday's news now. Just watch: the youngest generation just does not get swept away by the old stuff. Pop music is the domain of the young. No stopping it.

 

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Our District 7 going further to the right?

Steve Boyd, GOP hopeful (lakes area radio image)

Are Republicans willing to just burn the whole house down as the price to be paid for demanding they get their own way? Republicans will need more numbers in government before they can steamroll over the rest of us. 

If they get there, should we all just say "all the more power to them?" 

I am willing to support any politician whose actions can improve my life and the lives of others around me. If Republicans lead us to this promised land of theirs, well then fine. But what is the real endgame for them? A better life for all? Or "revenge" against some of the current movements or changes in society that make them feel uncomfortable? 

To put it another way, are they insisting on a return to a Norman Rockwell type of life in the U.S. which was never manifested in reality anyway? It's a netherworld of dreams. You might say that's what MAGA is. A drive to eradicate things around us that seem new, seem alien and might seem too threatening to the norms we have come to like. 

Actually, the Roe vs. Wade decision with its precedent was a real norm. It had been ensconced in law since I graduated from high school. If you know me, you know that was a considerable time ago. A norm? We elected a president in 2016 who got to put forward three new Supreme Court members. Actually these were from a list given to the president by Mitch McConnell. 

 

Ideas vs. practice

The Federalist Society offers a number of interesting thoughts. The libertarians have always offered some interesting thoughts. If you like to sit around discussing philosophy, such points of view have appeal. I could have done this in college. But back then the far right was more like a novelty that existed in a suppositional world - worthy of attention and fascinating sometimes from the sheer standpoint of thought exercise. But to step into government and truly take its reins? To force through three Supreme Court nominees who were Federalist Society types? To have this faction enter the real mainstream with decision-making that affects all of us? 

I look at my younger self when I was in political/philosophical discussions, and can see my eyes bug out if I were told that in a distant future time the hardcore righties would roll up their sleeves and have power. They are salivating at present. They shed a Speaker of the House who had been willing to strike a deal with the other side if it meant keeping the government going. 

We in Minnesota almost had one of our own get the speaker's position. Although the prospects never really looked good for Mr. Tom Emmer. 

I'm well enough schooled on Mr. Emmer to know he would be truly bad news. But he alienated the right wingers who are now salivating over the chance to assert themselves even more. Emmer is a Minnesotan, thus he wouldn't be inclined to go so far extreme as those souls south of the Mason-Dixon Line.

Southerners are impulsive people. They act hastily and based on emotion. At present we are not ready to grapple with the consequences of so many of these people exercising real power. We just aren't. 

Part of the fault is with the media. The media is scared, I feel, to remind us all of the North/South schism going back to the catastrophic War Between the States. And why? Is the media afraid of irritating or alienating Southerners? 

I pointed out this morning in a Yahoo News comment that one media commentator - John Harwood - has been willing to come forward and state the obvious. I believe I'm paraphrasing Harwood correctly, about how he warns that the "burn the house down" zealots are largely from the states of the old Confederacy. 

And this doesn't matter to us any more? It doesn't register with the people of South Dakota, such ardent Republicans who are nevertheless so far north of the Mason-Dixon Line. 

Our state of MN has become rather schizophrenic. After all, we're the state that sent both Paul Wellstone and Michele Bachmann to Washington. Did Bachmann have to quit her Wisconsin Synod church because of the synod's position that the Pope is the antichrist? I seem to recall that. 

Today the general perception is that Democrats retain their power in MN, largely. I say "retain" because Republicans have been gaining so much ground around the USA. 

I'm not sure what has gotten into the drinking water here around Morris MN to make us so crazed in support of Republicans. If I were to go around today and make amused comments about how ridiculous Trump looks in court, how pathetic it is that this former president is in such legal trouble, I would be met with anger and dismissed as a totally non-credible citizen. No sense of humor among these folks. Are they ready to start displaying the Confederate flag? Their Republican Party now has a Speaker who is from deep within the old Confederacy. Guy is from Louisiana. This Mike Johnson got much of his propulsion to the speakership from Matt Gaetz. From where? Gaetz is from Florida. The ilk of these guys turned thumbs-down on Emmer from Minnesota. 

 

What a litmus test

Man, so Emmer was not hardcore enough for them? Are you all really ready to step aside and have the hardcores assume awesome power? Even more than when Trump was in office? We are seeing signs of this building. With Republicans not of a mind to compromise, and with so many of them having supported the overturning of the 2020 election, have you thought about where all of this might actually be leading? 

I plead with women who have young children: please think about the future of this country and the future for your children. Will it be a kind and accommodating place? Women are nurturers by nature, men are destroyers. So is that what it comes down to: if not conflict between North and South, conflict between male and female? I'm groping as I try to make sense of it all. 

Tom Emmer

Emmer voted to certify the 2020 election results. That makes him anathema in the eyes of the wild-eyed Southerners. Thank Steve Bannon as he's a ringleader. Remember the famous photo of Bannon looking so unkempt, disheveled and with very long hair hanging down? Back in the '60s if you walked around looking like that, you'd be harassed by the "hard hats." I'm old enough to remember the term along with "narcs" (for narcotics agents who wanted to arrest all the young "druggies"). 

I have pointed out repeatedly that we appear to have a true election denier as our congressperson from our District 7. She's Michelle Fischbach. She appears to not want to answer questions about her stance and her public statement on Jan. 6. I have personally tried getting a response from her. Was it prudent to stand in the way of a timely certification of the election results? Was it prudent for Congress to get in the way, even though there are legitimate legal procedures for challenging election procedures? 

I could swear my question was merely routine and rational. But no response from the congressperson. Maybe her instinctive response was just to brand me as "woke" or something like that. 

To add insult to injury, I was added to her email recipient list, so now I get stuff from her. So she's a full-fledger with the right wing? I mean, an election denier? Isn't that a good enough "cred?" Well it appears no! It now appears that Fischbach is going to be challenged from the right. Amazing! 

A new Republican hopeful from the Alexandria area is coming forward with criticism of Fischbach that is in the vein of "she's a career politician." In other words, "doing what she has to do to stay in office" (paraphrase by me). I interpret that to mean that Fischbach is sometimes a realist and must build bridges with those not as extreme. 

And Steve Boyd? I have seen articles that say he's from Kensington and others with Alexandria as his place. Boyd's statements indicate he would give no ground whatsoever. So I guess he'd be good with a government shutdown. For how long, Steve? Until the whole country collapses? Riots breaking out? For what cause? For Republicans wanting to re-shape the whole USA in Steve Bannon's image? Nothing less? Apparently so. 

Profiles of Boyd emphasize with a very heavy hand his "Christian" nature. Of course that can mean all sorts of things. I just want to say heaven help us all. I hope we can at least have a merry Christmas first. Then, batten down the hatches.

 

Addendum: Some of these MAGA types appear to place Trump above God and Jesus. Trump appears comical as he struggles in court, flails away in such a futile desperate way. Yet he had the power to push this Mike Johnson through to Speaker. Louisiana values. The Deep South. Is that us? Can we come to our senses?

Oh! My podcast

I talk about the Gophers' 12-10 football win over Iowa on my "morris mojo" podcast. The link:

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/brian1610/episodes/Gophers-defeat-Iowa-12-10-e2av0fa 

 

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Fall gives us the "sweet spot" with weather

MEA week falls at a time of year that can be most pleasant: no more onslaught of summer heat, no onslaught of snow yet. The photo shows my late parents, Ralph and Martha Williams, enjoying our yard along Northridge Drive in Morris. They appear to be enjoying the leaf-raking! Is leaf-raking really essential to do? Can't we just mulch the leaves with our mowers in spring? Well, many people get into the fall ritual of raking. It appears we are done with our lawn mowing for the season. Dad died in 2013 and Mom in 2018. Both lived into their 90s. We'll see if yours truly can be so fortunate. MEA weekend comes just before the high school football playoffs. I hear the Tigers will be playing on Tuesday. We're coming off a big win over Fergus Falls. It is Sunday. How much has our Stevens County Times newspaper shared about the Fergus Falls game? I mean, on their website. Better check and see. So much to write about. The Times makes money putting out its product. I would thus hope they are incentivized to report in a colorful and timely way on the win. I certainly try to do that in my personal blogging. I get no financial reward.

 

So it's MEA weekend. The annual MEA week football game makes it clear what is coming up: the long weekend for the kids with no school. When I was young, any day with "no school" was occasion for clicking your heels. It was total time off. It's pretty obvious that school was more difficult, more arduous in those days. 

As the years passed, I began to gather that a new approach was taking over. No longer was it so automatic that kids would "hate school." It sure wasn't a given like in my young days. 

Would seem to make sense: we only live once so why inflict suffering? Because kids have to learn? Learning is always an ideal. The big difference today is that kids have natural incentive to learn, at least where basic literacy is concerned. They can hardly begin to harness the electronic media soon enough. They are eager to communicate with friends and share their thoughts with the world. They learn keyboard typing skills. No need for a teacher lording over you. 

What I'm suggesting is that it is not a chore. "Learning" of any kind seemed a total chore when I was growing up. 

Sometimes we'd hear out and about that kids "want to learn." No, not really. The statement was like a cliche. An ideal, yes, but not with real world truth. I think we all knew that. Kids were not natural self-starters. Today the activity with communications can get so intense, we have "screen addiction." What does that tell you? Kids really "want to learn" where communications are concerned, maybe to a fault. 

Maybe you want to dismiss social media as so much foolishness. I smile as I weigh that, as I remember what comic books meant for me. Many people and certainly "academia" put down comic books as little more than garbage. 

I consumed other material on my own that wasn't so much different, e.g. Mad Magazine, Hardy Boys and Tom Swift stories. Such fare was not in classrooms. I had a college professor who dismissed the Hardy Boys series - well of course this individual would, because it was outside of the world where teachers held forth. Thusly such people dissed the "Sylvan Learning System" because it was outside the standard realm where the teachers wanted as much of a monopoly as they could get. 

Power and money: pretty simple to grasp. 

I loved comic books, TV network entertainment programs, Mad Magazine and books that were outside of school. Literacy? The fare I just cited advanced my grasp of literacy far more than anything in the classroom. Comic books were so stimulating because of the tremendous imagination they reflected. Reading these were like liberation from the droll classroom. 

There is no stopping social media for the kids today. Go back in time and use the term "social media" - it would have meant nothing. Imagine living without all the digital blessings of today. Well we did. We got by. Kids hated school. If there was a "snow day," we could just relax with idle time at home. And of course watch TV. 

 

In defense of TV

Why were we made to feel so guilty if we just watched TV? After about eight hours in a school building, couldn't a kid just be excused for watching a little entertainment television? Looking back, I feel hurt by how we were made to feel it was pointless. It was entertainment. So what? Kids worked plenty hard in school anyway. 

There should have been a law against "homework." Why did teachers find it so important to foist that on us? Was it about power? Was it about teachers wanting to virtually command our lives? Did the controlling impulse come from teachers not wanting us to advance ourselves by using means outside of school? So teachers could proclaim how indispensable they were? Helpful for turning the screws on the community in the next contract negotiations? 

If teachers wanted that kind of power, maybe it worked for a time, but then the digital world made its steady advancement and it became clear, like it or not, we were not going to be so dependent on professional teachers. 

You hear the comment today that teachers have become more like caretakers for the kids. Get the kids through the day, try to make sure they stay out of trouble. The basic goal is just advancement toward maturity. 

Today the kids are guided toward real idyllic objectives. And that's super, but it contrasts with when I was young and the boys had to fear getting drafted and sent to a foreign war. Specifically Vietnam, although such ventures came and went through the years. Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan to cite three targets. Made it hard to develop a real idealistic sense, a sense of belief in your authority figures, the people who approved of war measures (without having to go over and fight themselves of course). 

Today's young parents - bless them - cannot grasp what it would be like for their kids to be at risk of being drafted and sent to "fight" someone. And to quite possibly die. It isn't in the cards. 

Our more recent military adventures were with volunteer military. Or in the case of Iraq, National Guardsmen? Wasn't that a surprise? All the money we spend on the military and its bloated bureaucracy, and then we send National Guard units into foreign conflict? I could never wrap my arms around that one. This community lost David Day. 

We fight wars now just with money? Like the $100 billion we may be about to spend to aid Israel? To hell with that. Oh, does that make me anti-Semitic? Aren't we all just tired to hell of the Israel thing? Would that it would just go away.

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Dazzling Huebner-to-Asmus pass in 21-12 win

The Tigers accomplished a record over .500 in the regular season with the Wednesday night football win. Action was at Big Cat. I was present for a portion. I was there to see Drew Huebner lead Riley Asmus perfectly on a TD pass. Beautiful thing to watch. At first I thought maybe the pass was overthrown. Asmus caught up to it in stride. Touchdown! 

Thrilling to see in this 21-12 win over the Fergus Falls Otters. The success put us at 5-3. We are 4-3 in conference, 3-2 in section. We're actually doing better in road games than home! 3-1 as road warriors, 2-2 at Big Cat. We are certainly getting nice fan turnouts at the local facility. Each home game is like a spectacle, the most impressive spectacle you will see in Stevens County. 

Unfortunately I find I barely recognize anyone any more. The MACA upperclassmen were born at the time I left the Morris newspaper. They have no knowledge of how I once "roamed" on behalf of the Morris paper. The years have really rolled by. I knew when I left the paper it would be a big adjustment process. I knew things would never be the same. And they haven't been. 

My role at the paper was the only really defining role I have had in my life. It disappeared overnight. Still I try to persevere. 

People check the web to get their news in our contemporary age. So what's available on this Thursday morning as we deal with fog and wet conditions in Morris? The Fergus Falls Daily Journal has coverage posted. But it is behind a very tight paywall. So you'd have to buy a subscription to the Fergus Falls newspaper. Who here would want to do that? So we must cross that off. 

The odds are slim of finding coverage anymore on the West Central Tribune site. No, there is nothing there today on the Tigers' Wednesday win. There is nice thorough coverage of the Minnewaska Area game. The WC Trib has a paywall but I know how to get around it. I will repeat that if MACA coaches were to call in there, the calls would be accepted and notes taken. Maybe something to consider.

"Craig Olson Sports"

Oh, here's a nice resource, today at least: It's the old "Craig Olson Sports" site, good for getting details beyond just the cursory score and stuff. Nice to see players' names. I have barely typed any MACA volleyball players' names this fall - unfortunate. 

"Craig Olson Sports" reports that MACA built a 21-6 lead for halftime. This article does the same as what "Minnesota Scores" does all the time: reports that our home games are on the UMM campus. As if we're playing on the UMM facility. That is not technically true, in other words it is not true: Big Cat is a joint venture with the U and the public school, right? It just "feels" like we're on the college campus. 

Fergus Falls finishes its regular season with a 2-6 mark. 

I can trumpet here that Owen Anderson had a monster game rushing. Owen rolled up 193 yards on 32 carries. Our team total in rushing was 257, a big portion of our 292 total yards. So the thrilling TD pass Huebner-to-Asmus was the exception to the rule. It sure worked! 

The Tigers got up 8-0 on a one-yard Anderson run. Huebner carried the ball into the end zone on the conversion. Fergus Falls struck with the pass to get on the scoreboard. Isaiah Holmes made the throw, Levi King the catch. It was a 21-yard connection. Huebner outdid that with his 34-yard "rainbow" TD pass that had pinpoint accuracy to Asmus. The play capped a drive of 77 yards. 

The Tigers went up 21-6 for halftime on a five-yard carry of the football by Huebner. We kicked for the extra point. The Otters scored in the fourth quarter on a nine-yard pass: Henry Bethel to King. 

Holmes and Bethel combined for ten pass completions. Fergus Falls had a rather anemic offense, or let's say that our defense was awesome! The Otters were limited to 89 rushing yards. They threw for 116. Griffin Babolian gained 45 yards on 13 carries for the visitor. 

The fan turnout at Big Cat was a little more than yours truly expected, especially for a mid-week game. We are deep into the fall when weather will not be as pleasant or accommodating. So the Tiger spirit is high! Thoughts will now get laser-focused on post-season play. Who knows how the Tigers will fare?

 

MACA volleyball struggles

Tiger volleyball has not had the same upbeat tone. That's the way it goes sometimes. The Tigers closed out the regular season with a loss by sweep, leaving our W/L at 8-15. We are 5-9 in conference. We played Tuesday at Minnewaska Area where the host Lakers ruled. Can the Tigers maybe surprise in the post-season? That's the hope now. I'm not really betting on it. But hope. 

The game scores from the Tuesday match are on the West Central Tribune site. The host Lakers entertained their fans to success 25-15, 25-22 and 25-17. 

I see "stats not available" for MACA. Again, please consider just calling in, someone. Our radio station website has nothing and since Brett Miller left, I have little faith in that site now. I don't want to sound harsh but the person who types stuff there now will not be a good resource - it will be cursory at best, in other words lots of "scores" and not a lot else. 

Let's give some credit to the Minnewaska Area individuals. Haillie Schulz batted two ace serves across the net. Avery Fier, Brooklyn Meyer and Dreya Barsness each had one ace serve. Haley Shea and Schulz shared the load in setting with 20 and 17 assists respectively. 'Waska had three big guns in hitting led by Barsness with 14 kills. Fier slammed 12 and Dacia Fleury eleven. Miaya Guggisberg had an ace block. In digs we see Fier with eleven, Shea with nine and Emma Poege with seven. 

Minnewaska football had a good night Wednesday with its 28-6 win over Melrose. Action was at Melrose. But 'Waska has taken some lumps this season, now with a 2-6 record.

 

Other media

Is it worth even checking the Morris newspaper website? It's an affront that they have the site all set up to report current news and sports. A check of sports reveals links to items that are almost 100 percent UMM. Is that the only sports we care about here? Is the newspaper ownership that tone-deaf? 

The Morris paper only publishes once a week. That creates an unforgivable timeliness problem. I know of a former highly-regarded MAHS school administrator who would get emotionally mad on these issues. We published twice a week. Again, gave us a far bigger advantage for staying on top of sports. It is basically hopeless now unless the paper were to start getting ambitious with its website, which it should. Those people won't listen to me. Maybe some others should step up? 

I say all this in a week when the "Stevens County Times" really stepped in it with its hostility toward the elected community leaders of Donnelly. Is there a backstory there? What on earth is so important about what the Donnelly city council would be doing anyway? This isn't Watergate. I would expect that the biggest issue over there might be someone's dog barking too late at night. 

I say this in a spirit of compliment toward Donnelly: it is a quiet and safe community. Compare that to the big cities now. 

Why on earth did a certain Morris newspaper writer get such a bee in her bonnet? Defies understanding. And then the paper uses its power to try to put Donnelly on the spot. IMHO that's an abuse of power. 

You know the old saying about how "when you point fingers. . ." Yes, some could be pointing back. So let's ask more questions of the paper and how it shows such an uncaring attitude about MACA sports on its website. The website has the power to provide really timely coverage. In this week when the game was played Wednesday, that would be so nice to see. 

And the paper has someone paid to write sports? That person should just sit down today and "riff" something about the game for a web article. No, instead it's me doing it. And I do not get paid. 

And I wish I could type the names of MACA volleyball players more often.

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com