RIP...

John McGahern:
"When a book is published, it belongs to the reader, and the less the writer has to say about it, the better."

''It's love, really.''

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) -- The sole survivor of the Sago Mine disaster thanked friends, family and strangers Thursday for their "thoughts and prayers" upon his release from the hospital almost three months after he was trapped underground in a mine filled with toxic fumes for more than 40 hours.
...
His wife, Anna, who stayed with him throughout his recovery, added her own thanks. "Today is another part of our miracle," she said.
...
"What I believe is that the people who are there for you tend to create a world where you can get better," McCloy said. "It's love, really."

McCloy is about 5-foot-10 and thin, down from 160 pounds to just 135. His throat still bears a deep purple mark from a long-since-removed feeding tube, but his voice is clear and soft.

He smiles often and seems frustrated only by his limitations, mainly a right arm that remains weak. "My hands, my grip, is not as good as I want it to be, but I'm going to try to exercise and stuff like that," he said.

Anna is providing an incentive. She ordered a present for his 27th birthday on April 14: a red 2006 Mustang to replace the family's Taurus. "I wanted to give him something to work for, to make him really want to push himself," she said. ...

Happiness is...

What a day, a great day. My sister brought her children up to visit us: the Monona park, Vilas zoo, and Children's Museum on State Street. Such energy the older two have (3 and almost 6); kept us hopping all afternoon. Capped off by happy meals at McDonalds, and some romping in the playland. (It's ok, don't fret, you McDonalds hatahs. Their chicken and apple slices were supplemented with carrots and pepper slices, their mother -- a nurse practitioner -- brought along; it was a "special treat.") My sister was able to nurse them at the beginnings of life, and spends quality time on her family now. Not to be bragging, but keeping a family together, happy and healthy, in an active lifestyle is no small feat. She's a great sister, an even better mother, and deserves props for her work with her family. We had a magnet on our refrigerator growing up: "The family that prays together, stays together." Trite, you might say, but keeping a family together is no small task (think Ma Joad), and perhaps the greatest reward you can have, years down the line. I don't think that magnet is any prescription, btw, as surely there are non-spiritual families who are genuinely happy being and remaining with each other. Partners together, and parents with children. But you can bet my sister and her family will be in my prayers tonight.

Some folks seem to spend their lives searching for something genuine -- taking from a wide range of others who are more than happy to help -- and yet still wonder why their pale substitutes depress them, why the afterglow of contentment always seems out of reach. I'm surely not one to provide any answers, but I will say this -- the more time you spend dissing others just to win respect from your peer group, the more times ahead you'll look back and wonder why simple happiness and long-lasting relationships (other than living through your kids) continue to elude you. Again, just my observation, my 2cents on sale today for a penny ... aw hell, keep it free.

Oh, win me the cute little boy !

Devin Haskin...you crazy kid!

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports:

When the 3-year-old Austin, Minn., boy crawled through the discharge chute of a Toy Chest claw machine at a Godfather's Pizza in his hometown, he ended up on the other side of the glass surrounded by stuffed animals.

Rescuers had to pry the door open to get Devin out, though the boy was in no hurry to leave.

"When we got it open, he didn't want to come out," Fire Chief Dan Wilson said Tuesday. "One of my firefighters had to reach inside and get him. He was happy in there."

Ann Althouse this morning is blogging her thoughts on an article about the fate of a Wonder Bread sign in Seattle and our ideas of nostalgia today. That got me thinking about my own childhood signage.

Here's an old Eric Zorn column on the famous (to Chicago) Magikist lips. (bonus points if you can correctly identify the product being sold).

Heading home, out of the city limits, the Magikist sign was the general place on the Dan Ryan where you started to hold your breath for as long as you could, breathing in through the mouth after that. The dumps would be coming up quickly on the east side of the expressway, and that smell came in even through closed windows.

Well, the sign is gone now and the dumps were seeded and now look like pretty green hills. If the kids ask, those are methane torches on the hills.

Congratulations!

...to the University of Wisconsin women's hockey team: the NCAA champions in their sport. The Badgers won decisively, 3-0, over the Minnesota Gophers, two-time defending national champs.

UW's men's hockey team yesterday advanced to the Frozen Four, with a triple OT win over Cornell. UW will see Maine next, while North Dakota faces off against Boston College.
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Some more championship pictures; with Coach Johnson; "Moving Forward"; and "Teamwork".

And "On Wisconsin" for the men...
(photo courtesy of Dale Steenberg)
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One more story, this one from columnist Patrick Reusse in the Minneapolis Star Tribune:
...

Wisconsin started women's hockey in 1999, two years after Minnesota started its program. Now, the Badgers have caught and passed the Gophers, at least in this short term.

Mark Johnson, the son of the late, legendary Badger Bob, was an assistant to Jeff Sauer with the men's team for a half-dozen seasons, starting in 1996. The assumption of many was that he would take over when Sauer stepped aside. That came after the Badgers went 14-18-4 in 2001-02.

Mike Eaves was hired. Johnson was said to be very upset, although it did not prevent him from taking the women's job. Johnson was 2-11-1 in his first three seasons against Minnesota. This season, he was 5-1 vs. the Gophers on the way to the national title.

Whatever the Eaves-Johnson relationship, they seem to have created a Wisconsin brand of hockey: emphasize defense, strike after turnovers and make sure you have excellent goaltending.

It could be that Barry Alvarez, the football coach turned full-time athletic director, has himself the best coaches for both on-ice genders in the WCHA. And if any Gophers fan wants to argue, the believers in Bucky Badger have an answer:

"Ho-leee Cross, dunt dunt ... dunt da dunt."

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All the Best:

EYMAN on ... the Art of Criticism (PBPost).

McEVOY on ... 50 years of the Uncle Milton Ant Farm (PBPost).

PITTS Jr. on ... the Real Costs of Staying Silent. (Miami Herald).
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Regarding that last one, I'd like to compare and contrast with this "piece of work", links omitted:

WHAT IF THEY HELD ANTIWAR PROTESTS AND NOBODY CAME? Gateway Pundit says that's pretty much what happened at events meant to protest the third anniversary of the Iraq invasion. Update: ATC says that those who showed up seemed less anti-war than anti-American and anti-Bush. You don't say.

Though I might not agree politically with Sen. Feingold's latest maneuver (better to build consensus and move forward as a group), Mr. Pitts hits the point dead-on: eyes wide open, long-range view, America is going to pay and pay for our follies. The Boomers will be long underground or turned to dust before the final bill from this administraton is settled.

Mr. Reynolds has a "book" out. He's known online as the Instapundit, and I think his work is about as nutritious as a sugarcake. Though he is a law professor, analysis is not his specialty. He just jumped in the online game early. He "feeds" other sites by linking to them, and unless they take care to keep their independence, it's kind of like a big circle jerk of mutual appreciation. That's the opposite of speaking out truthfully, a step beyond staying silent.

Mr. Pitts, by contrast, turns in his own work, original columns that try to analyze facts and measure consequences on the ground. He has a Pulitzer, but more importantly his children will have reason to hold their heads high in years to come. His work will live.

The "Instapundit", though, is killing us softly; his "work" is soft and creamy inside. Everybody knows that sugar disintegrates to nothing but a sticky mess that later, somebody has to wipe up. Anti-American ... indeed.

Timing.

"WHEN the hounds of spring are on winter's traces"...

WooHoo, we're losing about an inch or two of snow cover a day. Plus it rained last night, so there goes a good amount. I think it safe to say, spring is on her way. Off to visit the kids for a few days...

The headline refers to David Brooks' column in today's NYT. I read it right after reading the main story about the Alabama church fires. I'm not so sure Brooks' last sentence holds: For every teenager who gets pregnant and gives away the baby, whose mom didn't build cardboard dollhouses in childhood, you can probably point to a kid who thinks it would be funny to raze a church or two or three, after smoking a little pot. (Watch the drugs get blamed.) I'm glad they study those things, comparative childrearing, though I'm always wary at the conclusions drawn, the winners cited. Especially when the competition hasn't reached halftime (the kids are in their 20s); more accurately, after the first quarter.

The second bad case of timing, seems to me, belongs to the law professor's lawsuit that recently lost in the Supreme Court. These people are smart; they knew the probabilities. I don't think anyone expected to "win". But in this kind of editorial, they did. (USA Today)

The bad timing comes in: I'm guessing the strategy of pursuing litigation was sprouted in peacetime. Pre- our Iraq engagement, probably pre-911. Peacetime, when such discussions are more appropriate, many would say. The critics can be ugly. Some schools may be anti-ROTC, anti-military, but not all. As a protest of Clinton's DADT compromise, as an anti-discrimination statement standing up for all their students who could otherwise meet qualification standards for jobs such as legally defending a wide swath of American servicemen and women, basing disqualification on personal characteristics -- not actions -- is inefficient. It worked. Timing aside, I salute you.

Know your target and beyond...

"No one is immune," (Defense Minister Shaul) Mofaz told Army Radio, a day after an Israeli air strike on an ice cream truck killed two Islamic Jihad militants and three bystanders in Gaza City. Two of those killed were children, ages eight and 14.

If the children, and the militants, weren't planting a bomb at the time of their deaths, perhaps an apology and monetary compensation --blood money -- is due the children's lives? Might encourage more accurate assassination skills anyway.

As we reviewed in the Cheney hunting incident, most hunters agree responsibility lies with the person pulling the trigger. That's basically what has Pat Tillman's family upset also, I believe.

Added: Online Haaretz:

The military operation took place in Gaza City at about 5:30 P.M., when IAF jets fired two missiles at an ice-cream van in which Munir Sukar, 27, and Ashraf Shaluf were traveling. According to the security services, Sukar is responsible for numerous Qassam launches at Israel, as well as an attempt to send a suicide bomber to Jerusalem last month, while Shaluf is also a Jihad operative.

However, the strike also killed Raad Al-Batash, 8, Mahmoud Al-Batash, 15, and Ahmed A-Susi, 24, who were nearby when the missiles hit. Eight other passers-by were wounded, and Sukar's aunt, who lives nearby, died of a heart attack apparently brought on by the strike.

Hamas called the air strike a "massacre." Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said it was a "dangerous escalation" against the Palestinian people. An angry mob gathered outside Gaza City's Shifa Hospital, where the bodies were taken.

Afterward, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz declared that "Israel will lay its hands on everyone who acts against it" ...

And then some! Reminds me of that Men at Work song, "It's Just Overkill"

Bad PR, if you will. At some point, the American public will tire of needless bloodshed, and won't make a distinction between necessary and unnecessary assassinations. (The former should be rare, doncha think? Many tools in the toolbox.) It's really like crying wolf. Either do it "cleanly" or don't do it at all. Some anger is rational, and some violence can be prevented. Isn't there a cease fire on, anyway? C'MON U.S., LEAD PLEASE. You've got the power, trust me, and this is the time.
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If you read my blog last night, I referred to an advertisement that is no longer visible; maybe it only runs in the evening or was up in error.

RIP...

Kirby Puckett
(1960-2006)
"We’ll remember the Game 6 home run from 1991, the leaping catches and the accolades that were bestowed upon him. But mostly, we’ll remember Kirby Puckett's smile and his love for the game."

Career Stats
May the bad fall away, and only the winning memories remain.

Here are some of Kirby's quotes, from wikipedia:
"I was told I would never make it because I'm too short. Well, I'm still too short, but I've got 10 All-Star games, two World Series championships, and I'm a very happy and contented guy. It doesn't matter what your height is, it's what's in your heart." -- at his 1996 retirement press conference.
"Don't take anything for granted, because tomorrow is not promised to any of us."
"Kirby Puckett's going to be all right. Don't worry about me. I'll show up, and I'll have a smile on my face. The only thing I won't have is this uniform on. But you guys can have the memories of what I did when I did have it on."

Post Oscars...

Just 3 things:

1) I am so excited to have 2 Lily Tomlin tickets*, for when she comes here next month. She and Streep were the funniest. She sold out the first show, but opened a later one Friday night. The lady selling me the tickets assures me they're pretty good, for not being on the main floor. (Got tickets for STOMP, and Joseph and the Amazing Dreamcoat** too. I think she was working the computer especially hard for me by then.)

2) So that's what Larry McMurtry sounds like! Not sure if he reads any of his audiobooks, but I find I can't really follow a story just by listening anyway.*** Just re-read one of his earliest "All My Friends are Going to Be Strangers" on vacation; I could relate to the young writer being fascinated with rivers. I probably have more McMurtry first editions in my collection than any other author, which speaks more to the paucity of my collection though, than to my dedication to his work. Prolific American, he is.

3) CRASH! Rented it on DVD a few weeks back, and admit to not having seen any of the others, so my view is skewed. Still, that's my kind of film. Like Magnolia and ShortCuts (that door open or shut?) -- the latter which until last night made me think more Raymond Carver than Robert Altman -- I do like being reminded that we're all spinning bodies here, so connected and yet disconnected too. (Rented it mostly having remembered such a strong endorsement from columnist Stebbins Jefferson, from when it was back in theaters. I don't try out too many movies these days... Thank you!)
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* Now I just have to find someone, who likes to laugh, to go with me. How 'bout you? Send up a signal...
** This, I think, was the first theater show I ever saw, with my aunt taking my sister and me. Pre-job loss, I got 5 tickets for this one: for my friend, his brother, friend's godson (almost 10), and his divorced father. They've helped me with moving, and despite being kind of macho, sang in the school choir way back when. Of course, I saw the pre-Donny Osmond version, and I'm not sure if Andrew Lloyd Webber was in on the version I saw. It's a gamble, but April in Madison for a few days hopefully would make up for an over-the-top production anyway. I'm betting we'll all have fun.
*** Since it seems to be true confessions week here, my hearing is bad and I'm afraid slowly going over the years. I learned this in law school; you can't much blame your seat when the person next to you and a few years older too, is laughing at the jokes you missed. "What'd he say?" It's not bad, mind you, but the hard thing I've found is, it's not so much I don't hear, but more mis-hear, and only think to question it when what I do hear comes off overly odd. As in, makes no sense. Seems funny in conversation when you repeat it and they tell you what they really said, but don't think I'm weird if I need to look at you closely when you talk. Unless everyone could just write everything out for me.

Aw...

RIP Jimmy/Jack. It is heartening that he got clean before dying though...

Anybody else remember this show?

(Wikipedia: "There were only seventeen episodes of this show, which ran from 1969 to 1970, but it was so successful that NBC kept it on the Saturday morning schedule for a full three seasons.") Then again, maybe you can't trust wikipedia. Another site shows the air dates as: On NBC, from 9/6/69 - 9/4/71; On ABC, from 9/16/72 - 9/1/74, being a Sunday morning show for the final year.

Looking back, it was bizarre growing up in the psychedelic shadow of the Boomers. But who knew? (and the ending scene music was sung by Mama Cass?)

In our recycled culture, looks like a movie remake is planned. Think I'll just keep my innocent Saturday morning memories though and skip it.