Musings on Goldie the Gopher
Well, I was going to write something about how I really plan on generating some actual, you know, content soon, I was distracted by the start of the Ohio State vs. Minnesota football game. Before I clicked the game on, I thought that I generally don’t like watching sporting events that are played at the Metrodome. There’s just something about that dome that I don’t like. So, I put the game on anyway, only to be met by the most gosh-awful uniforms that I think I’ve ever seen. Minnesota is wearing gold jerseys and gold pants! I’ve always thought Goldie’s shade of maroon was bad enough, but their shade of gold is even worse, and as the whole uniform? Well, it challenges the atrocities that the Oregon Ducks & Nike have foisted upon the college football world!
It’s like a train-wreck — I don’t really want to watch, but I can’t turn away from the sartorial horror that I see on the field.
I hate to root for OSU, but I just have to hope that Minnesota gets punished for that uniform choice! ;^)
-ghp
Indeed, that is a good question
Army Sgt. Jim Wilt asks an interesting question: Why lower American flags for the VA Tech students, but not for American troops killed in action?
A general-type writeup on the whole issue raised by Sgt. Wilt can be found here.
It’s a fascinating issue, the whole VA Tech shooting, and one of particular interest & impact to me, working as I do in higher-ed on a university campus (as I have for most of the past 15 years). Even beyond the wide ranging national impact that this has had (thanks in no small part to the tragedy-whores in the media), this incident has been cataclysmic in higher-ed circles. It’s truly fascinating to see the types of reactions it has generated, as well as just where & who those reactions have come from. Oddness, angst, & hyperbole abound. As do genuine fear, sympathy, empathy, & caring.
All I can say is this: I know the fine security folks at my campus, and I thank God for their dedication to their duty in service to my university’s community. Knowing they’re on the beat makes me feel safe.
-ghp
See, this is why folks wonder about Valpo
From the Neighbors section of today’s local paper: Valparaiso University chapel introduces two new Lutheran hymnals.
VU is changing over from the previous melange of hymnals (I must confess that I don’t know exactly which ones they’ve been using, although I could guess…), and will now be using the two newest hymnals from the LCMS & ELCA. (There’s a right nifty photo in the paper of the intermingled stacks of hymnals being formally “blessed” by Chapel Pastor Jim Wetzstein, but it doesn’t seem to be available online. 
)
Why do I care, given that, as stated by Rev. Joseph Cunningham, VU’s Dean of the Chapel,
“Valparaiso is an independent Lutheran institution, which means students from both church bodies are among the 1,000 to 1,200 weekly worshippers at the nine services in the chapel.”
Well, I guess I find it off-putting that the aforementioned Revs. Wetzstein and Cunningham are rostered LCMS pastors. Somehow it strikes me as, well, wrong that an LCMS pastor is openly advocating the use of worship materials produced by a church body that has been recognized by the LCMS in convention as being heterodox.
I also don’t like the hidden/implicit bias against the LCMS in two of the quotes used in the article, namely:
“The LSB is an attempt to bring in some new things while embracing the more traditional liturgy,” Cunningham said.
and
While both books broaden the range of music used for worship, the ELW recognizes the growing interest in ethnic diversity and emergence of new styles, such as contemporary Christian music, over the last 30 years, according to Chapel Music Director Lorraine Brugh.
Granted, I’ll admit that I’m possibly being a little over-sensitive with the Cunningham quote; however, the Brugh statement clearly touts the ELCA book as being superior to and/or more progressively “enlightened” than the LCMS book.
There are a few other things in the article that don’t cause one to be overly filled with joy over the current state of things at the Chapel of the Resurrection (located just a mile or so from Schloß TB), but I’ll leave reading and/or commenting on them to another time.
-ghp
BCS Bllsht, redux
Well, the NCAA bowl season is, mercifully, over. Florida spanked Ohio State, and has emerged as the “National Champion”. So the BCS system must’ve worked, right? Right?
Nope.
I really don’t think that Florida has proven themselves to be the undeniable “best” team of the past 5 months. Perhaps the team that best negotiated the rocky shoals of the mandated 4-to-7 week break between the regular season and the bowl season.
To better illustrate my thoughts on this whole thing, let me copy here what I wrote as a comment over at Hoc est Verum:
I view it as more of a result of the whole mixed-up wasteland that is post-season college football.
Traditionally, i.e., roughly up until the 70’s bowls were never meant as definitive capstone statements about the whole of the regular season. Rather, they were “rewards” that really didn’t bear much impact on what had been borne out over the regular season. IOW, the bowls didn’t pretend to be arbiters of “the best”.
Thus, the horrific 5+ week break between the end of the regular season and Jan 1 wasn’t all that big a deal. Sure, play may have gotten sloppier as a result of game-tested focus being lost during practices & the holidays, but since the bowls were just glorified exhibitions, it didn’t really matter.
Since the late 70’s however, the bowls have taken on an ever-increasing patina of “final-word” type legitimacy, at least in terms of crowning a “champion”. The BCS has only exacerbated this misguided tendency. Why misguided? Well because the cronyistic bowl cabals were never jettisoned in order to actually give the NCAA postseason the legitimacy that exists at every other level in NCAA competition.
They (the bowl poobahs and University Presidents) have tried to have their cake & eat it too. And they’ve failed miserably.
All of this is just preface to my comment about last night’s game:
Ohio State was clearly the best team in the country through the whole regular season. And if the game against Florida had been played within a week or two of 11/18, then I think OSU would’ve rolled over Florida. Instead of that, however, OSU got waylaid by the SEVEN WEEK break they were forced to endure.
There has got to be a better way. Actually, there is, it’s just that the morons in charge are too greedy (and/or stupid) to do it.
In the end, I don’t know who is really the best; however, I’d sure like to see anyone try to beat Boise State — being the only undefeated Div I team has got to mean something more than just getting a #5 ranking in the final poll…
-ghp
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