Archive for December, 2007
A Look Back, A Look Ahead . . . Some Things Don’t Change
By Christopher Gabriel, Blog Harbor Every December when New Year’s Eve rolls around, it’s long since been the norm for newspapers, magazines, radio stations and cable news outlets to offer up a year-end recap of all that’s gone on in the world. More often than not you’ll read, watch or listen to a well-written or highly-produced piece that is [...]
The Simple Language of Parenting and Football Coaches
I was watching ESPN last week and they were doing a piece on some of the top assistant coaches in college football that should be in line for head coaching jobs in the next year or two. As the film rolled, one coach after another was shown on the sideline going through a series of hand gestures and body [...]
Looking for Bobby (Petrino)
The Scene: Tuesday, December 4, 2007, The Bison Club of Spoon River Junction, Georgia. Tonight is the annual, much-heralded and highly anticipated, Gathering of the Bison Holiday Bash. One night a year, the proud lineage of Georgia Bison (the nation’s largest chapter), all 4500 of them, wearing their holiday “uniform” of black pants, black shirt and [...]
The Weather Conspiracy: Oh, It’s Real
I’m having a really hard time figuring out who to blame on this whole winter weather deal, but someone is going to pay for my suffering. Oh, don’t misunderstand: It’s not because there’s been too much winter already. No, no, no. It’s my lack of traditional, Minnesota winter, year after year after year, that has me [...]
Memo to 1972 Miami Dolphins: Go Away
Let’s get one thing out in the open right off the bat: I have no bone to pick with the Miami Dolphins football organization. None whatsoever. Although I’ve never been a Dolphins fan, I most certainly am not a Dolphins hater. Although I’m a passionate pro and college football fan, I care no more or less [...]
The Christmas Spirit and Customer Service: An Unhappy Marriage
Christmas is, without question, my favorite time of the year. The meaning of the holiday, the music, the snow, the decorations, the hot apple cider . . . I’ll take it all, and more. I love this time of the year. And yet . . . the Grinch lurks. In this case, I’m speaking of The Collective [...]
My Daughter, A Snowman and a Lesson
It’s the first week of December here in Minneapolis and it’s snowing. A lot. If you’re scoring at home, today’s heavy snow makes it two large snow days over the past 96 hours. 10 years ago, no one would blink at that. But it’s been at least four years since that kind of snow has fallen [...]
BCS a Mess After Another Wild Saturday
It’s a mess. In a college football season that has made the improbable the only constant, Saturday’s championship and rivalry showdowns followed the 2007 script to perfection: What you were sure would happen . . . did not. The championship scenario was very simple: West Virginia, a huge favorite over Pittsburgh in Morgantown, merely had to [...]
Championship Saturday in College Football
The first Saturday in December, traditionally, is when college football and clarity meet head-on. Conference championships are won, the bowl picture is cleared up and, more often than not, all hell breaks loose. Today shapes up as yet another one of those days. Your biggest games: Missouri vs. Oklahoma, Big 12 Championship Tennessee vs. LSU, SEC Championship [...]
