“Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.” (NIV)

Oak Ridge, TN, circa 1945

Interesting Article in the Wall Street Journal this week.

Hi everyone! So I know I’ve been saying for awhile that I’m going to post pics and I promise I will soon! My life as been a little crazy lately and I’m not good with time management.  Hopefully that trait will improve very very soon!  Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I’m a little sad because I would love to be in TN at home with the rest of my family.  I am so thankful though that we have a family here in FL who has taken us in and always has 5 spots for us at their holiday table! Thanks Shermans…you’re the best! I really am thankful to have such a wonderful family that has always been there for me (even if they didnt play with me when I was little)! My kids are healthy and my husband and I both have jobs so we have a lot to be thankful for! Lets remember to praise God for all the awesome things he’s done in our lives! I’m excited for everyone to see my newest bows and dishcloths I recently made! So Ill hurry up and post those pics! Have a great Thanksgiving! Love Cheryl

Ruth & Becky

This picture was taken sometime during 1960.  I’m about 4 years old and Becky is about 2.  It appears that someone got a color camera, and that perhaps all pics moving forward in time will be in color.  This was made in the living room of our house on the “divan” as Mother called it.  I found out years later that it was just a couch.  And of course there’s the prerequisite crocheted afghan on the back of the divan.  I learned how to crochet once upon a time and thought that I would make a granny-square afghan similar to the one in the picture above.  Nope!  Too much work.  And all those little squares to keep up with until they could be stitched together with the black yarn….  Dante’s Inferno might have had a crocheted granny-square room in it.  I suppose they are holding a spot for me in the granny-square department in Hades. 

The divan had a matching chair.  Both were a nondescript beige nubby fabric made to withstand flamethrowers and small children.  My mother painted the walls four basic colors:  beige, eggshell, blue, or green.  My older sister made the comment once, after returning home from college, that the colors were “institutional”.  I didn’t know what that meant for a long time.  I suppose that she’s right, but I don’t know what other colors would be used.  Black-of-death?  Pepto-pink?  Red-orange-of-hell?  That was so last century.  The color of small children’s handprints would have been a big hit. 

Once upon a time, when pictures were being developed from film, the pictures were returned to you, by the developer, with the month and date stamped on them.  Like on the picture above where it says “Dec 60″ at the bottom of the picture.  In my family, and perhaps yours too, this was never an accurate way of determining when the photo was taken.  Cameras were used only on photo-opportunities, and never as casually as we use them today.  A roll of film could have 12, 24, or 36 pictures, at least the ones that I’m most familiar with in the 1970’s and ’80’s.  It might take a really long time to use up the entire roll, maybe even a year, but certainly always months.  So I doubt that the picture above was actually taken in December 1960.  I’m wearing short-sleeves, and Becky’s wearing a thin-looking dress. 

And as I’m zooming in on the photo to look at dress detail, I notice that I am picking at my cuticles.  In the picture, I am picking at my nails and I am four. 

Some days I am still four.

Posted: November 25, 2009

I’ll take another round turkey, a heaping pile of mashed potatoes and a mound of stuffing.  I’ll go for seconds, maybe thirds, on yams and cranberry.  I’ll make room for a slice of pie or three, and then it’s on to dessert and a plate full of Sleepers for Week 12:

QUARTERBACK

Alex Smith (San Francisco) vs. Jacksonville – Projection: 21-35, 220 yards, 2 TD
Smith didn’t look great on Sunday against Green Bay, but still threw for 227 yards and 3 TD.  Jacksonville ranks 25th versus the pass, so another solid performance is a high probability.

Vince Young (Tennessee) vs. Arizona – Projection: 13-21, 155 yards, 1 TD, 5-35 rushing
Young is not an exciting fantasy option, but it’s surprising how little it takes to get double-digit fantasy points from the guy.  With just 116 passing yards in Week 11, Young was still good for 14 fantasy points thanks to 73 rushing yards and a passing TD.

RUNNING BACK

Justin Forsett (Seattle) @ St. Louis – Projection: 13-71 rushing, 5-31 receiving, 1 TD
Even if Julius Jones returns from his bruised lung, Forsett has more than proven his worth in Seattle, and will get his touches.  The Rams are 28th in the league against the run, so this will probably be the last week Forsett qualifies as a “Sleeper”.

Jamaal Charles (Kansas City) @ San Diego – Projection: 14-65 rushing, 3-11 receiving, 1 TD
Against a tough Pittsburgh D, Charles still found a way to be a viable fantasy option by catching a 2-yard touchdown pass from Matt Cassel and returning a kickoff for 6.  San Diego is 21st against the run, so Charles could have another solid day.

Danny Ware (New York Giants) @ Denver – Projection: 9-51 rushing, 3-24 receiving
When the Giants travel to Denver for a Thanksgiving night showdown with the Broncos, Ahmad Bradshaw (ankle) will not make the trip.  With Brandon Jacobs (leg) a bit hobbled, the door could swing open for the Giants’ number three back.

WIDE RECEIVER

Antonio Bryant (Tampa Bay) @ Atlanta – Projection: 5-67 receiving, 1 TD
Bryant had 1248 yards and 7 TD just one season ago.  After battling injuries for much of this year, he’s healthy and could start to build a rapport with Tampa Bay rookie gunslinger, Josh Freeman.  It doesn’t hurt that Atlanta is 29th against the pass.

Earl Bennett (Chicago) @ Minnesota – Projection: 7-84 receiving
Over the past 3 weeks, Chicago’s leading ypc receiver (12.8) has a modest 15 grabs for 177 yards.  Not exactly a trend that would suggest a big game versus Minnesota, but here we go again, putting up the bucks for a guy who always fails to deliver a TD.  This could be the week…

Pierre Garcon (Indianapolis) @ Houston – Projection: 5-72 receiving
Over the past 3 weeks, Garcon is tied with Roddy White for 13th in the NFL in WR targets (28).  Over that span, he has 14 catches, 218 yards and 1 TD, including 108 yards last week.  By the way, he has Peyton Manning throwing him the ball.

TIGHT END

Jermichael Finley (Green Bay) @ Detroit – Projection: 4-39 receiving, 1 TD
How can I not go with Finley (again)?  He’s owned in less than 20% of fantasy leagues, yet, per game, is outperforming Jason Witten, Jeremy Shockey and John Carlson, all of whom are owned in more than 75% of leagues!  Plus, here comes Detroit.

KICKER

Dan Carpenter (Miami) @ Buffalo – Projection: 2 FG, 2 PAT (1 FG 40+)
It’s time to see if Carpenter can be a cold weather kicker.  Safe bet, the Montana alum will be fine, and the Dolphins will get him into range at least twice against the Bills.  Carpenter has scored 74 (real life) points thus far in 2009, and has a big leg.

DEFENSE

Atlanta Falcons vs. Tampa Bay – Projection: 17 points allowed, 2 sacks, 1 Int, 1 fumble recovery
The Buccaneers have shown flashes of ability on offense, and there could be some again on Sunday.  That said, Atlanta is averaging 2 sacks and nearly 2 takeaways per game, and Tampa will really be no match at home.

Hard to believe that we are down to the final week of play in the SEC, America’s premiere College Football Conference again this year.

I had another very good week and this will be the next to last post of this nature.  I’ll shift to basketball in late December to prepare for the upcoming SEC conference season.

I am soooo looking forward to the Florida-Alabama game on December 5.  It is too bad that Bama will have their first loss prior to that date!

Note:  If you have not seen “The Blind Side” I highly encourage you to take the time and go see it.  Take some Kleenex along also-it is that kind of movie that makes you feel good as well as think.

Week 1:  9-3

Week 2:  4-2

Week 3:  7-2

Week 4:  7-1

Week 5:  6-1

Week 6:  4-3

Week 7:  4-2

Week 8:  4-2

Week 9:  5-2  (Gena’s picks)

Week 10:  8-0

Week 11:  3-4

Week 12:  5-1

Total:  66-23  (79.8% accuracy-maybe I have found a new living!)

“Want to convince people they absolutely, positively have to move to Tennessee,” writes Jim Ridley in the Nashville Scene. “Find a way to lock their TV in to NPT-Channel 8…” for BEAUTIFUL TENNESSEE: PARKS & PRESERVATION on Sunday, November 29 at 7:00 p.m.

Ridley goes on to call the doc “gorgeous” and “filled with wide-angle views of some of the state’s most staggering natural attractions.”

BEAUTIFUL TENNESSEE: PARKS & PRESERVATION, the third installment in Nashville Public Television’s Beautiful Tennessee series, explores the majesty of Tennessee’s parks, from sacred sites revered by ancient cultures for their beauty and mystery; to battlefields sanctified by those who fell fighting for their beliefs; to more recent additions facing the challenges of preservation in the new millennium. The documentary, written, directed and produced by NPT’s Ed Jones (Tennessee Crossroads)

For more about the documentary, watch the above preview, read the official release on our press room and visit the Beautiful Tennessee home page.

I received the following from my friends at the Nashville Civil War Roundtable:

TCWPA Hosts first Three-Star Battlefield Tour at Davis Bridge Battlefield
TCWPA will launch its new Three Stars tour series at a reception the evening before in Corinth, MS at the National Park Service visitor center. You are invited to join fellow tour participants and TCWPA board members at the reception Friday evening, December 11, at 6:30 pm. There is no charge.

The Tennessee Civil War Preservation Association (TCWPA) invites you to its first “Three Star Civil War Battlefield Tour “at Davis Bridge Battlefield
on Saturday, December 12, 2009, 9:30 am – 12:30 pm. Join Shiloh National Military Park historians and Tennessee Wars Commission Program Director Fred Prouty for an in-depth tour of the recently protected Davis Bridge battlefield. The tour is open to the public and there is no charge. The tour will “go” rain or shine so appropriate warm and weather protective clothing and good walking shoes are recommended. Davis Bridge Battlefield is located near Pocahontas, TN.

More information can be found at:  www.tcwpa.org

I got up early today to head down to Textile Fabrics in Nashville (off Wedgewood). They have an amazing selection and lots of super fun stuff but they are ridiculously over priced. Seriously…they have free spirit fabrics marked for $12.98 a yard. Michael wanted some linen and I found a gorgeous one but was not coughing up $50 a yard (especially when I needed 3 yards) I did pick up some more cherry buttons and a yard of Japanese linen with the three little pigs on it for $22.98 a yard. Good thing my mother in law was paying.

Then I drove up to Springfield (which is a haul) to meet my grandmother for lunch. It was less unpleasant then it usually is and I shall leave it at that.

I ran to the bank and grocery store for my mother in law and came home and started dinner (after a 30 minute nap)

After dinner I went BACK to the grocery store with my mother in law for the rest of the Thanksgiving stuff. She seriously goes to Kroger every single day. It is sort of making me crazy.

We played Dominos this evening and started some Thanksgiving prep work. Tomorrow starts our serious cooking and baking.

I also hope to meet up with a friend and hit up the mega Joann’s with Michael…who still wants linen

Some Festive Games and Some Turkeys

We’ve arrived at Thanksgiving week, and the NFL season has become one of haves, have-nots, and mediocre teams.  The haves (New Orleans, Indianapolis, Minnesota, Cincinnati, San Diego, Arizona, and New England) figure to be the eight teams playing in the second round of the NFL playoffs. 

 The have-nots (Cleveland, Detroit, Tampa Bay, St. Louis, Washington, Kansas City, Oakland, Seattle, and Buffalo) have nothing to play for at this point.  To wager on these teams, one must find a reason to believe these teams’ players will have a reason to give everything they’ve got.

 The 15 mediocre teams remaining are the ones competing for the final four playoff berths.  These are the teams that must be watched carefully as the stretch drive begins.  Be careful playing against one of these teams when they are playing a have or have-not.  They can be dangerous.

 This week presents some interesting contests.  On Thanksgiving night, the Denver-New York Giants game features two of the aforementioned mediocre teams.  A match-up of two mediocre teams in essence becomes a playoff elimination game.  The loser of this game has very little chance of recovering to make the playoffs this year.

 Indianapolis plays at Houston, and the Texans find their backs up against the wall.  After losing a close Monday night game, Houston is in a must-win position.

 Arizona plays at Tennessee, and if the Titans win this one to get to 5-6, they would have to be considered a dark horse candidate to finish 9-7 and sneak in as the final AFC Playoff team.  No NFL team has ever started a season at 0-6 and finished 8-8 must less 9-7.  The 1970 Cincinnati Bengals began the season 1-6 and won seven games in a row to win the AFC Central Division at 8-6.

 Baltimore and Pittsburgh face off in a blood and guts battle that could easily be a playoff elimination game.

 The Monday night game is the best MNF game of the year.  New England plays at New Orleans.  It could easily be a preview of the Super Bowl.

We at Hatter & Beanz have thought of something interesting and, even though our idea may not be so unique it’s something for those who may be less fortunate or those that may have been hit hard by the economic downfall.  

So readers, as we give thanks for our families, our friends and the roofs over our heads we have built for you a list of soup kitchens and shelters and services in each of the 50 states. (Oh by the way, we personally checked each reference).

So here’s how this is going down, we’re going to sort this by state, and right now our goal is to list one or two organizations by per state for this year. At Christmas, we’ll add one or two more, per state.

Alabama

1 – Rose Of Sharon Soup Kitchen – 2412 Memorial PKWY NW – Huntsville, AL 35810 Ph: (256) 536-2970

2 – Anniston Soup Bowl – 1516 Moore Avenue – Anniston, AL  36201 – Ph: (256) 236-6794

Alaska

1 – Downtown Soup Kitchen – 434 East 4^th AVE – Anchorage, AK 99501 – Ph: (907) 277-4302

2 – Food Pantry of Palmer – 7805 East Palmer Wasilla HWY – Palmer, AK 99645 – Ph:  (907) 745-3635

Arizona

1 – Vista Colina Family Shelter – 1050 W. Mountain View Rd. – Phoenix, AZ 8501 -  Ph: (602) 944- 0960

2 – Gospel Rescue Mission – 1130 West Miracle Mile – Tucson, AZ 85705 – Ph: (520) 740-1501

Arkansas

1 – Food Bank of North Central Arkansas – 14215 Highway 5 South – Norfork, AR 72658 – Ph: (870) 499-7565

2 – Johnny’s Food Bank – 312 Church Street – Lake Village, AR 71653 – (870) 265 -2601

California

1 – TLC Soup Kitchen – 3904 High Street – Sacramento, CA 95838 – Ph: (916) 759-1806

2 – Hospitality Kitchen – 821 East 6^th Street – Los Angeles, CA 90013

Colorado

1 – Denver Rescue Mission – 1130 Park Ave West- Denver, CO 80205 – Ph: (303) 297-1815

2 – Soup Kitchen Inc. – 1675 Larimer Street – Denver, CO 80205 – Ph: (303) 629-6383

Connecticut

1 – Torrington Soup Kitchen – Trinity Church, 220 Prospect Street – Torrington, CT 06790 – Ph: (860) 482-0130

2 – Covenant Soup Kitchen – 220 Valley Street – Willimantic, CT 06226 – Ph: (860) 423-1643

Delaware

1 – Food Bank of Delaware – 1041 Mattlind Way – Milford, DE 19963 – Ph: (302) 424-3301

2 – Acorn, Inc. – 1607 Todds Lane – Wilmington, DE 190802 – Ph: (302) 762-4226

Florida

1 – Homestead Soup Kitchen – 105 Southwest 3^rd Ave – Homestead, FL 33090 – Ph: (305) 245-7448

2 – Bread of the Mighty – 325 Northeast 10^th Ave – Gainesville, FL 32601 – Ph: (352) 395-6570

Georgia

1 – Albany Rescue Mission – 604 North Monroe Street – Albany, GA 31701 – Ph: (229) 435-7615

2 – Feed America – 102 East 14^th Ave – Cordele, GA 31015 – Ph: (229) 273-0227

Hawaii

1 – Office of Social Ministry – 100 Kinoole Street – Hilo, HI 96720 Ph: (808) 935-3794

Idaho

1 – The Soup Kitchen – 301 South BLVD – Idaho Falls, ID 83401 Ph: (208) 557-5750

2 – St. Maries Food Bank – 416 Main Ave – Saint Mares, ID 83861 Ph: (208) 245-9090

Illinois

1 – Midwest Food Bank – 1703 So. Veterans PKWY – Bloomington, IL 61701 Ph: (309) 663-5350

2 – Cornucopia Food Pantry – 402 Market Street – Rockford, IL 61107 – Ph: (815) 962-1380

Indiana

1 – Backstreet Mission – 215 So Westplex Ave. – Bloomington, IN 47404 – Ph: (812) 333-6360

2 – Wells County Food Bank – 1254 So. Main Street – Bluffton, IN 46714- Ph: (260) 827-0053

Iowa

1 – Community of Concern – 203 North US Highway 71 – Carroll, IA 51401 – Ph: (712) 792-5150

2 – Mapleton Food Bank – 315 Main Street – Mapleton, IA 51034 – Ph: (712) 881-1128

Kansas

1 – Genesis – 350 So. Range Ave. – Colby, KS 67701 – Ph: (785) 460-7930

2 – Christian Food Bank – 111 West 4^th Street – Pratt, KS 67124 – Ph: (620) 672-5150

Kentucky

1 – God’s Pantry Food Bank – 1685 Jaggie Fox Way – Lexington, KY 40511 – Ph: (859)255-6592

2 – New Hope Food Bank – 880 J.T. Riggs Road – New Hope, KY 40052 – Ph: (502) 549-6015

Louisiana

1 – Food for Families – 245 Illinois Street – Delhi, LA 71232 – Ph: (318) 878-3869

2 – God’s Food Box – 711 Mahlon Street – Deridder, LA 70634 – Ph: (337) 463-4449

Maine

1 – Good Shepherd Food Bank – 3121 Hotel Road – Auburn, ME 04210 – Ph: (207) 782-3554

2 – Winthrop Food Pantry – 15 High Street – Winthrop, ME 04364

Maryland

1 – Movable Feast – 2620 Wilkins Ave – Baltimore, MD 21223 – Ph: (410) 327-3420

2 – Abundant Life Church – 110 Front Street – Pocomoke City, MD 21851 – Ph: (410) 957-4206

Massachusetts

1 – Beverly Bootstraps – 371 Cabot Street – Beverly, MA 01915 – Ph: (978) 927-1651

2 – Merrimack Valley Food Bank – 735 Broadway – Lowell, MA 01854 – Ph: (978) 454-7272

Michigan

1 – American Saucery – 10750 Capital St – Oak Park, MI 48237 – Ph: (248) 544-9485

2 – Manna Food Project – 8791McBride Park – Harbor Springs, MI – Ph: (231) 347-8852

Minnesota

1 – Fare for All – 8501 54^th Ave North – Minneapolis, MN 55428 – Ph: (763) 450-3860

2 – Pastor Paul’s Mission – 100 Oliver Ave North – Minneapolis, MN 55411 – Ph: (612) 521-4665

Mississippi

1 – Hartland Hands – 385 Stateline Road East – Southaven, MS 38671 – Ph: (662) 280-5365

2 – PBM Ministries – 639 Second South Street – Woodville, MS 39669 – Ph: (601) 888-3880

Missouri

1 – Arnold Food Pantry – 23 Village Plaza – Arnold, MO 63010 – Ph: (636) 467-5959

2 – Holy Spirit – 3128 Parkwood Lane – Maryland Heights, MO 63043 – Ph: (314) 739-9796

Montana

1 – Give Away House – 1058 2^nd Street North – Harve, MT 59501 – Ph: (406) 265-7741

2 – Sagebrush Food Pantry – 669 Park Ave – Shelby, MT 59474 – Ph: (406) 424-8287

Nebraska

1 – Arapahoe Area Food Pantry – 210 7^th Street – Arapahoe, NE 68922 – Ph: (308) 962-7296

2 – Western Nebraska Food Bank – 825 Hickory Street – Sidney, NE 69162 – Ph: (308) 254-1095

Nevada

1 – Food For Thought – 3579 US Highway 50 – East Carson City, NV 89029 – Ph: (775) 883-1011

2 – Colorado River Food Bank – 1575 South Casino Drive – Laughlin, NV 89410 – Ph: (775) 782-3711

New Hampshire

1 – Nashua Soup Kitchen & Shelter – 42 Chestnut Street – Nashua, NH 03061 – Ph: (603) 889-7770

2 – Sonshine Soup Kitchen – 4 Crustal Ave #4 – Derry, NH 03038 – Ph: (603) 437-2833

New Jersey

1 – Extra Helping – 31 Evans Terminal – Hillside, NJ 07205 – Ph: (908) 355-3663

2 – Interfaith Food Pantry – 540 West Hanover Ave – Morristown, NJ 07960 – Ph: (973) 538-8049

New Mexico

1 – The Food Depot – 1222 Silver Road – Santa Fe, NM 87507 – Ph: (505) 471-1633

2 – Los Alamos Community Food Bank – 77 Loma Vista St – Los Alomos, NM 87544

New York

1 – Masbia Soup Kitchen – 4114 14^th Ave – Brooklyn, NY 11219 – Ph: (718) 972-4446

2 – Project Hospitality – 100 Park Ave. – Staten Island, NY 10302 – Ph: (718) 448-1544

North Carolina

1 – Good Shepherd Ministries – 811 Martin Street – Wilmington, NC 28401 – Ph: (910) 763-4424

2 – Hallelujah Soup Kitchen – 1904 South Wilmington Street – Raleigh, NC 27603 – Ph: (919) 899-6498

North Dakota

1 – Amen Food Pantry – 1100 3^rd Ave West – Dickinson, ND 58601 – Ph: (701) 483-4344

2 – Carrington’s Daily Bread – 875 Main Street – Carrington, ND 58421 – Ph: (701) 652-2333

Ohio

1 – Zion Soup Kitchen – 2716 West 14^th Street – Cleveland, OH 44113 – Ph: (216) 861-2371

2 – From Darkness to Light – 1925 Stanford Road – Twinsburg, OH 44087 – Ph: (216) 744-7408

Oklahoma

1 – Salvation Army – 1306 SW Ave E – Lawton, OK 73501 – Ph: (580) 355-1802

2 – Ardmore Soup Kitchen – 2207 Ridgeway Street – Ardmore, OK 73401 – Ph: (580) 226-2870

Oregon

1 – Lebanon Soup Kitchen – 170 East Grant Street – Lebanon, OR 97355 – Ph: (541) 451-7667

2 – St. Mary’s Soup Kitchen – 820 Ellsworth Street SW – Albany, OR 97321 – Ph: (541) 926-8562

Pennsylvania

1 – Jubilee Kitchen – 2005 Wyandotte Street – Pittsburgh, PA 15219 – Ph: (412) 261-5417

2 – East Liberty Soup Kitchen – 1091 Pittsburgh Road – Valencia, PA 16059 – Ph: (724) 898-3503

Rhode Island

1 – Fall River Soup Kitchen – 783 Slade Street – Fall River, MA 02724 – Ph: (508) 324-1323

South Carolina

1 – Project Host Soup Kitchen – 525 So. Academy Street – Greenville, SC 29601 – Ph: (864) 235-3403

2 – The Soup Kitchen – 573 Meeting Street – Charleston, SC 29403 – Ph: (843) 723-2726

Tennessee

1 – Loaves & Fishes Soup Kitchen – 215 Foster Street – Clarksville, TN 37043 – Ph: (931) 645-9020

2 – Manna Day Ministry – 1186 Ft. Campbell Blvd. – Clarksville, TN 37042 – Ph: (931) 648-1324

Texas

1 – Star of Hope Homeless Shelter – 419 Dowling Street – Houston, TX 77003 – Ph: (713) 748-0700

2 – New Hope Housing, Inc. – 320 Hamilton Street – Houston, TX 77002 – Ph: (713) 223-1995

Utah

1 – Manila Food Pantry – 93 North 1 West – Manila, UT 84046 – Ph: (435) 784-3993

Virginia

1 –Central Virginia Food Bank – 1415 Rhoadmiller Street – Richmond, VA 23220 – Ph: (804) 521-2500

Washington

1 – University Street Ministries – 4740 University Way NE – Seattle, WA 98105 – Ph: (206) 522-4366

West Virginia

1 – Soup Kitchen of Greater Wheeling – 1610 Eoff Street – Wheeling, WV 26003 – Ph: (304) 233-2992

Wisconsin

1 – McCarthy-Hall Kitchen – 1100 Douglas Ave – Racine, WI 53402 – Ph: (262) 634-9336

Wyoming

1 – Community Soup Kitchen – 633 Bridger Ave – Rock Springs, WY 82901 – Ph: (307) 382-7383

Have A Happy & Safe Thanksgiving Holiday !!!!

-Hatter & Beanz

When you go to the south and you come from the west you exchange a crystalline climatic simplicity for a descent into a landscape saturated in dripping mystery. Even in winter. Even when the trees are stripped bare and the grass is parched and brown.

Quite simply, it’s another world. Something about the outlines of things obscured so that you can’t easily identify what you are looking at.

Our little bed and breakfast inn was in the residential area of Memphis. We had made a conscious choice to expose ourselves to the rhythm and blues of Beale St and downtown only when it was dark and glamorous. The rest of the time we wanted immersion in a quintessentially southern residence.

Bridgestone House is just that but it wasn’t always. Once an old schoolhouse complete with high ceilings and tall windows and a potbellied stove in each of the schoolrooms it is now a particularly opulent version of southern hospitality. Which is a bit like saying it’s a particularly opulent version of southern opulence.

When you come from the west, the south can be confusing to look at. Apart from everything not being exactly what it seems, the southern way loves to cover every surface with carefully organized paraphernalia. Blank space is an affront to the southern eye.

In Bridgestone House there are knickknacks everywhere, layers of them, piles of them, festoons of them. There is a confusion of stuff. When you come from the wide-open plains this feels oppressive. At first. 

When I stood in the doorway of our bedroom it took me a while to discern the four-poster bed. The room was dim, the wood was dark and everything was heavily padded and brocaded. And then of course there were the things…

I felt I would never get rest in there. I felt I might be compelled to lie awake counting the stuff, cataloging it as if ordering it would somehow dispel the clutter. It took awhile for my mind to collapse. The way an ungainly body would in a sagging chair.

I was sliding down some sort of rabbit hole. The open plains were up top and where I was going was dark like a womb. There was something deliciously regressive about it. Like death but without the bright light.

The south felt like being underwater. Not cold, inhospitable water, more like amniotic fluid. Floating weightless surrounded by stuff. None of the stuff had hard edges almost everything was covered in floral fabric. I was underwater in some upholstered floral womb.

I thought it was time for me to climb on the bed. There was nothing on its plain-like surface except bedding. I thought perhaps it could save me. I couldn’t get onto the bed without coming at it from a bit of a run.

Being on it was worth it though. I was afloat on a wide open plain in a sea of cluttered amniotic fluid. I was beginning to get into it.

Sleeping in the south is obviously something the south does well. Sleep or stages of it appear to be so revered that our hostess, who we didn’t know from Eve, entertained us in her nightgown. Granted it was not your average nightgown. It was not my nightgown either. This one was floor to ceiling midnight blue velvet. It made me think of whole days when you didn’t get dressed. 

Not rushing is the thing in the south. You may not be sleeping but you are not rushing. If you are not in bed you are in your nightgown. Failing that you’re wearing something as elaborate as the décor that took hours, possibly days, to prepare.

In the south we ate lots of deepfried stuff quickly. And lots of double deep fried stuff. We tried to eat it all, a lifetime’s worth, so that we wouldn’t have to do it again. Ever. Southern deep fried comfort food is like that: yummy and then, within the next few bites, you’re cured.

We stayed two days. That’s all it took. There was this little table in the room, I found it eventually. The stuff it had on it I could use. I had left my fragrance at home. At least I had left the bottles there, my own peculiar fragrance insisted on following me wherever I went. The partly hidden table harbored the tail ends of the hostess’s passé perfumes.

I became heavily involved with some powerful deep magnolia ones. I think I was under some sort of spell. I wore them the entire time I was there. By the time I left I felt southern. I was okay with the endless layers of things. I knew it would take a lifetime to fathom them but that was fine with me.

When we got back to Colorado I looked for the trees. I looked for the forest. I couldn’t see the forest or the trees. The absence of mystery depressed me.  There was nothing deep and smoky dark, nothing that would take me a lifetime to discern. In Colorado what you see is what you get. Unfortunately who I am is changed forever.

Click for higher res.

For the two in attendance, and the millions of you reading across the internet……Lets get ready for RIVALRIES!!!!!!!

The First game i bring to you is the Border War. Anyone who deals with a rivalry knows that its just a straight out fight, and what better to fight over then an Indian War Drum & the Lamar Hunt Trophy. Missouri and Kansas have been fighting this war since 1891. Dan George summed up the rivalry by stating “It’s more than the schools — it’s a state thing going back to the Civil War, when William Quantrill’s Confederate guerillas burned Lawrence and murdered nearly 200 people. Neither Missouri nor Kansas folks have forgotten it.” The series between to the two stands officially tied (going by NCAA, cant stand it when conferences make their own rules and try to change rules mid season to get things swinging their way) 54-54-9 even though there is some controversy over a player being disqualified due to a school booster using funds to persuade him to come to that school (Kansas was the school he played for). This just added more fuel to the fire of this rivalry, which, even though by request of the athletic directors of the schools not to be called this, is the Border War.

 Next on the list we have the  Iron Bowl. For those of you not around the south, the Iron Bowl is THE rivalry of rivalries. When people think of Alabama playing against Auburn, they equate it to things such as the North fighting against the South… The Axis versus the Allies… some even go as far as to compare it as the battle of good and evil. It gets intense around here and some people tend to get hurt while waiting for the weekend or in this horrid case because of CBS wanting to grab some ratings, Friday to come around for the game to be played to give the fans the bragging rights they have truly earned. The series originated in 1893 with the two schools playing against each other in Birmingham, Alabama (that’s where the iron came from) The Crimson Tide currently lead the rivalry 39-33-1. This year’s game will be played at Auburns site where Alabama has lost its last six visits.

Now I bring you “Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate”. Words that could only be used to describe the Georgia vs. Georgia Tech game. The rivalry between these two schools also began in 1893.  The heated rivalry goes all the way back to truthfully 1891 when UGA began to mock Tech for its choice of school colors. The fire only burned stronger as time passed by with UGA once again offending the Yellow Jackets in 1919 by having a parade celebrating UGA’s return to football while making fun of Georgia Tech students for continuing to play football during war time. With only 70 miles between the schools (UGA in Athens, and GA Tech in Atlanta) the schools are in constant competition against each other not only for recruits, but for state funding and for recognition from their home state as well. The winning school of the years football game receives the Governor’s Cup Finally, I just really like the name given to this rivalry.

Next up on the Rivalry list we have the Texas Longhorns, and the Texas A & M Aggies. These being the two oldest public schools in the state of Texas, their rivalry is a natural one. Texas and A & M have been competing against each other since 1894, but their rivalry has been adjusted to spread bragging rights based on all sports rather then just football. in 2004 a points system was introduced. Points are awarded for all sports in which both schools maintain an intercollegiate team. Each sport is worth one point, which is awarded to the winner of the head-to-head matchup between the two teams. If the head-to-head matchup ends in a tie, each team receives ½ point. In baseball, the team that wins the regular season three-game series is awarded one point. In sports where the teams meet twice during the season — currently softball, volleyball, and men’s and women’s basketball — each contest is worth ½ point. If the universities do not compete in head-to-head regular season competition, the university that places higher at the Big 12 Conference Championship will earn the point. Should the universities tie in Big 12 Conference Championship competition the point will be split between the two schools. In the sport of track and field, multi-school meets do not count as head-to-head competition. There are a total of 19 possible points, with 10 points needed to win. In the event of a 9½ to 9½ tie, the winner of the previous year will retain the title for the following year. Texas currently leads the points run 3-2 with a possible tie of the series pending on the rivalry game this weekend. (if A & M manages to tie the points, according to the rules of point, they will retain the title since they were the previous years winner.)

And for the next big game, we have Virginia Tech at Virginia playing for the Commonwealth Cup. This match up rolls back to 1895 when the schools started playing each other. From what I’ve gathered, aside from just a game between people from really close places to each other, there’s not much to this. With the Va Tech Shooting, the rivalry became even less intense. Many fans on both sides of the rivalry have reported a lessening of hostilities between the two universities while maintaining the same intensity of the rivalry in the wake of the Virginia Tech Massacre. According to The Washington Post “students in both camps are more apt to think of themselves as simply Virginians.” UVa students were amongst the first university students to lend support to the comrades at Virginia Tech in the wake of the shootings. Likewise, the connections between the two university’s populations are often very close. Prior to the 2007 football contest in Charlottesville both college’s bands participated in a joint performance. However, the intensity of the rivalry was still as spirited as ever, with both sides cheering passionately for their own team as a berth to the ACC Championship game was on the line. “…there was the sense among Tech students that fans of U-Va. – an institution founded by none other than Thomas Jefferson – looked down their noses at the mountain-ensconced Hokies of Blacksburg. Hokies were “hicks”; Cavaliers were “snobs.” But after the shootings in April, something changed. U-Va. students and faculty members wrote condolence letters, held a candlelight vigil and even painted the campus’s fabled Beta Bridge with a pro-Hokies phrase.” — Jonathan Mummolo, The Washington Post U-Va.’s student newspaper reported that students in Charlottesville were even sporting Hokie sweatshirts on occasion in observance of the tragedy. The University’s Z Society went so far as unveiling a 65′ x 120′ Virginia Pride flag featuring both UVA and VT logos on it during the annual football game, and it was noted that the two fan bases had never been so close as they were after the shootings. “Since the tragedy, it hasn’t been so odd to see a Wahoo wearing a Virginia Tech sweatshirt. Since April, transfer students haven’t felt so awkward saying they used to attend school in Blacksburg. Truly, Hokies and Wahoos have never been so together.” — Eric Kolenich, The Cavalier Daily.

Next up on the list is Pittsburgh playing at West Virginia in The Backyard Brawl. This rivalry rolls back to 1895 when the first game was played. The rivalry basically exists because, you guessed it, the schools are basically in each other’s back yard. Pittsburgh currently leads the series 61-37-3. The 1921 edition of The Backyard Brawl was the first football game to be broadcast over the radio airwaves. Other then the 2007 Pitt team knocking the then number two ranked West Virginia out of the BCS National Championship game, there hasnt really been much to fuel this rivalry then, they’re competing for the same stuff as GA-GA tech.

Another heated rivalry taking place this weekend is the Holy War. The fierce rivalry between the Utah Utes and the Brigham Young Cougars. The big thing that fuels this fire is…..dum dum dum… religion.  Utah is the Mormon capital of the world, so to no surprise, BYU is a Mormon owned school. Utah, being a state owned school, is non-secular. BYU fans accuse Utah fans of being drunks, although many of Utah’s fans are also Mormons, and alcohol is against the Mormon code. Many non Mormon Utes fans love to mess with BYU fans by drinking lots of coffee, swearing and generally going against the Mormon code. The series started in 1895 ( or 1922 according to BYU) Utah leads the series 53-33-4 (or 50-30-4 depending on when it started).  The two schools are approximately 50 miles apart, so its not uncommon for them to constantly compete over recruits, fans and funding. The rivalry began to change in 1993, during Ron McBride’s fourth season as head coach, the Utes won their first game in Provo in twenty-two seasons and their first since LaVell Edwards became BYU head coach. Utah’s kicker, Chris Yergensen, had already missed two out of three field goals on the day. This time, however, Yergensen did not miss and kicked the game-winning 55-yard field goal (the longest of his career) as time expired.After the win, Utah fans and players attempted to tear down the north end zone goalpost at what was then Cougar Stadium. Cougar players returned to the field to protect the goalpost from being torn down. About the incident, Lenny Gomes, a BYU nose guard, said, “Typical Utah bullshit. All those guys think that’s all there is to life. But when I’m making $50–60,000 a year, they’ll be pumping my gas. They’re low-class losers.” The remark is still remembered in rivalry history today.The 1994 season was McBride’s best, as he led the Utes to a 10–2 record and a top-10 finish in national rankings. The Utes and Cougars also staged one of the best matchups in the rivalry’s history, meeting for the first time as top-25 ranked teams. The Utes won the game 34–31, which was coincidentally the same score of their meeting a year before. Utah ran its rivalry winning streak up to three games a year later, with a 34–17 win at BYU. The Utes and Cougars would trade wins and losses the next couple of years, before the 2000 season. During the 1999 edition of the Holy War, Utah recorded its fourth consecutive win in Provo. Early in the fourth quarter, Utah scored a touchdown when quarterback T.D. Crowshaw completed a four-yard-pass to Donny Utu to put Utah up 20–10. In celebration, Utah cheerleader Billy Priddis ran along the visitor’s sideline with a large “U” flag. An unidentified BYU fan ran onto the sideline and tackled Priddis from behind. Priddis turned around and started punching the fan. He landed seven or eight punches before security separated them. About the incident, Priddis said, “”There’s 65,000 fans here, does he think I’m not going to retaliate?” Utah had another undefeated season in 2008 and defeated BYU 48–24. By doing so, they captured another invitation to a BCS game, where they were matched up with the highly favored Alabama. Utah beat Alabama 31–17 for their second BCS victory in five years. BYU’s team slogan in 2008 was “Quest for Perfection,” and T-shirts bearing that slogan were made widely available. However, BYU’s quest for a perfect season ended at TCU, and Utah, who did finish with a perfect record, created red shirts bearing the Utah logo and the slogan “The Quest Perfected.”

This next rivalry is near and dear to my heart as I have an ex-girlfriend who is a big Clemson fan. Naturally I pull for South Carolina (Shout out to my boy Darian Stewart #24) every year since then in the Battle of the Palmetto State. Stick with me people because the next might get long and boring, but it is needed to completely understand where it all came from. Unlike most major college rivalries, the Carolina-Clemson rivalry did not start innocently. In fact, the seeds of bitterness were planted even before Clemson became a college. The two institutions were founded 88 years apart: South Carolina College in 1801 and Clemson Agricultural College in 1889.South Carolina College was founded in 1801 to unite and promote harmony between the Lowcountry and the Upcountry. It closed during the Civil War when its students aided the Southern cause, but the closure gave the politicians an opportunity to reorganize it to their liking. The Radical Republicans in charge of state government during Reconstruction opened the school to blacks and appropriated generous funds to the University, much of which was embezzled. These actions caused the white citizens of the state to withdraw their support for the University and view it as a symbol of the worst aspects of Reconstruction. The Democrats returned to power in 1877 following their decisive electoral victory over the Radical Republicans and promptly proceeded to close the University. Sentiment in the state favored opening an agriculture college so the University was reorganized as the South Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. In 1882, the college was renamed to its antebellum name, South Carolina College, which infuriated the farmers because they felt that the politicians had frustrated the will of the people by deemphasizing agriculture education, even though the school still retained the department of agriculture. Benjamin Tillman emerged in the 1880s as a leader of the agrarian movement in South Carolina and demanded that the South Carolina College take agricultural education more seriously by expanding the agriculture department. In 1885, Tillman was convinced of the superiority of a separate agricultural college by Stephen D. Lee, then the President of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of the State of Mississippi, and subsequently Tillman would accept nothing less than a separate agriculture college in South Carolina. He offered the following reasons why he felt that it was necessary to have a separate agriculture college outside the confines of Columbia:

Mississippi A&M featured practical training without unnecessary studying of the liberal arts.

Mississippi A&M provided poor students work-scholarships so that they could attend the college.

There were too few students who studied agriculture at the College to justify an agriculture college there.

The College was a place “for the sons of lawyers and of the well-to-do” who sneered at the agriculture students as if they were hayseeds.

The students at the College lived a life of luxury as compared with the sweat and toil endured by students at Mississippi A&M.

There was not enough farm land near the College to allow for proper agriculture study.

The Conservatives, who held the reins of power in South Carolina from 1877 to 1890, replied to each point made by Tillman:

The most advanced agriculture educational research was being conducted at the University of California and at Cornell University, both of which combined agriculture colleges with liberal arts colleges. Additionally, a separate agriculture college would be more expensive and result in an inferior product.

The work scholarships attracted the lowest quality of students who only cared about obtaining a college degree, not about an education in agriculture or mechanical studies. Furthermore, there was little advantage of attending a college only to pitch manure and grub stumps.

The constant attacks by Tillman on the College caused many to doubt whether state support for the institution would continue. As a result, the enrollment numbers were not impressive, although the numbers of students taking agriculture and mechanical classes increased from 34 in 1887 to 83 in 1889. Over half of the students at the College were the sons of farmers, though most did not study agriculture as Tillman wished. John McLaren McBryde, President of the College, correctly predicted that most students of an agriculture college would not go back to work the farm after graduation. While some students at the College were the sons of the well-to-do, the majority were poor.Tillman was bolstered in 1886 when Thomas Green Clemson agreed to will his Fort Hill estate for the establishment of an agriculture college. Yet, Tillman did not want to wait until Clemson died to start a separate agriculture college so he pushed the General Assembly to use the Morrill funds and Hatch funds for that purpose. Instead, the legislature gave those funds to the South Carolina College in 1887 which would use them along with a greater state appropriation to reorganize itself as the second University of South Carolina and to also greatly expand the agriculture department. After this victory for South Carolina, in January 1888 Tillman wrote a letter to the News and Courier that he was retiring from public life.It was less than ninety days when Tillman reemerged on the scene upon the death of Thomas Green Clemson in April 1888. Tillman advocated that the state accept the gift by Clemson, but the Conservatives in power opposed the move and an all out war for power in the state commenced. The opening salvo was fired by Gideon Lee, the father of Clemson’s granddaughter and John C. Calhoun’s great granddaughter Floride Isabella Lee, who wrote a letter on her behalf to the News and Courier in May that she was being denied as Calhoun’s rightful heir. Furthermore, he stated that Clemson was egotistical and “only wanted to erect a monument to his own name.”In November, Lee filed a lawsuit in Federal Court to contest the will which ultimately ruled against him in May of 1889.The election of 1888 afforded Tillman an opportunity to convince the politicians to accept the Clemson bequest or face the possibility of being voted out of office. He demanded that the Democratic party nominate its candidates by the primary system, which was denied, but they did accept his request that the candidates for statewide office canvass the state. Tillman proved excellent on the stump, by far superior than his Conservative opponents, and as the Democratic convention neared there was a clear groundswell of support for the acceptance of Clemson’s estate. He was so effective because of his “ability to awaken popular passion and prejudice” when the populace by and large mistook “prejudice for truth, passion for reason, and invective for documentation.” Tillman pitted “the poor against the rich, tenant against landowner, hireling against employer, country against town, all of South Carolina against Charleston and Columbia, upcountry against lowcountry, white against black, do-somethings against do-nothings, and outs against those in power” so that “he could rile them up and then appear as their champion.” In addition, the Conservative leadership was aging and its appeal to the past glories of South Carolina during the antebellum period meant little to the emerging younger generation.Tillman explained his justification for an independently controlled agriculture college by pointing to the mismanagement and political interference of the University of South Carolina as had occurred during Reconstruction. The agriculture college, as specified in Clemson’s will, was to be privately controlled and thus would be able to prevent any “possible invasion by the negroes”. With declining cotton prices, Tillman preyed upon the farmer’s desperation by stating that the salaries of the college professors were exorbitant and it must be a sign of corruption. Consequently, the legislature was compelled to pass the bill to accept Clemson’s bequest in December of 1888, albeit with the tie-breaking vote in the state Senate from Lieutenant Governor William L. Mauldin. Thus was reborn the antagonistic feelings of regional bitterness and class division that would plague the state for decades. Having achieved his agriculture college, Tillman was not content to sit idly by because what he really desired was power and political office. After winning the 1890 election and becoming Governor, Tillman renewed the attacks on the Conservatives and those who had thwarted his agriculture college. He saved the coup de grâce for Senator Wade Hampton III, a South Carolina College graduate and Confederate General during the Civil War, who “invoked Confederate service and honor as a barrier to Tillmanism.” Tillman directed the legislature to defeat Hampton’s renomination for another term in December of 1890, thereby finishing what Sherman had left undone in 1865.While campaigning for Governor in 1890, Tillman leveled his harshest criticism towards the University of South Carolina and threatened to close it along with The Citadel, which he called a “dude factory.” Despite the rhetoric, Tillman only succeeded in reorganizing the University of South Carolina into a liberal arts college while in office. It would eventually be rechartered for the last time in 1906 as the University of South Carolina. However, Clemson Agricultural College held sway over the state legislature for decades and was generally the more popular college during the first half of the 20th century in South Carolina. The rivalry started in 1896. after 106 meetings, Clemson leads, 65-37-4.

Next up, the Colorado State – Wyoming Border War. Nothing is really special about this rival aside from rivalry based on location. Colorado State leads the series 55-40-4. In 1968, the ROTC detachments of the respective schools initiated the Bronze Boot, a traveling trophy awarded to the winner of the “Border War” each year. The boot was worn in the Vietnam War by Cpt. Jeff Romero, Sr., a Colorado State graduate and Army ROTC instructor at CSU between 1967 and 1969. Each year leading up to the Wyoming-Colorado State game, the game ball is carried in a running shuttle relay by the ROTC detachment of the visiting team down US 287 to the Wyoming-Colorado state border, where the home team’s ROTC detachment receives it and runs the game ball to the stadium hosting the game. The trophy is guarded by the ROTC unit of the past year’s winning school during the game. Colorado State University leads the trophy series at 21-20.

Off now to the Duel in the Desert and the Territorial Cup. The “Territorial Cup” also known as the “Duel in the Desert” is the rivalry between ASU and UA and is among the nation’s oldest and most heated rivalries, including the oldest trophy in college football. The winner of the game is then given possession of the Territorial Cup until the game is played the next year. In the modern era of the game, it is played on the day after Thanksgiving (and in recent years on the Saturday after Thanksgiving to accommodate network television coverage). The rivalry dates back to before Arizona was admitted as a state, and was a U.S. Territory. In the early history of Arizona, a resentment between the cities of Phoenix and Tucson emerged. The University of Arizona was founded in 1885 as the state’s first university. The same year, Tempe Normal School was founded as a small teacher’s college in the farming community of Tempe, just east of Phoenix. Over the years, Tempe Normal School evolved into Arizona State Teacher’s College, then Arizona State College at Tempe, and eventually Arizona State University. Although both athletic programs have been consistently in the top 20 in the Director’s Cup standings for the past decade, the two schools have featured a difference in athletic strengths. The rivalry started in 1899. University of Arizona currently leads the cup series 45-36-1.

The Bedlam Series is, like most other intrastate rivalries, a rivalry that goes beyond one or two sports. Both Oklahoma and Oklahoma State have rivalries with other schools, though most of those rivalries are limited to one or two sports at the most. When the Bedlam Series gained Ford and the Bank of Oklahoma as corporate sponsors, the series became much more formalized. A points system was adopted in order to award a winner of the all athletic competitions combined between the two schools. A crystal bell trophy is awarded to individual Bedlam game winners (such as football), in addition to a trophy for the overall series champion for that year. The “Bedlam Bell” is modeled after the bell clapper in Old Central, the oldest building on Oklahoma State’s campus. For a time, the actual bell clapper was a traveling trophy for the two schools, until the popularity of this tradition waned. Oklahoma currently leads the series 79-15-8 which started in 1904.

Moving on, we have the Washington-Washington State rivalry. This one seems so boring that I’m just going to use the Apple Cup Wikipedia entry to fill this slot in. The Apple Cup is the annual college football rivalry game between the two largest universities in the U.S. state of Washington; the University of Washington (UW) Huskies and the Washington State University (WSU) Cougars. It is traditionally the final game of the regular season and takes place on the Saturday preceding Thanksgiving at Husky Stadium in Seattle during odd years, and WSU’s Martin Stadium in Pullman during even years. From 1950-80 (except for 1954), WSU hosted the game at Spokane’s Joe Albi Stadium. The WSU Cougars won three of these fifteen games in Spokane (1958, 1968, 1972), and have won six of the fourteen played at Martin Stadium (1982, 1988, 1992, 1994, 2004, 2008).Before 1962, the teams played for the “Governor’s Trophy.” The game was renamed the “Apple Cup” in 1962 because of Washington’s famous apple crop. The Apple Cup trophy has been awarded to the winning team ever since. With the recent lengthening of the regular season schedule to 12 games, there was a movement change the date of the Apple Cup from the weekend before Thanksgiving to the weekend following. This would have allowed a bye week sometime during the season. In the 2006 season, both teams played 12 straight weeks without a break, leaving the two teams noticeably fatigued. For the first time, the 2007 edition of the Apple Cup was played two days after Thanksgiving. The Apple Cup has been sponsored by Boeing since 2007.The first rivalry game was held in 1900 and resulted in a tie between UW and WSU. From 1900 to 2008, there have been 101 games between the schools. The Huskies hold a 64-31-6 advantage. UW’s longest winning streak has been eight games, achieved twice: (1959-66 and 1974-81). WSU has never won more than two consecutive Apple Cups, but the Cougars have won back-to-back games on eight separate occasions: (1929-30, 1953-54, 1957-58, 1967-68, 1972-73, 1982-83, 2004-05 and 2007-08). Although Washington currently leads the overall series, the Cougars have taken four of the past five meetings including a double-overtime win in the 2008 meeting. Washington leads the series 64-31-6.

With the Mississippi State vs. Mississippi Egg Bowl I was expecting more of a feud to have started the rivalry then anything else. So, with the same boring info I bring you more Wiki info. Early in the series, Mississippi State dominated, and had only lost five times in the first twenty-three contests. When Ole Miss beat MSU, then known as Mississippi A&M College, 7-6, the Ole Miss fans rushed the field, some trying to tear the goalposts down. A&M fans did not take well to the Ole Miss fans celebrations, and fights broke out. Some A&M fans defended the goal posts with wooden chairs, and several injuries were reported. To prevent such events in the future, students of the two schools created the “Golden Egg”, a large trophy which has been awarded to the winning team each year since 1927. The trophy is a large football-shaped brass piece mounted to a wooden base and traditionally symbolizes supremacy in college football in the state of Mississippi for the year. The footballs used in American football in the 1920s were considerably more ovoid and blunter than those in use today and similar to the balls still used in rugby; the trophy thus, to modern eyes, more resembles an egg than a football. The awarding of the “Golden Egg” was instituted in 1927 by joint agreement between the two schools’ student bodies. Ole Miss leads the rivalry that started in 1901 60–39–6.

Next up we got the Toledo – Bowling Green Battle of I-75. This one is a little more interesting then the last ones (enough that I’m not just going to give you stuff from the Wiki then be done with it.) These two schools are only about 20 miles apart from each other, making the pressure to get recruits and fans from the local area much harder then some others. The winner of the battle is awarded the Peace Pipe Trophy (yep that’s right, a Native American peace pipe). The rivalry between UT and BGSU goes back to 1919. The games were (and to an extent still are) marked by a passionate fan following and a hatred for the respective opponent. In 1935, fans rioted following a 63-0 blowout win by UT and as a result, BGSU removed the Rockets from their athletic schedule until 1947. That year, the smoking of a six-foot peace pipe was instated as a gesture of goodwill between the two teams at half-time of their annual basketball match. The peace pipe would be kept by the winning university until the teams played again the following season. The tradition came to an abrupt and unpleasant end in 1969 when the pipe was stolen from the UT offices. It was never recovered and the thief never caught. In 1980, the Peace Pipe trophy was reinstated when a scale-down replica was fashioned and placed on top of a trophy created by former UT football player Frank Kralik. Kralik donated the trophy to the university to be given to the winner of each year’s football game, which like many other college football rivalries is usually the last game of the regular season for both teams. Nowadays, ESPN annually broadcasts the Peace Pipe game, allowing it to reach a wide audience outside of northwest Ohio. Though the two schools play in different divisions in the Mid-American Conference, they have yet to meet in the MAC Championship Game. Toledo leads the series since the reinstatement of the trophy, 15-14.

With the next teams and their rivalry, I hold little interest in. The fact that they are 12 miles apart and both in the same city, I find entertaining, aside from that, more Wiki read. The UCLA–USC rivalry is the college rivalry between two universities located in Los Angeles, California: the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of Southern California.The athletic competition rivalry between the two schools is among the more notable in NCAA Division I sports because both schools are located within the same city. The campuses are only 12 miles apart. The sheer proximity of both alumni and students, and the likelihood of encountering each other and interacting on a daily basis make this one of the most intense college rivalries in the United States. USC is one of the top teams in the country in college football, and recognizes 11 of its teams as National Champions. UCLA has only one team recognized as a National Champion.Quite often, the winner of the football game has won or shared the Pacific Ten Conference title in football. A berth in the Rose Bowl game has been on the line many times as well for both schools. Since the formation of the Pacific Coast Conference in 1916, USC has won or shared 37 conference titles and UCLA has won or shared 17 titles.Washington is third in overall conference titles with 15.Since the 1959 season, when the Pacific 10 Conference was formed as the Athletic Association of Western Universities, through the 2007 season, the schools have won or shared 33 of the 48 conference titles. USC has won 17 championships outright, shared eight and gone to the Rose Bowl or BCS bowl 21 times. UCLA has won six championships outright, shared five and gone to the Rose Bowl eight times. The schools have shared the championship between them three times. Both teams have spoiled conference and national championship runs for the other. USC was already an established national football power under Howard Jones and had begun a major rivalry with Notre Dame when UCLA joined the Pacific Coast Conference in 1929. Los Angeles Times Sportswriter Braven Dyer predicted on the day of the first football meeting on September 28, 1929, “In years to come, this game will probably be one of the football spectacles of the West” USC dominated the early games (so much so, that after the first two games, the series was suspended for five years and they did not play each other from 1931-1935) until UCLA established itself. By the late 1930s, star players such as Kenny Washington, Jackie Robinson, and Bob Waterfield enabled UCLA to be competitive. With the hiring of Hall of Fame Coach Henry “Red” Sanders, UCLA became the more dominant program in the 1950s, culminating in their 1954 National Championship. A famous quote was attributed to Sanders regarding the rivalry, “Beating ‘SC is not a matter of life or death, it’s more important than that.” But Sanders died suddenly of a heart attack, and shortly thereafter, John McKay took over a struggling USC program and returned it to national prominence. For most seasons from the mid 1960s to the end of the 1970s, the two schools were the top powers on the west coast. In the 15 Rose Bowls played from 1966 to 1980, USC or UCLA played in 12 of them. Even with the rise of Don James’ Washington Huskies in the 1980s and early 90s, UCLA or USC still went to the Rose Bowl seven times between 1981 and 1995. In the 1990s and until the hiring of Pete Carroll by USC, UCLA was the dominant team, winning 8 straight from USC from 1991-1998, before USC then won 7 in a row from 1999-2005. The 13-9 win in 2006 at the Rose Bowl allowed the Bruins to keep the record for consecutive wins in the rivalry.

Florida vs. Florida State is the next rivalry on the list. Not much going on here aside from state pushed interstate rivalry. here’s the history: The University of Florida has been fielding an officially sanctioned football team since 1906. Though Florida State University (then known as “Florida State College”) played football for several years around 1900, it became a women’s college in 1905 and remained so until 1947, when the football team was re-established. Almost immediately, pressure began building for the Gators to play the new team in-state. Some believe that it took an act of the Florida state legislature to force the contest to take place. This is not exactly true – a bill demanding a UF vs. FSU football series was proposed in 1955 but was voted down. However, the schools bowed to pressure from state leaders and agreed to schedule a yearly series starting in 1958.One of the conditions that the University of Florida put on the agreement was that the contest must always be held in their home stadium, Florida Field in Gainesville. Since 1964, however, the game site has alternated yearly between the Gators’ field and the Seminoles’ home turf of Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee. Since 1958 Florida currently leads the series 32-19-2.

Rice and Houston are the next match up in their competition to take home the Bayou Bucket. The Houston–Rice rivalry (also referred to as the UH–Rice rivalry, Rice–Houston rivalry, or the Rice–UH rivalry) is a cross-town college rivalry between the University of Houston and Rice University. The universities are located approximately five miles from each other in Houston’s “Inner loop” area. It is one of the few NCAA Division I cross-town rivalries, especially between institutions that field Division I Football Bowl Subdivision teams. The rivalry has existed in a more official capacity since Houston joined the now-defunct Southwest Conference in 1971, in which Rice was a charter member. Since the breakup of that conference in 1995, the rivalry has continued. In 2005, Rice joined Conference USA, of which Houston was a member, and has again made the rivalry more relevant for conference titles as well. Football is the largest focus of the rivalry and is the sport in which the competition between the two institutions has run the longest. Both teams are part of the NCAA’s Division I Football Bowl Subdivision and have both been part of the Conference USA athletic conference since 2005. The competition includes an annual regular-season football game between the schools. It has existed since 1971, when Houston joined the now-defunct Southwest Conference, of which Rice was also a member. The winner of the game wins the Bayou Bucket. Houston leads this series 24–9. Although the last Southwest Conference football game was part of the series, the teams did not compete against each other in football from 1996 to 1998 as the universities realigned themselves with other conferences. Although the first official meeting between the teams in football didn’t take place until 1971, a scrimmage took place between the inaugural 1946 Houston Cougars team and the Rice Owls. The Owls, having played football since 1914 and being a part of the Southwest Conference, were a much more experienced and accomplished team than the Cougars. In a front of a crowd of thousands, the Owls easily defeated the Cougars. Made famous from football games between the two rivals, University of Houston students often wear red shirts with the words “Ruck Fice” to UH-Rice games. 5 miles apart from each other.. does that not say, “hey I wanna mess with you and take your recruits fans and basis of how you exist” to you?

Notre Dame and Stanford are next on the list. This rivalry is young and not really considered a major rivalry so there’s not much to it. The Irish have a minor rivalry with the Stanford Cardinal (for the Legends Trophy, a combination of Irish crystal with California redwood). The two teams first met in the 1925 Rose Bowl, then played each other in 1942 and again in 1963-64. The modern series began in 1988 and has been played annually except in 1995-96. Notre Dame leads the series 17-6. When the game is played in Palo Alto, it is usually the last game on Stanford’s schedule (as has been the case since 1999), one week after the Cardinal plays archrival Cal in The Big Game.

I finish up with Arkansas and LSU in the Battle for the Golden Boot, an aged old tradition since 1996. I myself was unaware that this was even a rivalry, but I guess everyone needs a rival. Here’s the background on the two teams playing each other. The Arkansas–LSU rivalry, now known as The Battle for the Golden Boot, is the annual college football sports rivalry game between the teams of the University of Arkansas, the Razorbacks, and Louisiana State University, the Tigers. Although the first game between the two teams occurred in 1901, the rivalry between the teams intensified after Arkansas’ entrance into the Southeastern Conference (SEC) in 1992, and later in 1996 with the first awarding of the “Golden Boot” and the official titling of the game “The Battle for the Golden Boot”. The game is now generally played on the day after Thanksgiving. The two teams have played 53 times since 1901, and as of the 2008 contest, 17 consecutive times after Arkansas’ induction into the SEC. During that time, LSU has won 33 games of the series while Arkansas has won 19, including the latest meeting in 2008, between the two teams. Arkansas and LSU have twice ended the game in a tie, in 1906 and the 1947 Cotton Bowl Classic. Arkansas and LSU began playing each other in 1901, when LSU claimed a 15-0 victory in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Between 1906-1936 (with the exception of 1918) and 1953-1956, the two teams played each other during regular seasons on a yearly basis. In addition, the two teams have played each other at the end of the regular season in the Cotton Bowl Classic twice, on January 1 of 1947 and 1966, the former being the second tie in the series while the latter ended in a 14-7 LSU victory. In 1992, LSU and Arkansas resumed their annual rivalry when Arkansas joined the Southeastern Conference after leaving the Southwest Conference. The teams played each other four times in the conference before the introduction of the Golden Boot trophy in 1996. Beginning in 1996, the victor in the rivalry between Arkansas and LSU received the Golden Boot, a trophy that weighs approximately 175 pounds and is generally considered the heaviest “trophy” awarded in all of college football. The trophy itself stands a little over 4 feet tall, is molded out of 24-karat gold, and resembles the outline of the states of Arkansas and Louisiana connected, thus making a boot shape. Since 1996, the game has been set on the day after Thanksgiving, and has been played on alternating years in Little Rock, Arkansas at War Memorial Stadium, which is the secondary home stadium for the Razorbacks, and in Baton Rouge, Louisiana at Tiger Stadium. The series has generally represented an important battle in the SEC Western Division, with either Arkansas or LSU representing the division in the SEC Football Championship Game in many seasons. LSU won the inaugural “trophy meeting” in 1996, 17–7, and for the next six years, the trophy changed hands every meeting, beginning with LSU in 1997. After Arkansas’ “Miracle on Markham” victory in 2002, LSU won the rivalry and the Golden Boot four consecutive times from 2003 to 2006. The trophy returned to Arkansas’ possession on November 23, 2007 when the Razorbacks beat then top-ranked and eventual BCS National Championship game winner LSU 50-48 in three overtimes in Baton Rouge; the victory was the first for former Razorback coach Houston Nutt in five tries in Tiger Stadium. Arkansas successfully defended the Golden Boot again in 2008 with a spectacular come-from-behind victory in the last minute of game play.

The Neocon Republican Terrorist vision of a divided and segregated America, where everybody that is not a white Anglo-saxon Christian is considered cannon fodder and trash, is coming to fruition. It is reminiscent of the reaction to the new population of freed slaves that the white former slave masters had after they were soundly defeated in the Civil War by the Union army.

This is the period in our history called Reconstruction where,for a decade after the Civil War,blacks gained political power, and some attained financial wealth as well.

During Reconstruction, southern whites turned violent when they saw blacks making major gains.

 Reconstruction was followed in the South by domination by the Democratic Party and the enactment of Jim Crow laws, grandfather clauses and similar measures. The bitterness and repercussions from the heated conflicts of the era lasted well into the twentieth century.

Read more about the Reconstruction era here… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconstruction_era_of_the_United_States 

Southern state governments quickly enacted the restrictive “black codes“. However, they were abolished in 1866 and seldom had effect, because the Freedman’s Bureau (not the local courts) handled the legal affairs of freedmen.

The Black Codes indicated the plans of the southern whites for the former slaves.^[24] The freedmen would have more rights than did free blacks before the war, but they still had only a limited set of second-class civil rights, no voting rights, and, since they were not citizens, they could not own firearms, serve on a jury in a lawsuit involving whites or move about without employment.^[25] The Black Codes would limit blacks’ ability to control their own employment. The Black Codes outraged northern opinion. They were overthrown by the Civil Rights Act of 1866 that gave the Freedmen full legal equality (except for the right to vote).^[26

 There were many reported murders of blacks in the south during reconstruction, but many killings of blacks went unreported, and by all accounts, millions upon millions of African-Americans were killed by the hands of bitter southerners, as reported in this account taken from Wikipedia by a soldier visiting from the North...

The number of murders and assaults perpetrated upon Negroes is very great; we can form only an approximate estimate of what is going on in those parts of the South which are not closely garrisoned, and from which no regular reports are received, by what occurs under the very eyes of our military authorities. As to my personal experience, I will only mention that during my two days sojourn at Atlanta, one Negro was stabbed with fatal effect on the street, and three were poisoned, one of whom died.

In todays modern post-racial world, we have organizations and groups that have a mission to keep track of, and to investigate the existence of, the number of racially motivated,or bias motivated crimes against minorities,religious groups, gay Americans.

Currently, America is going through another Reconstruction like era,as we are experiencing the racial backlash of hatred based on the election of our first black president,Barack Obama.

The election of Barack has caused a rise in all forms of hate crimes, as well as the emergence of the Ku Klux Klan as a force to stoke the flames of hatred and encouraging physical action of violence against blacks, Gays, and all other religious groups that are not Christian.

What is most distressing is that the tide of racial violence is being egged on and financed by the foreigner Rupert Murdoch, and the entire Republican party,that at one time represented the opposite of what they believe in now.

For a group that, centuries ago, used to be the main supporter of civil rights, they currently are the main driving force behind this increasing tide of racism and bigotry that is the rage in most of the states in America.

The racist are moving from the south, and invading the once liberal California, in order to spread their southern tradition of hatred and illiteracy. Hate crimes based on sexual orientation shot up 21 percent in Los Angeles County last year, while religious crimes increased 14 percent, because the southern bigots have moved in.

The Daily News in Los Angeles reports that...in 2008  in the Valley,James Shamp, an African-American man who worked as a janitor at a bowling alley in Canoga Park, was shot to death as he was throwing out trash. According to the report, three members of the Canoga Park Alabama gang, which has a long history of violent anti-black crimes, were arrested and charged with murder and hate crime enhancements.

The San Fernando Valley had the most amount of hate crimes in the Los Angeles area.

"Whenever I look at a map of hate crimes, I find there is a great diversity of hate crimes that occur in the San Fernando Valley," said Robin Toma, executive director of the commission. "You have anti-Semitic hate crimes, homophobic hate crimes and racially motivated hate crimes. There is also the phenomena of racialized gang violence."

Sexual orientation hate crimes rose the most last year, with more than 80 percent targeting gay men and at least nine crimes traced to Proposition 8.

A report on a sexually motivated hate crime from the Daily News... A white lesbian couple walking hand-in-hand on the beach in Malibu. The mother of a white tourist family from Arkansas told them, "You are going to burn in hell!" and dumped her water bottle on one of them and punched one in the face...

Please keep that level of ignorance in Arkansas,...and my family is from Arkansas.

The election of the first black president and hot-button issues such as abortion and gay marriage contributed to the spikes, anti-bias groups say. Public figures like Sarah Palin and Glen Beck have done a lot to cause the current racial hatred that whites are visiting on all others.

The two of them have been quite effective when it come to rallying sympathy for groups like the KKK and the Nazis.

USA TODAY is reporting that the number of attacks on blacks increased 8% to 2,876, accounting for seven of every 10 race-motivated crimes.

"There is this kind of extremism going on," says Hilary Shelton, director of the NAACP Washington bureau. He says Obama's election and the recession led to a backlash against blacks as some people look for someone to blame for hard economic times. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-11-23-hate-crimes_N.htm

I say to the world, this is a good look at the so-called ''Post-Racial'' America, a country where race relations and the unity of the races has been usurped by the in vogue traditional American practice of racial bias,hatred and division.

Our country has been going through this cycle for well over a Hundred and 8o years, and by the looks of things, that sad tradition will continue.

What do we do to end this....will we come together, or will we have to resort to our primal instinct, where only the strong survive.

I think that based on 200 years of data and statistics, the tradition of racism is alive, well, and thriving in the United States, and that we are guilty of the same atrocities against humanity...our own people, that we so blatantly accuse our so-called enemies of doing to their minority populations.

We are all truly hypocrites.

Read more on this story from these trusted sources…

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/23/hate-crime-on-rise-gay-re_n_368276.html

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_13829526

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2009/11/20/LA-sees-hike-in-certain-hate-crimes/UPI-95381258737529/

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (Press Release)– Senior Judge Robert L. Echols of the Middle District of Tennessee on Monday sentenced Michael Corey Golden to 14 years and three months in prison and three years of supervised released for vandalizing and burning down the Islamic Center of Columbia, Tenn., the Justice Department announced. Golden pleaded guilty on Nov. 3, 2008, to destruction of religious property and to using fire to commit a felony.

December 6th&7th …. Over the past century, few entertainers have achieved the legendary status of Bill Cosby. His successes span five decades and virtually all media, remarkable accomplishments for a kid who emerged from humble beginnings in a Philly project. In the 1960s, his stand-up act was a coast-to-coast sensation, spawning a string of hilarious, best-selling comedy albums, which went on to win eight Gold Records, five Platinum records and five Grammy Awards. Experience Bill Cosby and his stand-up act at the Tennessee Theater and enjoy a great night of commedy! Get your tickets now and bring the whole family! For more information, visit the Knoxville Destination Guide.

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from SI.com

I was 0-3 combined on my MNF picks.  I’m not terribly disappointed, however, because I still think it was a good call.  The Titans are just an underrated team right now.  And while the Texans did well stopping Chris Johnson from scoring, he still got 150 yards rushing.  Also, they forgot about the run threat from Vince Young which, in my mind, was the game changer here.  That, and the fact that the Texans couldn’t get their run game going enough to help out Schaub, who still had 305 yards and 2 TDs. No turnovers for the Texans, which is a huge plus, but this was a game

they really needed to win if they wanted a shot at the wild card.

Anyway, on the bright side, I was 5-1 combined on my NBA picks last night! I went 2-0 SU, 2-0 ATS, and 1-1 O/U. That puts my Game Factor System at 8-1 this season! What gives me even more comfort in it is the Minnesota-LA Clippers game last night.  My system said to only play if you buy 4 points to make it -1.5 for the Clips

from SI.com

instead of -5.5 (and it told me to buy 3 points for the Blazers-Bulls game). So I decided to do a 4 point teaser, and lo-and-behold the Clippers won by 4! They covered my -1.5 point spread but failed to cover the -5.5! Seeing things work out like that make me happy.  Obviously I didn’t need help with the Blazers game as they won by 24 points but no system can predict that.  I was even nervous with a -3 point spread on that game.

Not all the spreads are out yet so I’ll be back later to give you tonights picks.

A writer can get a creative block so it holds that a photographer should be able to as well right? Here I am, surrounded by all sorts of beautiful farms, land, etc etc and yet another etc but, lately, I haven’t seem to have been able to find inspiration in any of my surroundings.

Perhaps it’s that it’s almost winter, the autumn leaves have mostly falllen from the trees, leaving those few, almost dead but very determined stragglers behind. Perhaps I need a jolt of some winter weather, beautiful snow, ice, the like; although here in Nashville, that only serves to wreak havoc and I end up locking myself in my house to hide. Perhaps it’s that I need a change of scenery to get some of my creative juices flowing and create new works. It could really be any number of reasons causing a creative block, and I’m sure I will soon get back to being productive, but, admittedly, it is frustrating, regardless of the reason.

That got me to thinking… what do others do to break the chains of creative block? Whether you’re an artist, writer, chef, jewelry maker, whatever your craft, what do you do to try to relieve yourself of the frustration of creative block? What is your muse or motivation that gets your creative juices flowing again?

"Gone, Not Forgotten"