A Quote to Start Things Off

All of the beef I have with Religion has nothing to do with Jesus. Bob Bennett discussing his conversion experience on the 1 Degree of Andy podcast.

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Pictures of Memories I

Pictures of Memories I
Snow kidding! These "kids" now range from 17 to 23

2024 A to Z Challenge

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Thursday, October 17, 2024

Cole Kmet has a big Day for the Bears in London

Sunday was not just another home game for the Chicago Bears. First of all the game started at 8:30 A.M. Central Time which is very early for a Sunday match up. It started this early because the "home" game was played in London, England. The Bears defeated the Jacksonville Jaguars 35-16 on Sunday. It was also an unusual game for Bears TE Cole Kmet. Kmet whose Dad played for the Bears among other teams but never played in an actual game grew up in the NW suburbs of Chicago and played football and baseball for St. Viator before going to Notre Dame for college. Cole Kmet hits HR for St. Viator in 2016 Sectional game

Here is Kmet in an interview in his time with ND. Here is footage of Kmet while playing with the Irish.  

 Kmet was drafted by the Bears in the 2nd round of the 2020 NFL Draft.
   

C.K. is kind of a Superman for the Bears.  In addition to playing starting Tight End, He is also the emergency long snapper.  A long snapper is a specialized center who snaps the ball on punts, field goals, and extra points.  The Bears usual long snapper suffered a knee injury in the first half of Sundays game.  That meant that when Kmet scored 2 touchdowns in the 2nd quarter he had to snap the ball on the subsequent plays for the Bears extra points.  

Click here to see Kmet's first touchdown on You Tube.



Sunday, October 6, 2024

Prune Commercials from 1967 & !985

My wife bought prunes this weekend and I was reminded of this commercial that came out a few years after I was in high school about prunes. It was like the funniest commercial I had ever seen. The problem was when I described it to people even back then, they had never heard of it let alone seen it and thought it was more like a fake commercial from Saturday Night Live. I'll admit it's very much like the change bank. After Amy brought home the prunes I started looking for the commercial on You Tube Again. I have looked before and never able to find it. I had found this commercial before that Stan Freeberg (Dragonnet) had produced in the 60's (He's also the off screen interviewer)  

 This is a very funny commercial but still not as funny as the one from the 80's at least in my memory. 

 I finally found a clip of it. While The YouTube video below Could be of better quality, here is a link to a Facebook page that has a better copy of the commercial   

Tuesday, October 1, 2024

Thoughts on the Jimmy Carter Legacy on his 100th birthday.

  Jimmy Carter did not define the American Presidency.  It could well be argued that he defined the American Post Presidency.

To call Carter's 1  term tumultuous is to over-inflate the word tumult, it is better to refer to it as crisis-plagued. He inherited an energy crisis from Ford and left Reagan with a hostage crisis. In between these crises, He had to deal with a Russian invasion of Afghanistan that led to an Olympic Boycott and broker a peace agreement in the Middle East. I  highly recommend this article by Robert A. Strong for a synopsis of his presidency.




When Carter ended his 4 year residency in the White House in early 1981 he was 56 years old. That's 4 years younger than I am now.  This I believe is when his true legacy began.  Since leaving the White House, he started The Carter Center,  a global human rights organization, he has been a highly visible and highly productive volunteer of Habitat for Humanity, a prolific author, and a mediator and critic in Presidential politics.  He is the only U.S. President to win the Nobel Prize for accomplishments after his time as President.

Along with his work with Habitat for Humanity, the two accomplishments of Cater that I resonate the most with are his ability to speak his mind on divisive issues and his work as a rotating Sunday School teacher at his church in Plains Georgia.  An example of the first is a few years back when he tried to convince the Democratic Party to change their stance on abortion because it was causing so many voters who would otherwise vote for Democrats to either not vote or support Republicans.  

Jimmy Carter is not my favorite President, but he has long been my favorite former President.  When you look at his life as a whole, he may well be the most accomplished President we have ever had,  I find it fitting that he is the only President so far to live 100 years.  Next time I am enjoying boiled peanuts I will think about the Georgia peanut farmer who became an American icon.









A to Z 2023 Road Trip

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