More poetry. I know, I know.

In other news, I have  a presentation to write on William Wordsworth and a meeting with the warden of Trinity Hall, both scheduled for tomorrow morning, what joy.

In better news, John and Edward are signing CDs in Dundrum on Friday. Ohmygodohmygodohmygod. Please suggest what I should say/do/wear/ask them in advance, as I don’t how likely I am to become starstruck in the presence of their hair. And cheekbones.

Now, to the poem.

What is Taken, What is Left Behind

You are the last of the old life.

You have seen me in school uniform

with middle-parted hair and sadness

and you see me now, emergent,

tacky with jewellery and velvet,

hairsprayed and sexy. 

There have been tennis courts at night

and phone calls in train stations,

glasses of wine in strange apartments.

We are the last of the old life and

know things the others cannot know.

I see you now across the Front Square

handsome, carrying a newspaper. I am thrilled

that we have fooled them; they will believe

that we have always been this way,

this unassailable, this sure.

So, this week heard Jeffrey Sachs ‘live’ for the first time, at the 240th meeting of Trinity College’s Historical Society. As expected at such an august event, there was much formality, and not a few comic moments (I kept being reminded of the food hall in Harry Potter). Most of the 400 or so of us were there to hear Jeffrey Sachs however, here in Dublin for some high level government meetings, and also this gig at which he was to receive an award – the Historical Society’s Medal for Outstanding Public Discourse.

His presentation – around 25 minutes – was standard Sachs. World is changing; never been like this before; we have the capabilities to end poverty AND prevent the worst outcomes of climate change; economics can be a powerful tool.

What struck me during his talk was not just his optimism – though that was refreshing – but constant reference to future times. With climate change for example, he admitted at least 3 times that “we’ve messed up”. The next generation (so, most of the audience…not me though – Sachs is only four years my senior, ha ha) will reap the benefits or suffer the catastrophe of whatever decisions are made by governments NOW.

He did crack one joke: that economists are put on this earth to make astrologers look good. Sachs is known for his idealism, rubbing shoulders with rock stars and the shakers and movers of our world (and also promoting structural adjustment in post-Soviet eastern Europe – less of a success, according to some). But I suppose at least someone is saying this stuff; he’s pretty sure we have the capacity to change, save our species from its headlong rush towards self destruction, and pull billions of people out of poverty at the same time.

Voice of hope or just blind idealism? You decide. I’ll be long gone before the skies darken and seas swamp our major cities. Sorry about the mess we left.

From the 2004 European Elections in Dublin. Labour candidates Prionsias De Rossa and Ivana Bacik. DeRossa was elected.
From the blurb Prionsias DeRossa must have been very busy in Brussells.

Monday, February 22, 2010, featuring a conversation between Binyavanga Wainaina and Vijay Prashad, about what’s going on with Third Worldism in the 21st century between the African and Asian diasporas.

I’ll introduce them and leave them to talk.

Information

From G. K. Rose, The Story of the 2/4th Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry

“The Colonel and myself were the next victims, and when the time came for the Battalion to go into the line, it was necessary to send for Christie-Miller, of the Gloucesters, to take command and to make Murray from quartermaster into adjutant.”

There is a full page photograph of Lieutenant-Colonel, Geoffrey C. Christie-Miller in:

Story of the 2/5th Battalion the Gloucester Regiment 1914-1918
ed by A.F.Barnes
ISBN: 9781843427582
Format: 2003 N&M Press reprint (original pub 1930) 192pp with 39 b/w photos and 12 maps.

The following dialog is from the Web site: http://somme1916.6.forumer.com/a/posts.php?topic=14&start=. It has some interesting comments on Geoffrey Christie-Miller.

“London Gazette has showing on Geoffrey Christie Miller.”

“16th March, 1916. The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry Captain Geoffrey Christie Miller to be Adjutant, vice Captain (temporary Major) Robert W. Harling.”

“Dated 29th April, 1915. (I Believe this is a missprint for 1916) 16th May, 1916 Oxford and Bucks. L.I. Capt G. Christie-Miller to be temp. Maj. with precedence as from 3. Mar. 1916, but without pay and allowances of that rank prior to 17 May 1916″

“16th June, 1917. TERRITORIAL FORCE INFANTRY Oxford and Bucks. Light Infantry Capt. (temp.) (temp. Maj) G Christie-Miller to be Capt. (temp. Maj.), with precedence as from 5th Aug. 1914. 17th June 1917. Capt. (temp. Maj.) G Christie-Miller relinquishes the temp. rank of Maj. (another missprint ? should read ‘temp. rank of Capt) 17th June 1917.”

“2nd August, 1917. Oxford & Bucks. L.I.- Capt. G. Christie Miller to be actg. Maj. whilst empld. as Maj. on Hd.-Qrs. 17th June 1917.”

“17th June 1918. Gloucestershire Regt.Capt. (actg. Maj.) g. Christie-Miller, M.C., Ox & Bucks. L.I., retains actg. rank of Maj. whilst empld. as 2nd in Command. 8th Apr. 1918.”

“8th March 1919. AWARDED THE DISTINGUISHED SERVICE ORDER. Capt. (A./Lt.-Col.) Geoffrey Christie Miller, M.C., Bucks. Bn., Oxf. & Bucks. L.I., attd. 2/5th Bn. Glouc. R. 15th. July 1919. War Office, 15th July, 1919 The KING has been graciously pleased to confer the Territorial Decoration upon the undermentioned Officers of the Territorial Force who have been duly recommended for the same under the terms of the Royal Warrant dated 17th. August, 1908, as modified by the Royal Warrant dated 11th. November, 1918:- Officers of the Territorial Force who are eligible and recommended for the Territorial Decoration. Yeomanry. Bucks. Battalion, Oxford & Bucks. Light Infantry.- Capt. (A./Lieut. Col.) Geoffrey Christie -Miller, D.S.O. , M.C. Citation for The Award of The D.S.O. Capt. (A./Lt.-Col.) Geoffrey Christie- Miller, M.C., Bucks. Bn., Oxf. & Bucks. L.I., T.F., Attd. 2/5th Bn, Glou Reg. On 30th September and 1st October 1918, his battalion was engaged in operations south of Fleurbaix. He reconnoitered the ground beforehand, established his headquarters far foward, and maintained it there for two days under continuous shelling. The sucessful issue of the fighting was due to his personal control and fine example of indifference to danger. He continued to command his battalion after being wounded.”

The following is a debate around his MC.

‘Given the vaguaries of the London Gazette Search Engine and the propensity for occasionally misspelling names I poked about among the M.C. citations and found the following citation published on 14th November 1916. Temp. Lt. Gerald Cedar Miller, Oxf. & Bucks. L.I. For conspicous gallantry in action. He fought his machine guns with great courage and skill, rendering most valuable services.I am not saying that this is your man , just that the initials are the same and the last part of the name is the same, as is the regiment.’

Mentioned in dispatches:

“Yesterday I found Christie-Miller’s Medal Index Cards at the Nat’l Archive and there is one that notates a MID (Mentioned in Dispatches) in the LG May 25th 1917. This is from Haig’s dispatch of April 9th. This was a huge list (the LG published it over six supplements) with bunches of Ox and Bucks LI and loads of others. Must have been a big battle. Apparently (from the MIC) he went to France in May 1916. I think the Buckinghamshire Battalion of the Ox and Bucks was in reserve at the Beaumont Hamel and Serre part of the Somme and may have been held back when that attack failed.”

I believe it is the same person below from www.peerage.com

Story of the 2/5th Battalion the Gloucester Regiment 1914-1918
ed by A.F.Barnes
ISBN: 9781843427582
Format: 2003 N&M Press reprint (original pub 1930) 192pp with 39 b/w photos and 12 maps.

April 23rd 1918
“On April 23rd the Battalion again distinguished itself. At Bacquerolles Farm, and to the south-east of it, the British line formed a re-entrant. The object of the attack was to straighten out the line. One Battalion from each Brigade in the Division was employed, and from the 184th Brigade the 2/5th Glosters was the selected Battalion.

The attack commenced at 4.30 a.m. and, so far as the Glosters were concerned, it was completely successful. The artillery barrage did its work so well that the enemy was badly demoralized before the infantry came to grips. Setting off from a line taped out by Major Christie Miller and Capt. John Hunter, the Glosters gained all their objectives and consolidated, capturing 79 prisoners and 10 machine-guns.”

June 24th
After the death of Lt.-Col. A. B. Lawson., D.S.O., “ The command of the Battalion was temporarily taken over by Major Christie Miller, M.C., an appointment which was confirmed on July 11th.”

30th September / 1st October 1918.
“An hour or two after the completion of these operations the Germans put over a covey of 77’s at short range on the Battalion Headquarters, which was at once vacated for the open country, but not before one had hit a Battalion signaler and a second knocked some teeth out of the Commanding Officer”

October 1918
“On Lt.-Col. Christie Miller, M.C., proceeding to England, the command of the Battalion was taken over by Major R. H. Huntington, D.S.O. Lt.-Col. Christie Miller had been Commanding Officer since the death of Col. Lawson on June 24th. It was no easy task to succeed such a distinguished officer, but a combination of conscientiousness and courage quickly won for him the confidence and respect of all ranks, and the fact that the battalion maintained its standards of efficiency through the trying months during which he controlled it. Testifies to the value of his leadership.”

When a letter starts that way, it should be a [really, really, really, really, really] good sign =D
Of course, though, I shall never let my guard down for there are still many things to do before I can finally reach that stage. There’s the national exams, my duties as a member of the yearbook team, blah blah blah… I’m just so happy that at least I’m getting one step closer to building my future!

By: Darren Mooney & Daniel Costigan

The College Historical Society held its annual R’n’L debate on the controversial topic of political violence or terrorism on Wednesday April 4th. Organised exclusively by the Records and Libraries sub-committee, the debate was a roaring success.

This Junior Freshman-run debate was quite an interesting departure from the normal discussions that take place in the chamber during the year.

The vibrant and varied discussion of political violence during the debate was a fantastic reflection on the R’n’L. ’I’ve never seen anything like it,’ commented Hist Auditor James O’Brien. ’The energy and enthusiasm shown by the first-years is just amazing.’

The motion ’ ’One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter’ meant that the speakers didn’t address the House in the usual adversarial manner.

The debate quickly became an invitation for speakers to advance from the motion and tackle more broad and varied concepts. Ideas about the pejorative use of the word ’terrorist’, subjective Western value judgements and the need to come up with objective criteria by which to define a terrorist were discussed. The debate also challenged the audience to question the violent foundation of western democracies and further used varied and unique analogies comparing terrorism to beating someone to death in a night-club, or pondering if the photogenic nature of the victims is what makes us feel so disgusted at the concept. Is killing killing or is terrorism something beyond that’

The highlight of the night was former body double for Uday Hussein, Dr Latif Yahia, asserting that the so-called Democratic Nations didn’t have the principles they so strongly advocated. Dr Yahia alleged widespread corruption, hypocrisy and abuse within the West and challenged us to revise our views of ’terrorists’ as depicted through our news services. ’Two things make the Terrorist,’ he warned the audience: ’The politician ’ and the media.’ At the time of printing, Dr Yahia’s speech has been downloaded over 2500 times from the Hist’s website, www.thehist.com.

Students themselves grappled on whether it was possible to justify terrorism, or if they were simply ’psychopaths’ or ’impressionable idiots’. One student speaker assured the crowd that ’terrorism is not only justifiable, but it’s also effective’. Everyone had a different view and there were no two speeches alike on either side throughout the debate.

The debate was a melting pot of different ideas ’ with speakers disagreeing on what a terrorist was. There was even some discussion as to whether one of the guests, Deirdre Clancy, was a terrorist herself after her disabling of a military jet at Shannon in 2003. Or, as Village columnist Harry Browne suggested, was she a freedom fighter’

The massive variety in the guests and speeches make this debate the best R’n’L debate in a long time.

[As was noted earlier, the esteemed Jack White (of the equally esteemed Detroit Jack White Stripes) was awarded an honorary degree from Dublin's Trinity College, which he accepted with affected Southern grace and a ridiculous moustache. He joined the likes of Newt Gingrich, guitarist The Edge of The U2 and of course, infamous cokehound, Pete Doherty.

Here is the attempted transcript of "Pistol" Pete Doherty's acceptance speech.]

Last known photo of an upright Pete Doherty.

Pete: Thank you. Thank you.

(Waits for applause to die down, which it does surprisingly quickly, which in turns surprises Doherty, who stands silently for another couple of minutes like a smack-addled deer in the headlights. A nudge from a decorated Trinity alumni puts him back on task…)

Pete: Um… Well… It’s an honor to be nominated, of course… in of all categories “Heavy Metal.” Sorry to take the Mercury Prize from Jethro and his Tulls, but they are no more “metal” than my Aunt Fanny, innit?

(Briefly displays fanny, which means something completely different over in the U.K. Finding himself underequipped for a fanny display, Pete reverses course and briefly moons the crowd.)

Pete: Fuck Michael Jackson! Rule Britannia!

(As a smattering of restrained and academic boos rain down on Pete’s bowler, he staggers off stage right, only to be accosted by Trinity staffers, who indicate that he is supposed to stagger off stage left. He inquires as to whether they might have some cocaine. The crowd breaks into an a cappella rendition of “What a Waster”…)

-CLT

The last ten years gave us some of the most dominating teams that we’ve ever seen in many of these sports.  It might be easy to call a team dominating in casual conversation, but you have to look at the numbers to determine what teams truly were the best this decade.  First, let me start off by saying if you didn’t win the championship of your respective league, then forget about finding yourself on this list no matter how dominating you may have been at one point (ie. 2007 New England Patriot or 2004-2005 Illinois basketball).  Also, only one team per league period, if you’re not the number one best since 2000, then you’re not here (ie. if teams had multiple dominating teams, only their best is making this list).  Next, I weighed average margin of victory heavily on this list, because it’s not just about winning, but about making the other team feel like they never had a chance (that’s why you won’t find the 2009 New York Yankees here).  Finally, the Los Angeles Lakers won’t make an appearance here even though they won four titles this decade, because the only season they dominated was 1999-2000, and most of those wins came in the previous decade.  Their playoff run in 2000 and most years usually went six or more games, except in 2001 when they went 15-1 in the playoffs, but only managed 58 regular season wins.  Now, the teams that demolished their competition for the last tenth of a century

10.  2004 Boston Red Sox.

-98-64 record, second best in the MLB that season.

-2, post-season series sweeps (3-0 against the Angels in the ALDS and 4-0 versus the Cardinals in the World Series, although the seven game victory of the Yankees in the ALCS was probably sweeter for their fans).

-86, years since their previous World Series Championship

-10 and 105, minimum number of wins and strikeouts that all pitchers in their rotation (Pedro Martinez, Tim Wakefield, Curt Schilling, Derek Lowe, and Bronson Arroyo) ended up with, all with winning records to boot.

-2, guys with 40+ home runs amd 130+ RBIs, Manny (43-130) and Big Papi (41-139).

-6, regulars in their lineup with at least 15 HRs and 70 RBI (Ramirez, Ortiz, Varitek, Millar, Bellhorn, and Damon)

9. 10.  2004 New England Patriots.

-17-2 record, Super Bowl XXXIX champions.

-6, Pro Bowlers (Tom Brady, Tedy Bruschi, CoreyDillon, Larry Izzo, Richard Seymour, and Adam Vinatieri).

-437-260, points for versus points against for an average margin of victory of 11 points.

-7, games ahead of the second place team in the AFC East

-3, Super Bowls won in 4 seasons.

-1, years of experience for their starting cornerbacks, including second year Asante Samuels, rookie Randall Gay, and wide receiver Troy Brown.  Imagine the domination with actual starters.

8. 9.  2004-2005 North Carolina Tar Heels men’s basketball.

-33-4 record (16-3 against ACC teams).

-4, lottery picks in the following summer’s NBA draft (Marvin Williams, Raymond Felton, Sean May, and Rashad McCants)

-6, total players in the NBA from that team.

-5, players who averaged double figures (May 17.5, McCants 16.0, Jawad Williams 13.1, Felton 12.9, and Marvin Williams 11.3)

-17.8, average margin of victory.

-50, field goal percentage.

7. 8.  2008 Trinity College Bantams athletics.

-11-0, record in football en route to winning the New England Small College Championship (since they don’t compete in D-III playoffs, a lot like the Ivy League in the FCS).

-44, win streak in baseball, ultimately beating Johns Hopkins in the D-III championship after losing to them, finishing 45-1.

-11, consecutive National Championships won in squash thanks to this season undefeated team.

-202, matches won in a row in squash, dating back for multiple past seasons.

6. 7.  2006 Italy World Cup soccer team.

-6-1-0 (W-D-L) World Cup record, only one draw versus the USA in pool play prevented absolute perfection.

-1, losses in UEFA qualification and World Cup play, just a loss to Slovenia marred their perfection.

-2, goals allowed by Gianluigi Buffon in 7 matches.

-9, clean sheets by Buffon in the World Cup and UEFA qualification.

-7, members of the 23 named to the All-Tournament team (Buffon, Fabio Cannavaro, Gianluca Zambrotta, Francesco Totti, Luca Toni, Gennaro Gattuso, and Andrea Pirlo).

5. 6.  2008 USA men’s Olympic basketball.

-8-0, 5-0 in pool play.

-32.2, average margin of victory, their largest since 1996.

-0, number games where their opponent finished within double digits of them.

-9, appearances in the NBA finals in the decade by players on the roster.

-6, different players who lead this very balanced team in scoring (Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, Chris Bosh, Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade, and Dwight Howard).

5.  2007-2008 Iowa Hawkeyes wrestling team (thanks to Lucas B. for the heads up on this one)

-21-1 record, 8-0 in the Big Ten (the following season they would go 24-0).

-7, wrestlers that were All-Americans.

-2, individual champions (Mark Perry at 165 and Brent Metcalf at 149) to compliment the team championship they won (the two additional individual championships is the reason I put this team on the list instead of the undefeated 2009 team).

-38.5, margin of victory between them and second place (117.5-79) when they won the team championship.

-22, National Championships the university has won after repeating in 2009.

4.  2001-2002 Detroit Red Wings.

-116 points, 51-14-10-4 (W-L-T-OTL), Stanley Cup Champions.

-15, more points than the next best team.

-2, players who made first team All-NHL, (Nickolas Lidstrom and Chris Chelios), Brendan Shanahan also made second team honors.

-5, players in the top 10 playoff scoring (Shanahan, Sergei Fedorov, Brett Hull, Lidstrom, and Steve Yzerman).

-4, players are already in the Hall of Fame (Yzerman, Hull, Igor Larionov, and Luc Robitaille) and 5 more are shoe-ins once their waiting periods after retirement are over. (Chelios, Lidstrom, Shanahan, Dominick Hasek, and Fedorov)

-6, playoff shutouts by Dominick Hasek.

3.  2001-2002 Connecticut Huskies women’s basketball.

-39-0 record.

-5, starters drafted in the first 6 picks of the WNBA (Sue Bird, Swin Cash, Diana Taurasi, Tamika Williams, and Asjha Jones),  drafted 1^st, 2^nd, 1^st, 6^th, and 4^th, respectively.

-17.5, average margin of victory in the Final Four, including a 23 point defeat of Tennessee.

-10, ranked opponents defeated over the course of the season and NCAA tournament.

-1, rank for the ratings of the championship game against Oklahoma among women’s basketball on TV.

-3, straight National Championships won starting this season (2002-2004)

2.  2008 Penn State Nittany Lions volleyball

-38-0 record, which they again repeated in 2009.

-102, consecutive victories since 2007 and still counting.

-3, National Championships won back-to-back-to-back since 2007.

-6, All-Americans (Nicole Fawcett, Christa Harmotto, Megan Hodge, Alisha Glass, Blair Brown, Arielle Wilson).  The first four were first team.

-2, back-to-back Players of the Year (Fawcett and Hodge).

-114-2, sets won and lost.

1.  2001 Miami Hurricanes football.

-12-0 record, (7-0, in the Big East)

-32.92 points, was their average margin victory, as they outscored teams 512-117.

-5, ranked teams defeated by an average of 32.8 points.

-6, First team All-Americans (Phillip Buchanan, Joaquin Gonzalez, Bryant McKinnie, Ed Reed, Jeremy Shockey, and Todd Sievers).

-13, First team All-Big East (all the above plus: Martin Bibla, Freddie Capshaw, Ken Dorsey, Clinton Portis, Brett Romberg, and Jonathan Vilma).

-11, players drafted by the NFL that spring (McKinnie, Shockey, Buchanon, Reed, Mike Rumph (all in the first round), Portis, Bibla, Najeh Davenport, James Lewis, Daryl Jones, and Gonzalez).

-25, total players from the team in the NFL (the above 11 plus: Willis McGahee, Frank Gore, Kellen Winslow, Andre Johnson, Dorsey, William Joseph, Vince Wilfork, DJ Williams, Vilma, Jerome McDougle, Sean Taylor, Antrel Rolle, Vernon Carey, and Eric Winston), 16 of which were drafted in the first round.

Letter from Shane Ross to TCD graduates with “Business or Computer backgrounds ” . Amongst whats covered is Ross claiming partial responsibility for changing the “tax rules, to give employees of hi-tech companies incentives by way of attractive options…” 

I have to admit, I’m getting addicted to these top 10 of the decade lists.  So I decided why not highlight the most spectacular plays of my favorite sport, football, over the last ten years.  Today’s post is definitely less wordy than yesterday and I will more or less let the pictures, or videos for that matter, speak for themselves.  I considered three factors when looking at these plays: clutch-ness (how much time was left and was it a crucial down), rarity of the play (what are the chances of it happening again), and impact of the play (like did it win the game or a championship).

1. Means to an End January 1, 2007.  Boise State Broncos vs. Oklahoma Sooners, Fiesta Bowl.

Hook and lateral on 4^th down for a game tying 50 yard touchdown, direct snap for a wide receiver pass option touchdown in overtime on 4^th down, and the statue of liberty for a two point conversation to win by one.  WOW!

Clutch: 10+1. Boise gets a bonus point since it was a combo of three amazing plays, all in the closing seconds and on 4^th down, and all in game-tying or game-winning situations.

Rarity: 10+1.  Not only was it one play executed perfectly that you just never see, it was three.

Impact: 8. Secured an undefeated season for the Broncos, won the Fiesta Bowl for them, and proved non-BCS teams can take down giants.

2.  Two Small Steps for Holmes, One Giant Leap for Pittsburgh February 1, 2009.  Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Arizona Cardinals, Super Bowl XLIII.

Ben Roethlisberger tosses the game-winning touchdown to a diving and heavily defended Santonio Holmes, who just barely gets the tips of his toes in the end zone.

Clutch: 9. It was a pretty astonishing grab, but the Steelers still had 35 seconds and two downs if they really wanted to sweat it.

Rarity: 9. A play that great doesn’t happen too often.  Would’ve been a ten, if Mike Wallace wouldn’t have just done the same thing to the Packers last weekend.

Impact: 10.  Won the championship for the Steelers, in arguably the best Super Bowl ever played.

3.  One Yard Short January 30, 2000.  Tennessee Titans vs. St. Louis Rams, Super Bowl XXXIV.

Steve McNair passes to Kevin Dyson on the last play of the game as they try to tie the game, but Rams’ linebacker Mike Jones preserves the title for St. Louis with his game winning tackle.

Clutch: 9. Ended up being the last play of the game, but if the TD was good, there still would have been an extra point and a potential overtime.

Rarity: 7. Guys make game saving tackles at the end a lot, this was for the Super Bowl though.

Impact: 10.  HUGE Super Bowl winning tackle, just a yard shy of the end zone.

4.  That’s Using your Head February 3, 2008.  New York Giants vs. New England Patriots, Super Bowl XLII.

Eli Manning escapes a sure sack, scrambles out and finds David Tyree over the middle to keep the drive alive on 3^rd and 5.  Tyree acrobatically catches the ball by pinning it against his helmet.

Clutch: 8. Part of a Super Bowl winning drive, but they still needed a fourth down run by Brandon Jacobs and a game-winning TD catch by Plaxico Burress.

Rarity: 8. The combo of Eli Manning actually being elusive for a play and a hand plus helmet football sandwich of a catch make this a very rare feat.

Impact: 9. Didn’t win the Super Bowl for the Giants on this play, but if Eli is sacked or even if the pass is incomplete, chances are pretty good that the Patriots go into the history books as the only 19-0 team.

5.  Lateral-palooza October 27, 2007. Trinity College vs. Millsaps, D-III regular season.

Seven of the eleven Trinity players touched the ball on this unbelievable collection of laterals for the game-winning kick return touchdown.

Clutch: 8. Last play of the game, but its only D-III regular season.

Rarity: 10.  Fifteen laterals in 62 seconds…it will never be accomplished again.

Impact: 6. Helped the Bantams stay undefeated, although they wouldn’t end the season that way like they had from 2003-2005.

6.  Music City Miracle January 8, 2000.  Tennessee Titans vs. Buffalo Bills, AFC Wild Card Playoff.

Frank Wycheck fields the kickoff and passes a very controversial lateral to Kevin Dyson which he runs in for the game winning touchdown.

Clutch: 10.  Last play of a playoff game on the kickoff facing elimination.

Rarity: 7. Teams throw across the field or at least try to as a final prayer often.  This time it worked.

Impact: 6. Won the game, and allowed the Titans to make a run at the Super Bowl so play #3 could happen.

7.  It’s Good! February 3, 2002.  New England Patriots vs. St. Louis Rams, Super Bowl XXXVI.

Adam Vinatieri nails a 48-yard field goal for the 20-17 victory.

Clutch: 10. Can’t get more clutch than a field goal to win the Super Bowl with no time left.

Rarity: 3. It wouldn’t be the first or the last 48-yarder or last second FG made by Vinatieri.

Impact: 10. Won the Super Bowl for the Patriots, and in doing so, started their dynasty.

8.  Did he just do that?! September 10, 2005.  Alabama Crimson Tide vs. Southern Miss Golden Eagles, FBS regular season.

Brodie Croyle throws up a Hail Mary pass just before halftime and Tyrone Prothro catches it behind the defenders head and flips into the end zone still wrapped around the defender with the ball behind the opponent’s head.

Clutch: 7. Big play, but it was only 4^th down at the end of the first half.

Rarity: 9. One of the most acrobatic and difficult catches I have ever seen.  It will be hard-pressed to ever be replicated.

Impact: 4. Started Bama’s comeback towards a 30-21 victory after being down by 11 at that point, but all ten wins were vacated that season for recruiting violations.

9.  Tech-nical Knockout November 1, 2008.  Texas Tech Red Raiders vs. Texas Longhorns, FBS regular season.

Graham Harrell throws a dart to Michael Crabtree as he tip-toes in the last five yards to break the tie and win 39-33.

Clutch: 9. Last play of regulation, although the game could have still gone into OT.

Rarity: 5. Crabtree made spectacular catch after spectacular during his time at Texas Tech.

Impact: 6. Knocked Texas out of the #1 ranking and got the Red Raiders primed for a BCS title, however, they would fall to Oklahoma, taking a lot of meaning away from what this play could have stood for.

10.  109.88 Yards to Glory November 4, 2007.  San Diego Chargers @ Minnesota Vikings, NFL Week 9.

Antonio Cromartie took a 58-yard Ryan Longwell field goal try back over 109 yards for the touchdown to end the first half.

Clutch: 4. It was only the end of the first half, there was still another 30 minutes left.

Rarity: 9. Sure, Devin Hester returned a field goal for a TD against the Giants, but Cromartie’s return was 109.88 yards.  That means someone else would have to work their way into the remaining 4.32 inches he didn’t use before the endline to try and break his record.

Impact: 3. It will go down as the longest touchdown in NFL history, but the Chargers didn’t even win the game.

Rhode Island Fights Church over Athletic Fields

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091227/ap_on_re/us_rel_athletic_fields_catholics

After going through turmoil the whole damn year, the day arrived – the Grade 8 exam was today and to be honest, it wasn’t the greatest, but fine anyway. Grade 8 happens to be the last in the list of grade examinations after which one can take the diploma exams, and passing grade 8 is no piece of cake, its the whole bakery.

Pieces in Grade 8 become too classical with a whole lot of stress given to the technical aspect. My selection of pieces:

Praeambulum (from Partita no. 5 BWV 829) – Bach
Classical to the limit, this piece was more like a finger exercise, going up, going down, scale change, back to square one. There wasn’t a lot of dynamic change to this one, but definitely had a shape to it.

Vogelflug (op. 127) – Sigfrid Karg-Elert
Now this was pure mean stuff, mean to the core. The piece was modern and thus lacked a basic melody to it. A mismash of notes, scaleless, terror. The title “Bird Flight” just gave the impression that its got to be light, fast. And the german instructions given in the piece just added to the misery. THIS was the piece that took me ages to work out and finished two days before the actual thing.

Take the ‘A’ Train – Billy Strayhorn
Mr Billy was the arranger for Duke Ellington, a jazz specialist who was, in one word, Legendary. Duke sat there, expressionless, but his fingers brought out the true FEEL through his works. This was my selection because I had this liking for the piece, but who knew that it would beat the hell out of all my fingers since 4 fingered tetrachords weren’t my cup of tea at all! But towards the end of preparations, I thought I stood a chance only with this piece because for one, I enjoyed playing this one, and secondly, this was the only piece I was confident with.

My preparations for the whole thing had been disastrous to the effect that I completed my last piece two days before the D-day, and that too only the notes. Scales, Arpeggios and exercises were to be played by memory/sight reading because I had NO time to actually practice these! And there was sight reading, which even after practicing gave no results. Sight reading is a common method of torture made compulsory for all students of the higher grades (6-8) wherein one must read a piece within 30 seconds and play it out. Usually, pieces given to grade 8 students are a page long and I have always avoided the reading bit by improvising my way out of it (Caution: highly inadvisable to do so). Pieces are marked in three categories – Notational Fluency, Technical Ability and Playing to an Audience. I solely relied on the last category to make the cut.

The exam. 4.16. And I walked in. The examiner was an old uncle Mr. Evans, who had called me one of  his ‘victim’ the evening before. Started with the scales and arpeggios – played through but arpeggios were a disaster. The nervousness had started getting to a high when I played my exercises, messing the last one completely. And now came the time to play the pieces.

Praeambulum started well, till the second page, after which I just lost control over the whole friggin piece. Finger exercises at a fast pace, that too on an acoustic piano for beginner keyboardists is capital punishment. Surprisingly I played through will enough confidence to give it a big, definite ending. Bach sucks.

Vogelflug began with creepiness, soft, nimble, quick. A few slip ups, too many sustained notes, and half a page later, managed to get a grip to the whole thing and ended on a light, very soft roll.

Take the ‘A’ Train. Now before I began this piece, I had royally messed up more than 60% of my exam, with the Torturous Sight Reading still to follow. And I said, “lets play as if I’m practicing, with full flow. This doofus is a one time visitor. ” And I played, sang the notes, swayed as if I’m playing live in a jazz concert, getting that feel into every note I played. Ofcourse, there were slipups, but concert pianists never let the audience know that there were slipups and I followed suit. Managed the dynamics fairly well, emphasis on alternate beats with a low walking bass on the left hand, overall it was sweet.

Additional tests began. Sight reading, to be honest, was a major disaster. I couldn’t read beyond the first two bars, just knew that the scale was a B flat major. And the rest was just improvised. Got the last bar in place but the rest was just…there. Ear tests were good, apart from pointing out mistakes in the second question, got one on three I guess. The first question asks us to talk about the piece in general, structure, texture, dynamics, time signature etc. I talked for like 15 min JUST about the piece, baroque period, sarabande type of a piece, with a 6/8 time signature to it, like a waltz. Dunno what the examiner thought once I left.

Got a message from my teacher the same night. I had *PASSED*. Not by a big margin, 4 marks, but I PASSED. She couldn’t believe it, she said she’d be pretty unhappy with Trinity if I passed. But, I *still* passed, and that fact gives me enough happiness because I know, I could have gotten more marks with more practice, but with the amount of practice I put in, 5 -6 hours a day for a week and a half, I’m satisfied.

Claire Tully, the Irish page three model has had her weekly column with the Irish Sun dropped. The reason, well it’s a recession and the Irish Sun allegedly says it’s because of budget cutbacks. The outrage amongst the male readers of the Irish Sun has reached fever pitch with a group started on Facebbok.com to get the Irish Sun to change their mind to the email system at the Irish Sun being inundated with requests to get them to change their mind.

In case you don’t know who Clare Tully is well here are a few facts about our Irish girl. In 2003, she got 600 points in her leaving cert. She then went to study Biochemistry and Immunology in Trinity College, where she graduated with a first class honours degree in 2007. The following year she became the first Irish page three model to pose topless for the Irish Sun Newspaper.

Claire’s column in the Irish Sun was a light hearted view with everything from President Obama to violence against women to football, one of her favourite’s passions. Many readers bought the Irish Sun for Claire’s column in the Irish Sun and she will be missed very much by all her fans. Although the Irish Sun’s loss, it may be someone else’s gain as we are sure that another Irish newspaper will want to snap up our Claire and bring her loyal legion of fans with her. If you disagree with the Irish Sun dropping Claire’s column vote with your pocket and buy another newspaper.

This is the response we got from the Irish Sun today by email after we asked why Claire’s column was gone.

Dear Keith,

Blank Blank sent me your email. Thanks for taking the time to write to us and I really appreciate your loyalty to the Irish Sun and that you care enough to write in.

Claire Tully is still very much part of our team. We use her on p3 and she is heavily involved in promotional work and other photo shoot jobs. We pay close attention to feedback on all our columns and it showed hers was not what the majority of our readers wanted. However she does have a loyal army of fans – and she will keep on contributing. I can assure you Claire will continue in the Irish Sun – just not in a column.

We do have 11 Irish columnists already as it stands. These are: Ben Dunne, Xpose, Dustin the Turkey, David O’Leary, Joe Kinnear, Tony Cascarino, Mick O’Dwyer, Graham Geraghty, Babs Keating, Sinead Desmond, Dermot Keely,

It has been our aim to give our readers a much more local paper. And the sales and reader interaction with the Ben Dunne column has proved a great success. We aim to let our readers know this great new package we have over the coming months with a big TV, radio and billboard campaign.

I hope you continue to buy the Irish Sun and I thank you for caring about what we produce every day.

Paul Clarkson

Deputy Editor

Irish Sun

If you would like to help the campaign to bring back Claire Tully’s column in the Irish Sun, leave a comment below or visit the Groups section on www.facebook.com and search for ‘Bring Claire Tully’s column back to the Sun Newspaper’

Archibald Lampman

Archibald Lampman was born on November17, 1861, at Morpeth, Ont.—and died on February 10, 1899, Ottawa, important Canadian poet of the Confederation group, whose most characteristic works scenes and incidents of the outdoors.

Educated at Trinity College in the University of Toronto, he lived in Ottawa, employed in the post office department of the Canadian civil service, from 1883 until his death.  He collaborated with two other Ottawa poets in the writing of a weekly column, “At the Mermaid Inn,” in the Toronto Globe (1892-93).            .

Lampman was repelled by the mechanization of urban life and escaped to the countryside whenever possible.  Influenced by the craftsmanship and perfection of form of classical poetry and by the lyrical verse of such English Romantic poets as Wordsworth, Shelley, Tennyson, and Keats, he wrote nature poems celebrating the beauties of Ottawa and its environs and the Gatineau countryside of Quebec.

Among his fine nature poems are “Morning on the Lievre,” “Heat,” and “In November.”  Of the many sonnets that Lampman wrote, a number are admirable—e.g., “Winter Evening,” “A January Morning,” “Evening,” “Solitude,” and “The Frog.”  Although Lampman was a Socialist and a critic of party politics and organized religion, only a few short poems reflect his radical ideas on politics and economics.

During his lifetime Lampman published two volumes of verse,  Among the Millet and Other Poems (1888) and Lyrics of Earth (1893). After his death, his friend and literary executor, Duncan Campbell Scott, edited The Poems of Archibald Lampman (1900) and Lyrics of Earth:  Poems and Ballads (1925).  Several uncollected poems were published in 1943.

Despite arriving at the opening time of 6.30pm, the Oisin Gallery was already packed with people for the first student organised and curated exhibition of art from the students and staff of Trinity College, organised by DU VISARTS society.  There were some pretty fantastic pieces exhibited, which are on sale at a very reasonable price. If you’re looking for a bargain piece of artwork, then get down to the Oisin Gallery VERY quickly – the exhibition is open until 5.30pm tomorrow evening.

Guys just to let you all know, there will be a meeting at 6 in the swift theatre tomorrow, Wed 9th December. Hopefully shouldn’t take too long! Hope to see you all there!

I’ve somehow found myself editing the Ents Magazine for Trinity College Student’s Union, which basically involves writing numerous biographies of  bands composed entirely of information pulled from the internet. It’s always unpleasant having to write about bands in such a second-hand manner, because all personality really goes out the window, and you’re left with something that amounts to very little more that a jumped-up Wikipedia entry. Still, having said that, I’m still going to post them anyway…

So here you go, a piece on Jenna Toro, who’ll be coming to play at Trinity very shortly.