A Permanent Reminder of a Temporary Feeling?

UPDATE to There Is No Dumbass Vaccine:

In a press conference today, Josh Howard finally spoke up about comments he made over the summer disrespecting the US National Anthem.

To wit: "I'd like to say that I'm truly and really am sorry for everything that's happened in the last five months. This is not the way I carry myself, not how I want to be portrayed. I'm sorry to everybody I've offended. I'm upset with myself and the way I've acted. It was me joking around," he said.

"Guys were out there making fun and I decided to get along in it. I wasn't using my head. I guess the valuable lesson I did learn is that words really do hurt. You're held accountable for what you say."

"That's not me. ... I went to military school. I have friends that served in the military. I know how it is to wake up and salute the flag. The national anthem every game, I have my hand over my heart."

While it'd be nice to believe Mr. Howard, I'm skeptical. Saying "this is not the way I carry myself" seems a tad disingenuous to me given his history, but time will tell. He had to say something eventually; we know that Mark Cuban defended him after his remarks were made public, and Maverick's Coach, Rick Carlisle, flew all the way to Howard's home in North Carolina to have a "come to Jesus" chat with him, so apparently that was enough of a shot in the, er...well, you know...to motivate him to have his agent write up an apology for him. :P

For the most part, Mr. Howard's statements sound remarkably similar to apology lines I've heard trotted out by other celebrities for various infractions over the years. Seems people get real sorry when they're caught.

And while it doesn't affect my personal life what Mr. Howard believes, his thoughtless comments were hurtful, inflamatory and representative of a damaging mind set in this country. Now that he has made a public show of contrition, I can only hope that he walks the talk....that would be a "valuable lesson" indeed.

I know I'm not the only one that will be watching, a lot of impressionable young minds will be, too.

Chess King

My son likes to play chess.

Yesterday he spent the day competing in a chess tournament and experienced the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. During down time between games he relaxed playing ping pong, foosball and bumper pool. What a great day.

After getting beat in the final round by the highest ranked player in the tournament, he was hugely disappointed. It didn’t matter to him that the other player was older and had more years of experience – he really wanted to win that match. He knew that if he won the round, it would mean a trophy. He assumed that if he lost, he was out of the hardware. What he didn’t figure into his calculations was the outcome of the other matches and the computer rankings based on difficulty of competition.

He ended up in a 5 way tie for the final trophy…and won. Defeat turned into victory in an instant. In addition to lessons in chess and statistics, success and failure; I think he now has a driving the desire to try harder for a bigger trophy in the future. Regardless, his pride was blinding.

There Is No Dumbass Vaccine

Color me stupid, but since when does being Black mean you shouldn’t respect the National Anthem?

I, for one, am tired of the arrogance of some individuals in this great nation that throw their race around as an excuse; seemingly wallowing in a victim mentality in perpetuity. Josh Howard exemplified this mentality (in spite of the fame & fortune he has achieved) in comments he proudly announced into a camera during Allen Iverson’s charity flag football game last July. Specifically, " 'The Star-Spangled Banner' is going on. I don't celebrate this sh*t. I'm black. G*d damn Obama and all that sh*t.”

In the words of Don Henley & Glen Frey:
You drag it around like a ball and chain
You wallow in the guilt; you wallow in the pain
You wave it like a flag, you wear it like a crown
Got your mind in the gutter, bringin' everybody down
Complain about the present and blame it on the past
I'd like to find your inner child and kick its little ass
All this bitchin' and moanin' and pitchin' a fit
It's gotta stop sometime, so why don't you quit
Get over it.

Mark Cuban says that "Josh really is a good guy with a great heart. He just doesn't do a good job of showing that side of himself publicly. We will work on that."

Ohhh, I see. It’s not WHAT he said, it’s HOW he said it? Riiight.

I don’t want this to be about why Mark Cuban feels the need to make comments on Josh Howard’s behalf, but if it’s a communication problem rather than a character problem, I’d like to hear Josh’s explanation…no excuses.

Mr. Howard, I will be pleased to make my judgement on [sic] the content of your character, and not the color of your skin.

UPDATE 9/29/08, Josh Howard speaks.

See: A Permanent Reminder to a Temporary Situation?

Ahoy! It's Talk Like A Pirate Day!

Today is the 13th annual International Talk Like A Pirate Day. As any Parrothead worth her salt knows, pirating is in the blood. So in the spirit of the day, lets pillage and plunder and hoist some fine ale. Arrrgh.

If you'd like to impress your friends and co-workers with your knowledge of pirate stuff, you can find a bucket o' links here that'll keep yo knickers on for hours! You'll find everything from translators, to Pirate Performers, Sea Shanties, and "Real" Pirate History (& more) linked.

Here are some fun facts about this peculiar yet wonderful holiday:

It was invented in 1995 by John Baur ("Ol' Chumbucket") and Mark Summers ("Cap'n Slappy"), who proclaimed September 19 each year as the day when everyone in the world should talk like a pirate.--It was first an inside joke between the founders but it gained exposure when Baur and Summers sent a letter about their invented holiday to syndicated columnist Dave Barry in 2002.--September 19 was chosen because it was the birthday of Summers' ex-wife and consequently would be easy for him to remember. There is a list of the top ten pirate pick-up lines on the Official National Talk Like A Pirate Day website. You can read them here.

Oh, and no "Talk Like A Pirate Day" would be complete without an offering by the Head Pirate (Jimmy Buffett, of course) himself...

Here's "A Pirate Looks At Forty", recorded live at the Bankie Banx’s Dune Preserve, Rendezvous Bay in Anguilla, British West Indies in March 2007.

An Attitude of Gratitude after Hurricane Ike

A week ago, Hurricane Ike was bearing down on the Texas Coast. Satellite images showed a tempest larger than the State of Texas...in fact, Ike was as large as the entire Gulf of Mexico (approx. 615,000 square miles). It was the size (about 70% larger than "average") of Ike rather than it's strength that created a situation ripe for dangerous waves and flooding in low lying areas.

Friends living in the area were evacuating and protecting their property to weather the storm. And I'm grateful to report that all of them survived with repairable damage, although most are still without electricity. Sadly, a relative of one friend lost her home due to a large tree falling into it, but she survived because she was riding out the storm with a neighbor.

I'm grateful for the "cool" front that blew into Texas alleviating the humidity and heat for those surviving without electricity.

I'm grateful for all of the first responders who have worked tirelessly to rescue and assist others, cleaning debris, repairing power lines and infrastructure while their own homes and families struggled to overcome without them.

I'm grateful that lives were saved because so many people evacuated.

I'm grateful for the Houston area media that kept live feeds going 24 hours a day so folks in the area and around the world could see what was happening, as it happened. And they continue to chronicle the aftermath, reporting on what is being done and where help is still needed.

I'm also grateful for all the memories I have of visits to Galveston Island over the years. The first time my son dipped his toes into the Sea was in the waters off Galveston Beach.

And just last October we went shelling underneath the pilings of Murdoch's Bath House and the Balinese Room....so much history now washed away by the maelstrom.

Deep in the South of Texas

not so long ago,
there on a crowded island
in the Gulf of Mexico.
It didn't take too much money,
man, but it sure was nice.
You could dance all night if you felt all right,

drinking whiskey and throwing dice.
And everybody knows
it was hard to leave.
And everybody knows
it was down at the Balinese.

~ZZ Top, "Balinese" from Fandango

And lest we not forget, the Memorial to those lost in the Great Storm of 1900 withstood the crashing waves of Hurricane Ike; again representing strength in survival.

Big Storm Coming Soon...

One hundred & eight years ago this week (Saturday, September 8, 1900), A Great Storm destroyed much of Galveston, Texas killing between 6,000 and 12,000 people and is the largest natural disaster ever to hit the United States. (By comparison, Hurrican Katrina claimed approximately 1,800 souls.)


So it is that this week another Big Storm is headed for the Texas Gulf Coast, following a remarkably similar path to that of the Great 1900 Storm.

Unlike the residents of Galveston in 1900; Gulf Coast residents today have the benefit of modern weather forecasting, satellite images and fast, reliable transportation out of the Hurricane zone.

Much like the Thursday before the Great Saturday storm 108 years ago, I'm hearing from several of my friends in the area that it is a beautiful day on the Gulf Coast. The calm before the storm as the saying goes.

But as we pray in rememberance of the approximately 3,000 victims of the terrorist attacks on the United States 7 years ago today, let us also pray for those lost long ago to a terror from the Sea they didn't see coming, and those in the path of Hurricane Ike that aims for the Texas coast this Saturday.