A more uplifting world toward learning

School should be a place for smiles. Mary Holmberg, at bottom-right, instills this here in Morris.
 
One of the syndicated comic strips I try to catch is "F Minus" by Tony Carrillo. The characters are so deadpan in how they behave. The humor seems like an acquired taste. "F Minus" is a play on our traditional school grading system in America. It is a system designed to browbeat you into fear. Don't you all remember?
There does appear to be liberation now. Aren't you struck by the extended length of the school honor roll lists now? There is an impulse among many my age to shake our heads about this. We are the new grumps, following in the footsteps of our forebears who talked about how far they walked to school every day. Through blizzards etc. Which reminds me of one of the most famous "Guindon" cartoons of his Star Tribune era. It showed some bundled-up kids walking to school on a blustery, unpleasant winter day. The kids were walking to school "backwards" so as to avoid the stinging wind! Totally Minnesotan.
My generation grew up looking forward to any "snow day" when school might be canceled. The Morris radio station had a song queued up and ready for playing right after the "no school" announcement. The song began "that's what happiness is." Why such a grim tone for school in past times? I have come to realize that kids today do not have the same aversion to the classroom. They seem to look forward to many aspects of school.
Isn't it counter-intuitive to think that kids should "hate" school? Think of all the hours kids spend in school from age 6 through 17 or 18. And after that, there is a strong belief that kids ought to attend college to spend even more time sitting in desks, being submissive to teachers.
It is in our interest here in Morris to keep this model going because we have our University of Minnesota-Morris. I'm only speculating here, but I think UMM classes are not as "hard" as they once were. This is not to say they aren't rewarding and fulfilling in genuine ways. A retired UMM administrator told me that the school had an issue with too many courses where too many books were assigned to read. Speculating further, I think this is not an issue or problem now. I think our educational philosophy has evolved as reflected in those swelled honor roll lists in high school. We no longer crack the whips with kids in classes. We want them to be there and to feel idealism about being there.
 
Re. the very mode of learning
Books? Aren't they largely a vestigial part of the pre-digital times anyway? You can learn without plunging through endless pages of books. We are realizing that the book publishing business was rather a racket where material was padded for reasons of marketing the product. Have you noticed how much more effective the presentation is on Wikipedia? No padding. Cut to the chase and separate out the chaff, the padding. Wikipedia and the Internet in general gets from point A to point B efficiently which is just what consumers want.
We take for granted now that everything on the Internet is free. The attempts at monetization strike me as negligible and impotent - you can always find what you're looking for. It's quaint to think of the days when people often said "you can't trust the Internet." Going back to its very early times, it had a mysterious and swampy quality as conspiracy theorists learned the ropes quickly to get established there. Yes, quaint, because today the "meritocracy" which is a foundation of the Internet guides us quite effectively.
The book publishing industry and traditional authors who make money off books might still scream about how you can't replace their product. It's a fool's errand. I used to value "Book TV" (C-Span2) because of the lectures you'd find on so many topics of interest. But today, you can use search within YouTube and find a lecture, multiple lectures in fact, on any topic within seconds. Battle of Midway? There's a bonanza of information there. And as with Wikipedia, the information is in such a straightforward way, efficient and uncluttered without the pretense of your traditional "book." The notion that the Internet is somehow "lowbrow" is being dismissed every day. We want knowledge in a form where we can simply use it.
The books we remember from school seemed designed to bore us and rather torture us. This reflected school's purpose in getting us ready for the work world of the industrial age. That work world was going to be devoid of fun or enrichment in many ways. That work world was not going to allow you to feel good about yourself very often. That was the world that induced us into seeking escape on weekends by consuming alcohol.

Students at our beloved UMM campus, Morris MN

Hasn't UMM been buying out older teachers to nudge them into retirement? If true, I think it's because a lot of the older teachers are not equipped to deal with the profound nature of the change in approach. It is clearly a more user-friendly, less draconian approach, not one in which kids might shudder looking at the syllabus and reading list. Those multiple books which you'd locate at the campus bookstore just before the start of the semester.
Put bluntly, I don't think college is "hard" in the way it once was, not to say (at all) that college lacks value. We're just in a new world.
The traditional professors were guiding young people into a world defined by the industrial age. Businesses did not bestow self-esteem very much. Because people felt some de-humanization in the workplace, schools reflected that with the grading system that instilled fear.
The new lengthy honor roll list at our Morris public school shows we have liberated kids from the old model. I smile as I wonder: How were all the teachers coached by administration on profoundly adjusting their approach, facilitating the new emphasis on success and optimism as opposed to the opposite qualities (the qualities I once lived with)?
 
A reaction of denial, disbelief?
I suspect some of the old college teachers are incredulous, perhaps even defying some of the new directives. They were brainwashed by the notion that a certain percentage of young people in their classes had to get a disappointing grade. It was pre-ordained. My goodness, our history includes the "curve" grading system! A certain percentage of kids literally had to fail! Heavens. Maybe this is the way the old industrial age treated human beings. In our new age of entrepreneurship and opportunity, this is not our attitude at all.
As with all profound changes, I'm sure there are many teachers who cannot adjust adequately. Many will be paid off to retire or go out to pasture. We certainly are generous about this, more generous than people put on the scrap heap in the private sector, n'est-ce pas?
 
Personal memories
I remember when a couple of us were on the verge of failing a class in about the ninth grade - most likely it was algebra - and our parents were contacted about how we might be kicked off the play cast. I guess we got through, but what an unnecessary source of anxiety for our parents. My friend and I meant no harm to anyone. But school had a dreary air in which we were forced to flirt with failure often.
I received a nice red "F" grade - yes, rendered with a red pen lest it not be noticed - in the final grading period of my high school life from Gene Mechelke, from whom I was proud to get an "F" grade, but I feel bad because once again, I'm sure it distressed my parents. Let me state emphatically: it was far more important at age 17 to go out and show I could hold a job, any kind of job, and master life skills, than to do well in some totally irrelevant pretentious class offered by Mr. Blowhard.
Years later I would be told by Diane Kratz that Mechelke "was in trouble a lot" as a teacher. Nothing ever got done about "problems" back then. The supt. just shined a chair with his rear end. It was in the mid-1980s when the public started pushing back against the educational bureaucracy and its stupid, draconian, self-serving ways. All such changes take time. I think today the environment is so much better.
I wish Mechelke had given me an F Minus!
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Trump defensiveness and "Mr. Cemetery Chimes"

(Jim Carrey painting)

Where to find escape from the dreary and continuous Trump-related news? BBC World News might be a consideration. But now, the embarrassing avalanche of Trump-related revelations is on the world stage. It is with exasperation that sensible people, people in possession of a normal moral compass, deal with this.
We expect a tipping point like in the closing stages of Watergate. Richard Nixon was a corrupt politician. Or, he was a burned-out politician who retreated into a paranoid world of self-preservation. But Richard Nixon was always a politician with good enough instincts to realize when the jig was up. He then left, got a pardon from a fellow Republican and had a pretty dignified lifestyle, writing books etc. Gerald Ford said Nixon was "a sick man" at the time his presidency wound down. But RN was not too sick to end up writing books. Maybe he was temporarily insane and he recovered from this upon getting the pardon.
We might feel heartened if Trump had the true background of a politician, having come up through the ranks. It would even help if Trump had been in the military. The discipline would have helped him. He would have gotten lessons in humility. Trump is now like a petulant child who has gotten accustomed to getting his way. He flails forward, getting enough continued support from the usual places, so much that we are forced to conclude that Trump can do nothing wrong in the eyes of the sycophantic base.
Nixon never had a base of support like this. Consider the recent letters to the editor in our Morris MN newspaper. We have had one of those pissing matches recently, one in which the participants don't realize that nothing is ever solved in the letters section. Jim Morrison once said the letters section is just for "people with an ax to grind." Mr. Cemetery Chimes wrote a letter in which he seemed convinced that there was indeed media bias against Donald Trump. He seemed to suggest that any coverage of Manafort should not even mention Trump and that if it did, it was legitimate cause for Trump to get upset. We all know what Trump says when he thinks the media (not a monolithic entity) are unfair against him. He says the media are "the enemy of the people."
Mr. Cemetery Chimes bragged about his own education as if this would buttress both him and Trump from criticism. The "code" here is that "I'm a big Trump supporter and we need to let him carry out anything he wants, because he can make America great again." I have my own interpretation of the sub-text here: We had eight years of a president popularly described as "African American," never mind that he could be described with equal accuracy as white or Caucasian (or whatever) based on his mother's side. It is dated to even characterize in such racial terms.
The paranoid crowd fears that Obama represented a movement to simply re-distribute assets more because of a racist perception that non-white people want more charity from government, more "free stuff" as it were. We do in fact have re-distributionist ideas in government - that is why we have Social Security and Medicare. Other developed countries around the world have sensible health care systems based on the idea that we're all entitled to adequate and humane health care. The U.S. is increasingly looking like an outlier. All advanced industrial nations are a combination of free market enterprise and socialism. Yes, socialism. The day is coming when we would appreciate our government getting more involved in long-term care to relieve the anxiety of families with aging and infirm members. Families should not be unduly burdened by this.
The Trump supporters of today relish an unquestionably "white" man thumping his chest and speaking in the kind of "code" they salivate over.
  
A rebuttal that didn't need a response
There was a very well-written and respectful rebuttal written to the letter from Mr. Cemetery Chimes. The rebuttal seemed to bend over backward to be respectful and even complimentary toward the guy. In the back of my mind, I knew that Mr. Cemetery Chimes might still return fire. I remember that at the height of the cemetery chimes controversy, when there was an extended series of "pissing match" letters in our Morris paper, Jim Morrison got exasperated one day about Mr. Cemetery Chimes and said: "I wish he would just shut up."
So, Mr. Cemetery Chimes had a response to Mr. Lackey, but if it was intended as "return fire" he was just firing blanks. I was astonished at what a non-response this really was. All he did was re-iterate his journalism education and how he just knew bias when he saw it.
The Trump supporters know no humility. We cannot assume this ends well with Trump's resignation as with Nixon. Trump may attempt to "deflect" as he so often does, and this time with an action that would throw the world into crisis and even cause deaths, maybe on a mass scale. As a result of Trump's relationship with porn stars? I guess that would prove Republicans right on how pornography is evil, n'est-ce pas?
Do you think the German people are inherently evil? So what happened to them as they devolved in the 1930s? We are in a genuinely scary time now in the U.S.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Morris & UMM aim for rebound from sleepy summer

Refurbished Edson Auditorium to honor Morrison family further

We're on the doorstep of fall, a season that begins rather like a whiff of smelling salts in this community. Summer here never seemed as quiet as it did in 2018. It wasn't just me feeling this. Prairie Pioneer Days drooped to the point where it appears it will never again be held in summer. PPD has been like a marker for us. It's the midsummer marker in this community. We jump from that to the county fair and then we anticipate fall with its expected signs of renewed life for our community.
We breathe a sigh of relief as normalcy returns for ol' Motown. Our regular friends are more likely to be around. First Lutheran Church used to have one Sunday service in summer before going back to two for fall. The smelling salts worked! But the church retreated, just as PPD has done, and now it has one service year-round. Can we always count on the flower to bloom with the start of fall, that our adrenalin will pump a little more?
We saw the start of Cougar football as an exciting sign of vitality. But then the news reports built up showing we should all turn our backs on football, based on what happens to the players out there. Any sensible person would behave accordingly. If fans stop coming to the games, there will be no more football. Football's last bastion will probably be the U.S. Southeast. We still have high school football.
"Friday Facts" told us about the upcoming "welcome picnic." What I find curious is that this display notice does not mention UMM. It merely announces the "welcome picnic" to be held at East Side Park. (Or is it "Eastside Park?" Both spellings are used.) Down below we read that the purpose is to welcome "new members to our community." We can surmise that the thrust of this is for UMM. Maybe it's a broader celebration of Morris getting back to normal with the many "lake people" now more likely to be around town. Maybe this is the reason why Prairie Pioneer Days is moving to fall next year. Years ago I would have been flabbergasted if anyone told me this was going to happen. PPD was brimming with vitality at one time. Seems to me the early-fall picnic was once actually billed as a "welcome UMM" event, but at age 63 my mind may not be as reliable recalling things.
 
A meal and maybe a performance?
"Friday Facts" says there's a free meal set for the August 27 picnic, from 5 to 7:30 p.m. There's a good chance we'll see the Killoran stage being used by someone. I have lately indicted the decision to even have the stage built. A picnic performance would be a rare example of how it can be used. But if the sun's out, don't look for many people sitting close to the stage. The stage should not have been built unless there was a comprehensive plan to ensure that performances would be enjoyable for all.

The Killoran stage, normally a quiet place

The Killoran stage has something in common with the cemetery chimes that caused a ruckus in this town. City planners would never have envisioned either of these things on their own. These things came into being because of someone wanting to donate them. Such donations are not as clear-cut as they might seem. I once read an op-ed that advised us to be careful about accepting new donated facilities on college campuses, for example an art gallery. The writer actually said "something superfluous like an art gallery." Sorry. Seems like a beneficial thing. However, these facilities require maintenance which can have an appreciable pricetag. I saw a construction crew at the Killoran thing not long ago. New shingles? I'm not sure but it was an appreciable task. The original donors rarely if ever provide money for maintenance. Assuming the city pays for this, is it justified for a structure like the Killoran stage that obviously gets so little use? I present a rhetorical question.
Maintenance wasn't a cost issue with the cemetery chimes but hoo boy, there were other issues. I feel sorry for everyone who had to live close to those things. It was an unnecessary and divisive controversy. Does anyone really miss them? Can you imagine those chimes still there with the big new apartment units right next to the cemetery? I don't know if Ted Storck was forced to remove his chimes. Or, if he was induced by substantial pressure. I was once told he initially offered to donate the chimes to UMM and UMM said "no." Installing them at the cemetery amounted to the same thing.
Mr. Storck feels that news articles about the Manafort trial should not mention Donald Trump. Storck is part of that segment of the U.S. population mesmerized as if so many zombies by Trump.
 
Another unfortunate scheduling conflict
There is a problem with the August 27 date for the welcome picnic - OK let's call it the "welcome UMM" picnic. It's on the same night as the Hope and Healing picnic presented by the funeral home at Pomme de Terre City Park. How do we end up with these schedule conflicts in Morris? Horticulture Night was on the same night as the Irondale marching band's fabulous exhibition at Big Cat Stadium.
I have been to the Hope and Healing picnic once before, after the death of my father. This year unfortunately I'm invited again. My mom died on April 24. I'd like to attend the welcome picnic because of my ties to UMM, but Hope and Healing has to take priority, surely. Each deceased person has a family member say a few words. I'm concerned because there's a good chance I'll choke up right away. After Dad died, I managed to get a few words out. I struggled when trying to speak on behalf of my late aunt Viola at the Glenwood nursing home once.
We will release balloons in honor of our departed loved ones.
 
Dedication event set at UMM
Another event I have on my calendar is for September 21 at UMM. This is the dedication for something new on campus, although I'm not exactly sure what it involves. I do know its name. It's another facility, in addition to the art gallery (not superfluous) that will have the Morrison name. It's in the building where we find Edson Auditorium. Edson Auditorium will apparently retain its name. That name represents a connection to UMM's WCSA past. The Morrison name will adorn something called a "performing arts center" at that building. I scratch my head though.

Liz (left) and Helen Jane Morrison

How is the Morrison facility to be differentiated from Edson Auditorium? The auditorium, as the place is now configured, has non-arts things around it. We have the cafe, we have Oyate and we have a student lounge. What exactly will be encompassed in the performing arts center? I'd appreciate some edification. (I remember being on the sidelines at Ithaca NY next to a UMM football parent who had a camera, and he said he was just taking pictures for his own "edification.")
I hate to have my cynical impulses rewarded on this. I'm wondering if the whole thing is rather nebulous and being put forward mainly to get more exposure for a name that is associated with money being donated to UMM.
I first heard about the Edson Hall project from someone who said the money was coming from an anonymous donor. Was the anonymity cancelled? I have to wonder if we might be getting a little overkill with the Morrison name at UMM. No disrespect intended obviously.
 
What could have been
Once I got the news about the Morrisons, I emailed Jim Morrison to tell him that had I known about the Edson project from the outset, I might have tried to outbid his family. Ha ha. Nice joke, eh? Oh, but I wasn't kidding, I really wasn't. My father directed concerts at Edson before the HFA was built. He was the only music faculty in UMM's historic first year. He did more than his contract called for - don't tell the union. The historic UMM men's chorus presented unforgettable concerts at Edson and put out a record album.
I have told people that had I purchased naming rights, I might do something unconventional. I might actually suggest calling the place "Williams/Johnson" because those were the two early mainstays in UMM music. The Johnson family would have to approve their name being second. My father would not be ecstatic about this because I think some of the typical professional friction or rivalry between the two existed. It's all over academia. My sense on the issue is political and about what is proper, something instilled in me through years in journalism which puts you at a realistic and even cynical plane. Jim Morrison would understand as he and I were journalistic colleagues for a long time.
Well congratulations Jim and to Helen Jane - you'll get well-deserved increased visibility now. The Morrisons were in the group of community people who were vigilant in ensuring that UMM would sprout. And then my dad and others came here to make the launch reality. And I was just a little kid who most people thought wasn't supervised well enough. I remember "Charlie the cop" on campus with his neighborly demeanor. Quaint, in contrast with the totally "by the book" campus security of today. I know what motivates that: our litigious society. Back in 1961 we were more like Mayberry.
I remember the snow sculptures on the campus mall in winter. The mall was flat then, so we could enjoy the hippies flying kites on the mall in spring - the most surefire sign of spring! I watched basketball games at the P.E. Annex. I sat in on a Vietnam protest "moratorium" at Edson.
I know a lot about UMM for never having attended there. And that's a curse I will always carry, that I didn't attend UMM. I suppose there are some psychological reasons. Frankly I would have had trouble with math/science requirements. I'm proud to say I played with the UMM band back in '68 or '69, as a "ringer" from the public school. That technically makes me a UMM band alum. I was in the band for graduation. My life became less happy after that, sorry. Well, you all have your own problems.
 
Man, will I look proper?
The invitation to the dedication of the Morrison thing, whatever it is, says we should dress in "cocktail attire." (Expletive) didn't they realize that alcohol-motivated behavior and language are archaic? I don't drink so I don't really know where they're coming from. A hillbilly like me has to be careful attending an event like this.
A program is set for 3 p.m. on September 21. We will hear the Morrisons extolled again. Ed Morrison has departed for that big newspaper office in the sky. We'll honor Helen Jane and Jim.
At the dedication of the art gallery (not superfluous), I think I was the only Sun-Tribune person there outside of the Morrisons themselves. I was proud to have that distinction.
We indeed are on the threshold of a brand spanking new academic year. An informed source tells me there is cause for worry about the expected UMM enrollment. Between 1400 and 1500? Man, I remember when the goal was 2000 and I think we at least flirted with that. The overall question is: Will Morris resume its normal level of activity for fall, to rebound from the always-sleepy summertime? That's the theme of this post, folks. Smelling salts at the ready.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

I should have gone to church all along

How do you like your church organist? The gag photo shows some settings an organist might actually wish were on the organ.
 
The Sunday school teachers at First Lutheran Church did yeoman's work when my generation was growing up. Take a look along the upstairs hallway wall at the church: rows of confirmation photos. Confirmation was such a big deal in my Norwegian background. Churches in Norway have a formal responsibility of keeping family records. Because of this, my friend Truman Carlson has been able to put together a spellbinding family tree for his late wife Edna.
I call Truman "friend" but when I was in high school, he was "teacher," someone ranking higher than me. I played in band with his kids Dave (trombone) and Cathy (clarinet).
I have sorted through items in our basement since the recent passing of my mom. It was bittersweet to come across a First Lutheran Church directory from the 1990s. It's wonderful to have that family record of my parents' involvement and devotion to the church. The bitter part was that I wasn't in the photo. A typical Sunday morning would find me at the Sun Tribune "shop." For many years we at the paper were obligated to get the "box" with the layout pages to Quinco Press in Lowry by around 3 p.m. Sunday. I remember that in the first stage of my career, we didn't send the box off until about 2 p.m. Monday. Either way I'd be working Sunday morning because, well, I just had to.
And however much work I did, elements around Stevens County would be prodding me to do more. Naturally I wish I could have just taken the time to go to church. And not only that, to be relaxed and worry-free as I went to church. Was I choosing not to attend because of some frenzied commitment to the paper? I may have tried to convince myself of that.
Years ago, an adult living with parents would be forced on the defensive. I'm convinced that Dan Rassier, the long-time "person of interest" in the Wetterling case, was abused by the system because of how he was living with parents. It made him seem abnormal.
 
Leave people alone
Today there is a feeling consistent with "political correctness," that we do not judge people by lifestyle choice. We judge them by their actions and how they perform on the job. I had a co-worker in management who verbally abused me. This person eventually demonstrated she was not sin-free herself.
You have probably seen news reports about how multi-generation families have become more common. Millennials are receptive to staying with parents and parents are probably glad to have them. Part of this decision has been forced by economics, i.e. how much more practical it is for family members to share their life experience. It is a huge blessing from the standpoint of adult children being handy to assist aging parents when those parents have the inevitable issues relating to age. Age catches up to everyone. It usually starts in subtle ways. Death eventually comes to us all. My parents died at ages 96 and 93 in our beloved home on Northridge Drive, Morris.
It took some time after leaving the newspaper before I really felt comfortable going to church with them. I was afraid of the old skepticism that would probably be directed at me. Oh hell, there would be skepticism directed at me regardless, if not for one thing, then something else. Mary Ann Scharf, who I always thought had a caustic way of expressing herself, said to me one day in the fellowship hall: "I see you inherited a nice suit coat." Scharf had a personality that I thought was inconsistent with working in Extension. I saw her as highly political and opinionated. I don't sense any of this nature with the Extension people of today: they are soft-spoken, polite and professional. The suit coat I was wearing was sent down with my father in his grave. It was burgundy colored. Who gives a flying f--k what kind of suit coat I was wearing at church, or if I was wearing a suit coat at all? Some men come to church dressing absolutely grubby today.
 
And merry Christmas too
One year I was with my parents at the Christmas Day lunch at First Lutheran. The dessert is cookies which are placed on large plates on the tables. I availed myself of a cookie or two before going up for the main course. A person walked in who had clergy credentials. Seeing me, she said loudly so half the room could hear, "didn't your mother teach you not to eat dessert first?" Obviously it was an abusive taunt, and I am always a member of the "clean plate club" no matter the sequence I choose for consuming my food. Can't I even attend the Christmas Day lunch as a family member at my childhood church?

First Lutheran Church, Morris MN (my photo)

Rassier is awaiting the outcome of a lawsuit, with teeth, he has filed. Incidentally the two of us played trumpet together for a short time at St. Cloud State University.
As a child I had close Catholic friends. I found them to be more personable than the Lutheran kids generally. I joined several of the Cruzes for a bike ride around Morris on the Thursday of the 2018 Stevens County Fair. The Cruzes taught me Catholic bingo when I was a kid. Our friendship is unconditional. Greg Cruze had his photo taken with the cardboard cutout of Pope Francis in the commercial exhibits building. I love Pope Francis because of his progressive political stances.
Did you know that the Wisconsin Synod of the Lutheran Church considers the Pope to be the Antichrist? The Wisconsin Synod is represented in Morris by St. Paul's Lutheran and its articulate pastor Donald Main, who I love. We doubt he would want to be confronted with a question about his synod's attitude toward the Catholic Church. He would equivocate, I strongly suggest, and express love for everyone. At least I think so. It's tough to argue religion.
St. Paul's Lutheran is the church of our grocery store family, the Martins. The Martins too are people-lovers - wait a minute, that's the slogan of their store. I smile as I remember a letter writer who once asserted that "home of the people lovers" is a slogan you'd expect for a grocery store in San Francisco!
I am happy going to church now. I tell people that even if they aren't thrilled going to church, just do it - make it a habit. It's a weekly home base for renewal and reflection. Obviously I wish I had done it all along. Jim Morrison would demur.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Gophers with P.J. Fleck do not justify enthusiasm

(image from The Daily Gopher)

We love the University of Minnesota but how much interest should we feel in football? I would argue we need to retreat from the sport. But to the extent that happens at all - and it's questionable - it looks to be a slow process. It is depressing because we judge all those players and coaches based on their ability to "win." And then we feel a rush if they do, as if we are vicariously participating in the success. Maybe it's an elixir that helps us crawl into each new week of our pedestrian lives with a somewhat more upbeat air.
There is no rational grounds for feeling this way, obviously. We fall for the hype or marketing too much. So, the Gophers were just one win away from a bowl last year? One more win might have vaulted us into a bowl, I suppose, but it would be a non-prestige bowl. And, bowls have proliferated to the point where losing teams are going to start to crawl in, if they haven't already. Didn't Tracy Claeys win a bottom-tier bowl game at the end of his tenure here?
Claeys was arguably a good coach but was bumbling on a discipline matter. Coaches are a highly disposable commodity, so the fans here said "happy trails" to Mr. Claeys and then welcomed the pure PR variety of coach, this Fleck fellow. Fleck had a total honeymoon campaign in 2017. I am amazed at how our fandom in our far north state has fallen for the hype of late. "One win away from a bowl game." Technically true of course.
Are people clueless of how we have padded our schedule to get some absolutely guaranteed wins against non-conference opponents? In fact, didn't we pay off North Carolina a couple years ago - to the tune of $800,000, was it? - to get them off our schedule because maybe it would not be a guaranteed win? North Carolina football is not to be confused with North Carolina basketball. It was Tim Brewster who orchestrated getting North Carolina on our schedule. Jerry Kill would have none of that.
I feel sorry for Brewster because he was not ready for a Big 10 head coaching job. Wasn't he previously the tight ends coach for the Denver Broncos? A former UMM coach (i.e. small-time in the scheme of things) was tight ends coach for the Seattle Seahawks. Nothing against these guys, but it's a jungle out there. Division I college football is more Darwinian than ever. Look at what is playing out at Ohio State University now. Urban Meyer, the quintessential contemporary Division I coach, is under siege there in circumstances that are being well-reported. Perhaps the assistant coach who is believed to have beaten his wife has brain issues due to his background in football. The same has been suggested in connection to the notorious Sandusky thing at Penn State.
Anyone with a lengthy background in big-time football is to be viewed as a potentially dangerous person, especially as they get older.

Urban Meyer of Ohio State

Swarms of fans are actually supporting Urban Meyer at Ohio State. Upon hearing about this imbroglio, I immediately remember when this coach clearly showed character issues when in Florida. Those issues can mount to the point where no one can ignore them. But on the other side of the coin, Meyer's mastery of the tools of simply winning - because winning after all is a product unto itself - lifts him up in the eyes of many. There have been pro-Meyer demonstrations.
 
What are we seeking?
Is there some sort of release of endorphins when your team wins? Do you really need this as an antidote for the troubling aspects of your life, the ennui and boredom? Try to fight that impulse. Worse yet, otherwise intelligent adults allow their own sons to go out and play football, as if they are ignorant of what those players are feeling - pain - out on the field. It's a pain that kids tolerate because they hear cheers. In what other phase of their lives do they get that kind of feedback?
Maybe the insurance industry will ultimately shut down youth football. Determining accountability is one thing the insurance industry can most reliably be counted on to do.
In my mind, the U of M Gophers had just one legitimate win in 2017 - one. Even that one win could be presented as far less than scintillating. It was over Nebraska, a once mighty program that is now showing it can be an also-ran. Parity has dragged the Cornhuskers down. They fired their coach at the end of last season. They were below .500. The Gophers under PR man Fleck beat them 54-21.
Even considering Nebraska's pedestrian status now, scoring 54 points was pretty good. So, one impressive win. And for that, P.J. Fleck appeared to get adoration for the most part from Minnesota's football boosters. Nice work if you can find it. You're a household name in the state by virtue of having one impressive day at work for the whole year. Wish I could have enjoyed that kind of arrangement in my journalism career.
The Gophers had only one other conference win, over lowly Illinois and by just seven points. After that we're looking at those three totally worthless non-conference wins over obscure schools. We started the season with wins over the Buffalo Bulls, Oregon State Beavers and Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders. There's three wins that create the illusion we were a respectable team.
Now we're on the threshold of 2018. The illusion of respectability helps ensure we'll get a fair number of fans in the seats. That is, unless I'm pleasantly surprised to see a further erosion of support for this dangerous Neanderthal sport. I have read that it's a challenge to get students to come to the games. Good for the students if they're finding better ways to spend this time. Less reason for them to paint their faces and consume alcohol to excess. Maybe Saturday can become more of a standard day of the week for campus life with students attending more to their constructive endeavors - the reason they're there.
 
Football and "manhood"
Football pumps up the anachronistic masculine pride. It makes men think they can be excused for various kinds of misbehavior. To shrug when hearing of wife-beating?
I have written time and again about how our society must retreat from football for a variety of reasons. It may be a losing argument from me, so go ahead with your skeptical reaction and your proclivity to make personal insults toward me, not related to the merits of the arguments. I have dealt with that all my life. I would just like to suggest that, for the sake of our kids, do not go out to Big Cat Field here in Morris MN for any reason.
Will our Darwinian ethos in football finally fail to protect the likes of Urban Meyer at Ohio State? How many of you remember when Ohio State fired coach Woody Hayes because the old coach punched an opposing player along the sidelines after an interception? The interception was of a pass thrown by Art Schlichter, whose career and life spiraled downward after college to where he's in prison and having health issues like Parkinson's and dementia. Schlichter had 17 documented concussions in his football career. Mercy. Go ahead and insult me, I'll continue asserting my views about football.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Concessions at public events get pricier, n'est-ce pas?

Fancy potatoes can be had at 4-H foodstand

I have told a couple of friends recently that "one of these years we're going to be asked to pay $10 for a hamburger at the county fair. It's coming."
At the risk of sounding like a skinflint, I must assert that prices are inching upward. I don't mean to sound unreasonable. It's just that I feel this is a valid issue. Would people pay $10 for a burger at the fair? We can always expect a little gouging at these events. People might pay a little extra at the 4-H foodstand knowing that the profits there will probably go toward helping the organization. Why did the foodstand discontinue its "plate special?" Back when the three of us went to the fair - Mom, Dad and yours truly - we'd automatically order those. They were satisfying and had a reasonable price. I asked about this through the proper channels, and was told the kid waiters often got confused by the order. Oh, my goodness.
Well, 4-H ought to know that the kiddie crew still stumbles - it was worse than ever, and I discussed this through proper channels as well. And I was told by the woman whose initials are V.D. that when patrons have trouble with the pint-sized waiters/waitresses, just go and talk to the adults. Maybe the indictment here is of our public schools. What kind of arithmetic is being taught to our kids? Apparently they are not taught cursive handwriting anymore. Curses! I feel penmanship is one of the most important skills a kid can acquire. I feel it's important to memorize multiplication tables. Is that now a dinosaur also in our educational system? It's terrific to have the simple mental discipline to know these things and to be able to apply them.
I have told friends I am done going to the 4-H foodstand. Perhaps the hockey foodstand would be worthy of my business. Remember, that's the beloved old "VFW foodstand." Kudos to the hockey people for still promoting that place as the "VFW foodstand." I used to have breakfast there when I was with the Morris newspaper. It was when the wonderful VFW people were still running it. I'd order eggs over easy and Darlene Olen would retort "over hard!" I guess that's how she liked preparing them. Bless Darlene, RIP. RIP also to my mother and father who have gone to the same place.
My father who grew up in the Great Depression no longer has to worry about inflated prices of things. He had all the generational traits from the 1930s: don't throw anything away etc. Does my personal concern about prices owe itself to that? I really don't think so. I think a real sense of trepidation is called for, when looking at the specter of $10 hamburgers and other such abominations. I ask again: would people pay it? I think a lot of senior citizens, the kind of people you see at church suppers and lutefisk suppers and other overpriced events, would mostly be willing. We should be thankful that our seniors have ended up in such solid financial shape in our society. Because, the opposite used to be true.
Chris Matthews of MSNBC reminds that in the days before Social Security, elderly people lived their lives "in fear." It is the Democrats who enact properly generous social welfare programs. The Republicans never do. It is always up to the Democrats and then with time, Republicans talk like they have no problem with them. We are at a juncture now where we simply must have government more involved with helping people with health care. Republicans act offended when you suggest they're just sitting on their hands with health care. But that is exactly what they're doing. Alan Grayson was right in how he characterized the Republicans' message to the public re. health care: "Don't get sick, and if you do get sick, die quickly." If Republicans are offended by that quote, they must actually start showing us they're willing to do more. I assure you they will not.
Heaven help this nation if Democrats do not make gains in the mid-terms. Heaven help us if we can't get Donald Trump ushered out of the presidency sometime, to be replaced by a normal, thoughtful and courteous person that will show the U.S. in its proper classy image. Oh, but the jobs report released on Friday showed hourly earnings for American workers going up 2.7 percent from July to July. Hey you fools, the increase lags behind the increase in prices, which went up by 2.9 percent from June to June. We have less money in our pockets than a year ago, knaves.
The Trump trade war about which I blogged recently, assures us that prices will, if anything, go up. Oh, those "tax cuts for the rich." Six months have gone by. Who did you think Republicans were going to help? Benefits from the tax cut bill have enriched shareholders in the form of stock buybacks. Friday's jobs report shows job growth at its slowest rate in five years. The tax cuts for the rich will be largely responsible for the Federal deficit hitting $1 trillion next year. You know who is concerned about the deficit? The Koch brothers.
Conservatives are not bereft of basic intelligence, for the most part, but they will never coalesce around ideas that truly benefit the broad public, like a proper health care system that mirrors the other developed countries. I pray we are starting to come to our senses. There is no guarantee.
In the meantime, I am not planning on going out to our Stevens County Fair. I have never adjusted since the community supper was changed to Tuesday night. Why was that change necessary? Was it to accommodate Superior so their people can attend both that and their own event the next day? Superior is muscling in on Prairie Pioneer Days to the extent that Luther's Eatery is suffering. Informed people tell me that. Superior is truly the 800-pound gorilla in our community. I think they should leave community events alone. If they have a desire to fold in with the community, they can do that by sponsoring and facilitating various things. I will bet you that the leaders of that company vote Trump and would do so again.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com