Tag: USC

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Vietnam Veteran Tragically Loses His Best Friend in The War

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Military news…

UN Command to probe North Korean drone flights into South Korea

The U.N. Command is launching an investigation into the North Korean drone incursion that prompted South Korea’s military to reassess its defensive capabilities.

Japan tests all China arrivals for COVID amid surging cases

Japan on Friday started requiring COVID-19 tests for all passengers arriving from China as an emergency measure against surging infections there and as Japan faces rising case numbers and record-level deaths at home.

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Biden pardons 6 convicted of murder, drug, alcohol crimes

The pardons, announced Friday, mean the criminal record of the crimes is now purged. They come a few months after the Democratic president pardoned thousands of people convicted of “simple possession” of marijuana under federal law. He also pardoned three people earlier this year and has commuted the sentences of 75 others.

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Evidence of Russian crimes mounts as war in Ukraine drags on

As Karim Khan, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, told the AP, “Ukraine is a crime scene.”

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Putin, unaccustomed to losing, is increasingly isolated as war faltersWith the Russian president refusing to back down in Ukraine, Russia’s elite is split between those who want the war to end and those supporting further escalation.

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I am sitting in my den and typing this post. I am watching a bowl game between Tulane and USC. The game was just tied by Tulane, 14-14. This is my way of working. Love it.

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I am going to share a story about a Vietnam soldier that lost his best friend. He asked me to not share his name which I always honor.

I decided to stop at a hamburger place on my way home one day. I got my food and was walking to my table, when I saw a Vietnam vet. I knew that, because he was wearing a Vietnam hat.

I thanked him for his service, and sat down. I could see him eating. He was in pain. He finished his meal and got up to throw his garbage away. He walked right by me.

I asked him if he could sit and talk for a little bit. He looked like he didn’t want to do that, until I told him I was a veteran. He sat down.

We talked idly for a few minutes, and then I started asking him questions.

I asked him what he did in Vietnam. He said he was on a ship off the coast of Vietnam. Their job was to send supplies to the troops, and bring out the wounded in helicopters.

I asked him what was his worst moment. He said that lost his best friend who was a pilot of one of the helicopters. On one takeoff the engine died and the helicopter went straight down into the water. There was another soldier on the Helicopter. They never recovered the bodies, because the water was too deep.

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I had many other question to ask him, and You can see the full interview in my upcoming book, Signs of Hope for the Military: In and Out of the Trenches of Life.

Keep coming back to see more what is happening for the book. Better yet…go to the top of this page and click on subscribe. When you do all future posts will go directly to your inbox.

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Checking in on you. How are you doing? Is everything going OK, or are you fighting back memories?
FEAR NOT!
There are over 15,219 Veterans on this site who have your back.
If you are battling mentally, but you are losing, GET HELP!!
Here is a toll free number that you can call 24/7. There are highly qualified counselors there to help you, and they will not hang up until they know you are OK.
1-800-273-8255…texting 838255.

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Remember:

You are never alone.

You are never forsaken.

You are never unloved.

And above all…never, ever, give up.

+Now there is an easier way to get help. Just dial 988, and you will have help ready for you.

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Insiders OSU Report

Insiders OSU Report

Am I an insider? No, but it sounds good!

This will be the most important game of the year! We need

to beat ASU!

This will be the statement for the rest of the year.

“This will be the most important game of the year!”

Every game from now on is the most important game of the year.

We control our own destiny. If we win out, we are

in the Rose Bowl. If we lose the rest we will have one

of the worst seasons in a long time.

Not to worry! I see into the future, and we will win at

least two more games, and we will be going to a bowl.

The ones that are in question of course are the Arizona

game that we play at their house, and the Oregon game

that we play at our house. We have the following schedule:

1. This week: Home against ASU

2. Next week: At UCLA

3. Then we play Cal. at home

4. The following week: At Arizona

5. Then we end up with Oregon at our house.

Yes, I see that we could win all of those, but the game

that I am most worried about is the Arizona game.

They played USC very though. They are a much better

team than in the past. They can beat any team in the PAC-10.

When we play down there, it is always a close, nail biting game.

We should beat ASU and UCLA. Those are the two games

I mentioned as the ones we will win up above. Cal. has beaten

us badly in our own house, but I just have the feeling that we

will prevail this time.

So that comes down to the Oregon game. They have an awesome

offense. They have a “quarterback,” named Jeremiah Masoli

that is leading the team in rushing the last two games. He had

170 yards against UCLA and 147 against ASU. I mean he is almost

rushing as well as our own Jacquizz Rogers. (Almost) They have two Jeremiah’s in the back field,

must be the year for that name.

Wouldn’t it be a dream situation if that final game with Oregon would

be for the Rose Bowl? It could happen. Then when we beat them it

will not only get us into the Rose Bowl, but we will once again send the

Ducks waddling to a lower bowl.

Notice the yardage Jeremiah got against those two teams mentioned

above. The next two games we have is ASU and then UCLA.

Jacquizz will have real fun running against those two teams. If they

concentrate on him, then the passing will have a field day. I really

like our chances in both of those games.

ASU can’t run the ball, andtheir quarterback, Carpenter, gimps around

almost as much as I do. They allow lots of yards rushing. Any questions?

UCLA has had teams score many points on them every game.

I mean like, 59-0 pounding by BYU. Our defense is not going to allow a lot

of scoring. So if we can get in 20 points against them we will win.

The rumor birds are flying all over the place. Is Athletic Director Bob

DeCarolis leaving? Who will replace him if he does go? Can we still

entice him to stay? How long will he stay if he is hired somewhere else?

Forget all of that! He is not being considered for the position at Indiana any more! However,

he is a hot item in the Athletic Director world, so his name will come up any time there is an

opening in the NCAA.

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Lute Olson retiring? Yes! Two of the reasons for his retirement; his health, (he had a stroke) and his

personal life.

Olson had a great career. He was always mentioned along side the names of, Dean Smith, Bob Knight,

and Mike Krzyewski. He built a horrible program to one of the elite teams in the NCAA.

No new coaches are being mentioned as his replacement, but it is obvious

that Kevin O’neill should be the front runner. He has gone on to an NBA job, but

the University should do what ever they can to get him back.

We need to do some voting before the presidential election next Tuesday!!

Jacquizz Rogers is the front runner in voting for the national freshman of the

year. However, the gap is closing. He only has 54% of the vote now. The next

closest has 27%. That sounds like a huge lead, but Jacquizz had 98% about two

weeks ago. The bye week may have hurt him So go to:

This Sunday is your first chance to see the “new style,” of play by the men’s

basket ball team. It is an exhibition game, but we will be able to see what type

of offense and defense that Coach Robinson will be using. Show up and show

the team that we are behind them, and get them started on a good note for the

whole season. Their game is against Saint Martins, on 11-2-08 is at 5:30 P.M.

and then they play at home again on 11-8-08 against Concordia (Oregon) University,

at 7:00 P.M.

The sports schedules for all sports for the month of November are:

FOOTBALL:

November 1st- Home against ASU 7:15 P.M.

November 8th- At UCLA

November 15th- Home agaisnt Cal

November 22nd- At Arizona

November 29th- Home against Oregon

MEN’S BASKETBALL

November 2nd- Saint Martins 5:30 P.M.

November 8th- Concodia (Oregon) 7:00 P.M.

November 14th- At Howard 4:00 P.M.

November 22nd- At Nevada 7:00 P.M.

November 24th- Yale 7:00 P.M.

November 26th- Montana State 8:00 P.M.

November 30th- At Fresno State 2:00 P.M.

WOMEN”S BASKETBALL

November 2nd- Lewis & Clark 3:00 P.M.

November 11th- Concordia (Oregon) 7:00 P.M.

November 16th- Sacramento 5:00 P.M.

November 19th- Houston 7:00 P.M.

November 28th- At the Bahamas, against Arkansas 3:15 P.M.

November 29th- At the Bahamas, against North Carolina/Pacific TBA

The rest of the teams are either done for the year, or do not have any action

until after the first of the year.

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That is about it for the Side Bar this week. Remember there is just this and one more

newsletter, and then the only way you will be able to get it is by subcribing. I am doing this

because of the huge effort that goes into to emailing the “old,” way. I take too many hours

to get it out through Comcast. I know, I am whinning, but I have many other projects that

I am working on, such as writing for magazines and newspapers. I got my first article

published, and received a huge check of $6.07. Times are also tough for the magazines

these days because of the economy.

Don’t wait until it is too late. Just go over to the side bar to your right and click on the icon

just below the two Amazon icons. Once you click on it, just put in your email address, and you

are in!! No more trying to remember to do it. No more feeling upset, because you forgot, and

for some reason you are not receiving the greatist newsletter on OSU sports you will ever see.

There is not one newsletter that comes to you that is FREE that has all the inside information

that you will not find any other place. You may be able to find some of it if you read all

the papers in Oregon, or scan the OSU website everyday. I have already done that for you.

So march right over to the side bar right now, and get it done. I do not want to lose even one

of you. We have had a long realtionship the last five years, and I hope we have many more.

OUT!!

Posted on

The Rest of the Story Part Two

 

 

 

Side Bar

 

After the game as we were walking past Tommy Prothro practice field, I overhead a young USC fan discussing the game with a buddy, he said, “We can beat anybody in the nation, but we when come here, we suck!” Hold that thought young man. We will see you again in two years!

 

Penn State is now ranked # 12 in the nation. Do you realize that we could be 3-2 for the first time in several years, and that is with playing one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the nation? I sure wish we could play Stanford again. I think we would have a totally different outcome.

 

Next weeks game with Utah will not be easy to say the least. They are ranked

17th in the nation, and will probably smash Weber State today. That

will move them up even higher.  We also have to play in their house this year. Our away game record certainly could be improved upon.

 

The Ducks go to Washington State today. They should win pretty easily. They can bath in their great victory this week, but do you know who they play next? Yup! USC! USC is going to be head hunting, especially when any team with the name Oregon in it makes their blood boil.

Travels

 

As we were traveling from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to Boston, we saw some beautiful landscape. The trees in the hills were starting to put on their new outfits for the fall. We were able to look down into big valleys full of corn for miles and miles. Our crack photographer, Lloye Liedtke, took pictures along the way. There was one problem. We were moving, and her trigger finger, was slow. A few of the pictures she ended up with were some fantastic pictures of trees along the highway, and some stunning sides of trucks as they went by.

 

We had fun teasing her, and she was great comic relief after a bad day watching our Beavers being taught how to eat humble pie. Actually she really did get some great pictures, and she sent me some of them. I will see if I can post some of them here on the site.

 

Along the way, I saw some of the old America. People were still drying their cloths out side on cloths lines. I can smell the freshness I remember as a child when I helped my Aunt Dollie hang the cloths on the cloths line at the farm. You can’t get any fresher than that. The dryers of today don’t even come close.

 I saw one humorous mail box along the way. It was a salmon with his mouth wide open, and that is where you put the mail.

 

The gas prices during our travels:

 

Maryland-$3.42

Pennsylvania-$3.41

New York-$3.48

Massachusetts-$3.43

 

At this time Oregon was $3.59. Oregon has gone down a lot since then. I saw gas for $3.39 at the Arco station coming off the I-5 freeway and headed east on Highway 34 towards Corvallis. They always seem to be lower than others.

 

We had one more side stop before we got to Boston. It was Cooperstown, NY. For anyone that knows anything about baseball, that is the Holy Grail spot for baseball history. It lived up to that name and more. Of course, I am talking about the Baseball Hall of Fame.

 

It is amazing to come into this town. It was only about the size of Silverton, OR, but even smaller than that. It had one main street, and one side street. The homes there were beautiful. They were the old style homes with the big wrap around porches like you would see in a movie like, Gone with the Wind. For you young whipper snappers, that was probably one of the top five movies of all time. Do a google search and learn all about it. Better yet, rent the DVD.

 

We stayed at an absolutely wonderful hotel in Cooperstown, called The Otesaga. We got there about noon, and we were told to go to the dinning room to eat. It was bigger than many ballrooms. Yes, their eating area was that big. It was a brunch type set-up that they do everyday. There was everything you could dream of to eat. I was a good boy and didn’t go to the feeding trough (brunch area) very often.

 

This hotel was built in 1909. Its architecture is the charm of the area. It is located on the southern shore of Otesaga Lake. The gentle breezes from the lake were a welcome feeling. We could sit out on the Veranda; have a drink and watch the sun got down with the lake right in front of us.

 

For dinner that night we had a choice of wearing a sport coat and eating in the dinning room, or going out to eat. Charlotte and I chose the dinning room. (After all, I had brought my sports jacket all that way.)

 

What an elaborate sitting, candles; fire place, cloth table cloths, and a dinner for a king. I had a salmon dinner that was out of this world.

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OK, I know, you thought I was never going to start talking about the Baseball Hall of Fame.

 

There were three floors of memories to look at:

 

The first floor had all the Hall of Fame broadcasters, writers and story tellers. Dave Newhouse from the Seattle Mariners was just inducted this year. On the way out on the first floor was the Hall of Fame Plaque Gallery. It had bronze plagues of every baseball player that made the Hall of Fame. It was amazing to stop at each plaque and bring back the memories that went with the player that was represented there.

 

The second floor had tons of things to look at. I will not go into too much detail on each thing, but as you walked by the displays, it has a progression of how baseball evolved. It started with 1900-1930. It then was from 1930-1970, 1970-2000 and then to current times. It was interesting to see the progress of the game.

 

There was one room dedicated to Babe Ruth. I saw many pictures of him that were not anywhere else in the world. They were donated by family members. Here they showed a movie of Babe doing his pointing to the fence to show he was going to hit and home run on the next swing which he did.

 

Also on this floor was information about women in Baseball. I will never forget Ton Hank’s line in the movie, A League of Their Own, “There is no crying in baseball!”

 

It also had all the major league teams with photos, video highlights, and artifacts that were put in 30 major league lockers.

 

The third floor had baseball cards, all the records, no hit games, (BTW. I have the autograph of the only pitcher in the history of baseball that threw a no hitter in the World Series. That would be Don Larson. I had him sign four pictures, and gave three of them to my children.)

 

One baseball card was behind a glass incasing because it was worth 3.5 million dollars. I am sorry but I am not sure exactly who, but it was either Roger Hornsby, or Ty Cobb. Please email me who it was if you know, and I will get it in the next newsletter.

 

On this floor was one very special memory. That had our beloved Beavers in a window case, acknowledging their incredible feat of winning two College World Series in a row. I made sure every one around knew I was a Beaver fan.

The Hall of Fame also had Ichiro Suzuki honored, because of his record breaking year with 267 hits in one year. He has had over 200 hits in all all his seasons in the United States.

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Well, I still didn’t get to Boston!! I will have to save that until the next newsletter. Don’t miss it. It has all the history that helped shape this country. The Boston Tea Party, Paul Revere’s home, JFK’s home, Harvard, the USS Constitution (Old Iron Sides) and some team called the Boston Red Sox.

 

Be sure to go up to the tab called, “Newsletter” if you haven’t already done so. Click on it and subscribe. Eventually that will be the only place you will get the Beaver Path Finder. You can opt out any time you want if you get tired of my ramblings.

 

OUT!!