Hearts will be glowing.......................

Andy Williams................................It's the Most Wonderful Time






Diana Ross..................................It's the Most Wonderful Time

Talk with you tomorrow.........................

There were bells.......................

Peggy Lee..............................................Till There Was You

Following yonder star...............

The Beach Boys.............................................We Three Kings





Ella Fitzgerald............................................We Three Kings

OK, Coach...........

"He'll get it; he'll learn. But I'd rather have that fire than I
would a guy that you have to light his pilot light to get fire.
You don't want to put that fire out. But instead of a raging
fire, you want him to channel it like a torch."

"Maybe he trusts himself too much."

"Hank Aaron told me when I came up, 'It is natural to be
nervous.  Just don't be scared.'"

"Perfect practice makes perfect results."

-Dusty Baker

The glory that is a Danny MacAskill video

Enjoy the scenery, enjoy the show, enjoy the ride.



thanks jonco

Nice horsey...................

When the kids were younger, giving them horsey back rides was
part of the deal.  One day, Arturo Toscanini's Overtures CD was
playing.  The kids recognized the theme from the Lone Ranger
and thought a horsey ride to that particular tune might be even
greater fun.  It seemed like a good idea at the time.  On that CD,
the William Tell Overture checks in at eleven minutes and forty-
five seconds.  That is a long horsey back ride.  Then times it by
two. The finale, just by itself, offered quite the cardio work-out. 
That all seems like a long time ago, but it is a good memory......
makes me tired just thinking about it now.  Enjoy the finale:

Yep...............................

thanks nicole

On goal setting..............

"Let me share with you an intriguing thought.  The real value
in setting goals is not their achievement.  The acquisition of
the things you want is strictly secondary.  The major reason
for setting goals is to compel you to become the person it
takes to achieve them."

"Remember this rule:  Income rarely exceeds personal
development."

-Jim Rohn

image courtesy of

Inexhaustible.....................

"No man, therefore, is poor because nature is poor, or
because there is not enough to go around.  Nature is an
inexhaustible storehouse of riches; the supply will never
run short.  Original Substance is alive with creative
energy and is constantly producing more forms."

-Wallace Wattles


image courtesy of

It's not the way you smile.........

The Beatles...............................................Baby It's You

From the mind that is Facebook..........

thanks jonco

Shall I play for you.........................

Bob Seger................................................ Little Drummer Boy





Bob Dylan................................................Little Drummer Boy

OK, Coach.........................

Don't go to the grave with life unused.

He died right after he retired, and seeing that made me feel
more conscious of a man needing a motive to live. If I ever
got out of coaching, I would have to get a job somewhere,
or I'm afraid I'd wilt on the vine, too.

I gave them my respect first..........There is no age limit
on respect.

If somebody mistreats you, treat 'em good. That kills 'em.

To have the kind of year you want to have, something has
to happen that you can't explain why it happened.
Something has to happen that you can't coach.

-Bobby Bowden

This day in American history.................

an abridged film of Roosevelt's address to Congress, 12/8/1941:



The full text of the address:

“Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speaker, Members of the Senate, and of the House of Representatives:
Yesterday, December 7th, 1941 -- a date which will live in infamy -- the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

The United States was at peace with that nation and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its government and its emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific.

Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in the American island of Oahu, the Japanese ambassador to the United States and his colleague delivered to our Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent American message. And while this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or of armed attack.

It will be recorded that the distance of Hawaii from Japan makes it obvious that the attack was deliberately planned many days or even weeks ago. During the intervening time, the Japanese government has deliberately sought to deceive the United States by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace.

The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces. I regret to tell you that very many American lives have been lost. In addition, American ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu.

Yesterday, the Japanese government also launched an attack against Malaya.

Last night, Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong.

Last night, Japanese forces attacked Guam.

Last night, Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands.

Last night, the Japanese attacked Wake Island.

And this morning, the Japanese attacked Midway Island.

Japan has, therefore, undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. The facts of yesterday and today speak for themselves. The people of the United States have already formed their opinions and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our nation.

As commander in chief of the Army and Navy, I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense. But always will our whole nation remember the character of the onslaught against us.

No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.

I believe that I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost, but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us.

Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory, and our interests are in grave danger.

With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph -- so help us God.

I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7th, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire." 

Thanks Dennis

Fun with meaningless statistics..........

The headline blares................

Home sellers got a median 95 percent of
their home’s listing price in 2011.

So says the National Association of Realtors (as reported by
the AGbeat blog).  The story line is designed to make one
think that Sellers "did well" in 2011. The story also contained
this quote:

"The ratio of sales price to listing price and the time on market were “highly correlated” this year, according to the report. Typically, the longer a home is on the market, the greater the price discount. Homes on the market for under one week typically received 100 percent of their asking price with 2 percent actually receiving more than their asking price. Homes on the market 17 weeks or more typically received 90 percent of their original asking price."

I'm sorry to report that the only good news contained in this report is not that Sellers "did well", but the Brokers and Sellers who offer their properties for sale at a price that reflects true market conditions will have success.  Those who overprice their properties will ultimately have to respect the values of the marketplace.  I would like my national association more if they were less hype-prone.

desultory reading.......................

From the pen of Van Wyck Brooks:

"It is desultory reading that develops one's taste.  It is
fortunate that when we are young we are unfocused."

How about when we are older?

Always the optimist.............

This glass is clearly half full..................

Doesn't matter what they say.............

The Shirelles.......................................................Baby It's You

Fun with test taking......................

Find out if you have been paying attention to the news - here.

Interestingly enough, a majority of the questions are in the
identify-this-picture category.  No in-depth analysis needed.

Join the 8%.  With Kurt and Doug already in, it is a pretty
heady club.

Tidings of comfort and joy...................

Jethro Tull..................................God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen







Jars of Clay................................God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen



Thanks Ray

OK, Coach............................

"It’s the journey that matters. Learning is more important than the test. Practice well, and the games will take care of themselves."

"What’s important is not the accolades and memories of success but the way you respond when opportunities are denied."

"I need to treat everybody fairly but fair doesn’t always mean equal."

"And if God has given you a lot of ability, I believe you should be held to a higher level of expectation."

"They were unwillingly to give 100 percent if they didn’t personally think it was important. What you don’t understand is the champions know it’s all important."

"God’s definition of success is really one of significance – the significant difference our lives can make in the lives of others."

"A good leader gets people to follow him because they want to, not because he makes them."

"Keeping ridiculous hours doesn’t mean you’ll be successful."

-Tony Dungy

Culture...................

"A man is the prisoner of his power."

"Our efficiency depends so much on our concentration, that
Nature usually in the instances where a marked man is sent
into the world, overloads him with bias, sacrificing his
symmetry to his working power."

"But worse than the harping on one string, Nature has
secured individualism, by giving the private person a high
conceit of his weight in the system.  The pest of society is
egotists.  There are dull and bright, sacred and profane,
coarse and fine egotists.  'Tis a disease that, like influenza,
falls on all constitutions."

"Each animal out of its habitat would starve."

"The hardiest skeptic who has seen a horse broken, a pointer
trained, or, who has visited a menagerie, or the exhibition of
the Industrious Fleas, will not deny the validity of education.
'A boy,' says Plato, 'is the most vicious of all wild beasts,' and
in the same spirit, the old English poet Gascoigne says, 'a
boy is better unborn than untaught.'"

"Let us make our education brave and preventive.  Politics
is an after-work, a poor patching.  We are always a little
late.  The evil is done, the law is passed, and we begin the
up-hill agitation for repeal of that of which we ought to
have prevented the enacting.  We shall one day learn to
supersede politics by education.  What we call our root-
and-branch reforms of slavery, war, gambling,
intemperance, is only medicating the symptoms.  We must
begin higher up, namely, in Education."

"But books are good only as far as the boy is ready for
them.  He sometimes gets ready very slowly.  You send your
child to the schoolmaster, but 'tis the schoolboys who
educate him."

"Landor said, 'I have suffered more from my bad
dancing, than from all the misfortunes and miseries of
my life put together.'"

"What is true anywhere is true everywhere.  And let
him go where he will, he can only find so much beauty
or worth as he carries."

"Cities give us collisions.  'Tis said, London and New
York take the nonsense out of a man.  A great part of
our education is sympathetic and social."

"He who aims high, must dread an easy home and
popular manners.  Heaven sometimes hedges a rare
character about with ungainliness and odium, as the
burr that protects the fruit."

-all quotes are excerpted from Ralph Waldo Emerson's
essay, Culture

Hope he is not talking about blogging.....

The ever insightful Michael Wade is at it again:

"The entertainment biz comes immediately to mind but it
may be a pale shadow compared to the Internet, email, and
cell phones. Stir in meetings, teams, and open door policies
and it is clear that we have gained the ability to do many
things quickly but not necessarily the judgment to evaluate
whether they are worth doing at all."

Do read his whole post, if only for the dietary advice contained
in the final sentence.

Swearing off opposable thumbs...............

For just a card, or just a letter.......

The Beatles.............................................Please Mr. Postman

If Diogenes, with his lamp, came walking down the street today.................

...looking for an honest man, I would give him a link to the always
interesting and sometimes provocative blog of  Penelope Trunk.
Not sure that I've ever encountered someone so willing to look so
deeply into their inner self, and then offer it up, both the good and
the bad, for inspection by the world.  Reading her posts is like
watching a very skilled high wire aerialist at work.  You assume
the story will end well, but with no apparent safety net,
catastrophe lurks.  She is willingly sharing her journey.  The
least we can do is to join in the home schooling:

"So this is what I’m telling you: There is no should. There is
no living up to your potential. There is just doing your life.
You can’t do someone else’s life."

photo courtesy of

Served with and without lyrics..................

Mannheim Steamroller.........................................Pat A Pan





David Archuleta..............................................Pat A Pan

Power........................

"Who shall set a limit to the influence of a human being? 
There are men, who, by their sympathetic attractions, carry
nations with them, and lead the activity of the human race."

"Life is a search after power; and this is an element with
which the world is so saturated, - there no chink or crevice
in which it is not lodged, - that no honest seeking goes
unrewarded."

"All successful men have agreed in one thing, - they were
causationists.  The believed that things went not by luck, but
by law; that there was not a weak or a cracked link in the
chain the joins the first and last of things."

"This give force to the strong, - that the multitude have no
habit of self-reliance or original action."

"The first wealth is health.  Sickness is poor-spirited, and
cannot serve any one: it must husband its resources to live.
But health or fulness answers its own ends, and has to spare,
runs over, and inundates the neighborhoods and creeks of
other men's necessities."

"In every company, there is not only the active and passive
sex, but in both men and women, a deeper and more
important sex of mind, namely, the inventive or creative
class of both men and women, and the uninventive or
accepting class."

"If we will make bread, we must have contagion, yeast,
emptyings, or what not, to induce fermentation into the
dough: as the torpid artist seeks inspiration at any cost, by
virtue or vice, by friend of by fiend, by prayer or by wine."

"The one prudence in life is concentration; the one evil is
dissipation: and it makes no difference whether our
dissipations are coarse or fine....."

"Concentration is the secret of strength in politics, in war,
in trade, in short, in management of human affairs."

"Practice is nine tenths..........All great orators were bad
speakers at first."

-all quotes excerpted from Ralph Waldo Emerson's
essay, Power

From the nooks and crannies of the Intertunnel

The Furniture Guy sent me off in search of Matt the Electrician.
Here he is singing and traveling.................................All I Know.


All I Know from Matt the Electrician on Vimeo.

OK, Coach........................

I don't care how good you play, you can find somebody who can beat you, and I don't care how bad you play, you can find somebody you can beat.

I learn teaching from teachers.  I learn golf from golfers.  I learn winning from coaches.

Be brave if you lose and meek if you win.

A good grip, good balance and a good attitude make you a winner.

Nobody ever promised you life would be fair. To change your life you have to change the way you think.

It seems to me that confidence is the feeling we want to have in playing golf. But we can’t dismiss the value of faith either. I think faith is in the heart, and confidence is in the mind.

The ability to concentrate is good, but thinking too much about how you are doing what you are doing is disastrous. Trust your muscles and hit the ball in the hole. Keep it simple.

Life consists of a lot of minor annoyances and a few matters of real consequence.

A golfer rarely needs to hit a spectacular shot unless the one that precedes it was pretty bad.

A tournament champion is a winner on the golf course. A person of honor is a winner everywhere.

-Harvey Penick

More opposable thumbishness........

It is past time.................................

Thanks Alex

We're still rooting hard against deflation......

thanks Mark

A letter, a letter for me....................

The Marvelettes........................................Please Mr. Postman

Oh, a Christmas tree...............

Well..................it was a beautiful looking tree at the sales lot.
Had to butcher the bottom branches to fit the tree stand.  Turns
out the bottom branches were the best branches.  Oh well. 
Three strands of lights, might add a fourth.  All my favorite
ornaments, including a few handed down from my grand-
mother.  Still needs the skirty thing to cover the base and the star
to top it off, but, it's up and I like it.  Let the holiday season begin.

Today is the day.................

Aretha Franklin............................................O Christmas Tree





Oscar Peterson.............................................O Christmas Tree

OK, Coach...........................

"If you can't make the putts and can't get the man in from second on the bottom of the ninth, you're not going to win enough football games in this league, and that's the problem we had today."

"I really think the less you have, the more you are going to be able to communicate what you want the players to do."

(On losing)  "It's like having heart attacks.  You can survive them, but there's always scar tissue."

"Success is never final.  Failure is never fatal.  It's courage that counts."

-Sam Rutigliano

Monday's Poem.....................

              Sonnet XXXVI

LEt me confeſſe that we two muſt be twaine,
Although our vndeuided loues are one:
So ſhall thoſe blots that do with me remaine,
Without thy helpe, by me be borne alone.
In our two loues there is but one reſpect,
Though in our liues a ſeperable ſpight,
Which though it alter not loues ſole effect,
Yet doth it ſteal ſweete houres from loues delight,
I may not euer-more acknowledge thee,
Leaſt my bewailed guilt ſhould do thee ſhame,
Nor thou with publike kindneſſe honour me,
Vnleſſe thou take that honour from thy name:
But doe not ſo,I loue thee in ſuch ſort,
As thou being mine,mine is thy good report.

-William Shakespeare, The 1609 Quarto Version


It might be easier to read this version.

Let me confess that we two must be twain,
Although our undivided loves are one:
So shall those blots that do with me remain,
Without thy help, by me be borne alone.
In our two loves there is but one respect,
Though in our lives a separable spite,
Which though it alter not love's sole effect,
Yet doth it steal sweet hours from love's delight.
I may not evermore acknowledge thee,
Lest my bewailed guilt should do thee shame,
Nor thou with public kindness honour me,
Unless thou take that honour from thy name:
But do not so, I love thee in such sort,
As thou being mine, mine is thy good report.


For everything you wanted to know about Shakespeare's
Sonnets, and more, go here

Opening Paragraphs....................

I was a wonderful parent before I had children.  I was
an expert on why everyone else was having problems
with theirs.  Then I had three of my own.

-Adele Faber and Elain Mazlish,  How To Talk So Kids
Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk

On parenting.................

On rereading.............

"An unliterary man may be defined as one who reads books
once only.  There is hope for a man who has never read
Malory or Boswell or Tristram Shandy or Shakespeare's
Sonnets:  but what can you do with a man who says he 'has
read' them, meaning he has read them once, and thinks
that settles the matter?"

-C. S. Lewis

Hmmmmmmm.................

But not forgotten..................

Chad & Jeremy...........................................Yesterday's Gone

Who shepherds guard.......................

The Moody Blues.........................................What Child Is This




Charolette Church......................................What Child Is This

A Verse for Sunday.........

¹⁵ For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the
Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people,

¹⁶ I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you
in my prayers.

¹⁷ I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and
revelation, so that you may know him better.

¹⁸ I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in
order that you may know the hope to which he has called
you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people,

¹⁹ and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That
power is the same as the mighty strength

²⁰ he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated
him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,

²¹ far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and
every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but
also in the one to come.

²² And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him
to be head over everything for the church,

²³ which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in
every way.

Ephesians 1:15-23
The Holy Bible,  New International Version

OK, Coach....................

"The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach
your full potential ... these are the keys that will unlock the
door to personal excellence."

"Everything I've done, I think I dreamed of it first."

"Coaching is a profession of love.  You can't coach
people unless you love them."

-Eddie Robinson

Literally.....................

Fate.................

"The riddle of the age has for each a private solution."

"Wise men feel that there is something which cannot be
talked or voted away, - a strap or belt which girds the world."

"But Nature is no sentimentalist, - does not cosset or pamper
us.  We must see that the world is rough and surly, and will
not mind drowning a man or a women; but swallows your
ship like a grain of dust."

"Providence has a wild, rough, incalculable road to its end,
and it is of no use to whitewash its huge, mixed instrument-
alities, or to dress up that terrific benefactor in a clean
shirt and white neckcloth of a student of divinity."

"'Tis weak and vicious people who cast blame on Fate.  The
right use of Fate is to bring up our conduct to the loftiness
of nature."

"'Tis the best use of Fate to teach a fatal courage.  Go face
the fire at sea, or cholera in your friend's house, or the burglar
in your own, or what danger lies in the way of duty, knowing
you are guarded by the cherubim of Destiny. If you believe in
Fate to your harm, believe it, at least, for your good."

"Fate, then, is a name for facts yet not passed under the fire
of thought; - for causes which are unpenetrated........The
annual slaughter from typhus far exceeds that of war; but the
right drainage destroys typhus.  The plague in the sea-service
from scurvy is healed by lemon juice and other diets portable
or procurable:..............and every other pest is not less in the
chain of cause and effect, and may be fought off."

"The secret of the world is, the tie between person and event. 
Person makes event, and event person."

"The pleasure of life is according to the man that lives it, and
not according to the work or the place.  Life is an ecstasy."

"A man's fortunes are the fruit of his character.  A man's
friends are his magnetisms."

"History is the action and reaction of these two, - Nature and
Thought; - two boys pushing each other on the curbstone of
the pavement.  Everything is pusher or pushed: and matter
and mind are in perpetual tilt and balance, so."

"And the moral is, that what we seek we shall find; what we
flee from flees from us; as Goethe said, 'what we wish for in
youth, comes in heaps on us in old age,' too often cursed with
the granting of our prayer: and hence the high caution, that
since we are sure of having what we wish, we beware to ask
only for high things."

-all quotes excerpted from Ralph Waldo Emerson's
essay, Fate.

Find somebody to love.................part 2

Find somebody to love................part 1 (psychedelia alert)

Jefferson Airplane......................................Somebody to Love

Success.....................

Jeff passes on three lessons about business life:

1.   Make some money

2.   Have some fun

3.   Leave some tracks